Gathering of Hosts

Back Tryin' (Bactrian) Again

2012-01-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

Today my Greco-Bactrians regrouped and took the field again as the Chinese pushed farther West. The scenario this week was Reinforcements Off Table from Scenarios for Wargames. Ron has loaded a list of scenarios into his PC with a random selector and as so often happens. the scenario rolled up seemed to carry on from the last one with the Bactrians trying to gather their forces to hold back the invader.

The rules were once again a hex based adaptation of Basic Impetus. These are starting to come together nicely. After the last game, we decided to let go of the partial discipline rule which we had lifted from full impetus. The added complexity seemed to have slowed the game without really adding anything, actually for me, it detracted from it, making the more powerful units even more powerful. The game today using BI straight up, (apart from the hexes) seems to have confirmed this as a smart move.

We have also refined out "U"s (measurement units) to hexes conversion. In essence each hex is 5 "units". After some trial and error we have ended up rounding movement so that heavy infantry and missile troops move 1 hex and pretty well all others move 2 hexes with the skirmishers and light cavalry being much more mobile due to their ability to move in any direction. Javelins and slings have a 1 hex range, 2 hexes is close bow range and 4 hexes long bow range.

Units must face the corner of a hex and a straight move can be into either of the hexes to the front (these also being the ZOC) with the 2nd move bringing the unit into line (that is left then right or right then left). Two moves to the left would be considered an incline with requisite penalties. A wheel is one 60 degree rotation.

The variable moves have been a bug bear but we finally got them sorted out today. Taking the principle of needing to move more than 2.5 units to cross into the next hex and applying it to the charge bonus and retreat/pursuit moves, we calculated that infantry needed to roll 5 or 6 (halved to 2.5 or 3 as per the rules) to move an extra hex while cavalry only needed to roll 3. However, for retreats after melee, we needed to know not only where the units end up but whether or not the retreater had broken contact. This meant comparing the the infantry 1/2 die to the cavalry full one. This is not difficult math but we found it bothersome, not to mention we kept forgetting the 1/2 so we ended up allowing the infantry a full die and cavalry 2 dice with both looking for a 5 or better to move an extra hex. This is not an accurate translation of the odds but its close enough, easy and intuitive.

Doing away with the Discipline value meant that the points values of the Beta and published lists became irrelevant. The full lists have more options than the Basic ones so we are using the guide lines to convert the Beta lists to Multi-Basic Impetus lists. The guidelines are for a single BI army but we are now playing Multi Basic Impetus so we need double sized armies. What we are now doing is drawing up double armies from the lists including just the options and troops that we have the troops for (or intended to paint shortly) this will be our "campaign" roster. From this we will draw scenarios/TT Teasers at 1 unit per scenario unit or gun. If we don't have enough of an appropriate troop type in our list then we may substitute something we do have (eg if a scenario calls for 3 heavy infantry units Parthians may field horse archers or cataphracts or skirmishers ). Not perfect but easy and it seems to give about the right size of game for us, usually in between 8 to 16 units.

I wish I had remembered to take pictures today, other than the quick cell snap above. It was an interesting game with some gallant charges, some devastating shooting (not by me), some clever generalship and some solid generalship. There were also an amazing number of 5's rolled for reinforcements. (For those not familiar with the scenario, and unit rolling 5 or 6 is lost). Ron was nice enough to let the lost units roll again after a delay. 1/2 of the defaulters including my King rolled 5 again! I smell a revolt in the air.

If you refer to the picture at the top of the page you will see my army hiding out on the open steppe, tucked down behind a low rise. Ron's army laid out with 6 units of infantry flanked by light cavalry and supported by 2 heavy chariots which were able to pass through. Four of these units are double units with crossbows in the rear and halbardiers in front. I had hoped that Ron would advance on a broad front, straight up the road with light cavalry on the flanks, and had deployed light troops on my far left and an elephant, pike block and cataphracts on my far right. I left the middle unoccupied, relying on reserves or on flanking and breaking his army. It almost worked, I came close to breaking his right hand cavalry but the dice refused to do me any special favours and eventually it was my light infantry that had the worst of it. Late in the game some of my heavy and light cavalry showed up here and finally broke his cavalry but took damage and were then shot to pieces by massed crossbows before they could exploit.

On the far side, an early arrival of heavy cavalry drove back his lights and began to turn his flank. As his infantry topped the rise I sprang my trap and came forward with elephant, pikes and cataphract. I didn't have the speed to hit him in 1 move from hiding but I did manage to move last. If I had won the toss and moved first on the next move I might well have been able to catch him but the gamble didn't pay and he had just time to readjust his line. The ensuing fight was close and could have gone either way. If his chariots had broken, my heavy cavalry and elephant would have been let loose behind his line and I might well have carried the day but it was not to be and a hail of fire from the chariots broke up my attacks and then routed my infantry and elephant. At least my heavy cavalry survived to retreat off the table and fight again!

Call up more levies! We need to rebuild!

The Other Side of the Pass

2012-01-15T07:16:00.000-08:00

The Ron Emperor sent this picture of his army occupying the pass after the Bactrians had collected their dead and wounded and gone home and an account of the battle from the other side. He had actually had his camera to hand but the game we were both too "into" the game to think about pausing for pictures.

Overview

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The clever Graeco-Bactrians had laid out their position hiding most of their troops behind the crest line of the pass and in difficult ground. It was going to be up to the Chinese -Light Horse archers and the spear armed Light Cavalry to penetrate the Scythian Light Cavalry screen. The Chinese marched bravely down the road lead by the Light Horse archers (2 stands) and spear armed Light Cavalry (2 stands). The order of march then had the Medium Cavalry (2 stands) and War Chariots (2 stands) behind them. This was the first command. The second command consisted of the infantry. Two stands of Spear & Sword armed light infantry, followed by two composite stands of spear and crossbow light infantry. These were followed by two stands of spear armed Heavy Infantry, then 2 more stands of spear & sword armed light infantry in the rear.

Unfortunately for the Chinese the units arrived on table and could not deploy off road until their second turn on the table. It would take about 6 turns before the Chinese had completely deployed into some semblance of order, in fact the Heavy Infantry were never to make it into contact with the enemy. On turn one only the Light Cavalry and the light Horse made it on table. In the following turns the rest of the troops arrived at 3 or 4 stands per turn on the road.

The Chinese managed to cover the deployment with the light cavalry to the fore. As they approached the Scythian scouts, the Scythians fell back tempting the Chinese to blindly go where no Chinese had gone before. But the Chinese maintained their discipline as they moved forward. The Chinese commander had studied the enemy Commander over many months and was well aware of his penchant for ambuscades, taking advantage of the terrain and sudden charges especially when faced with a larger enemy force.

As it turned a unit of skirmishing arches appeared at the northern edge of a wood that stretched half way across the battle field and opened fire. A second unit made an abortive attempt to leave the wood to get into archery range and revealed its position for little gain.

The Chinese troops continued to arrive, then deploy into multiple lines of infantry. Two units of Light spear & sword armed infantry headed towards the enemy archers in the aforesaid wood, supported by two composite units of spear & crossbow armed troops. The remainder infantry deployed as soon as possible off the road and advanced towards the pass.

Meanwhile the cavalry command had forced the enemy light horse back towards the crest line, actually the enemy light horse were feigning retreat yet again. The light cavalry finally crested the pass and got a clear view of the enemy line waiting patiently behind the crest. The cavalry was in contact with the enemy elephant and long bow men before they could react. The chariots plodded steadily forward followed by the medium cavalry. The cavalry and chariots managed to impede each other and get to close to the light horse screen to their front. But their was nothing for it but to go ahead, expecially as war chariots once moving have to move at least half a move a turn, even before declaring a stop.

As the southern wood was being cleared of the enemy skirmishing archers, the remaining infantry deployed in line behind the cavalry screen. The cavalry screen became embroiled in a bitter struggle for mastery of the crest line in the centre of the pass.

Finally the Chinese infantry on the broke into the long wood decimating the enemy skirmishing troops. But the Bactrian Cataphracts and cavalry then moved up to face them off. Meanwhile the massive fighting in the centre continued the elephant continuing to charge while the war chariots attempted to contact the elephants. The cavalry was in front, and even though not the best troops to face elephants (especially when the elephants are supported by long bow fire, they had no choice with the war chariots pressing continuously forward behind them.

Eventually the chariots managed to contact the elephant, and after a multi turn melee, defeat it. The end was finally approaching as the Chinese now moved forward in a steady line of infantry that stretched from north to south across the battlefield. But the cost to the cavalry had been high. The cavalry command was within one point of breaking. The infantry forces were desperately trying to cross the open ground of the pass and contact the enemy line which was holding the gap.

In the end the Chinese luck held while that of the enemy took a quick and downward spiral. The results the Chinese lost 2 stands of Light Horse archers, 2 stands of Light cavalry spears, and one stand of medium cavalry (7 out of the 16 morale points in the command), while the infantry command managed to retain all its stands they were highly damaged at the end of the battle. The Chinese were had lost 7 out of the 17 morale break point.

The Chinese had cleared the pass, but lost the element of surprise As the Chinese continue their push to control the trade routes across the middle of Asia the Graeco-Bactrians are preparing for another encounter as well, this time with full knowledge of the new enemy they face.

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Preparing? Indeed!

And a closer view. Infantry and cavalry by Ral Partha. Chariots by Hincliffe if I'm not mistaken.

They shall not pass, or well, ok, maybe this time.

2012-01-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

Well, my Bactrian army has been bloodied, very bloodied as it turned out. My cell phone battery gave out so no pictures I'm afraid.

The scenario was Pass Clearance from CS Grant's Programmed Wargame Scenarios. The rules were modified Basic Impetus on a hex grid. The enemy was Ron Dynasty Chinese (That's Han to you). I had a rough idea of what sorts of troops I might face since I'd seen them on the shelf over the last 20 years but I avoided looking at the army lists since I figured that a new arrival on the scene, an army they had never fought before, might have been a surprise to the Greeks, Bactrians and various others who made up my army. It turned out to be a bit more of a shock than a surprise!

Whoever wrote up the Beta Han List was very generous with VBU and Impetus factors and the superior firepower of their crossbows was staggering. To overcome this army I was going to need the get the best out of my motley crew. Unfortunately, since it was my first time fielding it, I really didn't have a good handle on its strengths and weaknesses.

The position I was defending had steep hills on either sides with several patches of woods. I deployed my upgraded skirmishers, from whom I expected much given how well their plain Jane cousins did for me in the last game, in an advanced wood on the left hand slopes with light cavalry filling the plain. My main battle line was posted just behind the crest of the pass, archers in the woods to the right, then elephant, pikes, Thracians and lastly cataphracts. Initially the Thracians were supposed to accompany the elephant but I switched and decided to have them provide a link between the phalanx and the cataphracts. Despite finding my javelin armed peltasts most useful in previous games, I decided that I needed more high VBU troops so upgraded the Thracians from VBU 4 to 5 which seems to remove their javelins, presumably indicating Rhomphai armament. They are useful troops but not strong enough for 1 unit to launch attacks and to make matters, worse, I kept maneuvering them into positions where they could launch javelin assaults, only to remember that they didn't have any! ARGGHHH! Luckily Ron was generous enough to allow me to take back such moves several times. General, Know thy troops! Next time I'll field proper peltasts and leave the shock charges to the big boys.

The game began with some harmless insults being traded between my light cavalry and the Chinese. The game is unfriendly to missile fire at light cavalry and a close look at his shock light cavalry indicated that they had twice the combat value of my Arachosians so basically, after a few maneuvers to try to disrupt Rons's march and deployment and to draw him into my ambush, I started to fall back at full speed to get my light cavalry safely out of the way. The first shot of the game came from my foot archers, disrupting a chariot but neither harming it nor slowing it down (we had drafted the discipline rule in from Impetus and Ron's well disciplined troops only occasionally failed their rally). Ron deployed a mass of light infantry to flush me out at which point I was close enough to have a look and discover that these were a combination of elite shock troops that made my Thracians look puny, and massed crossbows with devastating firepower. I made a new plan. Skeddadle all my out classed light troops to safety and launch an assault with elephant, pikes and cataphracts, once he was through the gap.

Unfortunately there was a wrinkle. Basic Impetus is a game which calls for an initiative roll each turn to see who would move first. I had successfully rolled low and moved second so far, being able to react to enemy moves and scoot out of the way. On the turn of the ambush, that flipped, allowing me to get my shot in but on the next turn it flipped again giving Ron a double move at just the wrong moment for me and allowing his aggressive light infantry to reach my skirmish line before it could pull back. At the same time his light shock cavalry was able to also sweep forward to catch my skirmishing ones. This was unfortunate but not necessarily a disaster, protected by the woods, odds were that my skirmishers would take some damage but stood a good chance of escaping and might even get lucky and win some of the combats. By the end of the turn my skirmish line was wiped out and my light cavalry reduced to a single stand. Five units destroyed in the blink of an eye. Nearly 1/2 way to my break point and I hadn't put a single hit on him. It looked bleak.

There was an awful jumble in the middle of the table as the war chariots rolled up the road and deployed flanked by cavalry. The supporting infantry was somewhat held up by the woods but they would be up soon with those deadly crossbows and hard charging halbardiers. One of Ron's horse archers topped the crest and sounded the alarm. There before him was the main Bactrian army, bronze helmets and shields and iron horse armour gleaming in the sun. From the woods my Saka bowmen (using the mountain Indian stats) strode forward from ambush and opened a frightful barrage (who knew so many dice had 1 or 2 marked on them?). The elephant, a 40 year veteran, trumpeted wildly and rushed forward, trampling panicking horses beneath her feet. Charge followed counter charge as the chariots, unable to stop and without room to maneuver, rolled forward. On the left, my Cataphracts maneuvered for a clear charge at the Chinese infantry as they cleared the wood. Then the crossbows twanged and my nobles back peddled desperately while I searched for a new plan. The score now stood at 7 army morale points lost per side. (Ron could lose 17, I could lose 13)

With unlimited time and an array of ~~machine guns~~, crossbows, facing me, it was just a matter of time before he shot me to pieces. At this point, the question arose of how long I needed to hold the pass in order to claim a victory. Initially Ron had said 11 turns, and 11 turns were done, but the table was 24 hexes across and even if I had retreated off table on turn 1, he couldn't have made it. I suggested we roll 2d6 to see how many additional turns he could have but with two "new" armies on the table (most figures on both sides were 20 to 40 years old), we decided to just play it through. There was only way, to avoid destruction, rally my shot up phalanx and cavalry and charge! If the charge worked, there was a good chance I could blast a hole in his army but if the attack was repulsed, then it would be all up. Do or die!

Even having to make piecemeal attacks, my shock troops proved their potential, inflicting buckets full of hits on the enemy. Ron's troops proved that their morale was good. (Now he rolls a 1!)
His line was battered and within a pip or 2 of having broken but it had held and now the counter attack was coming through. Shock infantry charging into the phalanx, crossbow bolts following up my cavalry as they rallied back for another charge. Then the battered chariots whipped their horses up to speed and rolled forward into my Thracians and a battered phalanx and both crumbled, bringing me to my break point.

A hard fought game and one which reinforced my choice of army. As Phil Barker once wrote, pick an army that you can love, even when it loses.

Ready for the Fray

2012-01-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

Sooner than expected, the combined armies of all the factions have pooled their troops to face a new threat. Tomorrow, weather permitting, they march East to confront an army of Ron Dynasty Chinese.

Like the typical, closely related Seleucid wargame army , this army has a little bit of everything and not enough of anything: Cataphracts, light cavalry, pikemen, archers, skirmishers, light infantry, and an elephant.

Given any situation, it has at least 1 appropriate unit. Thrown into battle, there are not quite enough core troops. Oh well, perfect for Table Top Teasers. Its going to take a bit of getting used to after all those Greek hoplites!

Next step is to cut a score more bases, refurbish a few more old units and add a few new ones from the lead pile to make two opposing armies, 1 Hellenistic based around the pike phalanx and mostly RAFM troops, the other more Kushan-like, cavalry heavy without any pikes, and based largely around Garrison Persians of various stripes. Then the contest for control of Syr Daria can commence!

