Zulus - Fouzands of em!!

This year's summer game will be a Zulu War themed affair and, as usual, the club is busy sorting out the scenario play tests together with finding a suitable rule set to cater for a large multi player game.

So this month whilst one table was busy fighting an IABSM scenario at Arnhem, the other was the scene for a massacre of a British column caught whilst crossing a Zulu-land drift.

I grabbed some pictures during the action which reveal the position and the last moments of the doomed British column.

 

From the comments I noted at the end, this play test revealed some issues which will require some more thoughts before we are ready to go in June.

Baskeyfield VC - I Ain't Been Shot Mum

Lance Sergeant J D Baskeyfield VC by Terance Cuneo

The picture above by Terance Cuneo appears to be based on a drawing made by Bryan de Grineau a war artist from The Illustrated London News who was with Second Army at Nijmegan at the time; but under supervision from an airborne officer who was present at the action made a sketch of it about a week later.

It shows Baskeyfield about to fire his last round at the SPG  coming down Acacialaan and just before he was killed by the SPG further up the road. On the road lies a Para shot while attempting to join him. Baskeyfield's original 6lbr gun, across the road, has been swung round before it was disabled.

Lance Sergeant John "Jack" Baskeyfield
VC

The Arnhem campaign stands in the annals of British military history as one of those great triumphs amidst great tragedy in what became a campaign known for being a "bridge too far" in General Montgomery's failed attempt to end the war in Europe in the autumn of 1944.

Out of the ashes of defeat grew the story of triumphant resistance under terrible conditions by the men of the British 1st Airborne Division and the Dutch civilians who so unselfishly offered their help and support and bore the brunt of reprisals after the battle.

I have a personal memory of my father, an armoured OP with Guards Armoured Division describing his experiences of the desperate fighting conducted to reach the beleaguered British airborne soldiers on many a holiday to Belgium and Holland in the mid-late seventies.

No better example of selfless bravery in the face of the enemy and the reason why the British Airborne "Red Devils" established themselves firmly as an elite fighting formation can be found than by the individual act of heroism displayed by Lance Sergeant Jack Baskeyfield VC on Wednesday 20th September 1944 on an insignificant road junction just south of Oosterbeek close to the Lower Rhine river.

British positions in the Oosterbeek perimeter as they were on Wednesday 20th September 1944 and 

Lance Sergeant Jack Baskeyfield's position on the day.(Blown railway bridge bottom right of map)

By the 20th of September and after two days of heavy combat, General Urquart and his 1st British Airborne Division was a mere shadow of its former self and there had been little option other than to pull the remains of the division into a defensive perimeter at Oosterbeek and thus guarding a potential bridgehead on the Rhine river.

On September the 19th the men of 1st, 3rd and 11th Parachute Battalions and the 2nd South Staffords retreated back along the southern route from Arnhem into Oosterbeek with German armour cautiously following them in pursuit.

One of Baskeyfield's victims, a knocked out StuG IIG with multiple 6lbr hits on its front plate with one finally penetrating the transmission box. This vehicle was knocked out 200 yards in front of Baskeyfield's gun position on Benedendorpsweg and recorded as being a vehicle from Sturmgeschutz-Brigade 280.

Just short of Oosterbeek they were met by Lieutenant-Colonel "Sheriff" Thompson, commander of the Light Regiment, whose guns were in position only a short distance behind. He ordered them to form a defensive line facing east. It was in this position that Lance Sergeant John Baskeyfield, an anti-tank gun commander in the 2nd South Staffords fought the action that won him a posthumous Victoria Cross.

The game played yesterday is based on the scenario by Richard Clarke from Too Fat Lardies and published in the Lardies Xmas Special of 2007 and was played using I Ain't Been Shot Mum version three (IABSM 3).

Too Fat Lardies Specials

Too Fat Lardies - I Ain't Been Shot Mum rules and other related items

The table below shows the interpretation of the map of the terrain the battle was fought over and you can find below the briefings and order of battle for both sides.

