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......."

 

Mortem Et Gloriam - Early Medieval French vs Seljuk Turkish

 

Another game of MEG today with Stephen.

He wished to try his Seljuk Turks circa 1090AD and I have very little that late besides Normans but (mainly due to lack of enough figures for Maximus sized game with Normans) I went with Early Medieval French circa 950AD, as I could field my limited Viking units as Allies.

So a charging army against a 'shooty' army.

Turks have Professional Generals and a large PBS hand of cards and so could manipulate the set up to a Plain with no secure flanks.

Also they outscouted the French by 110% so entire French Army deployed first !

I anticipated a flank march so had to hold 2 units to cover any such adventure, the Turks did send one unit of Horse Archers onto my right flank.

The Turks are rather good shooters with several units able to avail of Skilled Shooting, the 'upgrade' from White to Green dice when shooting is pretty potent (especially with the 'Demons' rolling) being able to inflict significant damage on the French mounted as they try to close to contact.

One unit of Turks got caught whilst skirmishing and annihilated but the others got significant licks in against the French prior to combats.

Some horrible cards (2 x black 1 x white) for my right flank command over several turns (this always seems to happen to at least one command every game) saw the outflankers (who arrived on turn 2) shoot a unit of poor Spearmen to bits as they could not close to contact.

Another enjoyable game overall but with French losing requisite 5 Tugs but destroying 3 enemy TUGs, am suffering relentless defeats in MEG to Stephen just like I did in DBM and DBMM, but a much more enjoyable experience as a much less 'fiddly' set of rules and much less grand (and at times frankly silly) manoeuvring.

Is a toss up between MEG and LADG as to my preferred/favourite set of Ancients rules.

Mortem Et Gloriam again - Sogdian vs T'Ang Chinese

 

Another game with MEG at Stephens today.

He wished to field his T'Ang Chinese so used an early Central Empire version (I think ?) and I selected Sogdian as contemporary opponent.

Again struggling to field a Maximus army (had to borrow some bases from Stephen).

The terrain areas (particularly those for closed flanks and compulsory pieces) can be a good deal bigger than we are used to (40cm x 40cm maximum).

This game had more maneuvering (limited as it may be) by us both than previous outings.

Once again I struggled to use Skirmishing tactic with 'Heavy Cavalry' types.

Another fun game and we are learning the nuances of the rules in every game, Stephen as ever more adeptly than I.

I really like the card Command system (shocker) which takes away the more 'chess-like' approach of FOG adding some inertia/chaos to proceedings.

Mortem Et Gloriam - Sassanid Persian vs Early Byzantine

Another outing with MEG today.

Maximus size again with my Sassanids fielded against Stephens Early Byzantines.

We both manoeuvred a tad more than in previous games with mounted units and I managed to get my Elephants into contact with a bit of zig zagging.

I used a unit of 6 Cataphracts which generated the best combat dice I have used yet (Greens and Yellows vs Whites) but who still managed to lose and die !

The Superior Persian Asvaran are tough troops but the Average types proved brittle.

Byzantines prevailed but it was as ever a bloody game.

 

Mortem Et Gloriam - Maurikian Byzantine trounced by Arab Conquest

Another game of MEG with Stephen today, trying Maurikian Byzantine against historical opponents Arab Conquest.

Arab foot are very tough as Superior with potent Shieldwall characteristic as if in 2+ ranks this nullifies Shatters at Impact and Melee Expert in fighting phase (I failed to realise this until too late ie once my Cavalry were committed).

I had a unit of Kousores on my right that were simply awesome today rolling 4 wounds on 4 rolls of white dice and then in Impact and Combat rolling a further 4 wounds again on 6 white dice !!

Sadly their Lance armed colleagues were not so proficient elsewhere.

I need to become more adept at ‘grand’ manoeuvre with MEG,  although with the speed of the game not sure there is time for this to be effective even if cards allow.

Next week it is turn of Sassanid Persians to ply their wares...........

Mortem Et Gloriam - Galatian versus Selecuid a very bloody affair

Played another game of MEG today.

Another Maximus game with my Galatians facing off against Stephen's Selecuids.

What a bloody match up this proved to be !

Galatians are a good deal better than Gallic types with Devastating Charge, Short Spear and Melee Expert.

Pikes and Elephants on Greek side are also tough as are the Superior units of Companion Cavalry.

I made a boo boo on my initial Impact Phase by forgetting my lot had Short Spear so lost out on an 'Up 1' but discovered way too late and after too many combat rolls to rectify so just let things stand as they were.

I actually had decent rolls anyhow.

Things started bloodily with a unit of Celt Cavalry and a unit of Average Companions mutually destroying each other in one turn, with two opposing Generals also dieing !!

Selecuid mounted power began to tell although their two Elephant units proved brittle.

A too and fro bash in which we both needed to kill 5 TUGs to win.

I lost 5 but the winning Greeks had lost 4 so a close run thing.

Not sure how best to field some units in terms of width vs depth.

Is a unit of say 8 Warband foot better 4 bases wide and 2 deep or should one go 2-3 wide with some depth to absorb casualties ?

Part of me thinks having paid for Impact factors like Devastating Charge and Short Spear one needs to put it all in front line, but this can make units susceptible to quick deaths.

Tribal units like Galatians however need Yellow or better cards to expand/fill in gaps so those deep ranks not always easily usable and even if deployed they have lost Impact factors and generally outclassed in Melee phases by most other foot even with Melee expert.

Tis' a poser.