The Wargame of Thymbra

2011-12-31T12:52:00.000-08:00

Garrison Phyrgian Infantry closing on the enemy with malice aforethought.

Since this battle hinged on the Lydian's attempt to out flank the Medes, I figured I should maximize the width of the table. Unfortunately I came up hard against two bits of reality. First, when playing with hexes the axis of the game matters. With my current configuration, my options are basically along the long axis or on a diagonal. Secondly, when I reassembled my table, I put one side on backwards so there is a fault line of incomplete/mismatched hexes in the middle. Must fix that but in the meantime, I went back to playing on basically half the table like I did for Marathon.

The armies as fielded were more than double the size of Basic Impetus armies. The game was big enough, in terms of units, to push my battle fatigue limits but not breech them and there was just enough room to maneuver so all was well. I think I can mark this as a comfortable maximum for me. I could have abandoned the hexes but if I stayed with the 15mm unit footprint and ranges it wouldn't have made much difference. If I had gone with standard 25mm unit foot prints and ranges, I would have used a few more figures but about 2/3 the number of units. The game would probably have been shorter with each combat being more critical. I'm not sure that would have been better.

Columns of Lydian troops push forward on the left and right, planning to turn inwards and attack once in position.

As usual when playing a solo game based on an historical battle, I started by following the historical plans to the best of my ability. Essentially, the Lydians were advancing with columns of infantry and cavalry on the left and right and a phalanx up the middle. The idea was to pin the Medes while the cavalry turned the flanks and crushed them. The Medes, based largely on Xenophon's account, were deployed with refused flanks, reserves of their best troops and some gimmick troops designed to disrupt the enemy attack or in the case of the tower, to provide additional missile support.

Scythed chariots are tricky things, especially in the defence. I decided that the best plan was to lose the initiative on the 2nd turn or win it on the 3rd. The fall back position was for the enemy javelin fire to miss. Yeah, not the soundest plan and it worked about as expected. Two of the three chariots were destroyed by javelin fire while the third was launched onto a hoplite phalanx and destroyed after causing a bit of disorder. Ok, no surprises there but I soon realized that I had a more serious problem. (Please excuse any apparent bias, but I was sitting behind Cyrus the Great).

The idea of the camels was to rob the Lydian shock cavalry of their charge bonus but the Lydians screened them with peltasts and bypassed them. Camels are only slightly more resistant to a shower of javelins than the chariots were. Since I had given them an Impetus of 0 meaning that they couldn't charge, their options were limited. The right wing camels were destroyed but the left wing managed to extract their's and eventually redeployed them farther down the line, opposite the cavalry as intended. Watch for the resulkts of this move later on.

The lines close as javelins and arrows darken the sky. The Mede camels can be seen retiring in the upper right hand corner on one side while the ones on the left mill in disorder waiting for the final hit. In the center massed bowfire has panicked one of the phalanx units.

In the center, the phalanx that had been disordered by the chariot was now hit by massed bowfire which added to the confusion, in short, the rear 1/2 of one big unit panicked and ran. The rest of the phalanx charged forward but must have been a bit rattled as they were repulsed with losses all along the line. The levied hoplites and native spearmen are rated only slightly lower than the "real thing" in this game but it is a game where a little can mean a lot. Croesus rallied his center despite a continuing barrage of arrows, well most of it anyway, and prepared to renew the fight.

On the Mede right, the cavalry decided that with the camels gone, they might as well seize a moment and charge. The elite cavalry was immediately routed by the Lydians despite the brief advantage but the second unit got lucky, followed up its advantage on the next turn and eventually broke one of the Lydian cavalry squadrons, before being destroyed in turn. By now, Mede reserves were rushing to bolster the flanks.

The Lydian center slowly crumbles under massed bow fire while the Medes are forced to commit their reserves early on the flanks.

For the next few turns there was little scope for maneuver and the only decisions to be made were stand and shoot or charge. The Mede infantry got excited at one point and charged a supposedly inferior unit of Thracians who cut them to pieces. A unit of Immortals suffered much the same fate (OH fickle dice!). The Medes restrained their ardour for the rest of the game and plied their bows and javelins to maximum effect.

On the Mede right, there was desperate fighting and Cyrus and his bodyguard were themselves driven back. Eventually both sides here were virtually exhausted though the fight never quite ceased. In the center, the rallied phalanx drove forward on the left, driving back 2 units of Medes and breaking a 3rd. Only the bowfire from the tower managed to disorder the phalanx long enough for the line to be restablished.

On the right of the phalanx however, the arrow storm was too much and slowly the units faded away. Farther to the right, not all of the Lydian peltasts had been able to get into the fight and now some were recalled to plug the gap in the center. A fatal move, just as they left, the front line units finally gave way under the arrow storm leaving gaping holes and allowing the Mede archers to turn their bows on the cavalry. The Lydian cavalry who had had to ride farther since the Mede cavalry had not rushed to face them, found themselves with a choice of stand under a barrage of arrows or charge the mixed formation of camels and Mede cavalry. The fight was severe but eventually the Lydian cavalry broke taking the army with them.

Just off the screen above, the battered remnants of the opposing left and right wings still face each other with not a single fresh unit on either side. In the center, the Lydian infantry melts under a hot stream of arrows from a bloodied and dented but intact Mede infantry line. On the near flank, the Lydians have collapsed in rout and are being swept. (The unit show retreating in disordered bring the army to their break point).

It felt awfully close at times, especially when little things would happen like the Immortals charging with 7 dice and getting no hits while the opposing Thracians threw 4 dice and got 3 sixes! In the end it was a solid victory however with the Mede's being barely 1/2 way to their break point though, to be fair, they had only 2 fresh units left so this was no walk over.

By and large, the rules worked well once again. There were a few turns where it was all combat and the turns were clicking over so fast my head was spinning, with very little to show for it on the table but I was tired after all the holiday stuff and still, somehow I found myself repeatedly replying "in a minute" to various requests to do various chores or watch some movie as I started just one more turn, again, and again. (Apparently both chores and movie managed happily without me.)

There were moments where it seemed like the dice and troop quality might be more important than Cyrus's deployment and his gimmick troops but on sober reflection, while the reserves didn't get to ride around the enemy phalanx and charge it in the rear, they were vital for holding the enemy's successes while allowing the counter attack on the winning wing, all without weakening the line anywhere like the Lydians did, and the camels, once properly deployed helped stem the tide on the winning flank while the tower's fire support may have tipped the balance in the center.

The camels didn't do the job initially, but I deployed them too far forward and there was only 1 unit on each flank. I had been unsure that the rule would work right. The usual description is that the Lydian horses wouldn't close so the Lydian cavalry dismounted and attacked. At a low level this isn't shown, the rules don't force or allow the Lydian cavalry to dismount, they just remove their charge impetus but upon reflection, this is just about the right effect if you considered the Lydian cavalry as having dismounted to attack on foot without the minis being changed. It does mean that only units immediately faced by camels were effected but since units are never aligned in Impact and thus always over lap when 2 lines meet, it is next to impossible for the Lydians to avoid them all together. I would be tempted to deploy 2 units on each flank though.

Small but stinky!

One other OB decision almost upset the game. I had forgotten how powerful light infantry can be in some situations. Since javelins, spears and bucklers seem to be popular Anatolian infantry weapons over the centuries, and since I had lots, I threw in a dozen units to make up numbers, I'd have gone with more if there was room. Not only did they shoot up the chariots, they were able to more or less keep up with the cavalry, screen them from missile fire, drive back the camels and hold the Mede infantry at bay long enough for others to force a decision (or try to). If/when I run this again, I think I would trade in about 1/2 of the peltasts for more spearmen and skirmishers. This would increase the odds of the historical gaps opening between the flanking columns and the center and decrease the offensive missile power of the Lydian army while increasing the staying power of the center.

A good game and a fitting end to my Lydian campaign. In the new year, the focus will shift to the Eastern frontier of the Persian Empire.

The Wargame of Thymbra The Deployment

2011-12-30T19:17:00.000-08:00

The Medes deploy for battle, cheesy gimmick troops to the fore.

Having decided to play this out using our Hex version of Basic Impetus, I set out to design the armies by crossing some Persian Beta lists with the accounts of the battle crossed by what I had ready to go. The results are roughly equivalent to double Basic Impetus armies.

BATTLE OF THYMBRA ORDERS OF BATTLE

Cyrus King of the Medes and Persians

3 Units of Elite Medium Cavalry (with spear and horse armour as per Xenophon)
2 Units of Medium Cavalry (with spear)
2 Units of Immortals with bow & spear
7 Units of Persian Infantry with bow & spear
1 Unit of Light Infantry with javelins
2 Units of improvised camel riders.
3 Scythed Chariots
1 Mobile Tower full of archers.

Since the camel riders were supposedly a last minute improvisation, I decided to not allow them to charge.

Croesus King of Lydia

6 Units of Heavy Cavalry
2 Units of Light Cavalry
4 Big Units of Subject spearmen and hoplites
12 Units of Light Infantry with javelin
3 Units of skirmishers with bow or sling

I followed the army deployments from the Wargamer's Digest article which gave me something like:

The Medes on the far side are formed in a sort of crescent with camels and chariots to the front. The Lydians are formed with a phalanx in the middle and columns of cavalry and peltasts moving to envelop the enemy wings.

Tomorrow, how the battle went, what worked and what I would do differently.

Gathering for Thymbra

2011-12-30T06:13:00.000-08:00

Thymbra is a pivotal battle of Ancient history but one which is rarely written about. Like so many important ancient battles, we have some brief, nearly contemporary, accounts and little else so there is a lot of surmising and supposing that goes into modern accounts. The most complete account is in Xenephon's Cyropaedia, written close to 150 years after the fact. Unfortunately it seems to mix a lot of contemporary Persian tactics and proposed ideals military, political and philosophical, and it is hard sometimes to tell which is which. Luckily, I'm preparing to play a game not write a scholarly work so I can pick and choose. In the end, I have decided to abandon an original plan of collecting troops towards a recreation based on Xenephon's account for a scaled down game based in part of various accounts including an article in the issue of a wargaming magazine that I ever bought, Gene McCoy's Wargamer's Digest, and in part on what troops I have ready to hand. However, the texts of both Herodutus and Xenephon can be found on line for those with an interest.

One of the interesting bits is that in the preceding battle, the Medes & Persians supposedly outnumbered the Lydians significantly but could make no headway while at Thymbra, the Lydians are said to have vastly outnumbered the Medes and Persians but lost. Apart from the question of Cyrus's brilliant battle plans and character, it seems that the first Lydian army was composed largely of unspecified mercenary forces while Herodotus lists an army of local and allied troops. I am surmising that the infantry may have been of lower quality than the mercenary forces. Xenophon has the center of the Lydian army being a vast square of Egyptian hoplites with tall wooden shields, very similar to what he described at Cunaxa. I've been meaning to paint up a bunch of these but haven't so Ionian Greek Hoplites and Phrygian Spearmen will have to fill the gap. The rest of the Lydian infantry will be largely Thracian and other peltasts backed by a few skirmishers. I'm a little short on Lydian Lancers but various Greek and other cavalry will be pressed into service and given a high Impetus value. Xenophon includes chariots in the Lydian line up but I have none with Lydian-ish crews so will probably skip them

There are several choices to be made for the Medes & Persians, Xenophon is the only one to ascribe a major role to Persian chariots and these are of the scythed chariot type which appear for the first time in Greek accounts at Cunaxa. Since I have some, I figure I may as well use them. I already have my token tower which I will allow to shoot over head without penalty. The next question is that of the Persian infantry organization. Xenophon describes separate bodies of armoured infantry with bucklers, archers, javalinmen and peltasts. Not what we associate with an early Achaemenid army but not that far from the revised one of Xeenphon's day. I'll base it on the figures in my army and field most units as "T" in Impetus, roughly equivalent to Hott's Shooters or DBA's Bows, troops with both missile and hand to hand capability. The Persian cavalry should probably be mostly medium with many bow and/or javelin armed but I'll allow Xenephon some at least of his armoured horses and spears.

The battlefield should be easy enough, a flat featureless plain!

Thundering Hooves....errr Clean up in Aisle Two!

2011-12-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

Leaving aside the Greek and Thracian cavalry and the Middle Achaemenid medium cavalry, this is what I'm left with. Didn't seem as much as it did when it was scattered here or there and over 1/2 the figures need touch up, rearming, etc., but they'll do. There are about 3 dozen or so more bare castings in the box, a variety of makes and models, a PA mould for a Sassinid Clibinari and 4 or 5 dozen spare horses.

On the left are 15 Middle Achaemenid cavalry with javelins and no armour. I was hoping to use these for the Arachosians that appear in the lists. A bit of digging tells me that Arachosians were of Iranian stock, inhabited part of what is now Afghanistan and at the time that the Persepolis monument was carved, wore tunic, trousers tucked into boots and a sweat band sort of thing. These chaps all have some sort of cloth hat and only a couple wear boots but I'm going to set 6 aside to serve as 2 light cavalry stands for any of my Persian or Bactrian armies and put the rest back into the Achaemenid medium cavalry pool.

Next to them are 32 armoured lancers, 2 stands of Cataphracts (8 figures) now, with 2 or possibly 4 more to come once assembled or remounted. The bulk of this lot were Minifig Seleucid extra heavy cavalry that I acquired 2nd hand a longish time ago to convert to Persians. (due to penury not a perverse desire to avoid buying the proper article.) There are, however, enough of the old Valdurian Horse Guards present to reconstitute these and remount 2 stands of them from their old S Range 1/2 armoured horses onto bigger ones. (anyone after 10 S range 1/2 armoured horses please let me know).

In the middle are the bow-armed, armoured cavalry. Some with kontos on 1/2 armoured horses looking very Clibinari-ish, and some Scythians in Greek helmets with shorter spears. More of both in the box, enough for 3 stands of Clibinari to be joined one day by a handful of "real" Sassinid clibs in funny hats, and 4 stands of the other on either 1/2 armoured or unarmoured horses.. Oh and 1 stand of Garrison Sword & Sorcery figures.

Next comes the horse archers, 33 with 12 more in the box. I'm a little dismayed at how few of these are proper Scythians but some of my favorites are amongst those others.

What doe this mean so far? Well, looking at these and then doing some OB's and looking at shelf space, has beminded me that I don't want to paint a whole bunch more 25mm ancients, that my table is kinda small for hordes (sic) of light cavalry, and that I want to use the armies I work on. If I build 10 armies, I won't be able to play with all of them regularly.

For now, the Scythians/Saka will remain as mercenaries and I won't build a separate Scythian army. I am going to try to sort the figures into tribes based on dress, hat style etc and will parcel the tribes out as mercenaries or levies as appropriate. I am also pondering the usefulness of a reference to a Bactrian-Greek/Saka alliance opposed to the Parthians.

The second Bactrian army will also be put aside for now. Once the other 2 are up and running and I'm tired of playing with them, then I'll see about another army. In compensation, I'll play very fast and loose with the Persian force to suit not only my ideas of what an Eastern Iranian force from a semi-independent Satrapy might have looked like as the Parthians struggled to wrest a kingdom from the Seleucids, but more importantly what I want the army to look and feel like and what my troop requirements are for the kind of games I want to play. Hyrkania may not have been a good choice as a Satrapy name as it was central to Arsacid power but I invoke artistic licence. I'm beginning to think as many Cataphracts and semi-catapracts and as few clibinari as possible. The Persian forces will have the largest heavy cavalry forces.

A review of infantry will probably have to wait until after Christmas but right now its looking like Greek pikemen and Thureophoria backed by Saka on one hand and various unarmoured Persian levy spearmen and archers backed by mountaineer light infantry on the other.

Right, time to go check on the sun. Its the Solstice today and one can never be quite sure that the darned thing really is coming back!

Syr-Darya and The Romance of Frontiers and Fallen Empires

2011-12-20T11:06:00.000-08:00

A fortress city, planted on the outskirts of an Empire, only a river, a brick wall and the courage of its defenders standing between "civilization" and a destructive horde of "Barbarians" (or "Freedom", depending on your POV). This is the stuff of legend.

