L'Art De La Guerre - two games with Maurikian Byzantines

Played LADG at Stephens today having brought along my Maurikian Byzantine which have not been used in a long while.

Managed two games with Stephen firstly fielding an Arab Conquest horde (a whopping 27 elements) and then a later Sassanid army.

Against the Arabs the compact Byzantines (22 elements of which 8 are light types) struggled as tough to deal with a wall of heavy infantry and needing to inflict 27 victory points is a big ask.

They did manage to inflict 17 but had succumbed to own losses at that stage.

Second game against Sassanids with Stephen using pseudo figures (but is contemplating painting up a army which is very doable in LADG).

This was a much more even affair as Persians also 22 elements and Byzantines able to manouvre a tad better as not wall to wall enemy.

Byzantine mounted do not shoot as well (counting as mediocre) as Persian types but do have impact so fairly even match up overall.

The shooting hits from Persian bows did tell in the end however as enough to tip Byzantines over their tipping point before suffering same, but another close game.

L'Art De La Guerre- Sassanid vs Late Roman

Game at Stephens today with LADG as he wanted to try his Late Romans, against which I fielded my Sassanid Persian of same period with Cataphracts, some Heavy Cavalry Bowmen and a Hunnic Ally.

I got to attack on plains and decided to try a flank march with the Huns as being entirely Light Cavalry the arrive with a +1 to their roll (so 5-6 on turn 1 and 4-6 thereafter), added risk being that as an Ally they can go unreliable.

Romans had usual mix of Cavalry and supported (good in LADG) Legionaries and supported Auxilia with a couple of Bowmen and a cart mounted Artillery piece.

The game was an absolute bloodbath !

My Allies arrived fairly sharpish on turn 3 and had Romans redeploying several elements before discovering which flank they would appear (my right).

A ding dong shooting and melee match was occurring right across the table.

Must say my shooting dice were were awesome inflicting several hits on enemy, however my charge with a group of 5 Cataphracts (including a General) was just the opposite being pretty awful.

On this left flank my supporting Light Cavalry were swept away in a single turn (so many 1s in melee) and the Cats were then flanked and decimated.

I did have success against the Auxilia and Bowmen (being medium infantry) with my heavy mounted supported by 2 more Cataphracts and Huns were by now in action.

But losses on left just too quick to accumulate and I reached my army break first.

At finish I had lost the requisite 22 loss points but Romans had reached 19 (23 required to break army) so a pretty close run thing.

We had planned to play two games but too much waffling about other rules and periods and Euro football competition put paid to that.

Only a couple of picks from early stages as too caught up in action (always a good sign)

 

L'Art De La Guerre - two games (T'Ang Chinese vs Central Asian)

LADG again at Stephens where we managed to get two games completed.

Stephen wanted to try T'Ang Chinese so I brought compatible Central Asian Turkish with option to convert to Sogdian (with Ummayad Arab Ally).

First game was T'Ang vs the Turks and so both 'shooty' armies but with Chinese being better shooters by virtue of their (very nasty and potent) Spearmen with back rank Bowmen.

Their longer range (double mounted range) is a real asset and they are also tough in combat as they cancel mounted Impact (ie Lance) and benefit from bow support at initial contact (2 vs 0 without counting Disruptions etc)

This combo means mounted are usually Disrupted before they get to shoot and are therefore greatly disadvantaged in any contact and additionally with the Foot being Heavy Infantry the mounted really struggle to inflict sufficient damage before suffering themselves.

Stephen had a lot of successful Rally attempts whilst I did not which greatly aided his cause.

Breaking off not really an option as the foot have range to get additional shots before mounted can get back into range or contact.

The Turks had lots of Elite light cavalry but these are pretty useless if faced by the mixed foot (of course this is the historical raison d'etre of this T'Ang troop type).

My mounted were almost exclusively Elite but this just slowed rate of decline rather then increase that of enemy.

Despite gaining initiative and getting to attack into face of T'Ang they had both flanks covered by terrain (despite it being Plains) and the Turks broke themselves on this solid Infantry whilst not being able to inflict any real loss on the T'Ang mounted or other supporting troops.

Second game I tried Sogdians with Impetuous mounted supported by less Light Horse (all Elite) and the Arab Command.

I chose to defend this time and terrain was pretty meaningless for us both (again on Plains) even with one flank closed off by a coast line.

I did have some success on my left against tiny T'Ang command and the Arabs held their own on my right although the Spearmen suffered horribly from some dramatically good shooting from Chinese mounted bow.

But the Lancers still could not deal with the Chinese mixed foot despite inflicting several hits, just never enough to destroy any elements before dying themselves.

T'Ang a tough proposition for Turkish Steppe types armies (no real answer to the foot) as you need to try to attack flanks but seldom enough Pips or opportunities and I find LADG moves too quickly to allow much prevarication.

But once again two excellent games with plenty of action and a lot of tactical decisions to make.

L’Art De La Guerre - Avar vs Carolingian

Another game of LADG with Stephen (recovering well) at mine with table seeing first proper action in months. 

This time up I used Avar against Stephens Carolingians for another nice historical match up

We both had a +3 Initiative but Stephen won and selected to attack on Plains, this is a bit of a disaster for my lot as this allows attacker to get right across the table into face of enemy thereby minimising room to manoeuvre/evade with my horse archer types.

Unfortunately my Slav foot on my right ended up faced by a Frankish impetuous cavalry command which proceeded to decimate them.

I did manage a good few shooting hits with some good turns of dice rolls but never enough to kill anything and as expected after only a couple of effective evades moves I had to fight with my mounted troops who failed to fight as well as they shot.

