Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Forthcoming Roman Battles

I've been in the ancients doldrums since our Society of Ancients battle day game way back in April and have been looking for something outside of my usual game options to put some - ahem - wind back in the old sails. By chance, I remembered there was a scenario book for the Classical Hack rules hidden away in a storage cupboard, so I grubbed around for it to see if it would provide any inspiration.



Happily, it did.

It's a little hard to see the Table of Contents in this scan (it should be better if you click on it, however), but the book contains a number of battles from the Sertorian era, and these might just be what I'm looking for.


A quick inventory will show what can be put on a prufrockian table: 

Native Cavalry: 
15 bases of Spanish heavy cavalry (18 if I add in some 'Iberianesque' Carthaginians), 
8 bases of Spanish light cavalry, 
16 bases of Gallic heavy cavalry, 

12-19 units, depending on how I organise them.

'Roman' Cavalry:
6 bases of Samnites, who can I think pass for generic rough-and-ready cavalry from the period,
19 bases of mid Republican era heavy cavalry,
4 bases of Tarantine cavalry.

10-13 units, depending on how they are organised.

Light infantry:
36 bases of caetrati type light infantry,
12 bases of archers,
20 bases of slingers,
32 bases of generic javelinmen.

25 units.

Spanish medium infantry:
28 bases of Iberian scutarii,
44 bases of Celtiberian scutarii.

18 units.

Marian-era Roman infantry:
96 bases of 'Blue' infantry,
96 bases of 'Red' infantry.

32-48 units, depending on how I organise them.

Extras:
8 artillery pieces,
Sundry command stands and individually based figures.

I'm probably a little short of Spanish to do the bigger scenarios as they are presented here, but I'm sure I can adjust the numbers to fit as needed.

The next thing to think about it is which rules to use. 

I have (in no particular order) Scutarii, Lost Battles, To the Strongest!, Might of Arms, Sword and Spear, Hail Caesar, modified Dux Bellorum, Warmaster Ancients, Armati, Commands & Colors, Classical Hack, or my homegrown set. 

I think I want to avoid squares this time after using them for the battle day game, so that narrows things down a little. Also, if I want to change things up, it is probably a good idea to try a rule set I haven't played very much (or, indeed, at all!).

Well, we shall see. I'm not sure if I'll get a game in before I go back to New Zealand for a quick visit at the end of the month, but I can at least enjoy getting some planning and rules-learning done.




7 comments:

  1. That sounds like a really nice collection. What put you off using squares ? I know you are OK with hexes. Nirm

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for dropping by, Norm! Regarding squares, I'm a big fan (Lost Battles, To the Strongest!), but feel something different would be good right at the mo - I'd like to see some diagonal lines on the table for a change :)

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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  2. For me, planning is as much fun as playing. Looking forward to whichever direction you choose.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jonathan - the planning is certainly part of the fun! It was so much fun I ended up setting up a game last night, in fact...

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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  3. Agreed, planning is half of it. The few gamers I met living in Korea spent much time devoted to this :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When you were in Korea, Al? Were you in the forces?

      Cheers,
      Aaron

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    2. I think my last tour there was 2003, yep did some time at the officer's academy amongst other things, not a bad place to work actually

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