Frontiers fascinate us. The dividing lines between This and That. From the American West, to the Rhine, the Khyber Pass and so on. This is especially the case when it is a defended frontier, clearly demarcated. The Great Wall of China, Hadrian's Wall, the Tower of Cirith Ungol. Last stands and hopeless cases also fascinate us. The Lost Eagle of the Ninth Legion, Fort Apache, Rorkes' Drift, The Alamo, Arthur.

Alexandria Eschate, "Alexandria the Farthest", is just such a place. Not so well known as some more famous frontiers, it was founded by Alexander on what we usually call the Jaxartes River, the boundary between his empire and what the Persians before him called Turan, the semi-desert inhabited by various steppe tribes, usually lumped together as Saka or Skythians. Alexander's Empire fragmented on his death and the pieces were squabbled over, the Iranians established a new Persian Empire, but still the Greek colonists in Alexandria persisted. They didn't found a great empire of their own but accommodated and treated with various Kings, Cities and Tribes, Greek, Persian, or "Barbarian" when they could and fought when they couldn't. They traded East as far as China and West to the Mediterranean, and they remained recognizably Greek at least to the time of Caeser and as far as we know, for some time beyond. Here is a good setting for my fictional campaign.

Breaking down the various elements and mixing and matching elements of the historical Greco-Bactrian, Greco-Indian, Seleucid, Parthian, Sassinid Empires as well as the Turanian Tribes, into a Hollywood or perhaps RE Howard-ian historical/fictional setting suitable for a campaign along what is now known as the Syr Daria River.

Initially I shall aim for 4 Political Entities and 6 social/military elements. These are all local powers, kinglets or Satraps. The intervention of the main armed might of the Selucids, Parthians, or even the Greco-Bactrian/Indian kings would be an over powering storm but one which would pass.

Political Entities.
Alexandria the Farthest, ruled by Antimater II, a descendant of Antimachus.
Maracanda ruled by King Euthenasia, a descendent of Euthedemus, sometime Satrap of the Greco-Bactrian King.
Hrykania, ruled by Rostam, Satrap of the Persian Empire. According to the time line, these are subject to the Parthian Empire but mine will bear a stronger resemblance to the Sassinids or the late Achaemenids. Whatever armies that were mustered to fight Rome, I'm not convinced that the Parthians ever completely did away with useful infantry, or managed to turn every cavalryman into either a fully armoured super heavy cavalry man or an unarmoured horse archer with no one in between with partial armour or a felt horse bard etc. The similarity of late Achamenind Persian and Seleucid Asiatic/Iranian troops before and Sassinid Persian troops after the Parthian kings is so strong that I find it hard to believe that there wasn't some continuity even if there wasn't much use made of some elements in the wars between the Parthian dynasty and Rome. Besides its my story and I'll do what I have to to have both variety and balance for table top teasers!
Turan, a confederacy of Nomadic tribes and their subject towns, sometimes a foe and a threat but other times a potential ally and almost always a source of mercenaries.

Social/Military Elements.
The City Militia. Given that light troops are easily available, these will fight primarily as a pike Phalanx although increasing degradation to Thureophorai is possible. A small number serve as heavy cavalry "Companions". These include more Iranian features than do the infantry.
Iranian nobles and their retainers. Cavalry both heavy and light.
Iranian Militia. Spearmen and archers from the non-Greek cities and farmlands
Hill folk. Light infantry from the wilder areas whether mercenary or subjects.
Turanians. Skythian and other tribes raiding on their own behalf or more commonly fighting as mercenaries. Only the light cavalry and archers sign on as mercenaries.
Elephants. A small number of these are available thanks to ties to India.

I don't intend to do a scaled topograhical map, not yet anyway, but I do intend to draw up an area map. Each of the political entities will have 3 provinces that can provide troops/money, 2 small town/farming areas each worth 250 pts of local troops of appropriate type plus the capital worth 250 pts of troops and 100 of cash cash for hiring mercenaries as well as a 50 pt garrison of generic spearmen, javelinmen, slingers and artillery which may not leave the city walls. (To avoid having tooo many excess troops, these will be the same for both Cities). The Turanians will be an exception, they will only have 1 center worth 400 pts but can move it at any time to any province under their control. 1/2 of those pts will be available to hire out as mercenaries unless needed to defend their homeland.

The next step will be to hold a grand parade and see what I have on hand that can be bent to fit, what will be left on hand and what unpainted castings and molds I have that can be used to fill gaps.

On the Road to Shangri-La

2011-12-17T14:27:00.000-08:00

Ok maybe not Shangri-La, that's a place of peace and serenity, no place for a wargamer. But a mystical city of the East, along the Silk Road. There was a time when I didn't see the point of building an ancient army if I wasn't up (at least a little) on the history and culture of the society that spawned it. Two years ago, I started to think about non-fictional imaginary kingdoms for a series of ancient games and campaigns. Armies that would allow me to use mostly figures that I already had, armies that were enemies for more than 1 brief, well documented war, armies that could be fielded for fictional but plausible campaigns where common historical knowledge wouldn't be constantly interfering, and above all, armies that could provide balanced forces for Table Top Teaser games.

My first kick at the can was based around existing Greek and Persian forces from the days of Xenephon. To escape the narratives of Herodotus and Xenephon, To add some vagueness and some figures that I had wanted back in college days, I pushed things back to the wars between the Lydians and the Medes and started adding a few troops but found myself fighting as many Classical Greek and Persian War battles as fictional ones. I also recognized an increasingly strong itch for Elephants and Cataphracts.

The newest unit off the painting desk: RAFM Bactrian Cataphracts with Seleucid Cataphract heads with a little animation and a couple of Hinchliffe horses.

More recently, after Ron and I started playing Impetus with his armies, I found myself looking for opponents for Romans, Gauls/Galatians and Parthians. In my Armati days, I used to field a Pontic army so reviving it was my 1st instinct. I was still looking for those elephants though and Ron handed back to me a score of pikemen I had lodged with him a few years back when trying to clean house. I've never warmed to the Seleucids, certainly not enough to read deeply and get a feel for what appears to be a prolonged foreign occupation enforced by an army with a bit of everything that you could think of to go on a wargames table, but they were enemies for all those named above and for Ponts, Thracians, and Scythians to boot.

It didn't take long when reading up a little on the Seleucids, to bump up against the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, another wargame "army" that I had always dismissed as ephemeral if not etherial. A sudden closer look though showed me just what I have been looking for all my ancient wargaming life (apart from the bit where I used to want to know all about the real history, social as well as military). I've never seen an historical army which mirrored my old fictional Valdurian one as well. Even the history is reminiscent if you substitute Iranian for Celtic. Now, they didn't fight the Gauls or the Romans but they did fight the Parthians, and their successors, the Kushan who had fielded many of the same troops, fought Ron's other, lonely, army, the Chinese! and of course, they could sub-in for Seleucids fairly easily.

At last, here is a land of cities and kings, (many of them at times) at the crossroads of India, Europe and Asia, a land torn by civil war whenever its not being invaded by Seleucids, Skythians, Persians (Parthian and Sassinid) and others, with all the right troop types, in varying proportions, cavalry, heavy and light, heavy infantry at times as well as light and archers, with just enough elephants to ice the cake. (and they wear trousers!) Its also a land where our knowledge seems to be limited at best. Just the place for fictional campaigns and small battles lost to history. Best of all, I just need to refurbish another 10 pikemen to have enough troops to field a small army.

So, now the idea of just 2 armies is long gone, the Greek and Persian Wars armies will stay as well as these later armies. But there is also no need now to buy hundreds of Romans. My Sassinids in waiting just found their enemy.

2011-12-09T20:05:00.001-08:00

I have just posted a battle report of Marathon using the Hexed Basic Impetus..

Hexed Impetus

2011-12-08T08:46:00.001-08:00

Skythian Horse Archers, Converted RAFM and 1 Ral Partha figures on various horses.
A unit from the late 80's recently rebased onto 8cm bases.

Hexes? Oh yes, he's back to that. Yesterday I got in another game of modified Basic Impetus, this time, not being interrupted by any veterinary emergencies. After some discussion, Ron and I agreed that we both wanted to pursue a modification of Basic impetus to use hexes and that we preferred units that fit 1 unit to a hex. Given the size of his Hexon hexes, we agreed that an 8cm unit frontage would work. This is the suggested size for 15mm figures with a suggestion that it might be suitable for 20mm, it also fits nicely in the 10cm hexes.

To adapt to the hexes, we deemed each hex to be 5U and rounded all distances up. This gave movement rates of 1 hex for heavy infantry, 2 for light infantry, skirmishers and medium or heavy cavalry and 3 for light cavalry. Ranges were 1 hex for javelins, 2 for effective archery. After more discussion, we agreed to have units face the angle rather than a hex side. This gives 2 front hexes where ZOC applied and 4 flank/rear ones. A wheel allowed a unit to change facing without leaving the hex. A "straight" advance was into either of the 2 front hexes. We tinkered with trying to force a zigzag advance but it was a hassle so we dropped it.

The charge bonus and retreat/pursuit moves were problematic. Ron's solution which is not a perfect translation, offered some of the same tension. Melee contact occurs when a charging unit attempts to enter an enemy occupied hex, that is adjacent enemies are not necessarily in melee. If a unit's move takes it into the enemy hex then contact is automatic, if it just takes them adjacent then both sides roll a die, x 1/2 if infantry and the attacker must roll equal to or higher than to reach, otherwise they halt in disorder as if if they had fallen short in Basic Impetus. The same process was used to see if pursuers catch a retreating enemy.

We also partially adopted the discipline rules from Impetus, just rolling for discipline to wheel and move without disorder or to rally. This had nothing to do with the hexes but did some spice.

The game was the Crossroads scenario from CS Grant's Programmed Scenarios book. We have found that on his dining room table, dividing the points list by 5 gives a good size of game using the Impetus lists. In this case it was 300 points of Parthians (disguised as old Ral Partha Mongols but armoured lancers and horse archers by any other name.) facing a 300 point Late Pontic army on its first outing in over a decade. Historically it would probably have been Armenian but a very similar mix of troops anyway. The version of the table that Ron rolled up was one of the more woodsy versions which my Pontic light infantry heavy force appreciated. The terrain might also explain why my columns managed to converge on the crossroads before the 1st Parthian horse archer rode on to the table, or it might have just been the dice.

I meant to take pictures, but, the game was faced paced and exciting with several swings of fortune and the game was over before I remembered. The game lasted something like 14 turns played over 4 hours and went down to the wire. At the start of the last turn, both armies were 1 unit away from losing. the big difference was that I needed to lose either my last remaining heavy cavalry unit or 3 of my light units while for Ron who had suffered slightly heavier losses, any unit would be enough.

The closest thing to a shot of the battle, light infantry "luring" some Cataphracts into the woods.

Despite doing very well early on, my poor Ponts were taking a kicking from the Cataphracts and some Elite Horse Archers once Ron sorted himself out. Salvation came from an un-looked for direction. Near the village, Ron had committed some Cataphracts to eliminate some light infantry (very traditional looking Phyrgian natives supported by some javelinmen). These outdid themselves and despite a battering, managed to retreat back into a patch of woods, drawing the impetuous Cataphracts after them. A prolonged melee resulted (thanks to the penalty for cavalry fighting an enemy in the woods), slowly grinding both units down but eventually the Cataphracts lost a round and retreated. The skirmishers, 35 year veterans, were too wily to pursue but having the next move, followed up with a shower of javelins, routing the remains of the cataphracts and rescuing the army. (nothing like a 6 when you need it!)

The Heroes of the Day: Garrison Sassinid javelinmen known locally as "The Hillmen".

When I revived my 25mm armies, my mind was on what we tend to think of as the Old School approach of large blocks of figures but recognizing various limitations, settled on medium sized units. Even at that, I found that I lacked the drive to paint up the 100's more of figures that my plans called for and lacked the room to deploy the full armies with room to maneuver if I had. I also found that the admirable plan of focusing on just 2 armies was just not sitting well.

From my perspective, an 8cm x 6cm unit allows just enough room for an attractive grouping of figures without requiring more figures per unit than I am in the mood to paint. It seems like a game with 12 to 20 units is as large as my mental and physical powers are able to enjoy these days regardless of the size of the units so the smaller units mean fewer figures for visual impact but the same game play and the smaller foot print means more room for maneuver. It also means that I can go back to having a selection of Ancient armies without overwhelming my shelf space.

My 2 Hexed Impetus Skythian units turned sideways make a full 120mm x 60mm Impetus unit. Same number of figures, 1/2 the gaming options. Unfortunately this trick won't work for more orderly troops.

The first kick at a plan is to assemble several 500 pt opposing armies as the basis of casual games or campaigns, A typical game will be 250 to 350 points drawn from what is available, 500 representing the maximum forces available. The goal will be to be able to do some seriously scaled down historical battles but to focus on Tabletop Teasers so light troops will be maximized and Elite troops minimized. I'll base the armies on the Beta Lists but with modifications as I see fit. The list is not finalized but makes good use of existing troops and molds.

The Glory That Was Greece.
The Big Battles of the Greek and Persian Wars translate well as historical games but for day to day teasers I like the Anabasis and Aegisilaus in Asia.
Three armies: Greeks using the Magna Gracia list, Early Achamenid with the late options, and a native hill tribes army. It would make sense to use my Thracians (Bythnian and various hill tribes) as I probably have enough but I am tempted to just use the Pontic list to build an Armenian army heavy on hill tribes which can cross over to the next campaign.

Enemies of Rome.
Armenian (probably based on the Pontic list) and Seleucid. This is primarily to face Ron's armies and make use of my existing Elephants. I need a couple more pikemen to flush out 4 units and may substitute a unit of hoplites to flush out the Seleucid Phalanx but the rest of the army exists from other past armies.

Rome vs Persia
This is a Far Future project.

But 1st I need to stage that refight of Thymbra.

Rickety but Ready for Action

2011-12-04T14:12:00.001-08:00

The Persians practice with the new towers firing overhead in support of the infantry.

Its been a busy weekend, we walked a few dogs in the local Christmas Parade, there have been food and festivities, but I managed to paint up the tower and a token crew of archers. If I had thought about it before I glued it together, I'd had scribed planking onto it. If my micro-pen wasn't dead, I might have drawn planking on The stuff on the wheels looked cheesy enough that I decided that in real life you wouldn't see the planking from any great distance so I just skipped it.

I was a little dismayed though that the ink on the orange crates that were used for the main body, bled right through 3 coats of paint. Oh well. Maybe one day I'll fix it.

The New Immortals, hastily painted up. 25mm Garrison

saw saw, hammer hammer, Moo, SNAP! Creaakkk

2011-12-02T06:39:00.001-08:00

I was trying to decide if I could get away with doing Thymbra without one of Xenephon's, I mean Cyrus's War Wagons. Seems a waste to build a couple and use them once, but what the heck. So I'm going to build 1, out of scraps, minimum work, just a few details and a lick of paint but I think it'll do for 1 game and then a prolonged lounge at the back of the shelf. I've borrowed oxen and have promised to send them back to the baggage train afterwards.

The fighting platform has some how ended up about 5mm lower than intended, that's what happens when you rush construction and used pressed labour rather than well trained engineers.

Now to turn some Basic Impetus army lists into a liberal interpretation of the opposing armies.

Elemental My Dear Shapur

2011-12-01T15:43:00.001-08:00

OK so its not the 18 man regiments I was playing about with 3 years ago but on the other hand having a single regiment make up the wing of an army never felt quite right and HEY I got a 4th Clibinari painted today!.

I've only had this 12 man unit in the queue for a year and a 1/2 so they count as a recent acquisition. I thought 12 would be an easy go but I primed 6 of them last summer, painted 3, and stalled. My Lydian Nobles also stalled at 6 last year and have been taking the field mixed with the, 6-out-of-12 painted, Skythian Nobles when I want to field a 12 man unit. Being able to field these 4 as a unit is encouraging, even if its not what I'm used to. .

