Trebbia using To The Strongest

The Romans advance and are met by the Carthaginians mid table

Last week we fought the battle of Trebbia using the set up described in the last post. The battle worked very well and gave a largely historical outcome but, and there is a big but, it wasn't much fun for the Roman player - I had hamstrung them to such an extent that a historic massacre was inevitable.

The battle begins, the Romans can't hit a barn door and the Carthaginians can't save the few that do.

One thing that did work much better than in previous games, is the way Roman maniples work. The new rules for Polybian Romans gave them much better staying power. I'm still not sure if its enough though. I wonder if the hastati and principes should change places automatically on a disorder result - the Romans seemed very adept at this - and just have a standard activation to rally. A few more games should tell (and I suppose it depends how pro-Republican Roman you are!). 

The Roman cavalry is vastly outnumbered and stands little chance

When I came to look at the set up in post mortem, I discovered a few things that I had set up in error. I had looked at the map, set up the figures in accordance with it, and as it looked right I decided quite arbitrarily that it would do. It was a very quickly set up game by someone not all that familiar with devising TTS scenarios.

At the first clash the hastati lead. They manage to change around with the principes a few times in the game.

I have gone back to the scenario and this time set it up using a little more mathematics. In doing so the numbers of troops has been altered, especially for the Carthaginians.

The Roman cavalry is all but finished and the Romans are soon to be surrounded, then Mago turns up in the Roman rear.

We will refight the wargame again this Wednesday. 

This time I think the Romans should fair better. I have penalised them in only two ways. The infantry and cavalry count all activations as difficult due to either fatigue (the cavalry had chased the lighter more agile Numudians around all morning) or cold and hunger (the infantry had not eaten and they had just crossed, a chest deep, freezing cold river). I have also downrated the Allied infantry to raw. In reality, the spread of training would be less ascribed to a specific element of the army but, as the centre did better on the day, this seems the easiest way to do it.

TREBBIA: A scenario for TTS

According to my Osprey, the Roman army comprised 36,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. The Carthaginian army comprised 29,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry.

On the table I have 576 Roman and 520 Carthaginian infantry - which comes to an infantry figure scale of 1:55 for both. I have 64 Roman cavalry and 160 Carthaginian cavalry - which comes to a figure scale of 1:62.5 for both. Given the fact that the game does not count heads, the figure scales are close enough for me.

Using TSS 'hit points' (1 for lights, 2 for standard size, and 3 for large) the scales are, for infantry and cavalry, Romans 1:1028 and 1:500 ; Carthaginians 1:1115 and 1:500. This is probably where, in game terms, the figures are more important and again they are close enough for me. Cavalry points, being twice the value of infantry looks right in game terms but, for the life of me, outside of typical wargame convention, I don't know why that's so.

The order of battle below details the scenario notes. Otherwise, definitions are taken directly off the Army List sheet. I will not repeat the history of the battle which can be easily found elsewhere.

Roman (my TTS wargame) Order of Battle

Sempronius: Senoir commander. 4 Heroes to assign. No spare ammunition chits.

Left wing: 2 units of Latini cavalry. All activations are 'difficult' due to due to fatigue.

Centre left:  Consular Army infantry: 4 units of Velites, 4 units of Hastati, 4 units of Principes, 4 units of Triarii. Half are Roman half are Allied: The two triple acies in the centre are Roman, the two outer acies are Allied. The Allied infantry have been downgraded to raw. Both Romans and Allies count all activations as 'difficult' due to cold and hunger.

Centre right:  Consular Army infantry: 4 units of Velites, 4 units of Hastati, 4 units of Principes, 4 units of Triarii. Half are Roman half are Allied: The two triple acies in the centre are Roman, the two outer acies are Allied.Allied infantry have been downgraded to raw. Both Romans and Allies count all activations as 'difficult' due to cold and hunger.

Right Wing: 1 unit of Roman cavalry, 1 unit of Extraordinarii cavalry and 1 large unit of Gauls. Commander is Heroic (because Scipio, later Africanus, was here). All activations are 'difficult' due to due to cold and hunger or fatigue.

Note: I have place the Extraordinarii on the right wing. I have done this because although it is often stated that, as a rule, Roman cavalry was on the right and the Allied cavalry was on the left, I cannot find any examples where Rome's enemies matched / countered this deployment by weighting their right. Surely, if Rome habitually put three quarters of its cavalry on their left wing it would have caused pause for thought? 

