Showing posts with label After Action Reports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label After Action Reports. Show all posts

Tuesday, 8 December 2009

Ruspina 46BC Part IV; To the Green Fields, Beyond?

Here we are for the fourth and final installment of this After Action Review.  The previous part is here if you've not already read it.



Here's a view of Casear's right wing.  The poor Caesarian archers are completely isolated and surrounded by light cavalry!  Labienus, in the middle distance has moved down the hill, and out of Caesar's charge range.

 

Above is the situation in the centre.  The main Roman force is inclining to the right, and Caesar was thinking that the schwerpunkt of his thrust would be near the central palm tree.

 

Labienus' body language is looking a little stressed as the Caesarian Cohorts converge towards the palm on the hill.  The newly arrived Numidian army under Petreius has been trying to move to block them.

 

And it's not improved on the following turn either, as the Caesarians pile forwards! 

 


Argh!  General Petreius plays a double time and hurtles down from the hill into the Caesarian line. 

 

He doesn't inflict great casualties on the Romans, but is in a position to hit them again, next turn.

 

In the Caesarian turn, they encircle and subsequently destroy two Numidian cavalry units (above).  In his next turn, Caesar only needs to move a unit or two off the table (towards the elusive granaries) to win.

 


But Labienus has one turn left befor that happens.  To win, before Caesar is able to win next turn, he needs to be able to kill 4 units.  His best card allows him to activate only three units so it is very difficult to achieve this... However he is lucky in that his first three attacks are successful and each kill a unit, wiping out two low-strength Roman formations and the last survivors of the Caesarian archers.  The third attack was with a unit including his general, which is therefore entitled to a momentum attack.  Can General Petreius roll three hits on three dice, to kill a fourth Caesarian unit?

 

He shoots, he scores!   Labienus/Petreius win by the narrowest of margins, 8 blocks to 7. 

 

Final view of the battlefield.

Of all the rule systems I've played, Command and Colors comes up time and time again with the closest, most exciting finishes.  Although defeated, I particularly enjoyed this game, and hope to replay it this week as the Numidians.

Monday, 7 December 2009

Ruspina 46BC Part III; Caesar vs. Labienus; Head to Head!



We rejoin the action for the third part of our four part account of our refight of Ruspina.  Caesar, thwarted in his attack on the left by the arrival of Petreius, has advanced the right of his line in an attampt to break through in the centre.  This would require fighting his way through Labienus' veteran Gallic and German cavalry...

 

Above, Caesar's outnumbered Gallic cavalry charge bravely forward but are engulfed and founder amidst a sea of Numidians and Germans.

 

Five more Numidian units march onto the table to join Petreius on the ridge...  gulp.  The Caesarians were outnumbered roughly two to one in units, by this stage. 

 

"Lads, if we can break through, there's all the wine you can drink on the far side of that ridge!"  Caesar (right centre, you can just see his red cloak) advances to avenge his Gallic horse.

 

Caesar contracts his line, moving away from the worrying Pompeian buildup on his left.  That's a Command and Colors summary sheet in the foreground.

 

The cavalry unit in the centre of this mass of legionaries is Labienus with his German bodyguard.  Caesar managed to isolate it by marching a couple of units to prevent it from evading, and personally attaked it at the head of his troops.  The unit was comprehensively slaughtered.  However, Labienus managed (somehow!!!) to survive no less than 5 rolls to kill him as he broke through the encircling units to escape.   Grrrr.  If he'd have died, Caesar would have been able to claim "Spolia Opima" and to hang his armour outside his house in Rome.

 

And here, in today's final shot, Labienus taunts Caesar from the relative safety of a hillock.

Final part, tomorrow.

Sunday, 6 December 2009

Ruspina 46BC Part II; Opening Moves




In my previous post I described the deployment of the forces for this refight of Ruspina.  We drew chits to see who would play which side; I drew the Caesarians, and was to be ably assisted by TimeLine Barry who played Dubius Status, my Tribune.    My old adversary, Ian, played Caesar's old adversary, Labienus.

Caesar decided that his strategy would be to advance as swiftly as possible in order to minimise shooting casualties and to pin the elusive enemy (who, even without their off-table reinforcements, included no less than18 units of skirmishers!) against their baseline.

Above is the situation after the Caesarian second move; the Caesarians have moved up to drive back the Numidian skirmish line.  Caesar delegated Dubius Status to roll the combat dice; needing to get a "green on a one in six chance, he managed to roll no less than 5 hits on 10 dice! 



Above, the Numidian skirmishers in turn managed to inflict some casualties on Caesar's line.  The unit on the far right has already been reduced to a single stand (gulp!).  Caesar's archers have moved into the line on the far right.



Here's a cloesup of the rather menacing situation on Caesar's right, which was eventually completely surrounded by the Numidian host.



Caesar lacked a suitable card to recover the situation on my right, but had an "Order Medium Units" card which enabled him to throw the left half of his line forward, at the double. This meant that Labienus would need to react to this on his next turn, or Caesar would be able to snaffle two units of his light infantry.  This had the effect of relieving the pressure on Caesar's other wing.