Instead of comparing the visual impact of the individual unit, I am looking at the larger picture. For heavy cavalry, the individual units will be massed. Each small unit will retain its identity (and hopefully become labelled) but they will operate en masse much the same as they would have as a single large unit and roughly the same number of figures will appear on the table. For light cavalry, the smaller units will allow much for flexibility to harass the enemy and thus feel more authentic. For my Athenian Phalanx, 10 tribes massed together is actually a better representation than 3 or 4 large units. Still, its a change of mindset from where I was at 2 years ago and I should be surprised if it rubs a bit here and there on occasion as I break it in.

Meanwhile, I was poking about in Shadows in the Desert and found a maddeningly vague but useful answer to a question I have been asking myself. "Are we sure the Parthians didn't use any decent infantry even when fighting in the hills?" The answer being several references on the role played by Mede hill tribes in repelling a Roman invasion. Aha! So how were these Mede's armed and dressed? Irrelevant apparently, but we can surmise typical Mede pants, tunic and cap, some foot archers, some javelin or light spearmen.
Why should I care? Just that it makes an early Sassinid army seem just a little bit closer to a Parthian one, and makes a Parthian army more flexible for Table Top Teasers.

Now, thinking about Sassanids and Parthians brought Romans to mind, so I went to pull up the Garrison on line catalogue and.....ARRGGHHH!!! It seems that if I wasn't in the habit of bypassing the Home page, I'd have known that Rob is taking a well deserved winter break and has shut the catalogue down until March. Oh well, maybe by then I'll have funds in hand, be ready to buy rather than browse and have a proto-Sassinid army ready to greet them. In any case I hope Rob enjoys the break.

Beware of Greeks Bearing Lists

2011-11-30T18:24:00.001-08:00

I did some more experimental pushing about of figures and bases today. Two x 40mm sq bases with 4 figures (or very rarely 6) in 2 ranks per base, 80 mm x 40mm with 10 figures in 2 ranks, 80 mm x 60mm with 10 or maybe only 8 and very rarely 12 figures in 2 ranks or 12 in 3 ranks, and for good measure, revisited the 2 x 45mm sq. bases I had pondered last summer. The 80mm x 60mm, single stand looks best, room for spears to hover over the base instead of sticking out, and room for light cavalry and light infantry to loosen both ranks and files and get a little irregular. An exception maybe for troops who can be either skirmishers or light infantry in which case 4 bases each 40mm x 30mm with 2 figures looks handy.

Before I could go any farther, however, I needed to know what the armies themselves would be like, how many units of what sorts. I especially would like to know what my Pontic/Armenian or other army will look like but I just don't have the information or a picture in my head. Since I have most of the figures for the Greeks and Persians, and have orders of battle, that seemed like the best starting point. I intend to ignore scales and how many men a unit will represent, using the same units for skirmishes over a supply train or a pitched battle. I also intend to more or less ignore the various City-state wars so my existing cavalry will be put aside for later.

At last count I only have something like 140 hoplites painted up. Depending on whether I go with 8, 10 or 12 figures per base in the long run, that's probably going to be around 10 to 12 units. Now oddly enough, the Platea game called for 5 units + 1 on the Persian side or 12 units if I doubled them while the Marathon game calls for 11 units. (I used 6 iir) So far that seems to work well. I have way too many Greek light troops and cavalry for the Persian wars but if I do any Anabasis games, I'll need more light troops, especially my favorite, peltasts. If I pick say, a unit of archers, 1 of slingers and 2 of javelinmen as well as 2 units of peltasts, a unit of medium cavalry and a unit of light Thessalians then that should about cover it. Maybe a few more since the units will be small, enough for both sides in case I get mad (der) , paint up another 140 hoplites and start fighting the Corinthian War.

Deployed in a single line phalanx, the planned units will cover..( hmm multipy, divide..), a bit less than 4 feet, less if I double up a couple of units. Hmmm. Not quite wide enough.. That would be the impact of tightening the files or going 3 deep. Well, its workable, and I did say I wanted some Spartans.

Reality Check

2011-11-30T06:02:00.001-08:00

Its been 2 years now that the Hosts have been Gathering. Its time to take stock.

If the Glass were 1/2 full it would be because I have painted or fixed up some troops and have played several enjoyable games. If it were 1/2 empty its because I have not only failed to accomplish the stated goals, I have come to realize that I don't really want to.

The main goal, apart from just fixing up broken and disorganized armies, was to end up with two, largish, opposing armies for an extended campaign. I am slowly coming to terms with the reality that it would be more in my nature to plan several smaller matched armies. Actually, since I have reduced my table, my earlier planned armies wouldn't fit anymore anyway.

So, as we enter Year 3 of the Gathering, I need a new plan. I've played some HoTT and some Basic Impetus during the 2 years and thought some about DBA as well as playing non-ancient Portable Wargames and WHAB, and various wildly varying versions of homegrown rules. I don't want to go down to DBA levels but I was quite happy with Basic Impetus size and density of units when playing Multi-army BI. BI calls for a 12cm frontage with as many or as few figures as you like, ideal for matching old Armati or WRG armies, but Ron and I have been talking about 8cm bases to fit on his 10cm hex grid and I think that the resulting forces are a reasonable compromise as far as numbers of units in the game, number of figures on the table and the amount of space taken up.

For flexibility, sabots with individual or maybe 4cm bases would be good but I like the idea of fixed units with an identity. 12 cm wide units with 24 infantry or 12 cavalry appeal visually but the truth is that I seem to be having trouble "getting into" or rather "back into" painting ancients and on the smaller table, smaller units should fit better anyway. Luckily, a lot of the existing infantry are based either on individual 20mm sq. bases or 4 to a 40mm square base, so can be used 'as is' or on sabots. New units though, can be the subject of experiments, with based units on a single 80mm x 60mm bases, perhaps 10-12 heavy/medium infantry in 2 or 3 ranks, 8-12 light infantry, 4-8 skirmishers, 4 heavy cavalry, 3 light cavalry. Where appropriate, two of the heavy infantry units can be paired to make a double sized or deep unit.

Naturally, I recently re-based a number of my medieval Scots onto new 6cm wide bases as fantasy troops, I'll ignore them for now, especially since I don't expect them to need to fight any 8cm based armies, anytime soon. If the need does arise, sabots or a grid can always be used to even things out.

Rules-wise, while Basic Impetus is my current game of choice for away games, I have yet to try them solo. That will come soon. Regardless, once the armies are re-organized, I will have a look at the Gathering of Hosts and finalize its transition to dealing with units and rosters or states vs figures.

Now, the bit where there were two armies. Since I expect smaller armies, I can be open again to multiple periods. Hopefully, if I just paint the last 2 dozen early Achaemenids, I will be able to label 2 armies as Greek and Persian Wars and be done with it. Might need to add a unit or 2 of Spartans but that won't be a hardship.

A Sassinid army is a no brainer since I have various bits and pieces and there are more on my "want' list for when the warchest refills. The question is. "which enemy"? A "proper" Roman army at last would make sense (that is one in lorica segmenta and trousers with rectangular shields and some in cloaks, as opposed to an accurate historical one) but since I also want an historical enemy to fight Ron's Gauls and late Republican Romans, want to make use of my PA molds, and want to make as much use as possible of existing figures and want an army with a fair number of light infantry, preferably in trousers. Pontus is a natural opponent for Romans and Galatians but not for the Sassinids. I have been eyeing the Sassinid campaigns into the mountains on the northern fringes of their empire, especially into Armenia which also fought Rome but I also need to check out the Kushan as a possible setting for that elusive not quite historical setting. I suspect the answer is Armenia though. The good news is this would keep my Persians fighting in or near Asia Minor and the Black & Caspian Seas, continuing the original thread, just a few years later!

A bit of driving force

2011-11-09T19:43:00.000-08:00

Its been a slow time recently for Gathering Hosts. No painting, no rules fiddling, no solo games. Oddly, it has not been a slow time for 25mm ancients in general. I do try to avoid being swept up in popular trends but finally tried out Basic Impetus and much against my will, had to admit that so far, it seems to give a fun game with good feel. So far my Persians have borrowed a list and appeared as Medes to fight Assyrians and my Greeks have fought for Syracuse. I've also borrowed back some old Romans from Ron and fought for Pompey vs Caesar and have taken command of an unruly band of Gauls, many of which I painted anyway, to try out the full meal deal Impetus. This later has a lot more to it than the basic Game making it slower, more work and less fun. We have however borrowed a few rules like rolling against discipline for disorder or to rally.

To keep things "in period" with the fall of the Republic, its time to resurrect my old Pontic army. Pharnaces not Mithradites, the army most books skip over, which is odd. I mean not only did they give rise to one of the best known latin quips, (veni,vedi, vici), they are one of the few "native" armies to actually beat some Romans in a pitched battle (obviously not the crucial one against Caesar). Information isn't exactly plentiful or sure, there seems to be a lot of "probably" but if one mixes Hellenistic with Scythian/Sarmatian and add in the influence of what was once on the outskirts of the Lydian Empire, one gets cavalry, peltast like infantry, probably some in pants, archers and some heavy infantry oin the Roman model-ish, not to mention scythed chariots. As long as I can borrow back those Romans as imitation legionaries, I can find everything else I need amongst the ranks of my Persian, Lydian and Greek armies.

Still, I haven't given up on fighting Thymbra, so sometime between now and Christmas I hope to give it a go using modified Basic Impetus, maybe even a play off with Gathering of Hosts?.

Mixing it up

2011-08-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

It was too hot and muggy to do much else today, so, more rules tuning.

The Peltast/Psiloi question is now settled. in favour of them being the same general troop classification but with the peltast types being better in melee. At some point I may feel the need for a new classification of fast moving tribal infantry but at the moment I think they can be covered by either light or medium infantry with possibly a special rule for a given medium infantry units moving in difficult terrain or else I may have some units that can be deployed either way.

While I was messing with troop types I dealt with another issue that was looming. My cavalry classifications were basically mirroring DBA but they just didn't seem to fit. After some more pondering, I decided to divide the missile/shock categories into medium and heavy categories with the latter being cavalry on armoured horses who are less mobile.

I was having trouble trying to find simple ways to cover some of the things around charges, missile fire etc and remembered that I had briefly considered moving the missile fire to the start of the turn but hadn't taken a serious look at it. Today I did and then had a sudden thought about moving charges as well. This brought a few things together and made the result both simpler and closer to what I have had in mind.

Again the rules have been updated. Hopefully tomorrow will be cooler so I can play a game as I am champing at the bit.to see how they feel. It would be nice to play 5 games with no changes!

Scaling Down

2011-08-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

When I used the Granicus as the basis for a generic scenario, since I wasn't doing a recreation, I only looked at the rough ratio of troop types, (cav, lt infanty, infantry) not the actual numbers. When laying it out my first thought was, that's not very many troops, I should double that. It would have meant dipping deep into the not-yet-refurbished pile and anyway wouldn't have fit into the 5 foot frontage that I had allocated so I let it be. (There is a roach in the middle of the battlefield that prevents the hardboard river from lying flat if laid the other way. Persian engineers have been tasked with leveling the playing field this fall)

After the game though, I did look though and figured out that the ratio was about 1:200. Doubling would have brought this to 1:100, double the units and probably close to double the playing time. . But would it have doubled my fun? Somehow I doubt it though for a 4 or 6 player game on an 8 foot table if would have been necessary.

But these calculations were swiftly followed by more. At around 1:200, a 1,000 man Persian unit would only be 5 figures, lets say 4 for sake of tidiness. 10 such units would make a standard "division" of 10,000 men. If I were to take battles like Platea as a standard, there is something to be said for that. But assuming somewhere around 1 pace per file, 100 men deployed 10 deep would occupy about 100 paces, or if I squeeze them in, 30 mm. Depending on how generous yoiu are, that gives a reasonable bow range of 60 -75 mm. Let's be generous and say 3". Not really what I had in mind starting out.

Turning back to what I had had in mind, I set out a version of Charles Grant's Apocryphal Well scenario and played out a quick test. (I'll be redoing this as a proper battle report later, I want to work on a few things first.) As I was setting out the troops in their customary 4 ranks, I was startled to be reminded that in the book they were deployed 2 deep like all infantry apart from pikemen were in the "good old days". When did I start assuming that all infantry deployed 4 deep? I must have played too much WHAB over the last decade! This started me thinking again about historical formations, depths and frontages, things I had worked hard to put from my mind!

We don't exactly have a plethora of Persian drill manuals to refer to but if memory serves, the last time I checked, the thought was that each 100 man "company" formed 10 wide and 10 deep with the 1,000 man "regiment" forming 100 wide and 10 deep. Their Greek opponents seem to have usually formed 6 or 8 deep but occasionally 12 until the Thebans got crazy, and of course the Macedonians went with 16 as standard.
The later Hellenistic armies had drills for doubling ranks and so forth but I suspect that the Persians and early Greeks formed they way they were and that was it for the day. All I need to worry about for the moment then are march columns for some scenarios and "formed for battle". (hmmm I seem to have accidentally deleted all reference to changing formation, I'd better add something back in). All of my basing investigation so far, has focused on a 4 deep infantry formation. I don't really want to go much deeper so this looks like the traditional 3-4 ranks per figure giving a 4 figure deep pike phalanx and 2 figure deep Greek phalanx, possibly with a basing option for 3 deep and either 2 or 3 ranks for the Persians. OK but all else being equal, including table width, 2 ranks instead of 4 means 1/2 as many figures on the table!

1/2 as many figures also means either smaller units or fewer of them. Smaller units is taking me where I was headed in June, a direction I have already rejected but since the plan is to fight a number of CS Grant teasers, I don't want to change the number of units. I don't really want to reduce the number of figures drastically either, so I need to make them fit. I did notice that my 24 man units deployed 2 deep occupied 4/5 of the frontage of one of Grant's 40 man units on the old WRG frontages. That's a good argument for tightening up the files. If I deploy my 24 strong units 8 wide and 3 deep with a 15mm frontage per figure, then this nicely stands in for a 1,000 strong "regiment" deployed 10 deep and 100 wide. The 120mm (~ 5") frontage then represents possibly 100 paces which makes a 12" bow range look reasonable.

Phew!

Now, the next question is, should I really have separate skirmisher and light infantry categories? or should I base peltasts and psiloi alike, give them the same movement etc capabilities and just give the peltasts better melee capability? It would make both life and scenarios easier. Hard to separate years of wargame rules from actual evidence and speculation. I'm trying to think, for example, of an occasion in Xenephon, Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy or Caesar where that approach would be wrong.

Possibly I could allow some peltasts to go 2 stands deep to represent them forming in close order, or maybe leave the unit as single figures and choose an appropriate movement tray to allow them to be fielded as either medium or light infantry on any given day. Needs some thought.

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Rosin Up The Bow

2011-08-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

After a quick test game last night, I have been "fiddling" with the rules. Nothing serious just some tweaks, a few typos corrected, some name changes and:the following:

Orders chart. Having reminded myself that I've been trying to get rid of separate morale tests, I have removed the rout and shaken results from the orders test and tweaked the effect of generals slightly.
Movement. I decided that the movement rules didn't need to be so finicky so I have loosened them up. Some gamers might exploit this in unreasonable ways but that's better than cumbersome restrictions that can sometimes end up preventing reasonable moves.
Shooting. When I dropped the 25% shooting casualties shakes a unit, I increased the "to hit" number to 4,5,6. This was too deadly against cavalry so I have rearranged the modifiers and given a -1 vs cavalry modifier
Rout. Instead of having rout as a cumulative melee or an order check result, I have made it a result of accumulated shaken markers. 2 for most troops, 1 for Levy, 3 for Elite. .

. Time for more testing.

The Battle of the Halys, sort of.

2011-08-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

To test the current version of the Gathering of Hosts rules, I staged a game loosely based on a scaled down version of the Granicus with Lydians and Medes standing in. This will kick off a truce and let me get on with the Great Rebellion, this time with a little more background imagineering.

The rules themselves under went some fierce scrutiny, primarily aimed at preferences and some very visible changes without changing the core ideas and values. The updated rules as played are available from the google docs. The battle report is on BattleGame of the Month. The short version is that the Medes are convinced that scythed chariots are the weapon of the future........well, as long as you can get the enemy to present the flank of his phalanx to you......

