L'Art De La Guerre - two more games

Another couple of LADG games played with Stephen in sunny Ulster.

Both games between not quite historical opponents but what is a couple of hundred years between friends.

First up it was my Galatians against Triumvirate (Marian) Roman and this was a bloody slugfest with both sides trying to turn opposing flanks and both seeming to have boundless amounts of Pips.

Highlight for me was a lowly Psiloi (WRG speak) which was hit on flank by unit of Thracians but which managed to win and inflict hits !! however this was countered by my Greek subjects imploding in one turn on my right to Roman cavalry they were beating !

Elite Roman Legionaries in center gradually ground down my Elite Warriors and Celts defeated.

Next up it was my mid period Sassanids facing Stephens Thematic Byzantines and this one was more one-sided with my lot having really poor Pip rolls making co-ordination a problem.

Byzzies rather thumped my Cataphracts and put enough shooting hits on my other troops to crush Persians.

 

Civil War Battles an outing

Game at Stephens today and he decided to use Civil War Battles from the Peter Pig Rules For The Common Man stable.

I have had these rules since publication in 2007 but never tried them.

We tried a standard 600 point game (1 Corps of 2 Divisions a piece) using they scenario generator and war points system.

Forces based on mid-war Western lists with Stephen using Feds and me the Rebs.

Took a while to go through the various stages of the game set up but straight forward and would speed up with familiarity.

Knowing best categories to allocate your war points can be influential to battle set up.

Despite only allocating 6 (of my 60) to trying to attack whilst allocated 12 of his (60 + 3 from list) I managed to outscore him 3:1 and was attacker.

However he had much better successes (+3) in two categories whilst I only had minor effect (+1 in 2 categories) so Feds had more effective benefits overall.

Terrain is plentiful with 6 to 8 pieces each and 2 Objectives placed mainly by defender but with some pieces adjustable (limited scope) by attacker. 

No difference to terrain selection for theatre but did seem to generate a plausible ACW style table.

The Motivation (Generals activating individual units), the use of Action Points for the units is nice system that is easy to follow and this combined with fairly simple movement, shooting, combat and morale makes for a smooth game.

Only rule we had issue with was overhead firing which seemed to allow artillery to fire at enemy guns over friends and enemies units on the flat in addition to from hills seemed rather odd (FOOs in use !?) but otherwise all was fine. 

++Postscript++ we feel using the much clearer overhead firing rule from the later Washingtons Army set seems more appropriate ie only applies to firing to or from hills not on the flat ++

Did not finish the game but we did try all the component parts and a nice system overall that is decent option for a pick-up style game.

 

Ulster Wargames Society - an aquatic day

Club meeting today and I partook of a naval game again (3 in one year after none in about 30 !) this time with an Osprey set Poseidon's Warriors run by Leslie.

I had a fleet of 20 Spartan Tiremes/Galleys against same number of Athenian vessels under Leslie.

Both sides had 4 Squadrons of 5 ships with each Squadron able to be classed as open decked light type (one hit wonders) or heavier Cataphract covered deck types also only taking one hit but with saving roll of 6.

Both sides could have an Elite squadron meaning faster ships for Athens and more Marines for Sparta.

No artillery or heavier ships so made for nice quick playing and easy to pick up game.

We managed to get two games completed with an early finish with no issues beyond how often a potentially game ending fleet morale test is taken (easy to house rule). 

First game ended with fairly low casualties as Leslies Flagship went to bottom and Fleet fled (ie rolled 1 on Morale Test)

Second game a more cagey affair as both fleets maneuvered a lot more and included some grain ships to capture which we both totally ignored.

I was lucky (I know !!!) and passed several Morale Tests (whether needed or not) whilst Leslie failed his first again despite losing 8 ships to my 13 in the end.

Fun game with some very nice 'toys', the ships being 1/1200th scale from Tumbling Dice and the islands from Langton Miniatures (now defunct ?)

First game

Two Athenian squadrons arrayed

Whilst Spartan heavies circumvent an island

And two more converge to launch an attack

Overview from Spartan right

The island pieces were very nice indeed

Second game

Islands more clustered (Grain ships in convoy in foreground)

I took a pummeling on my right in this game but Spartan morale held strong

Squadrons squeezed into narrows somewhat

Athenians managed to outnumber my right wing

Faster (ie Elite crew) light Athenians in convoy after one of my light Squadrons was sunk completely after a 'Kamikaze' style head on ramming charge (the heavy Athenians managed to save 3 of their 5)

So Sparta had to redirect a Squadron to contest straits

Also at club another naval game this time a Napoleonic bash using a test Too Fat Lardies set called I think 'Full Nelson '. 

This was British (more ships in action than current Royal Navy !?) against a French and Spanish fleet  with several players aside (2 ships each ?) and I believe it ended in a nominal British victory although apparently the British Admiral was cashiered as his flagship burnt to a cinder ? 

Langton ships (1/600th ?)

L'Art De La Guerre - another two games played

Another couple of games of LADG played in a virtual furnace today.

First up a classic match up with my Punic Romans versus Carthaginians 

I fielded a force with no cavalry and two Roman Generals included as Triarii.

This worked quite well but my Spanish ally was almost instantly vaporised and this exposed my right flank to overrun.

Second game I fielded Sogdians with Arab Ally against Late T'Ang Chinese.

The wall of Chinese foot armed with bow and spear not something the lancer Sogdians can deal with and whilst the Arabs fought valiantly against this wall my losses to shooting tipped things against me

L'Art De La Guerre - two games

LADG got an outing today at Stephens and we managed to get two historically based games played.

First up was my Normans taking on Vikings.

This was a really bloody affair with my Knights narrowly failing to break the Shield Wall (the Missile Support cancelling Furious Charge is a biggie)  before being overwhelmed.

I lost after hitting 22 losses but Viking were on 18 so close.

Second game I used Maurikian Byzantine and Stephen fielded Sassanid Persian.

Persian shooting was awesome and my lot soon racked up a ton of hits from which they never recovered and the army imploded.

Always fun with LADG and getting two games in.