Young Charle commanded the British airborne troops, watches closely as the Germans start to deploy on their end of the Benedendorpsweg

The following are the British and German briefings take from the Lardies Xmas Special 2007, with my commander stats. amendments for IABSM3.

British Briefing
Major Buchanan has informed you that you can expect Jerry to put in an attack down this road.
If they manage to push you out of this position its likely that the whole of the Oosterbeck position will be encircled and no escape possible. You certainly don’t fancy spending the rest of the war in a POW camp, so you reckon that seeing it through here, whatever the outcome, is the best bet.

Some boys from 11 Para are in the houses around you, but they look to be a shaky lot, mind you, they've been fighting for three days solid so they’re probably just exhausted. If they can keep the enemy "pongos" off your back you’ll deal with any Jerry armour that comes along.
Hopefully you’ll stick it out. 

IABSM3 Forces
South Staffordshires
Lance Sergeant Jack Baskeyfield, Level II Commander
Two six pounder anti-tank guns, four crew each.
11 Para
Corporal Bill Stickers Level II Commander
Three sections of eight men
One PIAT with two crew.

View towards Baskeyfield's position on the Acacialaan junction from behind the StuG seen in the picture above

German Briefing

It has been a tough few days, the Red Devils fight like…Devils! Now, however the end is in sight. In Arnhem the positions by the bridge are being reduced, and to the West at Oosterbeck the enemy is close to surrender.

Our orders are to attack down the Benedendorpsweg. If we control that road we will remove the Englanders’ only secure flank and have them surrounded. Then, at last, we can get some rest!

Do not flinch, push home your attack with energy and vigour and the enemy will collapse as a pack of cards.

IABSM3 Forces

Erzatz Infantry Company

Sturmscharfuhrer Artur Spengler Level III Commander

Unterscharfuhrer Rolf Wolozowski Level II Commander

1st Platoon

Three rifle squads, 8 men each

2nd Platoon

Three rifle squads, 8 men each

Mortar Section

Two 80mm mortars, one FOO may be on table

Assault Battery

Scharfuhrer Alois Schatz, Level III Commander

Three StuG III, Grade III morale

The table this side of the road borders the river bank and is difficult going for vehicles and foot troops. The IABSM card deck is assembled and ready to go with the first German units moving on to the table

The British win if they keep the road junction in their hands, the Germans win if they capture the junction. As in reality both sides have the assets that are available, time is not an issue.
That said, if the Germans loose all three StuGs while the British still have at least one 6 pounder in action then they may call for additional support. Add a reinforcements card.
Roll each turn, requiring a 6.

Note: I had on hand a StuH42 and an SdKfz10/4 20mm half-track in the German reserve should the reinforcements have been needed.

With the British positions marked on a copy of the map above, the card deck was assembled (note IABSM is a card driven rule set with individual platoons, commanders and other assets able to activate and perform actions such as moving, spotting and shooting on the turning of their respective cards) and with initially more German cards in it, the first German units were activated and on the table.

These first moves were not without problems as the German card deck included "Hesitant Troops" which meant the next German unit card drawn would be subject to hesitant status and forced to remain in situ either spotting or firing according to what was possible.

One of the SP Guns engaged by Baskeyfield was this SdKfz 10/4 half-track mounting a 2cm gun beside the northern pillar of the blown railway bridge (see map above) about 900 yards from his position on the road junction pictured here by Dutchman Dick Renes in 1945.

Knowing from their briefing that British Paras were holding the road junction ahead but kept deliberately in the dark as regards force make up and with no blind markers on the table the German commanders were understandably nervous as they ordered their troops forward; and the StuG commander took every opportunity to blast the nearest cover with HE fire as they conducted a moving recon by fire.