I want to run the rules again so next up will be a game which sees the Rebels and the Great King's forces clashing over an important watering hole at Apochyrpha on the border of Hyrkania.
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Experimental Clibinari

2011-08-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

I decided to indulge myself and start in on some Clibinari. These are from the Garrison 25mm Achaemenid list. What I really wanted were some Sassinid figures, but I had a unit of these in my Valdurian army many years ago. Like my Sassinid elephants, they went missing when I graduated from college and headed west. To be honest, I expected to have followed up with Sassinids by now but maybe this fall. In any event, it felt like time to paint some up. This is where I hit a small hitch, I had no idea how the figure should look.

This figure, with its baggy pants, cowl, short sleeved over tunic and gallic style hauberk, doesn't resemble any illustrations of Achaemenids that I have seen, thought the short sleeves are typical of Garrison Persians. I thought I saw something similar in the 2,500 th anniversary parade but on reviewing the video footage I couldn't find them again so perhaps I imagined it. That was one problem, the other was that I hadn't decided yet who they will represent, Rebels, Persian Nobles, subjects from which province? It seemed smart to stop and figure that out and work on a test figure.

After trying a dab a colour or 2 to see how it looked, and doing some thinking, I decided that these would be Nobles answering the call to arms, not a regular guard unit. My first thought was to make them Rebels along with my Garrison light cavalry, my "Hyrkanians", but the more I looked at what figures I had available, painted and unpainted, and thought about scenarios, I decided to put the Garrison Persians on one side, that made these loyal Nobles. One question answered.

Leather seemed like a reasonable fabric to make a protective hood out of but in addition to not being able to find .any Persian or similar examples, the hood has wrinkles like cloth not leather thick enough to protect. fabric. If you ignore the helmet, the head piece actually resemble one versions of the usual Persian headgear. Since this is often shown as white, I tried painting this one white. That seemed a bit too stark a contrast so I fell back on a dark yellow.

The short sleeved over tunic could probably be almost any colour, my Immortals and light cavalry wear uniform versions but then you can see the whole thing, here only the sleeves show. More than that, I decided that these would be Nobles rather than guardsmen and uniform doesn't sit well with Nobles. A compromise was in order, I went with a dark red that might have been a leather under tunic or might be a tabard of sorts.

Baggy pants and tunics were next. Since they were now nobles answering the call, colourful and non-uniform seemed in order. If the pants had been tight, I'd have thought about embroidery but stiff embroidery doesn't seem to match billowing fabric and I didn't want to go for the cotton print look either so solid colours with embroidery on the tunic, mostly a little brighter colours than this fellow with his dark blue pants perhaps.

Although the armour might be bronze scale, I have opted for iron since that says "cataphract" to me, but I added polished bronze bits to brighten them. The shields might have been wood or leather or born personal devices but without a reference point, these being nobles in the King's service, and me being lazy, I settled on plain purple shields with a bronze boss.

Now, 11 more to go as the opposing Royal and Rebel armies take shape in my mind.

Ready for a Taste Test

2011-08-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

I have gone back to the January edition of gathering of Hosts and applied various lessons learned. The results are now ready for a play test, hopefully one by me this weekend. We will be on puppy watch so I can't go far anyway.

Apart from tightening up details and language, the big change is to replace a rally test and a break test with automatic disorder if suffering 25% missile casualties in 1 turn or losing a round of melee by suffering 50% more hits than inflicted. A compulsory rally/break test for all disordered units then closes the turn. This avoids most of the double jeopardy issues with a separate test but gives a small chance to recover in melee while putting levies, under strength units and melee losers at risk of panic.

It also allowed me to simplify the movement rules.

The old figure rally rule was both fun and tiresome and while it sometimes worked, I think this will give me the same general end result with less fuss and more reliability. Poor units will tend to fall apart, good quality heavy units can withstand a tremendous amount of missile fire before being destroyed but are at risk of temporary disorder.

The updated rules are available on Google Docs.

Large, Small or Not at All

2011-08-08T09:02:00.000-07:00

That pretty much sums up two key issues that are on the table as I prime some Clibinari and try to figure out where I was at with the rules last June: scale and unit organization.

Scale can mean various things when talking about a miniature wargame, what I am considering is the size of size of battle being represented and its implications for ground scale and the figure to man ratio. The traditional approach was to design a low level game and then fudge it for use with big battles, an approach that seemed to work well for many despite the inherent contradictions that meant that it probably wasn't really a good simulation at either end.

I started off last year with an "Old School" approach settling on 24 man "regiments". Each theoretically represented around 1,000 men, but were used to refight both "bathtubbed" historical battles and scale-less Tabletop Teasers, some approaching battles in feel, others with a skirmish flavour. In large part this is a reflection of the pleasure that I have had over the years from reading Charles Grant's ancient battle reports. Lately, I have been drawn to the idea of each stand being a unit. This has confused the issue dreadfully.

Unfortunately, there are no right or wrong answers to these questions, they are a matter of preference.

So perhaps the real question is:
"Is last year's decision still valid or is there a good reason to change course?".

I decided that a good starting point was to review the games played last year. All these were solo games (except the 40mm Prince Valiant skirmish which at first blush has nothing to do with the Gathering of Hosts). The battles ranged from an ambush of a priestess and her escort to refights of Platea and Marathon. The rules varied once I decided to start writing a set but they were all aimed at the same sort of game, and I enjoyed them all. One mark for staying the course.

The ambush game was probably as low as the rules can go and really was smaller than what the game was designed to represent just as Platea and Marathon were technically larger than what the rules were designed to represent. The ambush game could have been played as easily, or perhaps better, using the Prince Valiant Dark Age skirmish rules but oddly, it was a version of the mid-sized battle that was successfully played as a skirmish. Here, perhaps, we find another hidden question at the heart of the matter:

"Do I need 2 different 'ancient' collections?".

If all the skirmish games were played using the individually based 40mm Fall of Rome collection and the 25mm figures were used to recreate large battles, then there would be a clear separation of purpose beyond liking the look of this figure or that or being emotionally attached to various toys. After all, time for painting and playing are limited as is money for acquisition of figures. Wouldn't reduction to a single pre-gunpowder period make sense? Well, yes, but its not always about making sense and anyway, abandoning the Persian Project now after having just invested scarce resources to it doesn't make sense either.

If the Persians are going to stay, does it then make sense to rob them of the capability of fighting many different types of action just so the big battles can be done more realistically? Not to me. If they were redesigned to primarily refight the great battles of history as fought by all the Persian armies from the days of the Mede Kings to the fall of the Sassanians, wouldn't I then be forced to acquire yet more armies for them to fight as well? That doesn't make sense either.

What about altering the 25mm armies so that they can be used to provide a |'Portable Army'? This is the another question that has been lurking. If each stand becomes a 'unit' of a thousand men and a small game can be played with say 12 such units wouldn't that be convenient? At the same time, historical battles could be fought with large armies represented by 50,000 or more men using rules designed to do that. Both these suggestions have merit but only if these are things I really want to do. When and against who would I play these games. I have other portable games that I can play when I feel the need, do I need them in all periods?

I decided to go back to one of my other sources for inspiration, my tatty little Penguin translation of the Xenaphon's Anabasis. It didn't take long for things to come together. Xenephon describes both small skirmishes and largish battles, but he does so in a way that you feel involved at various levels. in fact you feel a bit like you do when playing some of those less than accurate simulations that were Old School ancient wargames or reading of of Grant's battle reports. No wonder I enjoyed what I had been doing last year, I was well primed for it.

In other words, it looks like I have allowed my self to be diverted from the path I was on by distractions and false trails. As long as abide by my allocations of shelving space there is not really any advantage to getting rid of existing collections if I take the long term view. For example, I have unpainted figures on hand for both Prince Valiant and my Persian armies and their foes and I may well buy more if I have the resources to spend but I can already stage games with either collection. The addition or refurbishment of figures is only to add variety/options or to improve the look. I can't paint or play both at the same time, but there may well be years of gaming ahead yet and even if each collection only gets out a few times a year or only has a few figures painted up or even skips a year, there will be games enough to make each worth having and figures enough to paint.

Given that conclusion, the answers become that my units should remain as they are, 24 figure "regiments" of a 1,000 men that can be sent to do the work of 100 men or 10,000, without worrying about scale at all. What this also means is that I need to revisit my rules, especially some of last June's experiments.

Contemplating the Great Divide

2011-07-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

For the last 15 years, I have done my best to keep my ancient armies "compatible" with hobby standards, which meant, amongst other things, maintaining the ability to field 60mm wide elements regardless of how I based my troops. It hasn't always worked well for me and during that time, my Greeks and Persians have had, that I can recall, 8 opportunities to face some one else's army across the table, 5 of them against large 25mm figures using WHAB which isn't element based, 2 against large 25mm figures using Warmaster which neither of us were based for, and 1 using WHAB against a 1/72 plastic army based for WRG 3rd). The last opposed game was over 2 years ago. I don't see the opportunities increasing in the near future. Most of the large-25mm armies I might face aren't terribly appropriate enemies for my Persians anyway and the option to borrow an opponent always exists for away games. Hardly seems worth the effort does it?

In amongst this, I have been looking at the old Grant book and looking over what's on hand with an eye to either refurbishing another old unit or starting a new one. My eye was caught on some of my older troops still based on a 15mm frontage and it brought me back to older days. My new units, in a mad attempt to harmonize 24 man units with the option to go 2 deep or deeper while maintaining 60mm elements, and while accomodating some poorly disciplined spearmen, slid up to a 20mm frontage. Five mm doesn't sound like much but over the frontage of an army, it can mean an extra unit or 2 in the battle line, and now that I've cut my table down, that matters. It also happens to look more like massed troops.

So I am now contemplating heresy, mounting 6 heavy/medium infantry, 4 light infantry or 2 cavalry on a 45mm square base. Skirmishers will simply have their bases spread out. This will allow me to continue to field an average of 4 bases per unit so that they can go 2 deep or 4 deep but with the troops massed a little tighter with hoplites shield to shield. I do have some heavy/medium infantry, which will remain unnamed, which cannot be squeezed onto a 15mm frontage but luckily, these can be squeezed comfortable into a 15mm depth so can be deployed 2 wide and 3 deep on the same base, so still 6 figures per element. Everyone is accommodated. That 2 of the new bases will fit inside a 4" hex is almost a coincidence that may or may not become important down the road. What ever the terrain is like, this will facilitate pursuing some Morschauser inspired rules and fitting the planned armies on the smaller table.

Not going to rush out and rebase the troops that have been recently rebased but I will try this out on the next units to be raised or refurbished. These questions of basing, organization and compatibility have been sticking points ever since I got frustrated with my experiment with singles and movement trays. Hopefully the way is now open to forge ahead again. My rules, my troops, my basing and organization and my not quite historical setting. Armies that only play at home, but guests welcome.

The Migrating of Hosts

2011-06-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

One of a series of very influential pictures from The Art of Warfare by David Chandler. The figures are of course Peter Gilder's Sassanid army which I once had the pleasure of seeing in person (from the public side of a barrier).

Its been about a score of months since I began this Lydian-Mede War. It has lurched along uncertainly and more slowly than hoped for with few figures painted and almost as many Greek-Persian battles as Mede-Lydian ones. There are many external factors but clearly once my initial excitement over finally having a unit of Garrison Phrygians was over, what I needed to paint up were not what I had wanted to be painting and even without the high proportion of Greeks, it didn't feel as exotic and fantasy-ish as I hoped. So, once I have fudged a battle of Thymbra this fall, I am going to declare the campaign over.

Luckily, nothing that has been done has been wasted. The Phyrgians, Thracians and the best of the Greeks will be incorporated into the Persian army as subjects and mercenaries. Turning my eyes east in search of a new campaign, my eye has fallen on Hyrkania. (or Hyrcania) (yes there was an historical Hyrkania as well as the Hyborian one). A fertile outpost on the edge of the vast steppes, fortified with a long frontier wall studded with forts, this province on the shores of the Caspian Sea saw invasions and rebellions enough for any wargamer. The fact that we know so little about it is even more to the good. I haven't worked out the details but I intend to pit a post Cambyses polyglot, multi-racial Royal Persian army against a Rebel King with Saka, Drangian and various barbarian allies.

The Battle of Tremsos refought

2011-06-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

I've been fiddling with the Gathering of Hosts again and while casting about for a scenario to test, the battle of Tremsos from Don Featherstone's Wargames came to mind. The illustrated report can be found here.

Egyptian Allies

2011-06-11T18:26:00.000-07:00

25mm Rose Prestige Nubian, Egyptian and Ethiopean figures.

When I bought the 1st Ethiopians, I was thinking of the Persian army and specifically, the army Xerxes raised to invade Greece. When I decided to back date things to the days of the Mede and Lydian wars, I wasn't quite sure what to do about the Ethiopians. Since Egypt had not yet fallen, Ethiopia wasn't likely to have been under Mede control and I see no reason that they would have gone so far to try to hire such primitively armed mercenaries, even if they had access by sea.

While rereading Xenephon's Cyropedia, I was reminded of Egypt's alliance with Lydia. Xenephon has a large force of Egyptian "hoplites" fighting at Thymbra. I have things to do right now other than paint up 100 or so Egyptian spearmen but some Nubian/Ethiopian archer auxiliaries? Just the ticket, so I finally got around to painting a dozen Nubian archers to fill in the back ranks and make the unit up to 24 figures. Now, technically, the Nubians don't exactly match the Ethiopeans but for some reason I wanted some firing archers and also wanted a taste of more of the Rose figures. Once daubed with chaulk and vermillion, they blend well enough for my purposes.

Egyptian and Thracian auxiliaries defend the "New Bridge"

Of course, explaining how the Egyptians came to tame, train and ship to Lydia, a selection of war elephants is going to be a bit tougher. Even tougher explaining why this facet of the Egyptian army has never come to light before........ But, how can you refight Trimsos without them?

Sorting the Subjects - Thracians

2011-04-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

When I hauled my Thracians put last week, I was reminded that the units were looking a little battered. This seemed as good a time as any to sort them.

First order of business was to remove the figures from their various basing systems. About 1/2 were on 60mm x 60mm 6 man elements, 1/4 individually based on 20mm x 20mm bases and the rest on old WRG 3rd-6th ed bases with a mix of 1, 2 or 3 figures per base, 20mm wide per figure but 30mm deep.

Once that was done, I stripped out figures with helmets or thureos. That left me with about 72 figures. Subtracting broken figures brought that down to about 60. I considered a unit of javelin armed skirmishers but the need there is for Greeks not Thracians. Since these are RAFM multi-part figures, I decided to haul out the most suitable figures and re-head them with bare heads or petasos. That left me with 2 24 man units. For the last 25 or so years, my Rospak Thracians have been mixed in with my Ral Partha, RAFM and Corvus figures. I decided that it was time to separate them into two distinct units, 24 figures each. The remaining 24 figures, including a number of broken spear Rospak plastics, have been put aside as spare parts.

Mixed Corvus, Ral Partha & RAFM Thracians

Rospak hard plastic Thracians.

While I was at in, I sorted out and based up 2 4 man stands of archers and 1 of slingers. The rest, mostly RAFM multi-part figures have gone into the spares box.

Various RAFM figures with Thracian caps.

Seeing the Elephant (so to speak)

2011-04-14T16:29:00.000-07:00

My new Lydian/Phyrgian cavalry and axemen have finally seen action during today's test game. The report can be found here.

Optional Rules

2011-04-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

I managed a quick playtest today and have uploaded a tweaked version of the movement rules. I have also just added some examples of optional special troop type rules. A battle report will follow this evening.