When reading about Polybian Romans I came across two pieces of information that, put together, might equalise the deployment - 50% of the cavalry on each wing. Firstly, one third of the allied cavalry formed the Extraordinarii. Secondly, when states allied themselves to Rome they attracted lots of Roman immigrants who wished to increase their social standing by taking up positions that would be thought above them in Rome proper. In essence, they rose a civil rank or two, as a reward, for going to 'the provinces'; in return the allies gained Rome's trust, approval and kind regards. 

If you put these facts together, you might find a large proportion of the Extraordinarii were actually of Roman descent - nouveau 'Roman equites'? It's funny that one third of the cavalry would equalise the wings and that such a force actually existed and might be quite 'Roman' in composition. 

This is all a guess on my part, but such an unequal deployment, as a doctrine, doesn't make sense and I can't find any supporting evidence in my sources other than the statement that Roman equites were on the right - but, were they alone there?

Carthaginian (my TTS wargame) Order of Battle

Hannibal: Senior, Heroic, Brilliant commander. 6 Heroes to assign. No spare ammunition chits.

Left Wing: 1 unit of veteran Spanish cavalry, 1 unit of Spanish light cavalry, 2 units of Gallic cavalry, 2 units of Numidian light cavalry (one extra ammunition chit). Commander attached to Spanish cavalry.

Infantry Left: 1 unit of veteran African Spearmen, 1 unit of veteran Spanish Scutarii, 1 unit of escorted elephants, 1 unit of veteran Balearic slingers, 1 unit of Spanish Catratii, 1 unit of African javelinmen.

Infantry Centre: 1 large unit of Gallic warband, 2 units of Gallic Warband. Commander attached to large unit. Although two of the units are not deep (to give width of deployment) they still count difficult activations doubly difficult.

Infantry Right: Infantry left: 1 unit of veteran African Spearmen, 1 unit of veteran Spanish Scutarii, 1 unit of escorted elephants, 1 unit of veteran Balearic slingers, 1 unit of Spanish Catratii, 2 units of African javelinmen.

Right Wing: 1 unit of veteran Spanish cavalry, 1 unit of Spanish light cavalry, 2 units of Gallic cavalry, 2 units of Numidian light cavalry (one extra ammunition chit). Commander attached to Spanish cavalry.

Mago: 1 unit of veteran Spanish Scutarii, 1 unit of veteran Numidian light cavalry, 1 unit of veteran Carthaginian cavalry. Heroic commander. May arrive on the Roman baseline, anytime from the start of move four.

Note: I have chosen to give the flanking Numidian cavalry three ammunition chits each as 'almost veteran'. I think this works better than giving them all veteran status saving on 6s. 

First game of To the Strongest

Last week we played 'To the Strongest' by Simon Miller (aka BigRedBat). It was a small Punic Wars affair with a couple of armies worked out by Simon as a taster game. 

I had marked out my table with a few pins to mark the square grid, I set out the troops and terrain (rough ground counted, but the trees were just for the 'aesthetic') before the game started and Graham and Peter diced for which side they played. I have to admit that we stumbled through the game, frequently looking things up and getting things wrong anyway. This isn't a bad thing, first games are always a learning tool, and often the best way of learning is by trial and error.

Even though we played certain things wrong, the game was thoroughly entertaining. We approve of games with a  built in 'fog of war', and the basic mechanics of the game provide a great deal of this. You are never in full control of everything. A plan, and sound tactics, are essential. The game bundles along at a fair lick. Something of consequence is always happening. The card play (there are no dice in TtS) is easy and easy to follow.

Overall, we were very impressed with To the Strongest. We fought this action out to a conclusion in about two and a half hours - not bad for a first game. This week we will do it all over again. This time I'll do a proper report.

I'm going to need to sort out some new gaming aids. We had to use pennies for ammunition markers because you need so many. I'll also need to get some 'hero' markers / pieces. I'm glad that I decided to keep the decks of mini-playing cards from Christmas crackers over the years as they were just the right size; full size playing cards might be a bit big, especially if there are two units in a box.

To the Strongest are available at the following link, and thoroughly recommended:

http://bigredbatshop.co.uk/

Punic Wars figures painted

I started to paint stuff for this project in September 2009 - certainly by mid October I had painted 200 figures. Today I finished painting the last figure for my 2nd Punic War collection and tacked it to its base. There is still some basing left to do, but at least the figures are now finished. So how many are there? Roll call!

The Romans:
8 x 24 figure units of hastati,  8 x 24 figure units of principes, 8 x 12 figure units of triarii, 8 x 12 figure units of velites, 8 x 8 figure units of cavalry, and 7 command stands with 5 cavalry figures and 10 infantry figures in total. Total figures: 655 (including 74 cavalry).