SS Ersatz Kompanie Spengler moves out into the polder land

Knowing also that the terrain south of the road and close to the river bank was muddy and difficult terrain, cautiously decided to keep the StuGs on the northern side supported by a platoon of trainee SS infantry recruits, leaving the other side to the second platoon of infantry the whole force backed up by the mortar FOO and his two 81mm mortar section.

Sturmgeshutze-Brigade 280 lead the "hesitant" SS trainee soldiers forward

For Charlie our British commander it was a question of holding his nerve to allow the German troops to get close enough before deciding to open up with a telling barrage of anti-tank and small arms fire.

As the German armour drew level with the house on the centre line of our table, now burning fiercely from a severe "brassing up" by the StuG's, they started to bring their main guns to play on the forward houses at the road junction, suspecting their occupation by British Paras.

The SS men were naturally cautious and took time to "brass up" likely enemy positions on their approach. Note the mortar FOO on the road searching out likely enemy positions.

An SS Infantry Zug advances across open ground devoid of much cover

The British Paras were indeed spread among the various houses, keeping their heads down and holding their fire. As the first of these houses caught fire under the bombardment, the British commander decided to open up in reply and Baskeyfield directed his first 6lbr gun to open up on the line of StuGs, managing to not only get his gun card out once but swiftly follow it up with his bonus fire card allowing the gun to activate twice in the round.

As the StuG's open fire on the first line of buildings they themselves come under punishing AT fire from the front right

Suddenly the three StuG's were caught in a hail of 6lbr armour piercing shells and were desperately fending off the "7" gun strike factor of the 6lbr with the "7" armour defence factor of the StuG.

This meant that each time a vehicle was hit the British commander would roll seven d6 needing 5 or 6 for a successful strike. Likewise the German commander would defend against those hits with seven dice of his own needing a similar score to cancel out successful British hits.

If the defence scored more that the attack then no effect was caused, however equal or more successful hits had consequences for the target vehicle with more hits causing worse likely consequences.

Lance Sergeant Baskeyfield directs the fire of one of his 6lbr gun with telling effect

In addition to the the gun fire, the personal direction of Baskeyfield himself, bringing his "Ace" gunnery attributes, meant that the British gun was very unlikely to miss even when taking un-aimed snap shots and so all three StuGs were brought under very accurate fire with each activation.

The StuGs feel the effect of the 6lbr with the one in the centre knocked out, the one on the left immobilised and shocked and the the right most vehicle with a damaged main gun.

The two turns followed by a similar activation in the next phase without any return fire from the StuG's due to the appearance of the "Tea Break" or end of turn card before the StuG activation card could appear left the German armour line looking rather battered with the commander's vehicle in the centre knocked out and burning and the other two vehicles with damaged engines and main guns.

The view from Baskeyfield's tree

The German personal morale was under severe pressure with the battering of their armour coming at them from Baskeyfield and his gun.

They were desperately waiting for the opportunity to activate both the infantry and StuG platoons and were calling for mortar support.

Suddenly the StuG card appeared and their commander Scharfuhrer Alois Schatz, who was able to survive the destruction of his vehicle, losing one of his crew, managed to de-bus to the one vehicle with a main gun operating. The two remaining StuGs then poured on a stream of vehicle machine gun fire that supported by the fire from the German infantry moving through them soon knocked out the crew of the 6lbr leaving Baskeyfield as the sole survivor.

With Baskeyfield and his men dead and wounded around their gun, top right, SS Sturmscharfuhrer (RSM) Artur Spengler moves his first first zug around the British right flank and comes under small arms fire from the buildings. German mortar fires starts to land on the buildings to their right.

With the battle under way north of the road SS Sturmscharfuhrer Artur Spengler was urging his other platoon forward looking to flank the the road junction and turn any British position in the houses and gardens. As he men drew into effective small arms range, the first German 81mm mortar shells landed in the line of houses to their front.

11th Para infantry are forced to move from building to building as their position comes under intense mortar and StuG high explosive fire, setting the houses alight

The men of 11th Para were waiting patiently as the SS infantry got ever closer and the first SS section reeled and desperately sought any cover going as three of their number were killed in the first fusillade of Bren and Lee Enfield .303 fire adding three shocks for good measure.