16) OPTIONAL SPECIAL TROOP RULES

a) Roman Legions. Each consular legion gets its own general. If the legionairies are formed in 2 or more lines with each line being 1 rank of companies, then they may retreat or charge through other Roman infantry of the same legion. They also roll 1 extra die when charging or being charged by infantry. (The assumption is that Romans may either use the traditional manipular tactics or form deep in close order to repel cavalry or Barbarians but not both at the same time. Roman generals should choose appropriate tactics for their period.).

b) Barbarians. German and Celtic tribes in particular had a reputation for fierces charges and a lack of stamina as well as a vulnerability to missile fire. These sorts of armies may declare them selves to be “barbarian” and receive a +1 die per stand in melee if charging or if being charged by infantry but may not rally.

c) Cataphracts. Fully armoured cataphracts on fully armoured horses are immune to missile fire from all except crossbows, staff slings and artillery. In melee troops fighting them subtract -2 instead of the normal -1 for fighting heavy troops. However, due to the heavy fatigue they subject to, cataphracts take 1 less hit than normal so that regulars are destroyed by 1 hit and elites by 2.In addition, they may not rally hits.

d) Scythed Chariots and other devices. Scythed chariots, stampeding herds of cattle and other such stratagems were designed to break up formations rather than killing troops. For each scythed chariot which contacts an enemy formation, instead of resolving melee, the opposing players each roll 1 die. If the attacker rolls higher then the attack succeeds other wise it is thwarted. If the attack succeeds, then any company that was in contact with the chariot, including corner only contact, must retreat just far enough that it is not touching any other friendly company. If there were companies behind the retreating companies then these will retreat as well.

Alternate download site for Gathering of Hosts

2011-04-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Google Docs seems to be up to its tricks again. Since I haven't brought myself to cancel my old Loch Sloy/MacDuff site yet, I have uploaded a copy there. It can be found here:.
http://www.lochsloy.ca/wargames/hosts.doc

An editor's job is never done

2011-04-11T06:19:00.000-07:00

After a good night's sleep, I've had another look at the first draft of the revised Gathering of Hosts. Found lots of minor language tweaks, 1 change of mind and 2 big "too tired" omissions/accidental erasures.

For reasons that escape me now, I had deprived medium cavalry of the ability to shoot and move, it has been restored.

Light troops were intended to be able to self order a single move. That somehow got deleted. The idea is primarily that it will allow light infantry and skirmishers to move and fight effectively in broken and difficult terrain but also that fiddling with skirmishers shouldn't overly distract a general from the real fight. They still need orders to rally or double move.

and it was intended that a 1" fallback from melee could be followed up, that was the whole point.

The are a few other minor things but the updated version is now loaded.

A new year, a new version

2011-04-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

The 1st draft of the revised Gathering of Hosts has now been uploaded to Google docs.

In brief, having decided to drop WHAB, a decision to reverse the slow process of converting to single figures and movement trays was not long in following. Despite having various Old School leanings, and despite the potential flexibility, the awkwardness of the single figures and the rules advantages of basing the rules on elements have swung me back to how I have tended to approach ancients for 25 years, with a few twists.

I have not pursued the grid option but the changes were strongly influenced by Bob Cordery's work with chessboard wargames. Essentially, the rules are now close to being an ancients version of the phantasm called the Square Brigadier (which rapidly turned into the latest version of Hearts of Tin). The troops types are those already laid out in Gathering of Hosts, with the orders dice system, initially inspired from DBA though somewhat different in application and a simple hit system inspired by Morschauser, with my own twist on it all.

I am now chomping at the bit to get the Persians on the table. I want to start with something different but a refight of a Greek& Persian wars battle will have to follow soon as a benchmark test.

. .

King Dariross The Obscure and the Art of Changing Horses

2011-04-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

My original aims for the Gathering was to refurbish my OS 25mm ancients and get them on the table, making use of as many existing figures as possible and without adding too many figures. Still good aims and the logic that picked the Lydian campaign as the best route to that goal is still sound. However, I missed a couple of key factors.

I wanted to paint up more Medes & Persians but in order to have a valid use for them, I needed more Lydians even though I already knew that I was tired of painting Greeks and Greek type troops. So, the Persians sit and wait while I work through a list of Greek-ish Lydians, or rather don't work through it. I wouldn't mind adding something different like a big phalanx of Egyptian spearmen for Thymbra as per Xenephon but the coffers are bare.

I did briefly consider Hyboria but I wanted to stay with the historical fantasy approach and the Mede & Persian empire. Luckily, I don't need to scrap any of the troops I have done up or the campaign itself. After all we all knew going into this that the Lydians would eventually be conquered, it was just a matter of when so I can incorporate the Lydians, Phyggians, Thracians and Greeks into the Persian army as subjects and mercenaries and reserve the option to come back and play out the Lydian campaign later.

So its off to the mysterious East. Expansion of the empire is one possibility but there were numerous revolts and what better use for my armies than a civil war? The image in my mind are a series of walled towns, near the mountains, the Caspian on one flank, India on the other. Horse archers, proto-cataphracts, city militia and a few elephants. hmmmmm

Another change since I started this trip is that my experiment with WHAB style individual figures and movement trays has failed. I'm going back to my old standard elements. Now that doesn't necessarily affect the rules that I started working on, but as long as I am making changes, this seems like the time. Having quite enjoyed playing some games with Bob Cordery's gridded wargame, I think it may be time to have another look at Morschauser and have a fresh go at an element set.

Winter Quarters

2011-04-07T04:54:00.000-07:00

There is no doubt about it, the Lydian army has stalled again.

Within 2 weeks I expect to finish rearranging my room and will have a "permanent" painting area again. At that time I expect painting to step up but there is a huge back log of various things and while I have 2 separate Lydian units 1/2 done, I am not looking forward to the prospect and not feeling an urge to field the Lydians in a game.

Perhaps I'll force the issue and finish the lancers or perhaps I'll troll through the boxes and see what takes my fancy. In any event, I need to get the Medes out sometime in April to test out the revised table.

Elephants! I found elephants!

2011-01-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Having turned my attention back to Cyrus the Great, I recent;y came across an online translation of Ctesias's Persica. This describes (briefly) an expedition by Cyrus against the Derbices, a nation on the Syr Darya. These ambush him with a force including elephants sent by their Indian allies. Aha!

Now, these elephants probably looked more like your average, ancient Indian army elephants than they do the Hinchliffe Sassinid elephant kits that I picked up cheap last year (or was it the year before?) I picked them up, partly because I got a verry good deal and partly because I used to have a pair, a long time ago and liked them even if they weren't as impressive as my massive Garrison Carthaginian beast. The elephants were
one of several units that for reasons I have now forgotten, don't appear to have graduated from college with me.

The original Pachyderms in action in the 70's and yes this is a repeat photo. There didn't seem to be much point in snapping a shot of a bagged elephant kit.

OK so that's not justification for an elephant IN my Mede/Persian army but it is justification to paint up some up for an enemy and nicely gives me a focal point for another enemy, One that could take part in a (rather stretched) 3 way campaign. I had considered the Saka or Massagetae as a 4th army but they just didn't seem distinct enough and didn't seem to offer anything new for a table top game except the possibility of a swirling conflict of horse archers which is not particularly well suited to my new smaller table which I am planning.

Now I'm not exactly sure what the Derbices looked like or what their army was like and I'd just as soon not know too much at this point (unless it reinforces my imaginings!). A mysterious people in a far away fertile land of walled cities on the edge of a desert? What's not to love?

Given their geographic location, something similar to the Saka and Bactrians seems reasonable. I picture a largely peltast like force supported by archers and cavalry including horse archers, and possibly some chariots since they were still in use in India for some time to come. Dress to be similar as well with trousers, tunic and soft cap. Again, the end result will be troops that can be an enemy or be incorporated into an Achaemenid army. Eventually some real Indian troops could be added for additional colour.

The plan now looks something like:

a) A Grek army, on its own or allied to the Lydians or as a source of mercenaries for the Persians
b) A Mede/Persian army including proto-cataphracts ala Cyropaedia.
c) A Lydian army including mercenaries/allies supplied by Babylon/Assyria and Egypt including arabs as well as various Anatolian troops including Phrygians, Lydians, Greeks, Thracians/Bythnians, and other tribes from the fringes. All of these could also serve as subjects and mercenaries in an Achamenid army.
d) The Derbices possibly with gratuitous Massagatae allies as well as Indian ones and including elephants.
.

The Lydian Lancers begin to gather

2011-01-06T16:23:00.000-08:00

Having made progress on the Phrygian infantry component of my Lydian army, I decided to start in on the cavalry. As always, the information is sparse and largely speculative. Its very possible that the Lydian cavalry looked a lot like some of the armoured lancers on contemporary Greek vases in chiton, bell corselet and plumed helmet or they may have looked more like the Amazon cavalry and like the infantry figures that were the inspiration for the Phrygian infantry that appear in the Funcken & Saxetorph books and the Garrison Miniatures ranges.. .

Going the Greek route would be fairly safe and possibly make the figures more widely usable. However, I already have more Greek cavalry than I can normally use and I want this project to feel semi-mythical so the less common (and less Greek) the better. I made two decisions:

1) The clothes should match my Phrygian infantry in style to promote a sense of identity in the army and of "not being in Kansas" so to speak.

2) Since the Lydians had close contact (and conflict) with various kingdoms which used iron lamellar or scale armour, it seemed reasonable that they may have used it and doing so would make them look less classic Greek even with Greek helmets.

I already had a few RAFM cavalry in scale armour so, last year during their big sale, I raided the various RAFM ranges for Hellenistic cavalry in scale armour and used Thracian and other helmets (including a cataphract helmet with full face plate just for the heck of it, looks very Hollywood) and gave them nice heavy spears.

It was tempting to get back into shading on these but after doing the stripes on the sleeves and other finnicky bits my enthusiasm sank back to normal and the gloss varnish confuses shading anyway (and the lens as well!).

As planned, there will be two new units of Lydian lancers each 12 strong plus two units raised from existing Greek & Macedonian heavy cavalry, (subjects, allies or mercenaries perhaps) and various light cavalry.

.

Working up to Thymbra

2011-01-04T15:17:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am, starting out on the 2nd year of the Median Revival. I didn't get as many figures painted as I would have liked and didn't really get the campaign humming along properly but I did played more Mede/Persian games than I expected even if they were all solo. I'm not ready to take another stab at the campaign, it didn't work well to drive painting and I need more stuff table-ready before I try again. So, what am I going to do?

Well, 2 of the games last year were refights of Greco-Persian battles, Marathon and Platea. Now its time to push the Lydians a bit so I am setting my sights on Thymbra. Evidence is shaky at best as usual but there is enough floating around to make a workable game around what figures I have. The odds of me finding a few thousand allied Egyptian "hoplites" anytime this year is pretty remote so I suspect that there will be substitutions and concessions as usual. I also want to fit the game on a 5'x6' playing area and play the game in 3 hours. This implies some serious compression, something on the order of 1-3,000 men per "element".

I should have a rough OB, a painting schedule. and a planned play date later this month. June would be the earliest date and I'm now thinking September or October as a more likely date and I might push it to the end of the year. There will be other games in the meantime. New troops and rules will have to be tested if nothing else. I may stick with Gathering of Hosts but am tempted to try adapting Legio and may also give Basic Impetus a try.

and now, a gratuitous and completely irrelevant shot of my 1/72nd plastic barbarian horde fighting amongst itself. (standing in as DBA Early Visigoths vs Late Germans)

(and yes they owe their existence to the inclusion of scaled down copies of Marx's 25mm "Vikings")

The Gathering Resumes

2010-12-27T18:54:00.000-08:00

It has been more than 6 months now since the last unit of 25mm Ancients left the painting table. For most of this time, there have been 10 1/2 painted 20mm Phyrgians sitting at the back of my table. For some reason, I'm not sure why, I just couldn't get a feel for them. I haven't been painting much anyway and so I let them slide when I did find the time and energy.

Just before Christmas, I got a sudden urge to convert the whole project to Sassinid vs Romans. Several days of day dreaming and considering possibilities passed before I remembered that I was going to drain off any Roman impulse into the Prince Valiant 40mm project and began to dig about on the net for info on the Babylonians and Assyrians as a distraction. Worked like a charm, by Boxing Day evening I was relaxed, had time of my choosing and within minutes of starting to apply stripes, it was all good and so the first 1/2 unit of Phyrgians "light" infantry has emerged.

Those for an eye & a memory for such things may note that the single figure rebellion appears to have been quelled. I had a few bad moments when I was tempted to emulate the excellent 4 man 40mm sq bases that my 25mm ECW Scots have adopted but in the nick of time sanity reigned and I remembered how useful it can be to have something approaching "hobby standard" for 25mm Ancients and how annoying it can be to have inconvenient non-standard arrangements. So it had to be single figures or 60mm elements. My 40mm Prince Valiant figures give me "ancient" singles so its back to elements for the little guys. (Whew, glad I only rebased troops who needed it for other reasons!)

Ambush played

2010-10-30T06:35:00.000-07:00

A battle report on the Ambush of Queen Demiramis has been posted on my Battlegames blog. Some thoughts on rules to follow shortly along with the tweaked version.

Escort Duties

2010-10-18T08:10:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to focus on my 19thC interests but every time I turn my back I can hear the rythamic clash spear against shield. In order to quiet them, I have decided to dig out an old Table Top Teaser.

"..You are to select positions for your force to ambush a convoy proceeding from the west. This convoy consists of Princess Zenobii of Kali and her considerable dowry escorted by soldiers of the future husband, the Emperor Osbosis of Dubris. You are to intercept and seize both Princess and dowry before They cross the bridge to the south and safety.".

http://www.box.net/shared/pym6zu3xit for the original refight thanks to Steve the Wargamer

Tempting to use this as an excuse to paint up some Clibinari and set the game farther east but I'm sure the hills of Anatolia will provide a suitable site for an ambush.

Red Force (Ambush Party)

1 unit of light archers

1 unit of light slingers

1 unit of light/medium javelins

1 unit of light cavalry

Blue Force (Road Party)

1 unit of light cavalry

2 units of medium infantry

1 unit of light archers

1 small unit of super heavy cavalry

1 litter with bearers

1 wagon of treasure

1 unit of heavy cavalry

hmm, I don't see any mention of a Priestess riding a Tiger, must be a misprint.

Now which side is which?

Old Soldiers

2010-10-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

For those of you are fans of Charles Grant's book The Ancient Wargame as well as various magazine articles about historical battles re-fought, hie thee to the Garrison website for a treat. Rob has acquired some of Charles' old figures and has begun posting colour pictures.

In solidarity with and in homage to the herd of veteran Airfix elephants, I present Ellie. My own Airfix elephant, converted probably 1974/75 though the original Roman charioteer crew was replaced at some point in the 80's by RAFM figures. The original mahout still serves, but with a RAFM head.

Test 2, The Persian Victory at Platea

2010-08-28T12:55:00.000-07:00

The 2nd play through , slightly modified is now posted on the Battlegame blog. Honours of the day go to the Phyrgian spearmen. Who says fancy clothes don't help win battles?.

I'm still very happy with the rules but discovered a few more minor lapses and discrepencies. For example, the current draft doesn't actually say that you can't come back from being wiped out totally.

I'm working on those plus some examples of play.

Test Game Debriefing

2010-08-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

The refight of the Grant version of Platea has now been fought. I will be posting the actual battle report this evening on the Battlegames blog but will report on the rules here.

In short, having followed the battle plans of both sides as closely as possible, there were tense moments for the Greeks but the results ended up startlingly similar to the original refight which was done using WRG 3rd edition. Perhaps this proves nothing other than that my rules make it just as hard for light troops to run over a hoplite phalanx as the old rules did but that in itself is reassuring!

On to rule mechanics. I did discover some ommisions, for example, almost all references to flank attacks had been accidently lost during one bit of editing which caused me some grief as I tried to remember what had been intended, and there some other minor things such as causes of tests mentioned in one section but not another. But as far as how the rules worked I was very, VERY, happy.

Its been a while since I used unassigned cards, a decade or more possibly and I had forgotten some wrinkles when allowing passes and an unlimited number of cards but this has been dealt with now by making sure the deck is an appropriate size before starting.

