L'Art De La Guerre - Gauls vs Romans

Another LADG game at Stephens today using a Gallic force against Stephens Caesar period Romans. 

Gauls were close to contemporary except that I used 3 Chariots as lacking sufficient Cavalry elements.

Gauls had mix of heavy and medium warband types which generated a large 30 element army (Romans were I think 22 elements)

However it turned out to be a complete slaughter of the Gauls by the tough Roman Legionaries especially 5 Elite types backed by an Elephant which are hard for my 'Irregular' types to avoid (Romans won initiative and attacked).

Gauls need to beat Elite by 3 to do any damage and Average types by 2 which is tough when starting on a factor of 1 vs 2.

In initial clash of lines we fought with 9 elements each and I won one (Chariot General) drew one (Chariot on a 5 vs 2 roll) and lost the remaining 7 warriors vs Legion combats and had indeed taken some double hits, truly awful.

Within 2 more combat rounds my central mass of HI warriors had all but gone.

Only on my left had I any chance of success having several mounted elements to wrap around enemy flank but a initial low Pip roll (ie 1) and taking 3 rounds of combat to take out a single enemy medium cavalry unit, including using a flank charge, stultified my attempt to turn this flank in time.

Even worse I managed to get 3 MI warriors onto a single unit of average Legionaries giving me 2 overlaps and a 3 vs 2 initial advantage but.............of course..............I managed to lose taking a hit and then in Roman round suffered a 6 vs 1 and saw a warrior unit destroyed outright.

I only managed to destroy 3 or 4 Roman units in total and inflicted only a few other hits whilst my lot quickly fell apart.

This was first time we had used so many Impetuous types and we had several new situations involving uncontrolled charges and suchlike, which we did manage to sort out with bit of rule reading.

Pictures only from pre-contact turn of game as too engrossed (always a good sign) once we got to grips.

 

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......."

 

L'Art De La Guerre - Gauls vs Caesar

Game of LADG today using my Gauls against Stephens Romans under Caesar (Triumvirate list).
Been a bit since we played LADG as we having been using MEG for the period.
Roman Legionaries are good tough troops on LADG (unlike DBM) that have a definete advantage over Warband types if they can hold the initial Gallic charge.
With the superior Roman command (ie more Pips) they can hold off charging the Gauls when basic factors would be 2 vs 2 and make the Impetuous Gauls charge them when it is 2 vs 1 to Romans (those damn Pila) but with Gauls having Furious charge.
However the Gauls need to score 2 more than Average Legionaries and 3 more than Elite types to inflict losses (with extra loss for Furious charge).
In todays game I charged in with some 13 units of Gauls (a mix of Heavy and Meduim types) against a line of (Average and Elite) Legionaries and managed to win a massive 2 Combats with 1 drawn and the rest lost.
Stephen threw 4-6 on his dice for 10 combats and of course I managed several 1s as usual thereby taking multiple Cohesion hits.
In the ensuing melees the Romans have the advantage as they now count Armoured,
To make matters worse my Heavy Cavalry who were Elite managed to lose to Average counterparts.
So in the course of 2-3 rounds of combat I lost a dozen units for no losses to Rome !
I did manage to kill a few bases later but was still hemorrhaging Warband units and so was defeated in short order.
But you know what it was a fun game with a large unfettered clash of arms and was quick if somewhat nasty.
We were once again enthused by LADG which is much faster playing than MEG if a little more stylised having a more pronounced 'rock/paper/scissors' feel to outcomes than MEG.
I can see why they are popular competition rules as pretty well written and quick (I would suspect more so with the 200pt armies than the 300pt we usually use).



Apologies for poor pics as the sun (yes folks the sun !!) was bright and shiny today in NI.

Opposing lines at start

Gallic cavalry and chariots on left 

Medium Infantry Gauls in center

After huge initial Impact and Melee phase note multiple hits on Gallic side and gaps were once where units. 

Fought in sweltering heat on left and in shade on right