The SS infantry are still coming under heavy small arms fire as they close on the British position, three dead, three shocks - ouch!

The threat posed by Baskeyfield was still potent as the game moved into another turn. The British commander was still very capable of firing his gun single handed as he did in reality and both sides were in eager anticipation as the next card was drawn.

The Germans needed no further invitation as the SS infantry opposite Baskeyfield's position used their card to close in on and shoot up the British gun position killing our hero in the process.

A combination of StuG and mortar fire took out one of the Para sections and badly damaged a second adding multiple shocks, whilst the second British AT gun was overwhelmed by a close assault from Spengler's platoon, forcing the surviving Paras to surrender their hold on the junction and fall back to the perimeter.

The final moments as the survivors of 11th Para are forced back from the road junction to join their comrades further back on the perimeter

This proved to be a very well balanced and exciting scenario with twists and turns throughout generated by the excellent card play and rules set that is IABSM. We came away with plenty of "what ifs?" following our game which might have given a different result had the British delayed opening fire with Baskeyfield for another turn. What might have been the effect of the second gun being better sighted to support the other.

Of course the unpredictability of the cards would cause this very same set up to potentially play quite differently, not to mention the combat outcomes we generated.

A great day of wargaming was had and thanks to Charlie, Steve, Ian and Jack for providing the entertainment and I hope this game in a small way pays a very sincere tribute to a very brave soldier whose final resting place is unknown but whose memory is not forgotten.

Statue to John Baskeyfield unveiled in his home
town of Stoke on Trent in 1990

Sources referred to in this post:

Lardies Xmas Special 2007
Operation Market-Garden Then and Now Volume 2

http://www.pegasusarchive.org/arnhem/john_baskeyfield.htm

http://www.paradata.org.uk/people/john-d-baskeyfield

http://www.defendingarnhem.com/Stugloss1.htm

http://www.defendingarnhem.com/flakloss1.htm

Germantown 1777 – ‘Black Powder’

Got the chance to put on the above at the club on Saturday, having purchased my good friend JJ’s AWI collection last year.

JJ's Wargames 

I’d always admired the collection, so when the opportunity came up to grab a bargain, I couldn’t resist!

Map illustration from the Black Powder AWI Supplement - I think that should read "Smallwood" at right 

Jon’s figure collection is quite old (Original Polly Oliver in the main, JJ ), and he says his painting style has changed a lot, but I like them.

http://www.pollyoliver.co.uk/ 

As a club, we’ve played with most variants of the Black Powder (BP) rules; ‘Hail Caesar’ quite recently last year, ‘Pike and Shot’ earlier last year and BP with a few house rules for  Balaclava in the Crimean, our summer game ‘big bash’ in North Devon a few years ago 

Balaclava

I’d put on a game using the ‘Albion Triumphant supplement for the Waterloo period a few years ago, and that’s been the only time the club felt they hadn’t really worked.

I’d picked up the ‘Rebellion’ AWI supplement previously, so was keen to try them out. I think it’s a really good supplement, loads of information on the period; historical background, details of the forces involved, a short piece on weapons and tactics and an overview of the main commanders ‘of note’. Over half the book though is made up of scenarios, nineteen in all, featuring all the major land engagements of the war, plus others.

Looking though the scenarios, and comparing them with the forces I had purchased, I settled on Germantown, 4^th Oct 1777. This sees Washington develop an elaborate plan to march five columns of troops, over different roads, to arrive at the encamped Allied force simultaneously. Needless to say, historically it didn't work (hindered even further by thick fog) and not surprisingly, that was repeated in our game!

I used all the detail from the ‘Rebellion’ supplement to generate the scenario. I like the different stat lines attributed to each unit, which can reflect their ability to melee, shoot, recover morale (saving throw) and become shaken (stamina), plus the ‘added extras’ to reflect increased morale, better shooting or hand to hand qualities. All these can be ‘tinkered with’ if you don’t like the author’s interpretation!

