Asculum for beginners

As mentioned in my last post, I was fortunate enough recently to get four players together for a crack at my old favourite, Lost Battles. 

Right up until the night before I was unsure of what scenario to use. The need for Romans was obvious. But should I go with homogenous forces to cut down on rules shock - Pharsalus? No, we needed elephants. Should I go for Hannibal? Trebia? Cannae? Zama? No, these three splendid affairs need to be reserved for when players know the rules enough to savour them.

In the end, the decision was Asculum. The triple advantage of aesthetically pleasing troops, closely-matched armies (by the standards of Lost Battles), and a mix of different types to show the rules to advantage won the day.

The goal was to play a first game to run through the rules and a second to give players a chance to put their knowledge into practice. This was probably a little ambitious.

The day started with a brief outline of the armies and Lost Battles rules concepts. The best way to learn these rules is to play, so we tried to get into it as quickly as possible.

View from behind Pyrrhus's left flank after the deployment turn.

The Greeks moved first and elected to reinforce their right flank with a unit of veteran heavy cavalry, giving them a significant advantage in that area. The central zones all advanced, but not before a hit had been scored on the Roman light infantry.

The Romans refused their left and left centre, but advanced elsewhere. 

On turn three, amid command problems (low command die roll) the Greeks made the decision to not advance their right centre or right flank into contact, even though the latter had been reinforced. Battle was joined seriously in the centre and centre-left and the cavalry of the other flank exchanged charges.

Initial advances, shown from the Greek side.

These positions were maintained for the next few turns. Hits were scored on both sides, forcing players to choose which units to put into the lead, which units to give combat bonuses to, and, on the Greek stage, how best to employ the special characteristics of the phalangites. 

With the Greeks still not advancing their right, they were able to put a lot of command points into combat bonuses, which sped up the attrition on the Romans. Nevertheless, it was the Greek cavalry who gave way on the left, buoying Roman morale.

The day was racing by, and the Greeks realised the need to get their right into contact. As this was happening Sulpicius staved off disaster by rallying three hits out of four, saving the Roman right centre from rout. Pyrrhus got himself into the action in the centre, but in doing so exposed himself to risk. As the battle went on, Pyrrhus's zone broke, carrying the man himself off the field.

The Greek right flank swept the Roman cavalry away, but it was too late. 

Gleeful Romans spoke of superior tactical acumen; resentful Greeks cursed those fickle mistresses, the dice.

With neither side able to completely rout the other by the end of the tenth turn, points were tallied up. Rome this time was victorious.

As there was only an hour left, we had a quick debrief instead of the ideal second game to 'consolidate knowledge' (what was that about being too ambitious?).

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the players new to Lost Battles are keen to do it all again. 

A successful day then, and I chuckled to myself during the post-mortems: by turns they all gloated, grizzled, moaned and what-iffed like wargame veterans!

Great to get people together for some good old fashioned figure gaming.