The 'Africans':
8 x 24 figure units of Libyan spearmen, 1 x 24 figure unit of Numidian 'Roman trained' infantry, 7 x 8 figure units of Numidian and Libyan javelinmen, 2 x 8 figure units of 'Greek' archers, 8 x 8 figure units of Numidian cavalry, 1 x 8 figure unit of Carthaginian cavalry, 4 x elephants plus attendant crew (24 figures), and 6 command stands with a total of 11 cavalry and 2 infantry figures. Total figures: 397 (including including 83 cavalry) plus 4 elephant models.



The Spanish:
15 units of Scutarii in units of 22 to 24 figures each (341 figures total), 8 units of caetrati in units of 11 or 12 figures each (92 figures total), 4 x 8 figure units of Balearic slingers, 6 x 8 figure units of cavalry, and  5 command stands with a total of 9 cavalry and 2 infantry figures. Total figures: 524 (including 57 cavalry).

The Gauls:
18 x 22 figure units of warband, 10 x 8 figure units of cavalry, 4 x units each of 3 chariots (24 crew), 4 x 8 figure units of sling and bow armed skirmishers, and 6 command stands with a total of 4 cavalry, 8 infantry and 1 chariot with 2 crew. Total figures: 546 figures (including 84 cavalry) plus 13 chariot models.

Grand totals:
2122 men
324 horses
4 elephants
13 chariot models

I'm not sure, but I don't think I'll ever tackle this many figures as a single project again. By the end of it I hated every last one of the little bastards. Now that the painting is done I can relax and enjoy playing with them for the rest of my life.

Spanish Scutarii Finished!

At long last I've managed to find the energy to paint the bulk of the remaining Spanish. Initially I was planning on having 14 scutarii units, each on 4 stands; each unit comprising 24 figs . However, in almost every game we have played we have chosen to deploy scutarii in units of 6 stands. 56 stands does not divide by 6. I thought about it for a while, looked at what figures I had, and then decided to stretch an extra unit out of them.

With the 24 stands (each with 6 figs) I already have these 197 figures add another 36 stands - for a much more useful total of 60 stands. Of course, 19 stands only have 5 figures each on them, but as 6 stand units deploy in a double rank this does not detract too much; the 5 figure stands are at the back.

Anyway here are the newly painted scutarii. There are now 341 scutarii. There are 439 Spanish figures painted. There are only 40 caetratii, plus command stand figures, still to paint.

The figures are all Renegade. They were painted in enamels on a black undercoat. They were painted in 4 batches with each batch having a limited mix of shield colours. The whole lot were mixed before basing on 4mm ply wood bases (60mm x 60mm). I'll finish the basing when all the Spanish are finished. 

Am I a 'pin-up' ?

After some thought I decided to go for the map and pin route for our 2nd Punic War Campaign.

I have managed to find a Hannibal: Rome Vs Carthage map on the Internet. It seems not to be an original map, but one made up in a simpler format. Anyway, it was the only one I managed to print at a reasonable size (for some reason). Sticky tape not withstanding, I like it quite a lot.

I quickly knocked up some army roster sheets and found a couple of envelopes for putting any cards not used in the campaign turn between battles. Set.....

...Set, well nearly....

......I discovered that I was woefully short of pins for this campaign. 

I think that indicator pins, the ones with a circular paper centre, are essential for this campaign. These have previously been too expensive for me to consider, usually coming in at £3.50+ for a pack of 10 in 5 colours. For this game I would need 5 packs (I want only red and blue pins) with, including postage, a cost of close to £20. This is half the cost of the original boxed game! However, with Lady Luck shining on me, I managed to find a supplier knocking said 10 pin boxes out with a 90+% discount. I bought 10 boxes (100 pins - 20 of each colour) for £7.00 with postage. This is double what was required, it is true, but I have learnt over time to bag bargains when I see them, and double what I need. I purchased these through Hunt Office Technology (not tested on animals - LOL).

I also found myself short of plain push pins. This came as a bit of a surprise because I thought I had collected hundreds of the bloody things over the years - but not so (less than 30 of each colour in fact). But, I'm not short now; I bought 600 in various colours in a single pot for £6.00, free postage, from eBay. I was a little worried about these being so cheap, but the quality (for things costing 1p each) is very good.

So now I am set. I just need to finish the armies. 2000 figs painted, less than 300 to go!

I'm a'bustin'!

A night by the fire

Last night, Peter J. and I took a look at "Hannibal: Rome Vs Carthage" by Valley Games with a view to using it as the main driver for a 2nd Punic Wars miniatures campaign. It was the first time either of us had played the game. For a change of venue, and to ease play, I set the game up in my rather untidy dining room. It was below freezing outside, so I stoked up the wood burner for a toasty evening.

