Campaign turn 2 / 3 and the Battle of Pisae

Following the Battle of Trebbia there is a lull in the fighting as both sides seek to improve and consolidate their positions. It turns out that Rome has few cards on which it can activate its generals and Carthage fails to take advantage. 

(C = Carthage, R = Rome, # = Strategy card ID number played)

C4: Carthage places three political control (PC) markers in Corsica Sardinia and gains majority control of the islands.

R46: Event "Recruit Auxiliaries". Scipio is reinforced with 2 CU.

C42: Rome lost control of Croton in Lucania due to the political repercussions of  Battle of Trebbia - Carthage takes control of the port.

R61: PC marker placed in Alena (Corsica).

C50: Event "Adriatic Pirates". Hanno hires fast pirate ships to transport him to Croton. (The cards and circumstances are falling nicely for Carthage).

R58: PC marker in Arni in Apulia (lost due to the political repercussions of  Battle of Trebbia).

C5: Hanno marches to Panormus in Sicily.

R15: PC marker in Nice (Massilia).

C55: PC marker flipped in Panormus in Sicily and a PC marker is put in Nuoro in Idubeda (Spain).

R31: PC marker in Druentia (Gaul).

C63: PC markers in Narbo, Emporae and Nemausus (Massilia).

R7: PC marker in Rhone.

Turn 3.

Political Consequences of Turn 2: Rome loses 2 PC markers (Druentia and Rhone).

Roman Elections: Flaminius is made Proconsul in Rome. Paulus and Fabius are elected as Consuls. Fabius takes over the army in the north, Paulus controls the army in Rome.

R37: Rome plays first with a "Minor Campaign" card. Flaminius sails from Rome to Sassar on Sardinia. Paulus marches north to Pisae dropping a CU at Cosa as he goes.

C52: Event "Pestilence". Fabius loses 2 CU.

R44: Event "Recruit Auxiliaries". Fabius reinforced with 2 CU.

C3: Hanno atempts to march back into southern Italy but Rome counters with a bad weather card and he is halted at Messana.

R30: PC markers in Cosa and Pisa (Etruria) and Sassar (Sardinia).

C26: Event "Syracuse Allies with Carthage". Wow!!!

R21: Flaminius tours Sardinia (Sassar to Sassar) dropping a CU at Garales and Nuoro.

C34: Major Campaign card. Hanno marches to Heraclea. Mago leaves Hannibal and moves onto Nice. Hannibal marches south and attacks Paulus at Pisae.

THE BATTLE OF PISAE

Paulus 8 CU plus 2 CU for allies.
Hannibal 7 CU plus 1 CU for allies.

Hannibal plays Ally Deserts and takes a CU off Paulus. They will have 9 CU each.

Hannibal will have a hand of 7 Commands and Colors cards. Paulus will have a hand of 5 cards.

 Both sides deploy. The deployment is not balanced. Note the lines of small yellow pin heads which mark the Commands and Colors table sectors (left right centre) - they are small enough to be unobtrusive but large enough not to go unnoticed.

 Rome goes for an unbalanced deployment with weight in the centre and on their right.

 Carthage opens hostilities with a rapid attack against the lightly held Roman left.

 Rome presses an attack on their right.

 The centres advance upon each other and the skirmishers do their worst.

 Carthage commands the summit of the hill in their centre left...

 ....and makes a strong flanking attack from the direction of the hill in their centre right. Here the Romans are hard pressed. 

The Romans swing onto the opposite wing of Carthage - the battle is slowly turning anti-clockwise.

 Carthage is winning on their right.

 The centre is yet to come fully to grips.

 Rome holds a marginal advantage on their own right.

The battle will be continued next Wednesday evening.

Second Punic War Campaign - The Battle of the Trebbia

P. Scipio marched his troops out of there camp and offered battle north of the Trebbia. Hannibal accepted the challenge.

Army size: I worked out the armies (I do have something to do in the campaign other than write its history) using CU strength for army size - Rome 12 vs Carthage 9. I started with the Romans as they have a fixed army organisation. I decided to give them 6 legions (30 four stand units) and scaled Carthage accordingly.

