How to lose an Empire in an Afternoon.

Back in 2022 Ed beat my Patricians using my Romano-British, after that battle I pretended that he was a British usurper to the Imperial Purple named Edicus "Proceritas" (the tall) who had invaded Gaul, the local forces not being up to the task of stopping him. Meanwhile the Magister Militum of the West, Aetius, had gathered his field army and marched to confront the upstart. The German tribes (Rob Broom) across the Rhine had taken advantage of the confusion in the Roman ranks to invade the Empire, seeking glory and booty. They were met by Aetius, defeated and sent packing, we played this as a remote game on Zoom. Bouyed by his success Aetius continued into Gaul and today, after a long break, met the army of the usurper on the field of battle.

I took five Legions supported by cavalry, skirmishers and German Foederati, Ed had four units of Milites of varying experience along with cavalry, skirmishers and allies in the shape of Saxon and Welsh warbands. Ed deployed most of his missile troops backed up by cavalry on his right while the infantry lined the centre and left, I was set up in the same way with my cavalry and some missiles facing his and my infanty opposite his foot. I was a bit unsure about the amount of firepower he had mustered and hoped to at least drive away his skirmishers and weaken his cavalry before I attacked. The infantry I would hold back until I successfully smashed the enemy flank.

Romano-British line.

Both sides.

Romans deployed.

British cavalry.

Now what?

 

Things started out fairly well although I forgot my Bucellarii had bows as they were Huns, and lost an opportunity to shoot in the first phase. I sent some slingers fleeing for the rear and moved the Germans through a wood to engage the massed bowmen behind it. Ed countered by charging my skirmishing Alans, I won the combat and his mounted Milites broke and fled, I was feeling confident. The Germans now went after the bowmen and scattered them but couldn't catch them, they in turn were hit by the Saxon warband, I had a lot riding on the Germans as they had armour and the Saxons did not, my hopes were misplaced.

The lines advance.

Slowly lads, slowly.

It all looked so good.

Things begin to get out of hand.

Who let the old guy in?

Ed's Saxons hit the Germans and sent them running, he also charged my victorious Alans with his mounted Comitatus and the nomads promptly fled and left the table, they would be back but not for a couple of turns. I needed the initiative in the next phase but did not get it, disaster loomed. The Foederati were swept from the battlefield, his Comitatus retired out of charge reach of my Bucellerii and worst of all the Welsh swept down from their hill and cut down Quinta Macedonica and their officer in short order, this rout also sent the Regii Legion running. To their right the Anglevari had held but the Gallicani Honoriani had lost their combat and also ran, I had lost a third of my forces, I was shocked to say the least.

Going pear shaped.

The Celtae falter.

I managed to rally the Regii and threw them against the approaching Welsh, I had no great hopes they would beat them, the Gallicani had also rallied, could I hold on. Ed now threw his leader and his bodyguard into my elite Palatini the Celtae Seniores, these lads braced themselves in shield wall but it was no good, they held out for a time but eventually ran like everyone else, the Gallicani were now the only infantry left standing against a surge of the enemy. Over on my left the Bucellerii and Aetius were in combat with the Romano-British Comitataus cavalry and slowly pushing them back, but this was the only bright spot in the darkness. Before the Celtae had broken they had managed to kill Edicus, Aetius himself had taken a wound but was still active with his bodyguard. The forces of the usurper had won the day but the man himself lay dead amongst the Romans his men had slaughtered.

All that remains of my infantry.

Aetius' less than grand bodyguard.

 

During the night the leaders of the victorious army clashed with many wanting to return to Britain with as much booty as they could carry and others wanting to claim Gaul for themselves, Katharina the widow of Edicus, a forceful woman backed up by commanders loyal to her dead husband argued for a march on Rome, why take Gaul when the West lay at their feet? On the other hand the loss of the battle for Aetius proved to be fatal as men from the army, riled up by disgruntled legionaries, murdered the general later that night as his bodyguard stood by. Can anyone save Rome?