 

 

The board game itself is card driven. This is a mechanic both Peter and I like as it breaks the game into manageable and different U-go-I-go chunks. The game itself (I think this is a 2nd edition version) is of top quality manufacture. The jigsaw board is pretty and made of thick card. The counters are also made of thick card all with double sided artwork. A nice touch are the Roman and Carthaginian dice with their own numerals - though the Carthaginian die takes some getting used to.

We thought the game, as a game, is pretty good. The force sizes (with a multiplier) are just about right for translation to the tabletop in a miniatures campaign, and the command quality is also transferable. Post battle results and transfer back to the board would have to be consultative (regarding margin of victory and 'battle' casualties), rather than an exact science, but as most casualties seem to occur through post battle retreats this should not prove to be a problem. We played the first five turns in the course of the evening; we got a good idea of strategies that might work; we discovered a lot of things not to do in general play, you know, things which only become apparent that way. 

We think it will work quite well as a campaign driver for table-top battles and plan to proceed with a campaign very soon - as soon as I finish painting and basing the Spanish troops (350 down, 150 to go). I might also scan the web for rule ammendments people use.

The one problem we had, and that will have to be overcome one way or another, is keeping all the bits on the board between campaign sessions; especially as I have a kitten in the house - seen [below] retreating under the table after spilling a deck of cards and the consul election pot. I'm not sure if I should build a low, flat, lidded storage box to put the game in, or photocopy the map and stick it to a cork notice board and use map pins. The former would be useful long term and for other board games played as board games over a few weeks. The latter might be better for running a tabletop campaign over a few months. That is one to ponder.

Go Telyermum!

I will, of course, be using the Ager Proelii rules set recently published in Miniature Wargames (issue 345 January 2012) to fight this Telamon style scenario.
After deployment, I rolled D12s for army die and command quality for each side’s command group leaders. The Gallic army came off best with a D12 army die and sequence deck. The Romans got a D10 army die and deck. Leadership rolls were very average for both sides.

 

Next I totted up the unit integrity of both armies. The Gallic army mustered only 100 unit integrity points. The combined Roman armies mustered a whopping 150 unit integrity. This disparity is largely due to the larger units making up the Gallic army – larger units gain a smaller number of unit integrity in relation to their size than ‘standard’ sized units.

Dividing the unit integrity value by 12 gave the number of army characterisation cards that each army would receive: Gallic 8. Roman 12.

The characterisation cards gave the Gallic army 43 army morale chips (poker chips in the photo) and two characterisation sequence cards – Wild Card and Aggressive.



Note that the pictured sequence cards are not the ones published with the rules in Miniature Wargames (which are quite plain), these are my personal decks (for my own use) that feature pictures downloaded from google images. Covering my arse, I think they might not be all available under copyright permissions – but who knows?

 

The Romans got 61 army morale chips and three characterisation sequence cards – Like Hail, Deft Cavalry, and By Saturn!!

The game is now set to go. I’ll leave you with a few extra close up shots.

Telyermum

I've set up the following battle, which I'm calling Telyermum, to be fought next Wednesday night. I thought is was time to fight a battle without a Carthaginian element, and so I came up with this.

The dispositions are loosely based on the battle of Telamon 225BC. It was at this battle that an army sized Gallic raiding force of 50 - 70,000 men was attacked, as it retreated back to Transalpine Gaul with its loot, by more than 100,000 Romans and allies attacking from two directions.

The most interesting fact about the battle is recreated in my scenario - the Gallic army is facing in two directions and fighting back to back against the Roman pincer movement. I have chosen to fight slightly more evenly matched forces and given the Gallic army better defencive terrain.

All figures are Renegade. The Gallic army is 12 chariots, 80 cavalry, 396 war band infantry plus command stands. The Roman army is 64 cavalry, 576 infantry plus command stands.

A lot of Gaul - Gallic Army finished(ish)

Except for a few bases which need to be inked, dry brushed, flocked and tufted the Gallic army is finished. All figures are Renegade Miniatures. All figures are painted in enamels. Here it is (not deployed for battle):

 The Cavalry: 80 horsemen, based in twos on 45mm x 75mm bases.

Chariots and command figures: 12 chariots based on 60mm x 100mm. 6 command stands on circular bases.

War band figures: 396 Gallic warriors based on 72 stands, each 60mm x 60mm (half have 5 figs, half have 6 figs). 32 skirmishers armed with bows and slings mounted two to a base, each 60mm x 40mm (these skirmish types will not get used much as they normally only figured when besieged).



Next up, the Spanish need to be completed.