The one thing that did worry me mid-game was how tough the elite hoplite units were and how easily they recovered their casualties. Since casualties are largely moral I eventually decided not to worry about it with the surprising but historical result that the winner's final losses ended up being much lighter than the loser's despite some hard fights. That said, the Athenians found themselves in trouble against the Thebans, pushed back and only a few figures above 1/2 strength. Luckily they passed morale and next turn, the first card that came up was a Greek one and they rallied well and came back to eventually drive the Thebans from the field. If the Theban card had come up first, it might well have changed the fortunes of the day. The rule worked well for the Spartan detachment as well, as they were able to rally off shooting hits almost as fast as they took them, as long as they locked shields and hunkered down. Even so the massed Persian infantry scored enough hits one turn to force a morale check. The odds of failure were small but worrying.

I have fixed the few discrepencies and uploaded the next draft. Hopefully a final draft once some diagrams and examples are added but there will be more test games. I'm trying to decide whether to reset the table, rearranging the Athenians and Spartans to be closer to where they should be and allowing the Persians a free hand as to how to attack or whether to swap out the armies. or perhaps do both, there is a whole weekend ahead of me!

Tested version of Gathering of Hosts available here.

Preparing for Platea - A Puzzling Question

2010-08-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

The rules have been updated and are now available here: (Aug 27 post game)

The Athenians (Benassi) as seen from behind the Phrygian (Garrison) and Theban position. (The poor Thebans were left with the stragglers when I ran short on hoplites. At some point I need to finish refurbishing the last 48 RAFM hoplite types)

As I look at the table laid out for the refight, a puzzling question comes to mind:

The Pseudo-Spartans (mixed RAFM, Ral Partha, Garrison & Minifig)
from behind the (largely Garrison) Persian center.

Why didn't the Persians outflank and surround the Greeks?

The flanks don't appear to be resting on terrain, there are huge gaps in the middle of the line and lots of cavalry to ride around. The Thessalian cavalry seems to have given a deal of trouble to the Corinthinians and others marching up from the rear so were presumably ordered to ride past them but surely some of the cavalry could have been spared to attack the Athenians and/or Spartans from the rear?

Now I can see in the Dover refight that the lads were probably "in the spirit" and might not have considered such a move to be "on" but what about in the day? There are 3 possible answers that occur to me:
a) Heavily armed hoplites are dangerous to light troops and cavalry even if attacked in rear
b) There were command and control issues at work
c) Some of the Greek light armed troops who appear in the OB but not the battle narrative or the Grant scenario, were employed on rear security.
d) In the Grant scenario, Artabazos's troops start the game with the rest of the army rather than only coming up after the battle was essentially lost. That might substantially affect things.

Well, for the 1st run through, I am going to follow the battle plans in Grant's book as closely as possible so it shouldn't be an issue. I may try alternate versions later.

The Corinthians in position at the foot of the mountain, a lonnnng way from the action.

Rospak hoplites obviously painted while my 1st canine buddy, Yoda the Black Lab was still alive and providing inspiration.

Please click on the pictures to see the full thing if you are only catching the corner.

Platea: Teaser

2010-08-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

The armies are deployed, Dawn breaks. The Persians are braced to attack.

Game to follow on Friday. I am just working on a slight change to the card sequence to allow more player control and reward concentration and control. Essentially, instead of pre-assigning cards, I will return to allowing players to choose which unit or formed up group of units to activate. Just checking for wrinkles and once again contemplating variable length moves. Will hopefully post the adjusted rules tonight or tomorrow.

Preparing to play Platea using the new rules

2010-08-13T19:55:00.000-07:00

Slings and Arrows of the outrageous fortune sort.

Turns out what I thought was a bit of a cold coming on, appears to be some sort of infection that the doctor suspects that I may have been incubating since my little hospital 'incident' 6 weeks ago. Anyway, now under the influence of antibiotics on top of everything else, I am slowly starting to function again but alas, no game this week A little planning has now resumed though.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The day after listing Platea on the poll as the potential historical battle, I decided to refresh my memory on the numbers involved, FORTY THOUSAND HOPLITES! . plus 10,000 more on the Persian side!

I don't have that many hoplites!

Even at 1 to 200 I don't have that many. Even if I had gotten around to getting one of those Garrison 100 hoplite deals that I had been adding and subtracting from that e-shopping cart and had then painted them up, I still wouldn't have enough to be convincing, although it would start to look better. Oh, and the Spartans got bumped from a previous order and still waiting so, not 1 Lambda in the lot. Luckily, before panic set in, I remmbered that the original idea hadn't been to refight Platea, it had been to replay Charles Grant's refight of Platea in The Ancient Wargame.

Technically, I still needed those extra 100 hoplites but since his 20mm Garrisons appear to be on the old 10mm wide frontage per hoplite and my troops are on a comfy 20mm wide base, one of my 24 man units should substitute nicely for one of his 42 or 50 strong units, especially on my smaller table. So a quick in-house vote was taken and me, myself and I voted unanimously in favour of using his order of battle but with my standard units sizes and classifications. As he remarks in his description of setting up the Sambre: "This is not an accurate conversion but the plain fact was that this was the total number of figures available, so what else could one do?" Indeed.

I did make a few changes to the details of troop types. Grant makes no mention of the WRG 3rd ed morale class used for the hoplites but does rate the Spartans and Heavy and the rest of the Greeks as Medium. Now normally, the Spartans are accepted as superior to other hoplites but the Athenians were at the top of their game. They were the only citystate to have met the Persians in battle and defeated them, indeed, there were probably veterans of Marathon in the ranks. The Spartans even tried to give them the place of honour vs the Immortals .So I figured they should rate the same. On the other hand, I'm not sure the Immortals were sufficiently better than the other contingents to warrant Elite status. Instead, I have invoked a shield barrier rule. Since the Persians were a hand picked force, I haven't rated any as "Levy".

The Persians also have several units of "light" infantry which under the WRG 3rd edition, would be the equivalent of my "Skirmisher" category. I would have called them "Medium" infantry myself but will compromise and field them as "Light" Infantry under my rules.

Last up, both sides are given 3 generals. That works fairly well for the Persians but is a bit of overkill for the Greeks who will end up with 1 general commanding a single unit of hoplites. After some debate, I decided to let it stand but ruled that each General only has authority and influence on his own units to reflect the allied and quarrelsome nature of the army.

Without further ado, here are the armies with their deployment based on the game described by Charles Grant in his book The Ancient Wargame. Each general will be assigned a card for activation. The unit names refer to the ones fielded in the book. The exact allocation of units on the Persian side is a bit vague but I have included the Phrygian spearmen in with the Thebans as the over all numbers of Medizing Greeks seemed low and it made sense to lump all the heavy units together.

The intent will be to play once with the battle plans as described in the book. I may, or may not follow that with a 2nd play through either basing the battle plans on Herodotus or going free form.

________________________________________________________________________________
GREEKS.

SPARTANS

Pausanius General for the Spartans and their allies only
Alpha Battalion: 24 Elite Heavy Infantry on the right wing on Asopus Ridge
Mesenian Javelinmen: 8 Levy skirmishers deployed behind the Alpha Battalion
Beta battalion: 24 Elite Heavy Infantry in march column nearing the rear table edge
Antelope Javelinmen: 8 Levy skirmishers with Beta battalion

ATHENIANS

Aristeides General for the Athenians and their allies only
Omicron Battalion: 24 Elite Heavy Infantry deployed on the left wing on Asopus Ridge
Sigma Battalion: 24 Elite Heavy Infantry deployed on the left wing on Asopus Ridge
Athenian Archers: 12 skirmishers with bow.deployed with hoplites.

THE REST OF THE GREEK ARMY

A Corinthian General (Grant only provides player names for the sub-commanders on each side)
Corinthian Battalion.24 Heavy Infantry deployed on 'the island' in the rear of the army.

_____________________________________________________________________________

PERSIANS

(all lined up along the Asopus River, ready to cross)

PERSIANS

Mardonius Over all commander as well as left wing
Green Immortals 24 Medium Infantry Archers with Spara
Black Immoratals 24 Medium Infantry Archers with Spara
Horsetail Light Cavalry: 12 Light Cavalry with bow
Scorpion Cavalry with javelin

LEVIES

Artabazos Sub General
Median Javelinmen: 12 Light Infantry with javelin
Crescent Light Cavalry: 12 Light Cavalry with bow & javelin
Cadusii Light Infantry: 18 Light Infantry with spear and bow
Apadan Light Infantry: 18 Light infantry with bow

MEDIZING GREEKS

General over the Greeks (and Phrygians)
Phrygians: 24 Heavy Infantry
Boeotian Hoplites: 24 Heavy Infantry
Theban Cavalry: 12 light cavalry with javelin

________________________________________________________________________________

With a little luck I should be able to play the 1st game on Wednesday and post a report a day or so later.

A Gathering of Hosts Wargame Rules

2010-08-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

It has been suggested that I call the rules after the blog and after some thought, it seems to make sense to me to link the two directly. The version that I intend to play test is now available on Google docs. (at least I hope I am not going to spend the next 2 days going over and over them again)

A Gathering of Hosts (27 Aug version)

TIME FOR A TEST GAME: CAST YOUR VOTE NOW

2010-08-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

My new ancient rules have been worked over some more and some small, out of context, tests made. Its time for another real test, a battle. The question is should I just carry on with the campaign even if the next scenario is not a great one for testing rules or devise something to work them out.

I know, its the weekend, and a very short poll. Not everyone is going to have time to cast a vote, but to those who do cast a ballot by Tuesday night, I thank you for your opinions. I have laid out 3 options:

1. A historical refight. This has the advantage of providing a baseline to compare the rules to. That is, does the game resemble in any way, shape or form what happened, or what might have happened? But its a break in the sequence of things.

2. The Next Campaign game. This might be an interesting game, but given the losses to date, it might be rather lop sided and depending what is drawn, might be an unusual situation. It would be good to know the rules could handle that but wouldn't necessarily say if they could handle normality. It might also be hard to judge if what appears to be a flaw was due to the rules or the situation.

3. A Mede-Lydian pitched battle. The 3rd option is to short circuit the campaign and do a fairly generic pitched battle with the idea of trying out the interaction of units in a standard ancient battle setting (which is to say in the middle of a dusty plain rather than an opposed river crossing, delaying action or a race to get away with stolen temple treasure.)

What do you think folks?

MEETING OF HOSTS JULY 25 REVISION

2010-07-24T10:26:00.000-07:00

MEETING OF HOSTS

Rules for simple ancient wargames with toy soldiers by Ross Macfarlane.
inspired by Joe Morschauser and Don Featherstone

25 July 2010

INTRODUCTION AND DESIGN NOTES

This is a set of simple rules for playing wargames with toy soldiers depicting ancient warriors. It is not a detailed, simulation of low level ancient tactics nor is it intended to be a clever vehicle for challenging competition style games. It is, hopefully, a relaxed game where the gamer can focus on his over all plan, not minor tactical details while getting enough flavour to feel right at a high level. For example, light infantry are mobile but fragile while heavy infantry are ponderous but robust. Troop variations have been glossed over, this is not to say that I don’t understand that there is a difference between how a maniplur legion and a pike phalanx operated but at a high level, neither seems to have had an overwhelming advantage in a frontal encounter so rather than give them different but balanced capabilities, they are all just heavy infantry. However, the manipular legion should be fielded as a large number of small units and the phalanx as a small number of large units. The resulting clash should mirror the real thing reasonably well without further special rules, the more flexible legion can lose the occasional unit without losing the battle. It can pull back battered units to recover them and can send triarii marching around the flank. Once a phalanx unit is flanked and breaks, the huge hole will be irreparable. However, I believe in the Old School philosophy of adapting rules to suit the user and rather than being comprehensive, the rules are flexible and so players who like them but want more detail and troop differentiation are encouraged to add more complexity if that’s what they enjoy.

In order to achieve the desired level of simplicity combined with a certain ‘toy soldier’ feel, several compromises were made and key concepts employed. Some might refer to these as dodges but hopefully an explanation of a few key ones will help to excuse some apparent oddities.

“What you see ain’t what you get”. The game is played as a series of alternate moves of constant duration. Life doesn’t work like that. As a game mechanic it is useful and the gamer will have to work with it, however, when you move first and bear down on a unit only to see them skip nimbly out of the way, keep in mind, that the movement on the table represents the intent of the generals crossed with capabilities on the unit commanders on the spot faced with the practical difficulties of carrying out that intent, if they even know it, over a variable period of time, much of which is wasted. If all goes well, things will end up looking like you planned, if it goes south, well perhaps you weren’t clear or perhaps a clever enemy unit commander reacted faster than your man on the spot and took action which he was unable to encounter. You are the general not a god.
A nice rectangular body of peltasts on the table, is probably sending out small subunits to hurl javelins then fall back but might close up if faced by cavalry. A block of cavalrymen drops files and rides through a gap, then expands on the other side. Don’t forget the units on the table are not solid, homogenous blocks, they are composed of unseen sub units them selves made of up of individuals. They are also probably occupying too deep an area on the table. When a unit maneuvers, things are going on below the level that we can see. Don’t worry about the details, if you try to carry out a lot of fancy maneuvers you will probably get into trouble.

It is well accepted these days that ancient armies rarely took very heavy casualties until they broke and ran and therefore it has become fashionable to not remove any figures but just track some form of unit effectiveness measure. This allows practical and often very attractive multi-figure stands but I think that actually laying down figures has a more visceral effect on a player, a reminder that there are dead and wounded men before his avatar on the field. I also think it has more of a toy soldier feel which I like. So I remove or mark casualties. That doesn’t mean they are all dead and wounded though, it is also the overall effect of fear and fatigue, in effect, its another way, simple though probably not scientifically accurate, of tracking that nebulous quality, a unit’s cohesion or effectiveness. So when a unit gets a chance to rest and succeeds in recovering some of its casualties, I’m not actually thinking of hoplites with a dramatic bandages wrapped around their heads rejoining the ranks, its just that the rest and the work of the leaders in exhorting their men is having an effect of raising the units effectiveness.

It is customary to include points values in ancient rules to allow opposing armies to be “balanced” , but I have never met a point system where all troops were equally worth their points so I am not going to bother. Most of my games are either, unbalanced raids, ambushes and advance guard scuffles or else based loosely on historical battles with scaled down forces. If you have trouble agreeing on reasonable forces then try having one player define the forces and let the other player choose sides.

Last but not least, not every situation will be catered for so be prepared to improvise. If something doesn’t look or feel right, you may want to over ride a rule temporarily. If a situation arises and consensus can’t be reached, opposing players should state their case and dice to see whose opinion will prevail. Anyone who uses these rules is welcome, encouraged rather, to send me comments, questions and criticisms but is also welcome to make changes and additions to suit themselves. I will, however, pass on Joe Morschauser’s exhortation to let your opponent know of any changes BEFORE a game starts.

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PREPARING FOR BATTLE

1) ORGANIZATION: This game was designed to be played with individual toy soldiers but if you have multiple figures fixed to a base they can be used as long as you can mark casualties in someway (caps, wound markers etc). Movement trays holding a number of figures may also be used as a convenience. Soldiers must be organized into units including a leader. A standard unit is 12 cavalry, skirmishers or light infantry or 24 other infantry but larger or smaller units may be used if desired. (for example a late manipular legion might be fielded as 5 heavy infantry (hastate, princeps and triari) and 2 light infantry units (velites), while an opposing pike phalanx might take the field as 2x36 man units. Miniatures should look like what they are meant to be but no account is taken of individual weapon variations and officers, standard bearers and musicians are treated the same as the majority of the unit. All members of the unit must stay together and do the same thing.

2) GENERALS. Each army is commanded by one General. He may be assisted by subordinate generals who command a portion of the army which is assigned to them at the start of the game. The over all commander may order or join any unit but a subordinate can only do so to the units assigned to him.