That was a severe defeat, my army simply fled or gave up at every opportunity, it started with the Germans and then not being able to grasp the initiative at a moment of crises sealed my doom. Bad luck played its part, for instance I put officers with the Legions from the frontier to bolster their morale and they both went down at the most inopportune moments, but I also think I made some bad decisions in the middle which might have spared me some grief. Ed played well nevertheless and simply marched across the table sweeping everything in his path. Despite the beating I enjoy these rules and the little story I have built up has been a blast. Come and try your luck while I am on the ropes :).

(I used different names on Facebook as I had forgotten what I used before) 

The West has fallen

 Club night and I managed to get a decent parking space, what a boon it is when your car parks itself, perfect for an old codger like me.

I had organised with Ed some time ago a War and Conquest Dark Ages game so I took the opportunity to bring along my lovely Western Patrician Roman army which does not get out very much these days while Ed was happy to stay with the Romano-British. Ed has turned out to be a very decent opponent with WAC and he has two notches on his belt already leading the Seleucids against my favoured 12th Legion.

I took three Legions, a German Foederati warband, some Alan cavalry and some archers, Ed also had four battle formations, three Romano-British and one Welsh along with cavalry, skirmishers and a large unit of archers. He had missed out a unit of Pedyts which are a must, it was no big deal and I said it was a ready excuse should I lose, this would come back to haunt me, what made it worse is that I was lazy and instead of using my actual Welsh troops I substituted, yes, the damn Pedyts.

As we deployed I had the idea of advancing my Alans and archers on the left, killing off the enemy cavalry and turning in on the Romano-British line, I would wait and see what happened elsewhere before committing the Legions. Ed had put his cavalry opposite mine along with his skirmishers then at the end of his infantry he placed the large archer unit. The Romano-British cavalry were superior to my horse archers and could have ridden them down without a problem, but for some reason Ed formed them into skirmish and I smiled inside. My first volleys were good and and the cavalry ran and took the skirmishing foot with them, things were looking good, I had also advanced the Celtae Seniores to attack what in my mind were the Pedyts but had Welsh accents. 

Legions are ready

British on the left, Romans on the right

British

Things now turned sour, the British cavalry rallied and returned and no matter how many arrows I threw at them for the rest of the game they just brushed them off, the Celtae had smashed into the Welsh and were making heavy work of beating them, I threw Quinta Macedonica in against a unit alongside the Taff's and despite having all the advantages the Macedonians threw them all away. On the right I had pulled back my Germans as they were suffering heavy casualties from the massed archers, my elite Lanciarii Gallicani Honoriani were also under fire from javelins to their front so before I lost my combat edge I was forced to charge the Gauls and the Germans into the British line. I was taking a chance with both these assaults as the Gauls were up against a formation in shield wall, but they were elite, the German attack was a bit of a forlorn hope which I needed to tie up the British hearthguard.

Romano British milites

Quinta Macedonica advances

British left flank

Things got worse, my Alans and skirmishers were held up trying in vain to kill off the British cavalry, the Macedonians, Gauls and the Germans all began to suffer heavily and before too long were running for the rear. The Celtae did at last manage to rout the Welsh but it had taken so long they, like my left flank, could not interfere in the disaster taking place elsewhere. I handed over my sword.

Casualties rise in the Roman ranks

The invulnerable British cavalry

Macedonians throw away their advantage and possibly the game.

From my point of view the battle was simply a slaughter, although I managed in most turns to cause a decent amount of casualties Ed's saving throws brought these to naught time and time again, especially that bloody cavalry. On the other hand his men dealt out punishment which I failed to brush off. Whatever he had offered the dice gods it had worked a treat, I was undone once again with no excuse.

I was hoping to try Italian Wars at the club but despite having enough pikemen and cavalry for a small game I really do need more shooters before doing this. Thankfully they are now on their way from TAG and I expect them tomorrow. I am very close to finishing my French pike block and it should be ready next week which will allow me to get started on those gunners.

