Tunis again with SP - a mighty clash

SP popped over today Sunday to play Tunis in our Washbourn Trophy series. An earlier post gives some information about the initial set up. 

SP took the Syracusans under Agathocles, an inspired leader. I took the Carthaginians under Bomilcar (on the left) and Hanno (on the right). We decided to play without the Favour of the Gods rule. The Carthaginians (to the right in our pictures) have first move each turn.

A high command roll gives Carthage options: they attacked on each wing but not in the centre in order to keep the levy heavy cavalry there out of the clutches of the enemy. One attack was successful, but it was rallied by Agathocles himself. 

SP then rolled a 1 for command, meaning he either could attack or reinforce, but not both everywhere. He attacked in all zones and then reinforced the centre and the right, trusting Agathocles to hold firm without further support. The attacks inflicted three hits, but two of them were all-out attacks by his hoplites (who must all-out attack given the opportunity).

After turn two. Syracuse on the left; Carthage on the right

In turn three feeble attacks from Carthage - despite another high command roll - are met with grumblings of discontent by senior leadership. They manage just one hit from thirteen attempts. 

The Syracusans roll another 1 for command. They reinforce Agathocles' wing and attack in the centre and the right. They are very successful on the right: the Carthaginian units are all left spent, but at the cost of another hoplite unit spent from an all-out attack.

At this point SP is reasonably content with his start, but is heard indicating some concerns about the centre. On my side of the table there are mutterings about being pounded.

After turn three, with the Washbourn Trophy shining at the far end of the table in all its gilded glory. In the foreground the shaky Carthaginian left is visable.

Carthage rolls high for command again. I decide to pull my left back onto the hill. With spare commands, I double-move the chariots onto the hill to their left, creating a pocket. Elsewhere we manage a solitary hit.

SP is a little non-plussed by the withdrawal of the Carthaginian left. Should he advance into the pocket? To do so will put him at a morale disadvantage and the hoplites, with enemy on their flanks, will not be as effective in attack. 

Another low command roll sees him leave things on the right as they are for the moment and press on in the other zones. In a turn up for the books all of the Syracusan attacks are unsuccessful. 

It seems that when the Washbourn Trophy is on the line even the dice start to feel the pressure... 

After turn four. The Carthaginian left retreats.

Carthage attacks. Great dice see three hits scored in the centre, leaving just one fresh unit there. On the right, another flurry of hits leaves Agathocles as the only fresh unit in his zone. Those mandatory hoplite all-out attacks have weakened the Syracusans more than expected.

Syracuse decides to advance into the pocket on the right. SP needs to shatter some units. After all the movement and fighting is done, Syracuse has five fresh units across three zones; Carthage has four. 

After turn five. Carnage in the battle line.

Turn six is more grim attrition. A unit is shattered in Agathocles' zone, but the rest hold firm. Both centres still have one unit fresh each, and the Syracusan right still has two units fresh, but the rest of the units on the field are spent.

Agathocles is faced with a choice: retreat from his zone to prolong the battle and give time for his right to clean up the levies on the hill, or stand. SP chooses to stand. He will not give up his key zone.

After turn six. Still the Carthagian levies survive!

Carthage has a royal opportunity to put Agathocles, now in the lead unit position, to the sword. Heroically, he stands firm! Did we only imagine an owl or two in the air? On the right the Syracusan hoplites shatter an average heavy infantry unit. Bomilcar attempts to rally the hit, and dies. Disaster! Two morale checks needed on d3s. Fortuitously for Carthage, the scores are 3 and 3, and even the levy light infantry refuse to rout. Disaster averted.

Agathocles strikes from the lead position: two units shattered, two units routed. Only the veteran heavy infantry remain in place to hold the zone for Hanno. But the morale check results are high enough to prevent the rest of the army from routing. 

And what is the health of the battle lines at this point? Agathocles has three units against Hanno's two. All spent. The Syracusan centre has five units all spent, against Carthage's four spent heavy infantry and one levy heavy cavalry kept - wisely as it has turned out - out of the lead position, still fresh. Syracuse has one fresh and four spent units on the right facing four spent infantry units and the Chariots mucking about on the hill.

After turn seven. Both armies out on their feet.

Hanno attacks, and scores two double hits from his zone. Agathocles rallies one, but suffers a close shave with the next, is laid low, and can do nothing to stop the second double hit. They are all shattered. Hanno advances to take the key zone and Syracusan morale will now suffer accordingly.