3) UNIT TYPES: Troops are classified in several ways, the main one is by function, how the units are equipped and trained to fight. This can be modified by their training, enthusiasm and discipline as well by minor differences in armour and weapons. Troops must be slotted into one of the following categories. If the unit you wish to represent does not fit any of the categories, you must pick the closest or write your own amendments. The term infantry will apply to all figures fighting on foot, cavalry are all figures fighting from chariots, horseback or from camels, special troops include elephants, artillery and various oddities that may crop up. Skirmishers, light infantry and light cavalry are all light troops.

a) Skirmishers: Infantry who operate in a loose formation, using bows, slings and javelins to inflict damage from a distance and avoiding hand to hand combat. In many armies these are not regular soldiers but are youths not ready for the battle line, camp followers or the like but in some cases they are the main fighting strength of mountain tribes or are well paid mercenaries etc.

b) Light Infantry: Lightly equipped infantry who are trained and equipped to fight hand to hand as well as using missiles. Most often they are equipped with javelin, shield and sword or spear but less often they may be archers or a mix of archers and sword or spearmen.

c) Medium Infantry: Infantry relying on a combination of missile fire and hand to hand combat but not heavily armoured and are not typically trained to fight in tightly ordered ranks but more as individuals. They will normally rely on shields for defence but may have some armour Typical examples would include Persian spear and bow units and Celtic infantry with throwing spears and sword. Most mixed spear and bow units will fall into this category to reflect their reliance on missile fire.

d) Heavy Infantry: Infantry trained and equipped to fight hand to hand in close ranks. Typically the front ranks at least are heavily armoured and carry large shields. Most are armed with spears and pikes but Roman legionaires will fall into this category as well.

e) Light Cavalry: Cavalry operating in a loose formation or a swarm of small parties, relying on bow or javelin fire to disrupt and avoiding hand to hand combat unless it is to their advantage.

f) Medium Cavalry: Massed cavalry, camelry or chariots usually relying on javelins or bows to weaken the enemy but also trained and equipped to charge if an opening appears. Usually they will have some armour or carry shields.

g) Heavy Cavalry: Armoured shock cavalry and heavy chariots whose main tactic is a charge to contact. Cataphracts are a subset of heavy cavalry, heavily armoured men mounted on armoured horses. In theory the armour gives them very good protection but makes them slow as does the clumsy formations sometimes adopted for them. In practice their clumsiness in melee seems to have countered the additional protection and so I am going to lump them in with other heavy shock cavalry.

h) Elephants: War elephants using a mixture of terror and missile fire to disrupt the enemy as well as smashing enemy infantry in melee. Elephants are particularly effective against cavalry but are prone to panic if they or their driver are wounded and are a risk to their own army if they do so.Each elephant is usually a separate unit.

i) Artillery: is rare in the field but was occasionally lighter engines were used. It is not very mobile but can wear down and disrupt the enemy at a distance. Larger engines should be treated as immobile.

4) UNIT QUALITY: The average unit is assumed to be composed of men who know how to handle their weapons and how to behave. The level of training, experience and enthusiasm could vary widely but only 2 exceptions are made in these rules:

a) Elite: These are units of picked veteran troops who can be relied on to perform better than average. They will often have more training or indoctrination (as with barbarian nobles) but also have experience and mental and physical toughness that will allow them to show a higher standard of courage than other units and the experience to handle unexpected or unfavorable situations without panicking. Having fancy clothes and political influence or an impetuous assault is not enough to qualify as elite.

b) Levy: These are unreliable troops, they may be enthusiastic but untrained, or may be disaffected or poorly led which will lead to a tendency to fall into disorder and robs troops of courage.

5) HITS: Hits represent fatigue, fear and a general loss of combat ability in addition to actual wounds. Normally each hit causes a figure to be removed. Artillery, chariots and elephants are removed when all of the human crew are hit.

6) SPECIAL UNIT RULES. The rules only list very generic unit types based primarily on function and variations are assumed to equal out (for example extra armour decreases physically vulnerability but also increases fatigue). Players are welcome to agree on new unit types or special rules to add flavour and complexity for specific campaigns. For example, Celtic medium infantry may be given +1 bonus in melee until they lose or tie a round but they are not allowed to use the recovery rule. Well drilled troops will often end up being classified as elite but if you want to portray a heavy infantry unit that you feels is well drilled but not superior in combat or morale then you could allow them to use the elite bonus on disorder tests when doing a maneuver but no where else.

7) FORMATIONS: Figures must stay with their units. Heavy and medium troops should remain base to base, light troops should remain within an inch of each other. Rather than delve deeply into all the formations likely to have been used by all the nations of the ancient world, I leave it up to the player to deploy his troops as historically as pleases him and warn that an attempt to lead them through fancy maneuvers brings a risk of disorder and disaster.

8) UNIT ASPECT. The area directly to the front of a unit is its Front. The area reaching from directly to the right of a unit, around behind it to its left is its flank or rear. There is no special name for the area which is neither front nor flank or rear.

9) TERRAIN: Terrain may affect movement and visibility. Under movement, ratios are applied proportionally so that a unit of infantry might move half their move (3”) in the open then enter a section of broken ground and then move the second ½ of their move at ½ speed (1.5”). Some terrain will block line of sight but terrain like woods does not provide cover to units which are visible and in a position to shoot out. (An individual might hide behind a tree between shots but several ranks of archers can’t fire effectively from the middle of a wood )

a) Broken terrain: This is all terrain which is passable to most troops but not ideal. It includes streams, rocky or steep slopes, open woods, cultivated fields, especially if bounded by hedges or walls and the like. A linear obstacle will count as a minimum of 1” wide. Terrain which is man high will block the line of sight. Troops which are on the edge may be seen. Troops back from the edge are assumed to post sentries and thus be aware of what is happening but cannot shoot or be shot at or charged from outside. If 2 units are in the same area of terrain they may see each other at 1” distance.

b) Difficult terrain: This is terrain which is impractical for most troops. Steep, rocky slopes, forests, marshes and so forth.

c) Rivers: Minor streams and difficult fords are classed as broken terrain. Good fords are classed as clear terrain. Most other rivers are impassible to bodies of troops except for fords and bridges. Specialist river crossing units may usually cross as a difficult obstacle.

d) Villages, cities and forts: Villages are best represented by a base with a few small buildings and walls placed on it. The whole is treated as an area of broken ground that blocks line of sight. Larger cities and forts or fortified camps will usually have an exterior wall. Any buildings within a city wall will represent city blocks and be considered difficult. The inside of a fort would be broken instead. The wall will provide hard cover from shooting and in hand to hand combat and can only be attacked by infantry which we will assume have improvised some way to escalade or have been provided with ladders by a general with foresight. The game master may declare high city or fortress walls to be impassible without special equipment. Gates can always be assaulted. A city or fort will usually be criss-crossed by roads and contain open squares all of which will count as clear terrain.

e) Roads: Although roads exist, they are of little concern for troop movements except to mark the best route to follow.

PLAYING THE GAME

SEQUENCE OF PLAY: Each turn consists of the following phases which are carried out in this order:

Initiative: At the start of each turn, each commanding general rolls 1 die, If one side is higher, he has the initiative and may choose to move first or second for that turn. If it is a tie, repeat the previous turn’s sequence except that on the first turn of the game you must re-roll until someone wins.
^1st Player move: The player going first may move any of his units one at a time, subject to the rules, making any tests required.
2^nd Player move: The player going second may now move any of his units subject to the rules, making any tests required.
Shooting: All units on both sides which are eligible to shoot may do so simultaneously. Any required tests are taken once all shooting has been done.
Melee: All units on both sides which are eligible, will fight in melee simultaneously. Once all the fighting is done, work out the results and make after combat retreats and tests. If two retreating units interfere with each other, players who moved first will decide which unit retreats first, otherwise all after melee retreats are treated as simultaneous.
Pursuit: Once all melees have been resolved, the player who moved first may conduct pursuits followed by the player who moved second.
End of turn: Both sides do any end of turn activities such as casualty recovery or as called for by the scenario. Once this phase is over, start the next turn.

MOVEMENT:

a. Orders: Units are assumed to normally move in accordance with orders from their general whether shouted at them or conveyed by signals or messengers or sometimes in accordance with a display of initiative by their unit commander. If the general is occupied or too far away, a unit may not move when it is desired. If at the start of a turn, the general issuing the order was more than 12” away or is engaged in melee then roll 1 die when the unit attempts to move and consult the orders chart:

ORDERS CHART
4,5,6	Obey, the unit moves as ordered
1,2,3	Hold position. no movement.
0	Fallback 1 move
Die Modifiers
+1	Unit is Elite
-1	Unit is Levy
-1	Enemy to flank or rear within 12”
-2	Unit has suffered 50% losses

b. Move Distances: Units may move up to the maximum distance as shown below, they do not have to move the full amount but no individual in the unit may move farther than the full amount.

MOVEMENT CHART
UNIT	BASIC	BROKEN GROUND	VERY DIFFICULT GROUND
Skirmishers, Light Infantry	12”	No effect	½ speed
Medium and Heavy Infantry	6”	½ speed	Impassible
Light Cavalry	24”	1/3 speed	Impassible
Medium and Heavy Cavalry	18”	1/3 speed	Impassible
Generals	As type
Artillery, Wagons	6”	Impassible	Impassible

Advance: Any unit may wheel up to 90 degrees and then advance straight forward in good order as long as no individual moves more then their full move including the distance moved during the wheel.
Maneuver: Any unit may make any other movement such as moving to the flank, falling back while maintaining their facing, changing formation and so forth as long as no individual moves more than their full move but the unit must take a disorder test after moving. If there was an enemy within 12” at any point during the turn then it must apply the modifier for enemy within 12” even if this isn’t true at the time of the test.
Charges:

i. A unit may only charge into contact with the enemy by making an advance.

ii. If any part of the charging unit begins or ends its move in front of the unit being charged then it is a frontal charge and once contact is made the attacker will align with the front of the charged unit as closely as possible. This alignment is a free, extra move.

iii. Skirmishers, artillery and baggage may not charge.

iv. A unit which has been charged this turn is pinned and may not move until the melee phase.

Doubling: A heavy or medium infantry move may advance at double its normal rate but may not shoot or charge and must take a disorder test after moving.
Moving through friends: Skirmishers may move through any friendly unit without penalty. Any unit may move through skirmishers or artillery. If other units move through each other then both must take a disorder test counting as a maneuver.
Retreating. A unit forced to retreat must attempt to move as far away as possible from all enemy, if unable to retreat without coming within 1” of enemy then it will surrender. Normally it will head for the nearest board edge as long as this does not take it nearer to enemy. If it meets friends it will go through them forcing them to take a disorder test except that skirmishers do not force other troops to test. If a retreating unit reaches the board edge it will halt but if it starts at the board edge then it will leave the table for good.
Generals: Generals may move their full move in any direction and pass through any friendly unit or be passed through without penalty unless he has an escort of more than 1 figure in which case the normal rules apply. If a general moves to join a unit this must be made obvious and be declared. He may only move once per turn.

SHOOTING :

Dice: Roll 1 die per 4 figures ignoring fractions. Artillery, elephants and chariots roll 1 die each until destroyed but artillery may not fire if it moved this turn. Count all figures of light units but only ½ of the figures in the first 3 ranks of medium units. In mixed bow and spear units, both types of figure are included. For example a unit of 12 spearmen and 12 archers arranged 3 deep will fire 3 dice. Regardless of modifiers, a natural 6 always hits, a natural 1 always misses. Shooting is simultaneous so that figures hit this turn are still included when counting how many dice to roll. Remove all hits once all shooting is finished.
Targets: A unit must attempt to engage the closest enemy unit or, if 2 or more units are equally close, must split its fire and engage as many as possible of the closest units. A general may only be fired at if he is one of the closest targets. If he has joined a unit and that unit is a target for 2 or more dice then 1 die may be shot at him.
Line of Fire: Measure from the center of a unit’s front rank to the closest point of the target. Some part of the target must be in front of the firing unit except that light cavalry may shoot in any direction. There must be a clear line of fire not blocked by terrain or troops of either side.

SHOOTING CHART
RANGE	WEAPON
24”	Artillery
12”	Bow or sling
6”	Javelin
HIT ON	IF TARGET IS
5,6	Heavy infantry, Heavy Cavalry, Elephants, Artillery.
4,5,6	Medium infantry or cavalry
3,4,5,6	Light troops
	Modifiers
+1	Elite	-1	Levy
+1	Firing at enemy flank or rear	-1	Target is skirmishers or defending a fort or city wall

A unit in contact with the enemy may not shoot or be shot at. Melee resolution includes shooting during a charge and over head firing during a prolonged melee.
Disordered units count ½ the normal number of dice rounding down.

MELEE: Melee is resolved if opposing units are in contact during the melee phase.

Evades. Cavalry which are in contact with infantry and any light troops in contact with any enemy may about face and retreat a full move instead of fighting. They must take a disorder test after moving.
Dice:

i. Roll 1 die for every 4 infantry or 2 cavalry figures rounding down. Elephants, chariots, artillery and baggage roll 1 die for each model.

ii. Count all of the figures in the front 3 ranks if fighting only to the front and not in broken or difficult terrain or assaulting a wall in which case only figures in contact are counted.

iii. Disordered troops count ½ the normal number of dice as do any units except light infantry or skirmishers in broken terrain.

iv. Fighting is simultaneous so that hits inflicted by the enemy are not removed until after both sides have rolled their dice.

Generals: A unit led by a general adds 1 die. 1 enemy die may be rolled against him. If he is hit he is removed. If the unit he is leading is defeated that turn, then he is captured for campaign purposes.

MELEE CHART (regardless of modifiers a natural 6 always hits, a natural 1 always misses)
HIT ON		IF TARGET IS
5,6		Heavy Infantry, Heavy Cavalry, Elephants, Generals
4,5,6		Medium Infantry or Medium Cavalry
3,4,5,6		Other troops


Die Modifiers
+1	Unit is Elite		-1	Unit is levy, skirmishers, artillery baggage, or is mounted on camels
+1	Fighting enemy flank or rear or if pursuing or if light infantry fighting an elephant or heavy chariot		-1	Enemy is uphill or defending an obstacle such as a ditch or wall.
+1

Melee Result. If a unit receives more hits than it inflicts then it will recoil 1” then must take a disorder test.
Pursuit. If a unit is not disordered and all of a unit’s melee opponents retreat or evade then it may advance a full move during the pursuit phase and may charge. If it charges into contact then the target is pinned until the melee phase of the next turn. A unit which pursues must take a disorder test after moving.

DISORDER TEST: When a disorder test is called for roll 1 die and check the modified result against the chart. Test if:

Disordered at the start of its move unless in melee.
After a maneuver, double, evade or pursuit
If friends other than skirmishers retreat through
If cavalry moves to within 6” of an elephant or camel or has one move to within 6” of them. Check as soon as this happens.
Lost 25% of current strength to shooting in 1 turn or was hit by artillery shooting

DISORDER CHART
4,5,6	Unit is in good order.
1,2,3	Unit halts in disorder. No move this turn.
0	Unit panics, immediately retreat a double move going through any friends met then remove the unit. Elephants which panic roll 1 die, on a 1,2 they veer 45 degrees left after turning about, on 5,6 they veer 45 degrees right. They will roll dice as if in melee against any unit of either side that they meet.
Die Modifiers
+1	Unit is Elite	-1	Unit is levy
+1	General has joined unit	-1	Enemy to flank or rear within 12”
		-2	Lost 50% of original strength

RECOVERY: Since hits represent not only physical wounds but also fatigue, fear and other factors which lead to a loss of cohesion. Given a respite, a unit might be able to recover somewhat. When a unit suffers hits, place them aside or mark them as temporary. If a unit does not move or shoot, was not shot at and was not in melee this turn and is not disordered, then during the end of turn phase it may roll on the recovery chart.

RECOVERY CHART
4,5,6	½ of casualties are recovered rounding down
1,2,3	No casualties are recovered.
0	Al casualties are lost permanently
Die Modifiers
+1	Unit is Elite	-1	Unit is levy
+1	General has joined unit	-1	Enemy to flank or rear within 12”
		-2	Lost 50% of original strength

REPLACING GENERALS: If a general is wounded by shooting or in melee he is removed. During the end of turn phase of the next turn roll 1 die. On a 4,5,6 he is replaced, either he has recovered from a minor wound or stunning blow or someone else has taken charge. If he fails to return roll again during the next end of turn phase until he is replaced. When he is replaced, he will be placed with his bodyguard if he had one. If not then he may be placed with any unit of his army but your opponent has the right to insist that you spin the tale of how he came to be there.