Labienus successfully pulled back two of the threatened units but Dubius Status was able to isolated a third, and destroy it with some more highly effective dice rolling.  The Caesarian line, on the left, has pushed right up to the Numidian horse; leaving a wide gap in the centre of the line!  It looked , for a minute, like Caesar was poised to break through onto the ridge and into the greenfields, beyond.



However fate had other plans; Labienus played an "Inspired Leadership Right" card and brought on Petreius and 5 units of Numidian reinforcements.  Defending hills, the Numidian Auxilia are better than legionaries; Caesar realised that he would need to break through somewhere else, instead!

The next installment of this battle will be published tomorrow.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

Caesar's Matter of Loaf and Death (Ruspina 46BC) Part I

In 46BC Caesar led three legions of recruits (leavened with some veterans) out of his camp in Africa, to gather grain.  He was unaware that his former lieutenant Titus Labienus, now a Pompeian General, was in the area with a vast force of Numidian light infantry and cavalry, and several thousand veteran German and Gallic cavalry that Caesar had once counted as his own.  Worse still, another Pompeian General, Marcus Petreius, was moving up to support Labienus with another force of cavalry and a very large force of Numidian infantry.  The ensuing battle lasted the better part of a day, and Caesar came very close to being comprehensively defeated; arguably closer than in any other battle of his career.

Last week I finally finished my Numidian light cavalry and so decided, in order to christen them, to refight this battle using the Command and Colors Ancients rules.  It is a fascinating battle because the sides are so asymmetric; the Caesarians are mostly heavy infantry, and the Pompeians almost all light troops.  The Caesarians have a nightmare trying to pin down and destroy the faster Pompeians, but the latter must prevent the former from taking the ridge and moving on to achieve their grain-gathering mission.



Here is a view of the battlefield.  On the left are the Pompeians; twelve units of Numidian light cavalry, six of light infantry, and three of German cavalry "with bridles".



You may be able to make out Titus Labienus (centre on a white horse) at the head of his heavier cavalry, screened by the lighter Numidian cavalry.  Another large Pompeian army, under General Petreius, is lurking off table behind the ridge line...



And here are the Caesarian lines; twelve units of medium infantry, a very lonely-looking unit of Gallic cavalry on the extreme right, and a unit of archers scurrying up from the camp to support the line.  Caesar is the general on the round command stand, furthest from the camera.

We were playing the Caesar's legion amendment, which allows legionaries to move two hexes (but not attack) and  the Caesar rule which gives a unit that Caesar is accompanying an extra dice.  We also played a house rule to reduce the casualties that light troops take when evading; essentially troops who are faster than those attacking them only take one dice of casualties; those of a similar speed, two and those slower, three.  This was critical because under the standard C&C(A) rules, evading Numidians would have been shredded!

Victory was set at 8 units destroyed.  Any Caesarian units exiting off the Pompeian board edge (towards the Pompeian granaries) would count as one block towards the total.

Tomorrow I'll post the first part of the battle....

Friday, 27 November 2009

Chaeronea Refight- Part III

This is our third and final visit to the Chaeronea refight (if you missed part I and II, you might like to read them first).

You'll recall the Romans have pushed forward very aggressively, and have the Pontic's pinned to their baseline.  In my Pontic turn I counterattacked with my heavy units; the two Bronze shields, with their commander Taxiles (just visible on the left of the frame below), and the two units of slave phalanx.  These achieved considerable success and killed several units of legionaries, although suffering serious casualties themselves. 


The Romans, in their turn, pressed forward but the dice gods were less favourableto them. Some Pontic units managed to hang on by a thread, such as the archers (central, below).  If they had been killed, the Roman CinC might have been able to deliver a nasty momentum attack on the unit behind.


Although many of my Pontic units had taken a pasting, I still had the advantage of numbers in terms of units because of the mass of Thureophoroi in my second line (the Pontics outnumbered the Romans several times over at Chaeonea).  I threw these, and my sole unit of heavy cavalry, into the fray.  In a spate of lucky dice rolling I managed to destroy or drive back the Roman units involved attack.


The Romans regrouped (above) into a line, but now look very badly outnumbered!


Recognising how badly they were outnumbered, the Romans fell back towards their reserves...


The Roman Right wing hadn't been engaged (nor the Pontic left).  Ian and Barry regrouped their forces on the right for one last try...


Attacked...


But the dice and their earlier heavy casualties were against them and the Pontics prevailed (they reached the 9 units lost limit we had determined at the start of the battle).

It was a very enjoyable battle, and I hope it gave Barry a good idea of how the rules work!  I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some of our other players together and refight it next week as part of our Roman campaign... if we do I'll make the Romans a little tougher to help counter the Pontic advantage of numbers (perhaps reducing the number of units by 1, but giving each remaining unit 5 hits instead of 4).

Thursday, 26 November 2009

Chaeronea Refiight; Part II- Advance to Contact

So here's part 2 (of 3) of our refight of Chaeronea 86BC. 