Each commander is also allocated a ’staff rating’, which is basically their ability to get things done, rolling equal to or less then their rating on 2D6. Again, if you don’t like them, change them! In this scenario, all commanders were rated as ‘7’, which is pretty average, but presented a few challenges for the rebel/patriot forces (depending where you’re from!)

These are ‘as is’ from the book and also show the ‘order of battle’ for each force.

So how did it play? On the day, due to the other games going on, it was down to another long standing war game mate Vince and I to give it a go.

Things didn’t start well, when Sullivan failed his first command roll! In the scenario, all his force must be ‘on table’, before Greene & Armstrong can start to arrive, and only when they’re all on can Stirling and Smallwood attempt to enter.

Once Sullivan is on, and engaged with the British front line, then the forces of Knyphausen and Grant can start to react. Cornwallis is available once British units become destroyed or ‘shaken’. This never happened!

Sullivan and Greene managed to get all their troops on in fairly good time, but Armstrong was clearly affected by the fog! This was to be a factor throughout the game! 

In the meantime, the 40^th Foot had occupied Chew house as they did historically, and there they stayed! Again historically. Knyphausen moved the remainder of his force up in support of the 40th, pushing the jagers out to his left flank to delay the militia with the long range of their rifled muskets. Grant moved to deploy between the woods in support of the 1^st Light infantry. The 2^nd were left to fend for themselves!

Eventually, all the rebel force entered the table, although Armstrong was still affected by the fog and there was a similar story on the other flank with Smallwood! Sullivan attempted to force the issue by charging Chew house before the supporting forces arrived, knowing he was being a bit rash, as the defenders were bot suitably depleted. This proved to be the case, as although the first round was a draw, he was thrown back in the second.

This was the ‘high water mark’ of the rebel forces, as it became pretty much a shooting match with Sullivan facing Knyphausen and Greene facing Grant,  a match the rebels were unlikely to win! Not helped by the fact that yours truly had deployed in ‘double lines’ not allowing the superior numbers of rebels to come into action (too much Carnage & Glory JJ!!)

http://jjwargames.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Carnage%20and%20Glory%20II

So with rebel units starting to disappear at an alarming rate, and the British force only carrying one or two casualties per unit, we agreed that it was time for the Rebels to withdraw, pretty much as they had historically!!

I enjoyed getting my ‘new’ figures out on the table and thought that the scenario gave a good game. Vince and I are old adversaries, but the game was played in good spirit, with reference to the rules when required, which usually gave the answer.

I must note that I didn’t cater for the fog in the scenario; there is the ability to introduce variable ranges based on a dice roll and potentially have the rebels shooting at each other (which happened historically.) I’ve also seen a scenario where the British are required to roll on their command rating to raise then from their slumber, which may make for a more interesting slant.

http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/

I would definitely play this one again; it’s very much suited to multiple players

Augustus to Aurelian Play Test

Rules Review on Lardies Blog

Phil Hendry's AtoA Blog

Rules on the Lardies Shop

Rules review and play-test by JJ and Mr Steve

Another Roman army disappeared in the German Wald yesterday as the DWG play tested Phil Hendry's rule set "Augustus to Aurelian" (AtoA) published by the Too Fat Lardies back in 2012. 

I got a copy of the rules back then when I listened to Phil's interview with Neil Shuck on the Meeples Podcast, where he discussed the design principles behind the rules.

Meeples & Miniatures Podcast 92 - Neil Shuck interview with Phil Hendry

The rules are card driven, like many of the Lardies own sets, and the cards determine when commanders and their units get to do things in the game. I know that is not to everyone's taste, but I personally love games where that "friction" is built in to stop players having a totally unrealistic control over their army.

