Finished PBEM game today which has been ongoing with 'NJ John' of the Normandy based scenario 'Cheux'
Scenario ended with a narrow Minor Victory for my German defenders although another turn or two and I would have likely lost the single Flag Objective in village center, losses pretty severe on both sides.
John to select next scenario
The end result with a bloody toll.
Scenario was an official scenario 'Champion Hill' from Vicksburg campaign with Stephen as attacking Feds and me as outnumbered Rebs in defence.
Good scenario (as are most F&F scenarios) with not too many special rules (main one being delay of Union flanking division which cannot advance closer than musket range for 7 turns).
Losses were initially very even but on turns 5 and 6 the Union charges managed to sweep 2 of my units from the field completely annihilating them after wearing them down and breaking another (D10 results can be vicious) for loss of 15+ stands and giving my Rebs a -2 to all future Maneuver rolls.
I did have some Crack reserves arriving but decided that no real way back with Union reserves also appearing so called it early.
Whilst there are a few subtle changes from original set and of course from Regt set the game was very easy to play as still same good old F&F system at heart and we had only a couple of rules to look up (although we did make a mistake with artillery targeting early on) and managed a full 8 turns from 12.
All kit and terrain from Stephens 15mm collection
Small Reb Brigade holds off outflanking Fed division
Set up my 15mm Republican Romans against a Gallic horde and used random unit value generation (in hindsight I would likely go with standardized values as several of the lowly Psiloi types ended up with very potent shooting).
I used a mix of troops with Romans having Heavy and Medium Legions (armed with single shot Pilum) with similar cavalry supported by Velites (classed as Peltasts or LMI) with some subject Light Cavalry and Foot, the Gauls mainly Medium Foot but with a few Heavy types backed by Heavy and Medium cavalry, some Psiloi with Bows, Slings or Javelins and a couple of Light Chariot units for variety.
Fielded 28 Gaul units (29 AMP) versus 23 Roman (21 AMP) and used 2 of my 40mm bases per unit so used half ranges/moves (as this is pretty much half the standard 6" unit widths from rules) which I thought might prove too much to handle, but thankfully not and did give me a good go with system.
The Roman ended up poor with a D10 commander and a couple of D8 underlings whilst the Gauls were Skilled and all officers were D12
A few new nuances for Ancients period especially with the deck which has 9 cards but with a Move (whole Army) and a Move/Shoot (again whole army) cards along with usual cards with a main 'event' and possible secondary action.
Took a bit to 'un-FOB' my brain to Battle Command but smooth once I got going.
Being Ancients there are a few differences in system with more in depth Evasion and Skirmish Moves (quite powerful option to 'shoot and scoot') and varied unit UI levels (heavy foot are 4UI, Psiloi types 2UI and so on) and of course levels of armour protection and more varied movement rates to take into account, but all fairly intuitive.
As stated above some of the Psiloi shooting seemed very powerful (good rolls vs very bad not helping) with couple of Gallic heavy foot being Routed early on.
In fact the Gaul heavies were pretty poor throughout despite being classed as Crack and seemed to lose every encounter along with their cavalry.
The Gaul mediums fared much better against the Roman subjects but the losses mounted and soon the Gallic Morale had collapsed and they yielded despite better AMP and command quality.
Game flowed well although with more reference to rules than usual as I learnt going along.
System is broad brush in its treatment of ancient weaponry and suchlike (certainly compared to LADG etc) but thereby it retains its fast play and fun pedigree which is a major bonus.
I used a French army under Suchet in the Peninsula against Stephens British (1000pts) .
I do so like the battle set up system in this set with my ending up in Positional Defence against his Flexible Defence.
This meant hard for enemy to move any terrain pieces but conversely I had to deploy my entire army first.
British skirmishing is better than French as on first eligible turn he had 16 dice to my 12 and ended up with 3 'excess' skirmishers to place on my units.
These are just like in Lasalle 2 (an almost direct copy it seems) and really crimp the activity of units under their 'spell', reducing shooting and causing Morale Tests and linger like bad smells.
My inability to rid myself of them really hurt my efforts and the British had some excellent defensive fire rolls and I had several units reeling in Disorder or Wavered.
A follow up charge by British inflicted more damage and French soon beaten.
The system seems designed to be bloody and therefore decisive.
Been a while since we used these but game played smoothly with only one or two rule look ups (the QRS is pretty good).
Just bought new set just out from Piquet stable well in fact latest in Battle Command series, I mean how could I not and was it ever in doubt !?
PDF version as over $120 for hard copy from USA (over half in postage !) so will need to print off cards (not too onerous as only 8 or so per side)
Hope to get a gander later.
Just heard last night of sudden passing on 21st of Roger B MacGowan (Born 1948).
So many of my early board Wargame purchases featured his iconic artwork and several are embedded in the gaming mythos.
Sad to see another 'name' gone.
Several examples with probably my favourite being the Squad Leader box lid