A succession of failed attacks by Carthage in the centre is redeemed by a final attack which does enough to shatter a unit. With morale now at a -3 (general killed, four-plus units shattered, key zone lost), the army flees.

Turn eight, the moment before the Syracusans are swept away.

Well, after a great start from Agathocles things went a bit pear-shaped for the Syracusans. The longer the game went on the more the Carthaginian position improved. SP was hampered by poor command dice. 1, 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, if my memory is correct. This meant he was unable to get his army into position as quickly as he would have liked, and nor did he have commands to spare for combat bonus purposes.

For me, the command dice were extraordinary. 5, 5, 6, 4, 5, 4, 5 or similar. This allowed me the luxury to pull back on my left, and gave the ability to load up my attackers with combat bonuses. 

In the end, I think this (and my high morale rolls at crucial times) were probably the difference.

As usual, it was a gripping game. We both felt from turn four onwards that "THIS turn will decide it!" but that feeling went on for five turns. 

We will look forward to contesting the Washbourn Trophy again soon. I will have to have a think about what battle to do - it was refreshing to have hoplites and chariots on the table. Funnily enough, the battle was quite similar to the account in Diodorus, except that it was Bomilar who died, not Hanno, and the Carthaginians managed to resist the urge to rout at that point.

Final scores were Carthage's 97 to Syracuse's 60, for Carthage to register a clear victory. On the day I had 85 to 60, but forgot to include the withdrawn Agathocles in the count. 

Sentinum 295 BC with Lost Battles

SP came around tonight for another session of Lost Battles. Our last ancients game was, looking at blog records, late last year, when we played Zama and SP carried off the Washbourn Trophy in triumph. This time around we would play Sentinum. 

SP elected to play the Romans. They have an advantage in fighting value, 69 as against 60 for the Samnites and Gauls, but most of that is taken up with superior Roman generalship. The armies themselves are pretty even - five units of cavalry for the Romans - one veteran, the rest average; five units of mounted for the coalition, four heavy cavalry, one chariotry.

In infantry the coalition has fourteen units of heavy infantry against the Roman ten legionary units and two levy light infantry units. The numbers favour the coalition, but the Roman legionaries have better morale and when fresh are harder to hit.

The Romans have an average commander in Fabius and an uninspired cavalry leader in Decius Mus. The coalition has Gellius Egnatius as an uninspired infantry leader.

So far there is not much between the armies, but at Sentinum the coalition is classed as fatigued: that is, their staying power is compromised. Once a Gallic or Samnite unit has taken a hit, it attacks thereafter at -1, meaning in effect that all things being equal a fatigued heavy infantry unit up against a legionary unit will need 11 or 12 on two dice to to score a hit, so the coalition troops have to try to make an impact early and keep as many units fresh as possible for as long as possible.

Looking from behind the Roman right.

As it eventuated, there was not too much need for deep strategy: it was one of those rare games when everything went right for my side and nothing for my worthy opponent. 

Our right wing engaged immediately, and the infantry in the three central zones advanced. I kept the cavalry on my left refused. They were outnumbered and I felt it was best to be circumspect at the outset.

One wing and the centre engaged. My refused left can be seen on right of the picture.

The Gauls on my right quickly made inroads and the chariots burst through after just two turns of combat, shattering one unit and routing the guard for the unfortunate Decius Mus and denuding the Roman left of any meaningful defenders.

A double hit is scored, Decius Mus is unable to rally either of them, and the Roman left is lost.

Why did the Romans not invoke Favour of the Gods and force a re-roll, Lost Battles afficionadoes may ask? The reason for this is that I had already had such frighteningly good dice in the centre that SP had invoked the gods there, and with the token now in my hands, could not do so again until I had issued an invocation of my own. 

The action continued apace.

Galvanised by the early loss of his left wing and cognisant of the need to fight fire with fire in the centre, SP put as many command points into combat bonuses as he could. This paid off with hits against the Samnite left centre under Gellius. But in doing this he neglected to make use of his cavalry superiority on the right.

 

The refused Samnite cavalry wing is left unmolested.

Gellius Egnatius leads the Samnites as the centres continue the fight. The victorious Gallic cavalry and chariotry can just be seen in the distance in behind the Roman left.

The Roman rear is now exposed and with three units to use for this purpose, the Gauls focus on getting deep in behind the Romans to interfere with their morale and prepare to strike in future turns. SP pulls two units of cavalry out of the line on his right to respond to the threat.