Complete, nearly complete, and about to start

Wars of the Roses rules always put Treachery or the threat of it high on their list of priorities, despite it only being proven on one occasion (Northampton) and arguably on another (Bosworth). Furioso for the Italian Wars has Impetuous, and I got to thinking why, the only battlefield example I can bring to mind is the Swiss at Bicocca, the rule can cause your whole army to merrily waltz off leaving you, as the commander, merely a bystander. I do have some tweaks to the rules which others have added or play tested which may mitigate this happening but I don't think they are enough. There is also a Furioso rule when traditional enemies (Swiss v Swiss, Swiss v Landsknechts or Landsknechts v Landsknechts) will ignore what is happening around them to engage said enemies. I find this a tad more realistic than Impetuous so I intend to look a bit closer at both these rule mechanisms, something for the long winter evenings perhaps. Julian and I have our second game next Wednesday.

 I ordered some poplar trees from The Last Valley a while back and they arrived today, I am very pleased but wondered where the trunk had gone, either Andy knows his trees or he was just lucky. Lombardy poplars are overgrown all the way to the ground, who would have thought, when you can see the trunk they are 'cultivated'.

I am having a niggling problem with my drawing tablet, which is something I need to get sorted so of course I got into a chat with someone at Wacom Support who felt it more important to wish me a happy day than get to the nub of my problem which was ensuring my day was far from happy. Yes, I have reinstalled the drivers, yes I have rebooted the PC, yes I reinstalled the programme, and why should I take a survey when I still have the problem no matter what kind of day you wish on me and were so delighted to have talked it over with me. Also just once in a decade I would like to be the first person in the call queue, why do we never catch these people when they are not busy, not once in years.

 I have a sore back from picking up my troop boxes yesterday the wrong way, so for now I am Mr. Grumpy.

Rob of the Britons v Rob of the Saxons

With my new upgraded warbands ready to take to the field I decided to play another by email War and Conquest game but this time using my Dark Age armies, no fancy troop types no fancy tactics just a good old fashioned slugfest with the last man standing being the winner. Rob Broom (Rob B) was once again happy to play but I wanted to sit this one out and offered the part of the Romano-British commander to mate Rob Martin (Rob M). Rob B of course is a WAC veteran while Rob M up until now had only played one game, he is however a veteran wargamer and I would keep him abreast of the rules. The Saxons chose two cavalry units and five battle formations supported by skirmishers and Pict mercenaries, the British although the larger army had not upgraded many of their formations and also took several untrustworthy Pedyt units with low morale to make a second line of battle, they did take two Comitatus units, one foot and one mounted led by the Dux himself, the Saxon king was surrounded by his hearthguard and noble Gedriht. From the deployment the Saxons were counting on an attack on the British left while Rob M seemed set on taking the hills to his front.

Sure enough the opening moves went as expected, the only thing which suprised me was the British moving their mounted Milites to the left flank, to me this meant the Saxon left did not need to worry about being outflanked or harrassed by the British cavalry and could possibly in their turn harrass the British right. The centre lines of both armies now found themselves facing each other from the hills, the Saxon flank attack had swept away some British skirmishers but left themselves open to the slingshots from more enemy skirmishers. The British second line was now moving in support of the main line. The battle had reached a crises and whoever got the initiative for the next turn would get a jump on the enemy, it was the Dux.

The British line leapt forward and although they had the advantage the Saxon King held his ground as did his young warriors close by, the Duguth along the line holding the hill with every advantage were unceremoniously swept away by Milites 2 in a shock to the Saxon line. On the Saxon left things also turned nasty as the Dux's Comitatus moving forward caused the slingers to run taking the nearby archers with them, on the extreme left the British archers also sent the Saxon javelins packing. It was now the Saxon's turn to take the initiative, the tormented mounted Geoguth rode down the slingers but meeting Peydt 3 was too much to ask and they dispersed, the remaining cavalry threw themselves against Milites 3 while on the left the Ceorls now moved down from their safe hill and the warriors of Geoguth 2 charged the surprised Dux and his escort. Just as it looked like the Saxons had recovered the Gedriht broke from the renewed pressure of the Comitatus and they died around their wounded leader. Things were not all bad however as both Geoguth units were fighting like Trojans and the rallied Duguth and javelin skirmishers had caused the otherwise victorious Milites 2 to rout.