Another defeat but another quick and fun game with LADG and great to be back to regular gaming.

L’Art De La Guerre - back at it

Game with LADG with Stephen who has just recovered from a nasty bout of pneumonia (Covid not the only nasty thing around!) in our first gaming session since beginning of October last year.

We decided to give new edition of LADG an outing as small quick style game and therefore good to get us back into swing.

We had a nice historical match up with Carthage (Stephen) versus Romans (moi).

After usual waffling about new amendments, list changes and suchlike we quickly got into game as of course not drastically different to last edition (a few changes bit mainly a lot of clarification).

A nice bloody encounter with Carthage coming out on top after crushing my left wing and a diabolically poor set of dice rolls (moi) at same time as a run of sixes (Stephen) against my Legionaries meaning I was unable to turn tide (despite decent match ups and a couple of overlaps.

But as ever with LADG a fun game easily completed in an afternoon and with us keen to try again with different armies (Avar vs Carolingian next up) and great to get back to our gaming. 

Still a close run thing as to wether we prefer LADG or MEG.

Armies arrayed at start

Legionaries hug the coast on their right wing

Hannibal (on Elephant) leads his foot

Carthaginian right wing

Roman Auxiliary types hold the left wing

Roman left being overwhelmed as Legions fight on right

Legions fail to sufficiently damage Carthaginian lines as flank turned

L'Art De La Guerre - new version a solo outing

New version (4th Edition but only second English language version) of L'Art De La Guerre arrived and after a good read through (found this tough on fudged brain cells despite already 'knowing' the set) I decided to try a quick solo game.

I used my Punic Wars Romans against a Gallic force (both the standard 200pts).

Thankfully once I got going the basics of the system came back to me and not really that many changes to the unit types I was using.

Terrain set up is a tad different with 1 or 2 (?) more terrain pieces potentially on table but nothing drastic.

A few amendments to troop interactions such as Spearmen vs Mounted, and a few changes to some Light Horse activities, but all easily found on the ever excellent QRS.

However upon browsing through the copious Army Lists (300 separate listings) I did note several changes to the armies I can field.

Some changes to points with some Medium Inf a point cheaper for instance, but some more significant (?) changes to troop types.

My Mycenaean heavy infantry no longer get Missile Support (ie a back rank of bowmen) for reasons unknown and other lists have some changes to minimums and suchlike.

But no doubt as and when (soon !...soon !......he cries !!) I get back to gaming (and relentless drubbings I expect) with Stephen more changes will become apparent but in the main I found only small amendments to rules with a goodly part of new text in rules being by way of clarifications.

Am torn between this set and the also excellent Mortam Et Gloriam as my go to Ancients rules as both generate very fun and playable games, despite being of more complex fare (their competition friendly pedigree shows through) than many recent rules sets I have taken to.

My game was rather bloody with both sides suffering significant losses.

Romans defended and managed to get decent terrain to form around, however their right wing was crushed very quickly before Legionaries got into main action.

Once they and the Gallic warriors (a mix of Medium and Heavy Impetuous Swordsmen) clashed the body count rose swiftly.

Romans succumbed soonest but Gauls were only 2 unit losses from defeat themselves.

Romans await the barbarian onslaught

Gaestati ally heavy types flank their medium cousins as Velites try to stall them

The Roman right about to be overwhelmed as Numidians face an oncoming horde

Light chariots support another line of warriors

Stoic Legionary Hastati and Principes await supported by Triarii and Extraordinarii (in woods)

Calm before the storm....................

Mortem Et Gloriam - Caesar in Gaul

 

Another game of MEG today at Stephens, this time with him using his Marian Romans against Gauls both circa '55ish' AD (I had however to use chariots for my commanders)

A cracking game it was too as I tried using Gauls in depth ie with a 'second line' of units as I knew the Marians are tough with lots of Superior Legionaries and an unit of Exceptional.

It kind of worked but Gauls lack hitting power against Romans.

The Gauls of this period are mainly Average although I did field three units of Superior Soldurii/Nobles (but these are limited to being 6 bases strong nd must be doled out amongst commanders).

I had 3 units of Cavalry of which one was Superior.

Strangely the Gallic cavalry in Marian list are Melee Expert which mine are not, although being not strictly Gallic but a potential mix of Iberians, Gauls and Germans may account for this.

The Superior Legionaries are tough to deal with and the Exceptional (Caesars 10th ?) are an unstoppable juggernaut.

I had them engaged in front and charged on rear by my Superior cavalry and they brushed them all off easily !

In fact this unit of Cavalry was my only successful unit destroying 2 units of Legionaries

Cannot fault my dice today as I managed 2 wounds with 3 black dice rolls (those Cavalry on a shoot and charge) but as in every game I had a command that got awful cards consistently (3 black in one turn, I mean honestly c'mon !) .

Stephens dice were not brilliant although he did get to roll a lot more yellow and red dice than me but his cards were generally better and being Professional and Drilled of course means more flexible with cards.

He also consistently seemed to have cards to recover wounds.

I won the initial impacts but not by sufficient margin to cause significant damage (7 hits with 4 kills vs 5 hits with 3 kills).

I had several Shatter results but failed to inflict hits on subsequent fights, and then the Romans just grind the Gauls (especially the Average types) to dust in ensuing melee phases.

Romans not required to do much beyond face up to my lot, absorb their charges then pummel the Gauls. 

Good fun though and good to see Romans being tough viable troops.

"Then we shall fight in the shade......."