Sword and Spear - second game

It being Easter we were on reduced manning this week so decide not to start the Montrose Campaign until we had everyone back. So we thought we'd try a second game of Sword and Spear.

As we've packed-away all the Crusaders we did nt repeat the previous game, but went for a classic encounter - Imperial Romans verses Dacians.  As you will see from the pictures we went to 160mm frontage units e.g. 4 of my standard 40mm bases. The table was 8 feet by 4 feet.

The Setup

Overview of the table with dice and movement sticks

The Romans deployed with their left on a large hill, this had the bulk of the Legionaries. On their right were  the Auxuila, backed by the veterans.  From John's deployment it was clear he was planning a defensive effort an hoping the missile troops would soften up my Dacians

Roman centre

Roman left

Roman right anchored on a hill

The Dacians went for a pretty simple set-up. The centre was occupied by Falxmen backed by Dacian warriors. On the flanks I deployed the most manoeuvrable units; Samaritan cavalry to the right and Dacian Nobles to the left.

Dacian's sir - thousands of um



Decebalus looks confident

The Game  

My plan for the attack was to grind forward in the centre and use my two most manoeuvrable troops on the flanks to try and envelope the. By placing the Discipline level 3 Saramtians and Nobles in groups accompanied by a General  they would be able to move on 2's. The Romans favoured a fairly static defence and hoped to use their greater firepower and resilience to wear-down the barbarian hordes.

Sarmatian assault on the right

The game began with a general advance from the Dacian hordes. On the right the Sarmatians quickly camr to grips with the Romans. This proved a slugging-match as the both had good armour and low discipline. So with good dice both sides were able to stay fairly fresh and go toe-to-toe. In the end the stalemate was only broken when some Dacian horse managed to flank the Romans.   

Dacian right pushes ahead

On the left the Dacians initially made good progress, mashing the weaker Auxilia and creating some big holes in the line.  The Romans reserves stabilised the position somewhat and the Dacians attack stalled on this side.

The action in the centre

In the centre the Dacians found it very heavy going  - Romans uphill with artillery support was near impossible for them to shift. I also made a deployment error by placing my Falxmen (Lacking Protection) in the front rank, this making the Roman artillery more effective.

We finished with the Roman's ahead on points but with their left broken and a large force of hairy Samratians about to gobble-up the flank. So a Dacian victory was likely had be played a little longer.

The Verdict

My opponent really enjoyed the activation system as it enabled constant micro-management of the combat. As a Hearts of Iron fanatic he loves that find of thing!

The combat / activation system is certainly ingenious and does force constant decision making by the players. I guess the issue though is its pretty abstract and does nt seem to reflect "wargames logic" as its not clear what you are really allocating when you make your choices about the dice. So in the end the dice allocation matters much more than tactics or deployments as troops are nt very differentiated from each other and once the main lines clash there is nt much manoeuvre.

I suspect we'll play occasionally though as its a fun game and does give a different feel from most games I've played.

Sword and Spear Ancients - our first game

This week we tested a new set of ancients rules - Sword and Spear by Mark Lewis. This is part of the on-going quest to find a set that  is suitable for club nights. Since you should define your terms for me Suitable is:

• Plausible outcomes where reasonable tactics are rewarded.
• Simple and fun with limited scope for arguments (we're gamers so NONE = impossible!)
• Good for multiple players per side with everyone involved most of the time.
• Visually attractive.
• Fast enough to resolve a decent sized game in 3 hours.
• Not needing rebasing.

The Rules

The core of the rules is the activation system, which has something in common with Bolt Action. One dice is placed in a bag for each unit, different colours for each side. Seven dice at a time are drawn, rolled, and used to activate units. Units have an activation score and meeting or exceeding the score allows different actions. You can place multiple dice against a unit to increase combat power, movement, or morale. You can also use dice to counter enemy actions.  The turn is over when all the dice have been used.

So an interesting twist on "friction command" with less randomness than games like Lion Rampant as you should always move a good proportion of your army each turn. The plus is that it forces you to make choices all the time. The fact each mini-turn has a mix of both sides dice means you are involved throughout and there is some subtlety in use of your dice.

The down-side is its "friction command" at the end of the day. So if you don't like that, find it gamey, or want to have full control of your troops then it will not appeal to you.

The Game  

As we had the figures available from our recent Lion Rampant games we decided to pit our Early Crusaders verses Turks. We played with 450 point armies on an 8'*4' table with a couple of players a side. Since it was a practice game we just lined-up with infantry in the centre and mounted on the wings

The Crusader right - lots of doughty spearmen and crossbows

The Crusader left - Teutonic Knights subbing as Brother knights 



Turkish right - the elite cavalry 

Turkish left - the average / poor stuff

Turkish infantry - not much expected from them ;-) 

Overview

Due to the points difference the Turks had 18 dice to the Crusaders 12. The Crusaders also had quite a few units (spearmen and crossbows) who looked like they would do better on the defensive. So the Turks attacked and the infidels wisely sat back.   

Turks advance on their left

The one exception was that the Brother Knights pushed forward in search of prey. In S&S they are "Impact" troops which makes them deadly if they charge. Use of the initiative dice meant that one unit was charged and flanked - bad news for them. The other though as able to get up a head of steam an smashed two units of Turks.

Brother Knights rumble into action

 On their left however the Turks saw-off some mounted sergeants and flanked the enemy position.


Turks do well on the left

At this point the Turks noticed they had some potent "Impact" infantry lurking at the back and so pushed forward with the centre. By now most units were committed and it was about careful use of the dice to try and win some victories.  

A general melee ensues!

By finishing time the Turks had reached a soft army break-point (1/3 points lost) but the Crusaders were not far behind. Another 30mins and we'd have seen a result.

The Verdict

An interesting set of rules that did force you to constantly make choices and keep both sides engaged throughout as you had to counter enemy activation dice placement. The attraction is the friction command system, so if you don't like that approach, then Sword and Spear will likely not appeal.

We've decided to play a second game with the same armies so we can focus on the tactics not learning the game / armies.

So how does it do against my checklist?

Plausible outcomes  - TBD after a further game

Simple and fun - YES

Good for multiple  - YES

Visually attractive.- YES

Fast enough to resolve a decent sized game - TBD.

Not needing rebasing - YES