A Brush with High Tech.

 Mate Duncan had a busy week last week having to take a Kubelwagen down to London to take part in a Bollywood movie, so this week I decided to pop up with the excellent Arnhem book which he had lent me. On arriving at his gate I found him standing in a splittermuster camo jacket waiting for a crew who wanted to digitally scan some of his vehicles, so I thought I would stick around for a bit.

The crew of young lads arrived, two from the Netherlands, all masked up and only willing to rub elbows, just don't contact if you are that troubled. Anyway we got talking to the leader, a nice English chap who confirmed the scans are to be used in a video game, I got the gist that it was a WWII sniper game of some kind and they wanted authentic equipment in the game. They had been at another vehicle collector few days before and scanned in a Sherman tank, they have also been to Bovington to get the famous Tiger 131. The good news for me was that I have never seen Duncan's shed looking so clean and spacious as some of the vehicles had been moved out so the scanning crew could work better, this means I at last got a really good look at the 251 halftrack, lovely machine. The whole thing sounds very interesting.

Over the last week I have scratched a couple of those itches which have been bothering me, first up was the additional figures to the Dark Age mercenary warbands, because they were virtually useless on the battlefield as by the time they closed with their enemies the casualties taken beforehand meant they could not take advantage of their superior numbers, hopefully now they can. It will be interesting to see if their performance improves. My second itch was the extra Waffen-SS light machine gun crew needed to ensure the panzergrenadier squads had two LMG's in them, I have more LMG's than the German Army. These guys were also painted in Autumn camouflage, one of the figures I received from Offensive Miniatures had a broken rifle, the firm replaced him so I was left with a guy who seemed to be of no use to me. Wait, I cut the damaged rifle off and turned him into a medic, I really wanted to glue a bag of some kind to one arm but I have nothing which would work in my spares box, but no big deal, he can deal out TLC.

I enjoyed my last War and Conquest game so much I decided to run another, but this time I would simply move the armies around and throw the dice while two friends commanded the troops. Again I would draw maps of the action and send them along with photos where applicable to both players, the guys themselves would just send movement orders etc. when it was their turn. As I had just finished the warbands I went for a Dark Age clash this time, Rob B would be the Saxons and Rob M the Romano-British, an interesting set up as Rob Broom of course wrote the rules while Rob Martin although a veteran wargamer has only played WAC once. I am relying on Rob M's inherent military knowledge to pull him through. The Saxons may have the edge in quality, as was said of my friend Dave Toone once "that he had brought more characters to the game than are in Eastenders", Rob has many Thegns to keep his men in line. The Romano-British have the numbers and have the remnants of Roman organisation to help however they have scrapped the bottom of the barrel for about a third of the army. The game is now afoot and a full report in time.

 

Saxons

        

Romano-British

It is the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Berlin, eerily before I knew this I came off the fence and decided to build a section of a ruined city for WWII, although it could be Stalingrad or Budapest it was inspired by Berlin and my work on the "Bloody Streets" book. I am researching which buildings and materials to use, I am not sure it will be ready before the year is up but we will see. I have all the figures for battles in the city but still have a couple of vehicles to get, you name it it was in Berlin. Little Wars TV have just put up a recent 6mm game on the battle for the government district and the race by the different Russian commanders to get to the Reichstag first. Sadly for me at least, all the guys were wearing masks and therefore the interaction between the players was lacking. As a wargamer you really need to see that look of despair on the enemy's face when you pull off a Napoleonic masterpiece and turn the tide of the game, although that particular pleasure remains mostly unfulfilled for me.

So, on the way here are some Front Rank figures for another two battalions, one French and one Hanoverian, along with a gun limber, I will pick one of these up now and again so that all my guns will have limbers eventually. I also picked up today some paint and glue to start on some chain-link fences for my industrial complex, I saw these on Andy Duffel's Tiny Hordes blog, I may work on these over the next few days.