 

Above is the situation at the end of the first Pontic turn.   I was worried that the Romans would try to rout my own Scythed chariots back through my lines (using an optional rule we play), and decided to play a "mounted charge" in order to get them a safe distance from my phalanx!  This same card also enabled me to use my cavalry to attack the Chaeronean Roman allies who had appeared, behind my light troops, on Mount Thibron (more anon).  The mounted charge also gave my troops a +1 in combat.  One of the chariots was destroyed, and the other routed, but they did manage to inflict heavy casualties on the units on the end of the Roman line.

 

Above is the charge of my cavalry against the plucky but isolated Chaeronean patriots.  My charge killed two stands, and the remainer were killed when they unsuccessfully counter-attacked my cavalry in the next Roman turn.  I was delighted with this success (since uphill mounted charges are generally a poor bet!).  On the downside, my cavalry were somewhat out of position (too far over to the right) and Archelaus, my general, played little part in the rest of the battle.


Above is the second and final charge of my surviving scythed chariot; it almost managed to wipe out a unit of Romans before it was destroyed.


Ian and Barry decided to ignore my cavalry wing and pressed forward in the centre.  They played a second Line Command to move their entire centre forward; against which I played "Counter-attack", which  enabled me to retreat my entire line one hex; right against the table edge.  I was playing for time...

 

And here, in the final shot in today's post; the Romans have doubled forward using  (I think) an Inspired General card, and the Marius' legion rule which enables them to move 2 hexes.   My light infantry are looking very uncomfortable as they have no retreat path...

I'll post the conclusion of the battle, tomorrow.

Wednesday, 25 November 2009

Charonea 86BC Part I

Last night we staged  a refight of the battle of Charonea 86BC where the Roman General Sulla comprehensively defeated Mithridates' General, Archelaus.  We used the Command and Colors rules.  For deployment, I amended and scaled up some scenarios I found on the net.  The plains of Charonea are Hotz Hexmats.


Above is the initial (clickable) deployment.  The Pontics are on the left, deployed in some depth, with scythed chariots to the fore, a strong cavalry right wing and a detatched group of light infantry on the hill in the foreground.  The unit at the top of the hill in the forground is, in fact, a unit of Roman Charonean allies, who have sneaked around the back of the hill to ambush the Pontic light infantry on the lower slopes.


Above is a closeup of the Pontic right wing, which, at the start of the battle, is in the act of deploying to try to flank the Roman line.  The General leading the Thessalians at the rear is the Pontic CinC, Archelaus.


Above is the Pontic centre.  The pikes are representing the famous slave phalanx, and the second Pontic general Taxiles is leading some hoplites who are standing in as Bronze shields.  Some of the Thureophoroi are in fact similar-looking Carthaginian levy.  The scythed chariots are revving up for the charge!


Above is the "thin red line" of the Roman army, after their first turn of advance (using the first of two line command cards).  Ian and Barry, playing the Romans, launched a very aggressive attack that eventually led their leading cohort to within a very few inches of my Pontic baseline....  I'll post some shots of the battle, tomorrow, if I have time.

This was the first time I've had the bulk of my Hellenistic armies on the table; I was pleased with how they looked!  Next year I will definitely need more pikemen, though...

Monday, 12 October 2009

War of the Rune

These are pictures of a game we played last week, using my Spartans and Assyrians as Lunar Empire surrogates, to clash with Ian Notter's Praxian Sable and Bison clans.  All the pics are clickable.


 Praxians on the left; Lunars force marching forward on the right.


Massed Bison Rider clan



Pesky Sable Clan, with their nasty bows



My one success was managing to catch the stationary Bisons with my Phalanx


We used GW's War of the Ring rules.  I'm cautiously impressed with the old school nature of these; massive units, buckets of dice.  Not rules to be taken especially seriously, but the potential for a fun game there; the huge units looked damn good, too.

The outcome?  I had some success against the Bison clan, but the Sables shot me to pieces during the approach.

Tuesday, 28 April 2009

Battle of Asculum AAR

Tonight, a nearly full muster of the Muswell Militia, refought the second day of Asculum 279BC, using the C&C Ancients rules and Ian's (Donnington Roman and Xyston Macedonian) 15mm figures.

Below is the deployment. The Romans on the left were led by Ian and George, and the Italian Greeks and Macedonians by myself as Phyrrhus, with Chris and Dr Simon on the wings.


We Macedonians launched two stonking attacks, which should have worked.... honestly. Our first was a rush forwards by the pike phalanx in the left centre, which recoiled under a hail of pila, after failing to make any impact on the Roman line (presumably the Tarentines had failed to take to the pike). The second was a "mounted charge" on both wings with elephants and cavalry (below), which were both smashed by lucky counter attacks by the Roman cavalry.


The final shot, below, shows the situation late in the game. The Romans remorselessly ground us down to a 12:10 "Phyrric defeat".


A simple but thoroughly enjoyable game; I hope we'll play it again, sometime.