P. Scipio: He has a campaign battle rating of 2. His army has two generals and will get a hand of 6 C&C cards. He requires 12 victory flags to win.

Hannibal: He has a battle rating of 4. His army has three generals and will get a hand of 8 C&C cards. Because he is Hannibal (in the board game he gets an extra combat bonus) he will be allowed to play two C&C cards, back to back, but only once, during the game. He requires 15 victory flags to win.

 The battle began with skirmishing by both sides. Carthage gained a marginal advantage.

 The Roman infantry, deployed in triplex acies advanced steadily. The battle will be decided in the centre. 

Despite repeated cavalry charges the battle on the wings is fought out to little advantage to either side. It wastes much effort - especially that of Rome.  

In the centre the battle weighs heavily in favour of Carthage. Carthage plays several 'order centre' cards, 'order medium troops' cards and 'line command' cards one after another until the the Roman centre buckles, then collapses (as it happens these are the only cards Carthage has). Carthage gains its 15 victory banners for the loss of 6 of its own.

Post battle, the result is transposed to the map board. Rome loses 5 CU and 2 political control markers. Scipio retreats to Mutina. Hannibal loses 1 CU.

To be continued..........

A Second Punic War Campaign

Last night we started a new 2nd Punic War wargame campaign. Peter is playing Carthage and Graham is playing Rome. 

We will be using the board game Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage for the strategic part of the campaign - the victory conditions, map moves and general narrative. The game is ideally suited to this. It is a card driven game and each card can be used to activate generals for movement and action, or to undertake diplomacy (in an abstract way), or to initiate events such as grand political strategy, espionage, and acts of god. 

'Events' are the key to a good campaign as they add spice to the campaign's narrative but they can, if left unchecked (and up to the player's imagination), unbalance a campaign, or even make it rediculous. The events on the campaign cards in this game are historically based, nicely limited, and fair.

Before the campaign started we decided to use Commands and Colors, with the amendments for hex-less use in Slingshot (magazine issue 271 which I penned in 2010), to fight the tabletop encounters. 

In the last weeks, I have read some battle reports where Pulse of Battle (the new rules by Brent Oman of Piquet Inc.) have been used. These looked very good, so I obtained a copy - and later in the campaign we may well switch.

Ager Proelii might, of course, get a look in too.

The map at the start. Note the tables (right) showing army strength in CUs. Also note the envelopes (top) which will be used to store unused campaign cards whilst battles are being fought.

TURN 1. (Note: C is Carthage's card; R is Rome's card; # is the specific campaign card (cards in the game are numbered 1 - 64).

C31: Hannibal moves to Narbo.
R13: Longus crosses the Sraits of Messena to Italy.
C55: Carthage starts to take political control of Idubeda in Spain.
R25: Longus starts a campaign to subdue the Bruttians.
C58: Hannibal moves to Isera - he is on his way to the Alps.
R38: Minor Campaign card: P. Scipio moves north to Mutinae. Longus finishes his subjugation of Bruttium - et tu.
C50: Carthage takes majority control of Idubeda.
R51: Epidemic: Played on Hannibal who rolls a 6 on the attrition table and loses 3 CU and an elephant point.
C64: Hannibal crosses the Alps, losing another 2CU and an elephant point in the mountains, and arrives at Boii.
R53: Rome gains political control of Mutina in southern Cisalpinia.
C06: Carthage gains political control of Taurinni and majority control of the province of Gallia Cisalpinia.
R59:  Rome gains political control of Verona in southern Cisalpinia.
C27: Event: "I have come into Italy, not to fight Italians, but to fight for the liberty of the Italians against Rome". Cosa and Pisa in Etruria change sides and join Carthage.
R21: Longus move north to Rome.

TURN 2.

Following the recruitment phase, Rome nominates Longus as Proconsul. Elections are held and the two consuls are Flaminius and P. Scipio (again).

C01: Event: Corsica and Sardinia are in revolt - Rome loses political control of all settlements.
R24: P. Scipio marches against Hannibal at Boii. The first battle of the Second Punic War is about to begin.

The map, early in turn 2, with the battle of Trebbia about to begin. Note the clear pin, in the 'Roman available leader row' (map, top right), showing Longus as Proconsul, and the black pin (map, bottom right) showing turn 2 is in progress. Also note that P. Scipio and Hannibal are in the Battle In Progress box. Their location on the map is shown by the white pin with crossed swords.