A double hit by Gellius on the Roman right centre sees another unit shattered and the levy light infantry flee.  

With options running out for Rome bold attacks are initiated by the cavalry, now split across two zones to meet threats from two directions, and by the legionaries in the central zones.

Black arrows show direction of Roman attacks in turn 6.

The chariots are hit, but do not break. The other cavalry fails to hit at all. In the right centre, a mighty effort smites Gellius's unit, but in a scene which epitomises SP's luck tonight, Gellius rallies the hit. There is another successful attack in the central zone, but not enough to turn the tide. 

A series of attacks by the coalition sweep away the remaining Roman cavalry and Fabius's sector of the infantry line. The rest of the army holds on for the remainder of the turn, but Gellius administers the coup de grace on the turn after.

Final attack: Gellius rolls up the Roman line, already beset front and rear, with an attack from the flank.

It was a rather unfortunate game for SP. He stuck at it but you can't do much when the dice are your enemy.

From my perspective The Gauls and Samnites were able to keep just enough units fresh to avoid the worst effects of fatigue, and seemed to manage to align their most important attacking moments with their most potent dice rolling. The luck went entirely my way, but it was interesting to see a Lost Battles Roman army unexpected defeated on the table: beat the cavalry, surround the infantry, wear them down until morale starts to fail. 

It was pretty much the historical formula.

Victory Points:

Rome: 

The coalition spent: 3 x average heavy cavalry, 1 x average chariot, 9 x average heavy infantry equates to 52 points

Samnites & Gauls:

Roman shattered: 2 x average legionaries, 2 x average heavy cavalry, 1 x veteran heavy cavalry equates to 32 points

Roman routed: 2 x levy light infantry, 8 x average legionaries, 2 x average heavy cavalry equates to 46 points

Withdrawn: 1 x average commander, 1 x uninspired leader, equates to 9 points. 

Handicap: 18 points

Fatigued: 20 points

Total points for Rome: 52; for Samnites & Gauls: 125, for a major victory.

I now get to keep the Washbourn Trophy for a spell, which makes a bit of a change!

Pharsalus - the return match

To continue the game series started last week SP and I got together Saturday for round two of Pharsalus. You can read about the first battle on the link above, but to recap, while Caesar won the battlefield victory after surrounding and routing the Pompeians, SP did enough damage to Caesar's veterans to win the game 106 to 101.

For round two we swapped sides - this time SP would take Caesar. Pompey's cavalry wing again commenced the fight with a successful charge, and again Pompey refused his right. Caesar advanced judiciously, took the flip flop on turn three, but failed to make much headway in the initial exchanges. 

The initial clash of cavalry (Caesar's to the left; Pompey's to the right). The prize, the Washbourn Trophy, sits in all its glory in the background. 

This changed on turn four, where a succession of successful attacks against Pompey's wing and centre caused nervous flutters on the other side of the table. Pompey's men replied in kind and by the end of the turn both sides had lost a unit in the cavalry fight. 

The lines meet.

From turn five onwards Caesar's veterans began to exert their dominance. Pompey's troops suffered mounting attrition, but were able to manage to inflict some damage of their own. 

Pompey's wing gave way on turn 6, allowing Caesar to get in behind the Pompeian line and lower the morale rating of Pompey's own zone, which routed soon after. Elsewhere, Antony struggled to make much of an impact against the determined resistance and ferocious attacks of the Pompeian right. 

Pompey's zone about to rout in the foreground.

With time almost up, the Pompeian centre routed, leaving just the right on the field. But they were still largely untouched, and fighting a wholly spent Antony. 

The end is near for the Pompeian centre.

Antony lost a unit shattered and was only saved for further embarrassment by a determined attack on the part of the veteran cavalry into the flank of the Pompeian legionaries on the final turn of the game.

The fighting by the river is vicious.

At this the remaining Pompeians routed and it was time to check the scores.

Caesar had done 96 points of damage to 72 by Pompey. When the handicap was added on, it was found that Pompey had won the game by 102 points to 96. 

When the scores of the two games were summed, it turned out that SP had managed 202 across the two battles to yours truly's 203, meaning that the Washbourn Trophy came back to its rightful home by the closest of margins. 

I was a little surprised to win a game victory here. We only shattered two units, but the difference was that we routed after eight units were shattered, whereas in the first game Caesar had shattered ten units in his win. This seemingly minor difference was reflected in the points scored, and shows how tight the margins can be under the Lost Battles handicap system.

