Around the world in several games

On top if the current Sudan campaign I've played a few other games over the last couple of weeks. 

Medieval Japan

The first is some samurai skirmish using Test of Honour. The game scale is fairly small with either individual figures of blocks of 3. Activation is done using drawn from a bag with leaders have more possible actions available than ordinary troops.       

A peaceful looking village

The rules are fast and furious with options to act honourably /dishonourably, special events and a wide variety of troops / weapons.   

Persian Civil War - The Society of Ancient battle day

 I also made my first visit to the SOA battle day just off the M4. The idea is to play the same battle but using different sets of rules. Some games have spare places and there is a chance to wander about and speak to the other players about their games. 

 

The game I played - Armati II

This years game was Cunaxa - a Persian civil war scenario from 401 BC. In the real game the outnumbered rebel forces under Cyrus the younger attacked the larger Royal army under Artaxerxes. The battle is possibly best know for the presence of 10,000 Greeks under Clearchus, who ended up on the wrong side and had to march back to Greece through occupied territory.    

An interesting feature of the day was the number of games using grid or hex based systems. I would say about half the games featuring this mechanic.

Pillage - Ransacking the dark ages.

The final game in the round-up is another game of Pillage. In this game I was attacking and had to attack a fortified tower surrounded by a high wall. The aim was to get a flag to the top of the tower within 10 turns.  

The distraction unit - guys in red shirts

Ladders up - my Helmsdeep moment

I weas able to win the game in turn 9 by attacking the outside wall of the tower while some sacrificial troops kept the defenders best troops busy.   

 

I reach the top of the tower

Three Ages of Rome - the Finale

Having gather his forces The Usurper (me) advanced to the gates of Rome and did battle with the forces of Nero. I deployed with my veteran Legions in the centre, flanked by allies including a smattering of Dacian forces. The Nerovian forces fielded several garrison and gladiator units to boost the numbers. 

I attacked on the flanks with cavalry massed in the east and legions supporting my auxiliary in the west. My massed auxiliary made good progress through the western woods but beyond them the legions were pressed hard by the Neronian cavalry. Centrally I pushed up slower while the cavalry, including Samarians, tried to manoeuvre around the Nerovian left.  

Attack through the western woods

Usurper cavalry in the east

Having initially held-back the Nerovian centre began to advance into contact with my veterans. This was fairly even but on my left I was being pushed back by the loyalist cavalry.   

Nero doing well in the west

Eventually I was able to push through the western woods and support the attack in the centre. The centre was pretty attractional but a few Nerovian legions were forced back creating gaps in the line and allowing some double charges.  

Nero's centre collapses

A couple of hours in the Nerovian morale began to falter with units pushed back in the centre and in the east. I was still losing in the west but that was not enough to prevent the collapse of loyalist morale.  

    So a win for The Usurper and like history he was forced to flee the city.    

Three Ages of Rome - week 6

This week was the penultimate week of our Roman adventures. Nero sent a further army against the usurper and two of the legions were posted to Britannia to deal with threats there.

Game 1: Roman vs Britons - British Win

The Romans were charged with advancing towards Londinium with a small force of cavalry to the front and the rest marching along the road.

 

The Britons advanced rapidly and were able to get around the flanks of several Roman units, swamping them and forcing a retreat.  

Game 2; Nero vs Usurper - Usurper Wins

Nero's forces grabbed a local supply base and dared the Usurper to attack. They boosted their numbers by fielding gladiators from the local training school. This game was played solo with order cards allocated randomly until poor morale took hold.

Nerovian defenders

Both sides placed their best troops in the centre but initially they were reluctant to move and so the action was on the flanks. The early turns saw Nero's army with the upper hand as they pushed back the Usurpers units on the right.  

Eventually the Usurpers  veterans got moving and began to push through the gladiators while the right stabilised with the intervention of the archers. About an hour in the Nerovian forces had 4 units routed and the armies morale failed.  

Game 3; Romans vs the Druids - Druids Win

This game was over fairly swiftly so I failed to get any shots. The Romans landed on the Isle of Mona to face Britons revved up by the local Druids. The Romans landed in waves and were defeated in detail by aggressive Brits.   

Three Ages of Rome - week 5

 

Bit of a snafu this week as I managed to delete the wrong photos so don't have shots of part 2 of the Rome vs Gallic battle that was carried over from last week. The result was a win for the Gauls - it was a drawn our affair as both sides were very spread out. The Gauls won in the ends they did better at recovering their units and so avoided having to take army morale tests. 

   

Three Ages of Rome - week 4

 An interesting week in the campaign with the first example of civil war in game 1.

Game 1 - Insurgent Rome vs Imperial Rome. Insurgent Win

 

This week a force was dispatched by the Emperor to crush my army as it marched back victorious from Dacia. I left some Roman units behind and so was able to expand the size of my force with some cheaper Dacian units.    

Praetorians holding a hill 

The Romans went for a defensive position centered around a hill with a reserve of Auxilia in the centre. I looked to flank them with cavalry while putting pressure on the centre with veteran legionnaires.  

My cavalry were badly mauled by some archers and the opposing Auxilia, meaning I had to do it the hard way and attack up the hill against the emperors legions. Having veteran units proved decisive and so the enemy was pushed back and retreated from the field.   

The net closes on the emperors troops

Game 2 - Rome vs Sassanids. Roman win

I did nt see much of this game but it was over fairly quickly. The Romans adopted a chequerboard looking to get multiple units against each attacker. They began fairly defensive using terrain to anchor the flanks against a Sassanid attack. 

They then advanced steadily to push the Persians back. The Cataphracts were unkillable, but the single elephant was disappointing, perhaps we need to double up on those. In the end Sassanid morale broke.   

Game 3- Rome vs Gauls. Game continues

This was a messy affair with both sides having commands approaching from different directions and no clear battles lines. In this first part the Gauls began by overrunning a village before being pushed back.

Two fairly separate combats then emerged in the east and west of the field. The fight continues next week.