Tabletop rules, amendment notes and dice.

Transferring the battle to the table, and to Commands and Colors was fairly easy. 

Army size: I worked out the armies (I do have something to do in the campaign other than write its history) using CU strength for army size - Rome 12 vs Carthage 9. I started with the Romans as they have a fixed army organisation. I decided to give them 6 legions and scaled Carthage accordingly.

P. Scipio: He has a campaign battle rating of 2. He is given two generals and will get a hand of 6 C&C cards. 

Hannibal: He has a battle rating of 4. He is given three generals and will get a hand of 8 C&C cards. Because he is Hannibal (in the board game he gets an extra combat bonus) he will be allowed to play two C&C cards, back to back, but only once, during the game.   

The location of the battle could, in truth, only lead the terrain to be set up one way - a flat plain with a river at the Roman army's back. We set the table as if for Trebbia. We worked out the armies using CU strength for army size (Rome 12 vs Carthage 9). 

A few shots of the game as we left it at the end of the nights play. The Romans are attacking and light troops have been engaged in heavy skirmishing. I will post a report next week.

Measuring the line - the Russians at Zorndorf

Earlier this month I booked the Zorndorf demonstration game into Triples 2014. When booking the table size I had to do some 'back of a fag packet' calculations. I bargained that the deployment would be somewhere between 12 and 14 feet long. Some spare table space is always handy to put things on, so I crossed my fingers and booked for a 16 foot long table. I'm glad I did cross my fingers - it only just fits.

Although I still have eight units of Russians to paint I have enough (with some Prussian stand-ins) to set up the Russians in their deployment. I have set the Russians up on a 14 foot table (The deployment might be 14.5 feet on the day - with the extra 6 inches on the Russian left; this is the Russian's 'long flank'). 

Luckily, empty flank areas are not required to re-fight this battle as the Russian line extends beyond the Prussian line on both flanks, the Prussians attack the Russian right and centre but do not attack beyond the Zabern Grund (the Russian right), the Russians have a long left flank, and the Russians are defending.

I have set the troops out on the arid side of my TSS terrain tiles to make it easier to see the lie of the deployment. I think it looks quite impressive - 732 Russian infantry go a long way! My only thought is to pull back the lines a two inches and decrease the space between the lines by withdrawing the front line a further four inches. This will mean that the Russian deployment will extend 28 inches from the baseline (it extends 34" here).

 The Russian right. This is the hard flank. The Zabern Grund (the stream) will be almost impassible where the Russians are deployed.

 The Russian's long left. This Russian flank extends beyond the initial deployment of the Prussians by nearly 4 feet. 

 The Russian infantry and guns.

The Russian infantry on the right. Note, there should be three units of cavalry between the lines here - 11 squadrons - but for game purposes they are represented by two units (10 squadrons). A similar fudge has been made on the Russian left - I have the units, but they would unbalance the ratio of heavy cavalry between the sides (the Prussians should have three times as many).

The "shock cavalry melee resolution" card

After play-testing the Shock Cavalry Melee Resolution card I can now report that it works a treat.

It was several years ago that the idea for this card was first muted. It was in the early days of our group playing Piquet that Mark Dudley and I discussed the sequence decks for SYW armies and their use of a single Melee Resolution card and the use of Heroic Moment as extra melee resolution cards for cavalry. The point of only having one general use melee resolution card was a good idea. It meant that infantry resolved combat with fire rather than the bayonet and made the game feel very SYW, but using the Heroic Moment card as a melee resolution card for cavalry meant that 'heroic moments' were much less common - which was a shame - because the use of this card to bend the rules to allow the unusual is both elegant and interesting. From memory, we added cavalry melee resolution cards to the deck by simply putting an asterisk on a couple of extra melee resolution cards in each deck. But, at some point, this idea fell by the wayside - forgotten.

