The history of the latter part of this battle is sketchy; much of Scrotivius' history has been lost to the ravages of time. Only the following is known:
"......and then the Romans of the second legion, knowing their fate was sealed, attacked downhill with such vigour that they threw back the mercenaries facing them."
".....The second legion drove the enemy to the river but were unable to rout the enemy; isolated, the second legion was slaughtered."
Hasdrubal somehow managed to lose 2CU in what was the most one sided battle so far! This deserves some explanation, so here is Scrotivious again:
"Many of Hasdrubal's soldiers, having filled their boots with loot, promptly deserted."
9 comments:
Great game as usual.
BTW. When you place two pictures in one line, only one of them opens in new window. The second remains small.
Wow! A cornacopia of conflict! I am sitting down with relish to feast upon your wonderful meal here James,
Respectfully,
Gunny
James,
Played our first game of Ager Proelii last week. I have a two part question. 1st, when a victorious unit "occupies the ground" how far does it go? We had two seperate units, one was a frontal victory and the other was a flank attack; crossing the "T" so to speak. How much ground does the flanking unit take after victory? By the way, neither melee did the winning unit have to pursue. (Even rolls) Secondly, in the first melee (frontal) due to the unit taking ground, it moved and touched another enemy unit. Does this touch off another melee? Or can the unit touch that unit at all? I ruled it as a melee, but not until the next melee card. Your comments would be appreciated.
Respectfully,
Gunny
Hi Gunny,
Taking ground after routing a unit is a controlled movement; the unit can contact another enemy unit in doing so. A new card will be needed to resolve the contact (see quote below) and determine which side counts as initiating.
"Each friendly unit can only declare one melee on a 'melee' card regardless of the number of enemy units with which it is in contact."
The taken ground is the space occupied by the enemy bases. This rule was actually included to allow a winning unit (that is not following up or in pursuit), to take walls, etc., or to gain / negate a terrain advantage. We generally only take ground if it gives a significant benefit.
The point made about non-pursuing flankers is interesting. We allow them to occupy the ground under the first enemy stand only.
On the subject of flank melee, read Vexed Status on page 10 (X)point 3. I should have restated this in the melee section, but as a magazine article the rules were too long for such repetition.
Anyway, I hope that helps; I hope you enjoyed the game. What did you think of the rules?
Best Regards,
James
James,
Thanx for the clarifications. I really do like the rules a lot. They caught me eye right away and liked the structure immensely. I gave a short speech as it were about a change of paradigm that must be arrived at to play these rules. Gamers tend to want control and use parade ground precision in all there manuevers and combats. Although I have used picquet om the past, I felt it was too chaotic. But when I perused your version of them, I saw a good equalibrium between the two types of rules. I was concerned how my group would feel about this system. However, I cautioned them against knee jerk reactions to just one sitting of them. I have one out of three that feels just pulling each card is not enough control so we are looking at holding a hand of cards instead, like the campaign rules. I feel, however, its way too early to reach any conclusion about making changes at this point. Have you considered forming your own yahoo group about your version? This may be a sore subject since you got permission from the pee kay group as it were. Keep up the good work, hope you dont mind fielding some more questions in the future....
Respectfully,
Gunny
James,
Just a few more thoughts... If you dont mind :) My group have played miniatures for approximately 30 years. We have a philosophy about rules I wanted to share. We believe there are three phases to a ruleset.First, getting to know the rules basic structure. Second, moving past the structure and developing strategies within the structure of the rules. And thirdly, which ,if your patient, the joy in master play when all elements of the rules, strategy and play come together for an exceptional experience. To get to three takes patience and time. We have played TACTICA for almost 20 years and have had some exciting match ups. But the approach with that ruleset is completely different from Ager Proelii. Especially in the approach to what develops in a turn. That is what caught my attention to your ruleset, is the crisis management per se of this rule set. Which I believe, is closer to real warfare than the I GO YOU GO approach of most ancient rules. Well, Ive expounded enough for now,
Respectfully,
Gunny
Hi Gunny,
The rules are largely based on Piquet Inc's "Field of Battle" by Brent O. plus some bits from classic "Piquet" by Bob J.
Piquet Inc might want to do an "Olicana's Compendium" at some future date (it has been discussed), so a Yahoo group is out of the question; especially as the rules can be freely discussed in the forum of the Yahoo Piquet Group.
James,
Forgot to mention I have done a map, cards, etc. for your campaign rules that are tailored for the Punic War. I will try to leave them on the Picquet Yahoo group file so you can see them. I dont go to as many conventions as I used to but plan to promote the rules at these events. Perhaps a T shirt to promote is in my project files......:)
Respectfully,
Gunny
James,
Just a FYI, I uploaded the Punic War campaign map and appropriate cards on the Picquet Yahoo Groups file section. Also put on there the army roster for the celts. I did not do the romans as the file capacity is full. When they clear it out somewhat I will put the romans on there too.
Respectfully,
Gunny
Post a Comment