So, a fine pair of games, and a good way to introduce SP to brilliant generals. 

Pharsalus with SP

The figure gaming drought was broken last weekend with a refight of Pharsalus using - you guessed it - Lost Battles. The family has gone back to Japan for a visit now that the borders have reopened somewhat so with the house to myself it has been a bit easier to use the hobby space (i.e., I can set up the computer on the dining room table rather than on one of the hobby ones!).

SP is still learning the rules, so I thought it was time to bring in a brilliant general so that he can see the affect of a 'flip-flop' on the tactics of the game. In a flip-flop, the brilliant general once per game can reverse the turn order, effectively allowing him to position himself for a more lethal attack, reinforce a zone, or else to exploit a breakthrough.

Pharsalus, when using the historical deployments, is a fairly straightforward affair in Lost Battles. The main choice is about when and how Caesar is to reinforce his right wing cavalry, and then it's about rolling dice and intervening with attack bonuses at appropriate times. Crucially, there is also the matter of when to employ 'favour of the gods' (essentially a re-roll for either an attack you've flunked or one that the enemy has prosecuted a little too vigorously for one's liking). With favour of the gods, once one side has used it, they cannot use it again until their opponent has. As you can imagine, it leads to some difficult decisions in-game and, during the post-mortems, moments for reflection when you consider the coulda, woulda, shouldas. 

SP wanted to take up the cudgel for Pompey, so we started the action on turn two (turn one being taken up by the historical deployments).

As I'm sure most readers are aware, Pompey and the Optimates have numerical superiority in both horse and foot, and have concentrated the cavalry on the left under Caesar's old Gallic War lieutenant Labienus. To counter this cavalry supremacy, Caesar used a 'fourth line' - veteran legionaries supposedly re-armed with long spears and tasked with reinforcing the wing once the cavalry battle had commenced. To reflect Caesar's qualitative superiority, all his troop units are rated veteran, which gives them high morale, better manoeuvrability, and cheaper access to attack bonuses (i.e., +1s to attacks which are paid for with excess command points). 

Pompey's army has a fighting value of 77, and Caesar's 92. 

The battlefield at start.

Pompey began with a powerful cavalry attack. He scored three hits across two attacks, spending one unit of Caesar's cavalry and shattering the other. Caesar elected not to use FotG to call for a re-roll. Elsewhere, Pompey advanced in his own zone and the centre, leaving his right refused.

Caesar employed the flip-flop immediately to reinforce the cavalry with the fourth line, and advanced Antony into contact on his left.

The serious fighting now commenced. 

Mid battle, with the cavalry fight still undecided.

Both sides experienced rising attrition in in the infantry fight. As units became spent they were recycled from the front line to avoid being shattered. Caesar eventually won the cavalry battle (but not without another fright or two) and got in behind the Pompeian line to reduce the enemy's morale. With both sides almost entirely spent and a corresponding reduced ability to recycle, units began to shatter. 

It was at this time that Caesar's veterans came into their own. Utilising their superior manoeuvrability, Caesar was able to shuffle fresh units from one zone to another to increase the overall resilience of the line. Pompey, having no such capacity, began to lose units sooner.

It was his right that came under pressure first, as Antony pressed the attack remorselessly. Before long Pompey's own zone began to falter as well.

Final moments.

At last the Pompeians, with eight units shattered and two zones surrounded, collapsed, but not before having inflicted significant damage on Caesar's own zone. 

In the final accounting we found Caesar had inflicted 101 points of damage on the Pompeians and suffered 76 himself. When the handicap was added (double the difference in fighting value between the two armies), Pompey had scored a narrow game victory of 106 vs 101. 

Caesar was left to rue a couple of moments - not using FotG to deflect the first charge of Labienus and his cavalry, and not attempting to rally a unit that shattered in his own zone being particular examples - but the result was a fair reflection of the battle. After that initial attack on the cavalry I always felt I needed to be doing more damage than I was managing to.

It was a close-fought, nerve-wracking fight, just as Pharsalus should be. SP played with his usual cool head and aversion to excessive risk-taking, both attributes serving him well in pulling off the game victory.

Round two, to decide the holder of the Washbourn Trophy, will be fought today with sides reversed.

Eyeless in Gaza (312 BC)

SP came over last night for the second iteration of our Washbourn Trophy Lost Battles series. I had set the battle as Gaza 312 BC, for its ease of set up (only a flat plain to fight over) when time was short, and for its own sake.