Recently, I started playing SYW again and I went back to basics, using the Heroic Moment card - then the idea of the extra cavalry melee resolution card was reborn. I discussed the idea with Peter and Graham and they were game. Then, when I came to make up the new Cavalry Melee Resolution card I added the word Shock. I'm not sure if I knew what I was doing when I did it, but as it happens it was most fortunate. I had accidentally built in the difference between Prussian hussars and the hussars of other nations, and also downgraded cossacks (which was probably my immediate aim), at a stroke. 

The difference between SYW Prussian hussars and other SYW hussars has always been a pain to rule upon - other hussars form up in the same way, are similarly mounted and armed, but they have a different function and training. The use of the word 'shock' on the card is a simple, extremely efficient way, of distinguishing the types. Prussian hussars can use the card, others can't.

Anyway, it something you might want to try.

A few more for Zorndorf

January has been productive for Operation Zorndorf. The last of the Observation Corps is finished; the last of the Russian artillery are finished; the combined grenadier units are finished; the last of the Cossacks are finished.

 Combined grenadier units to represent the six battalions at Zorndorf. These are an eclectic mix of Foundry figures that I purchased from Dave T's ebay offerings. 

 I particularly like the figures in rain capes. Not only are they attractive to look at, they are easy to paint as well.

 The artillery concentrates on batteries to go at the Observation Corps' end of the line - two mixed batteries of Secret Howitzers and Unicorns. These are by Front Rank.

 More Dave T Foundry figures. The last two units of the Observation Corps - 5 units of 36 figures including 4 musketeer regiments and 1 combined grenadier 'regiment' (split into its two btns here).

 Three units of 8 Foundry cossacks.

I took the opportunity to paint three extra figures to go on these casualty bases. Originally, I had made these, plus one with a mounted cavalry figure (not pictured), to stretch 16 existing bases of cossacks into 20 bases. I Had to add more units for Zorndorf, and to make a Foundry order up to 16 packs to get the 6 free packs on offer, I went for having 8 full units of 8 figures (32 bases).

Apart from 4 units of 24 infantry and 4 units of 8 cavalry, that is the Russians done. I've had enough of doing Russians for the time being. Next up I'll start tackling the 22 units of Prussians that are still needed (7 infantry, 3 artillery, 12 cavalry). This Zorndorf game (for Triples in May) has a very heavy painting requirement - it is going to be a real effort.

The game played over the Christmas break

And so the action began, and it was the Russians who got a head start. Their relief column began to  issue from the town. 

The Prussians advanced their cavalry into the plain to the right of the big hill - they looked determined, even scary, but it would not be their day.

Then the Prussian infantry began their assault on the hill. 

The fighting was fierce, and several units of Prussian infantry went down under repeated volleys of musketry and Secret Howitzer canister fire. 

But gradually, they made the summit. The Russians found themselves outflanked and resistance crumbled.

The Prussian cavalry make very heavy going against minimal resistance.

All the while, the Russian reserves are coming into the field.

The Prussians get themselves organised. They are seeking to go on the defencive until their artillery can be brought up.

This gives the Russians time to assemble for a counter attack.

The Prussians look immovable, and soon their artillery is making itself felt (with an extra reload card from the characterisation deck, plus a Brilliant leader card they are firing four times each turn) - the effect is going to be devastating, and the Prussians use all of their initiative to cycle through their deck shooting at every opportunity.

The Russians bring their cavalry over. The Russians are outnumbered and outflanked but the Prussian cavalry has not had its Wheetabix. The cavalry fights itself to a standstill. It opens up the flank of the Prussians on the hill.

The Prussians are out of morale chips. The Russians are running out of infantry. Both sides attack. The Russians are quicker off the mark and the Prussians, being outflanked, throw in the towel. There are too few Russians to pursue. It was a very close run thing.

The game was a good one - thank you Mr. Grant - and we will re-run it again over the next few weeks.

We will change a few things. The lake will be removed and replaced with some broken ground. A few new units will be added to the mix. A new sequence card will be introduced - Shock Cavalry Melee Resolution.

We have another sucker....

Later this week I intend to post a report on the Christmas SYW clash between the Prussians and Russians. But, until then, here are a few photos of another game I played over New Year holiday. They are pics of my son's first miniatures game - he's seven, and his name is Alexander Frederick (I shit you not). Now, he wants to play every Sunday morning - so who suckered who?