Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Pharsalus Battle Day

We had our version of the Society of Ancients' battle day here in Japan today. The object of this year's study was of Pharsalus, and we used bespoke rules to try to explore the battle and some of the possible outcomes.

With six players and myself as umpire, it was an excellent turnout, and everyone got into the spirit of the event. The rules were simple: play a card (move, charge, hold, skirmish, fall back, etc) and act. Combat was by dice roll, with units needing different scores to hit against different opponents. Players had Tribune pieces which they could play to save hits or to add dice to an attack, and there was an appeal to fate option by which players could ask for a re-roll by screaming their side's watchword, with the re-roll option then passing to the other team and remaining with them until someone on their team had used it.

Each player had his own secret victory conditions, and was able to score 'dignitas' by hitting the enemy, surviving past a certain period, using his tribune effectively, and so on. The intention was to keep players interested and to give them an incentive to command their section in a historical fashion.

For me, the game was a great success, and it was wonderful to see people getting caught up in the moment and to watch the battle re-enacted in the way it was.

I'm not going to say too much as I intend to put the bulk of my reflections into an article for Slingshot, but here are a few shots of the deployment and some of the action.






Many thanks to all who participated in making this a great day.

21 comments:

  1. Looks terrific Aaron! What a lot of legionaries. I very much look forward to seeing the piece in Slingshot.

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    1. Your game in 6mm looks like it was a great success, Simon!
      http://bigredbat.blogspot.jp/2016/04/pharsalus-48-bc.html

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    2. Yes Aaron- it was fun. Alas I got no pics of most of the other games.

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  2. Great looking game, Aaron. Pompey's cavalry looks like a tidal wave rolling over Caesar's cavalry.

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    1. Thanks, Bill. It did look pretty good. Makes the time spent painting worth it, really!

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  3. I second Simon's and William's observations. The mass of cavalry ranged against the Great Man's right looks impressive and overwhelming. The brief on rules was interesting. One hopes that there wasn't too much "screaming" of watchwords. I also look forward to the article.

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    1. Thanks Chris. "Hercules the Unconquered" and "Venus, Bringer of Victory" did get quite a workout, as it happens!

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  4. Nice!

    As I am not very familiar with this battle, I look forward to the write-ups in slingshot, including yours. It is hard to imagine Pompey not winning with that mass of troops...

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    1. Yes, you certainly get a pretty good impression of the odds Caesar was up against (assuming he was telling the truth!).

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  5. Looks very impressive, Aaron. I'm sure your Slingshot article will be well-received.

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    1. Hope so Dean. I've already had a couple of contributions come in from the players, so that's a good sign!

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  6. Handsome setup, Aaron! The number of troops deployed provides for a great spectacle. I look forward to your Slingshot article. We have been holding a running battle of Pharsalus the last few weeks using CCA. Thus far, Caesar 5, Pompey 1.

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    1. Thanks, Jonathan. ALways good to have a bit of spectacle; it takes the eye off the rubbish terrain!

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  7. Great looking game Aaron - look forward to the write up in Slingshot.

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  8. Wow! That's a spectacle 😎
    What rule set did you use?

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    1. Thanks, Ratmaul. These were home-made rules put together for the day.

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  9. What a spectacle! I agree, this battle is a bit hard to understand looking at it like this.

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    1. Hi Monty, nice to see you here! I had to make some decisions based on what figures I had. One fewer row of cavalry may have been a better representation of the likely relative inf/cav frontages.

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  10. Spectacular and very impressive lines of battle, a beautiful set up!!

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  11. So neat and tidy,and wonderful display.BB

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