I don't recall having fought it before - though surely I must have - so we were both going in without too many preconceived ideas of how to play the scenario. Being on holiday this week, SP had the day to come up with a strategy, while I would rely upon my knowledge of the rules and 'general tactical nous' to breeze through. 

The first point of interest is the armies. Both are successor forces led by fighting generals - Ptolemy/Seleucus (combined into a single on-table commander) the one and Demetrius the other - with the usual mix of phalangites and cavalry heavy and light. In addition Demetrius had three units of elephants, and Ptolemy a dedicated anti-elephant corps of light infantry, in four units.

Essentially, it was to be a battle of elephants vs light infantry, phalanx vs phalanx, cavalry vs cavalry, and inspired commander (Ptolemy) vs average commander (Demetrius).

In fighting value Ptolemy had the edge 79 points to 67, but it was still close enough to be challenging for both sides. 

We used the historical deployments outlined in Phil Sabin's Lost Battles book, so the action began for us in turn two.

As Demetrius, and with the first move, I attacked on my left with Demetrius himself and his two units of veteran heavy cavalry. I then reinforced this zone with light cavalry from my right flank, bringing them around behind my army to give some extra numbers in what was bound to be a tough fight on the left. My centre left attacked with elephants in the lead, and I advanced in the centre to allow the light cavalry to scoot around behind them in the aforementioned reinforcement move. My right - now my weakest zone - I refused. 

As Ptolemy, SP fought fire with fire on his right. He attacked with bravado with his two veteran heavy cavalry units and light cavalry, and then also reinforced this zone with cavalry from elsewhere in his army. His light infantry hit my elephants hard, and rather than advance his centre and left he merely redeployed his leftmost unit of light cavalry so that they could reinforce Ptolemy next turn if needed.

Turn four saw Demetrius shatter a unit of light cavalry in Ptolemy's zone, but the rest of his army held firm. There was little success elsewhere.

The view from Demetrius's zone after his second attack. Note his position in the lead with his guard cavalry in an attempt to shatter the enemy zone before it can be reinforced. It was not to be!

Ptolemy reinforced his own zone again with more light cavalry, and fought back with determination. He scored two hits with the cavalry in his zone, and then three hits against Demetrius's centre left as the elephants panicked in the face of the light infantry assault. 

Again from Demetrius's zone: a violence of horses, and some reinforcements. 

Two more turns went by with some thrilling exchanges as both sides fought desperately to win the cavalry fight between the two opposed generals. The full complement of Lost Battles's tactical tricks was employed, to our delight: manipulation of  lead units to maximise attack and best defend; command bonuses artfully issued; Favour of the Gods re-rolls demanded; generals rallying what could have been battle-defining strikes. 

Elsewhere the elephants continue to panic, and the phalanxes engaged in the centre. My men all-out-attacked in an effort to make the enemy army as vulnerable as possible to mass rout once the moment came. 

The moment, however, did not come. A shatter, a double shatter, a successful rout test, a shatter, a failed rout test, and Demetrius was alone with his guard cavalry.

The grim reality: Demetrius about to be permanently displaced.

Demetrius's guard was destroyed, and the man himself fled the field. He took the centre left with him in a trumpeting of panicked elephants and a cacaphony of hooves. 

In the centre, the phalanx turned and pulled back, marching off table to escape with what they could.

Battle over, and Ptolemy was victorious 93 points to 74. The result did not show how closely fought it was. In the aftermath, we were pleased to announce that SP had won the Washbourn Trophy. It would change hands and go home with him.

We still had time for a second battle, so we set up again. This one was also a tough fight in which we put hard-learned lessons from the first battle to good use. 

The action on my left played out much as before, with our cavalry wing and elephant-led left-centre eventually losing against Ptolemy, but this time we were a lot more active with our centre and right wing. Even after our left routed, our right fought on, up until the tenth turn, shattering enemy before eventually, just a moment before darkness fell, being shattered ourselves.

Game two, three turns in.

The final result was 100-99, with SP as Ptolemy again emerging the victor! We were both a little surprised with this result. I thought I had done enough to win on points under the Lost Battles handicap system, but not quite.

Again Lost Battles delivered. Two exciting games which could have gone to either side, with two very plausable results which did no injustice to history.

Thanks to SP - worthy winner of the Washbourn Trophy - and to Phil Sabin, master rules designer!

And if you ask for Demetrius now?  You will find him eyeless in Gaza at the mill among slaves.