Sorting the Subjects - Thracians

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)

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

Optional Rules

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

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

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. 

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