Having had the rules in my library for several years now and in the process of constructing a 28mm Dacian Wars/ Germania collection of figures as well as trying out sets of rules that might "tick the boxes" for me as far as what I want in my ancient games, I have been looking forward to giving AtoA a run out.

Over the Xmas break Mr Steve sorted out his 15mm collection to organise some forces that would cover the period I am interested in whilst I got the cards and various markers together to give them a run through yesterday.

Simple laminated cards created to drive the game

I should stress that this game was played very much as a "test game" and in the spirit of seeing what the rules can offer plus how easy were they to play with a group of us who hadn't played them previously. Please don't get too concerned seeing figures that aren't quite what they represent as Mr Steve is not really in to Romans or Principate Romans for that matter and so we have them on table as stand ins.

So the table below shows the game set up at start with the Romans (left picture) and the Germans (right picture and nearest camera).

German warband division set up in woods bottom left using their "Forest Fiend" attributes.

"Carpe Diem" cards allow the commanders to try and take action at specific points in the game

The various troop types in the rules and army lists come with special attributes that can differentiate the various armies. The table was set up to offer the Germans the best possible kind of terrain they would choose to fight in and so were able to choose one of four "Forest Fiend" attributes. Mr Steve the willy German commander chose "Mist and Rain" which presupposes the Germans have made full advantage of the poor visibility and conditions prevailing in the German wald to manoeuvre one of their warband divisions through the trees on to the Roman right flank after the Romans had set up

The Roman Legionaries bottom right were too far away to support the auxiliaries to their right and had little impact in the game - well it was a test game and we won't do that again!

In addition as "Forest Fiends" the Germans found moving through the thick German forest easier than the drilled Roman troops which only added to Roman problems.

For their part the Romans would try to take advantage of the "Triplex Acies" rule that enabled them to fight more extended and to support front rank units with rear rank units in combat, whilst making good use of their "Pila" rule where casualties inflicted would count towards the hand to hand total of casualties and thus impact on results in those combats, plus their "Gladius" rule giving them an extra die role in hand to hand combat in the second round of fighting.

The "Meridiato" Cards of which there are two determine a reshuffle of the deck
 and  start the hand to hand combat phase in the game

As you can see the orders of battle in AtoA are similar to "Hail Caesar" and designed around ideally divisions of four or more units, known as formations in the rules, each under a commander with a general commanding the army.

The level of these commanders determines what they can do, with army commanders able to change the orders of formations under their command and within command range, whilst formation commanders are concerned with the management of their individual units and trying to make sure they are in the right place at the right time to oversee and potentially aid combat whilst watching over units that are close to becoming shaken, or disordered.

The order that the opposing commanders get to do things, like moving and charging their respective units is determined by when their commander card appears from the deck. To help identify respective commanders I produced some little picture profiles of each commander that was placed by the respective models and you can see them on table.

The German Commanders had their set up issues as well, as this powerful warband division was to far away from the Commander to have their orders changed from "Hold" for most of the game - remember "test game"

Each individual commander has a command rating from 1 to 3, that determines how many cards with their face on gets put in the deck. This means the more cards the more likely that commanders card may appear first and the more likely they will get to do multiple tasks during a phase, bearing in  mind that the units under their command can only do one type of action one in a phase.

The range of actions available to a formation commander are;

• add a d6" of movement to a unit that he is attached to, known as "Follow me lads".
• add a die to a reaction test.
• increase a units Combat Dice by one die for that round of combat if accompanying the unit.
• remove disorder marker
• remove a casualty once from an un-engaged stationary unit, usually done to prevent the unit from becoming shaken and thus forced to take a reaction test.

The Legionaries with attached artillery and skirmishers had limited impact on the game 

As well as the commander cards, the players each were given "Carpe Diem" cards designed to allow the respective sides to attempt to interrupt the card play from the deck and take the initiative before the opposing player could react. These cards were held in hand, to begin with but once played went into the deck to be shuffled and would allow activation of a commander from the respective side when later drawn from the deck.

The various commanders had differing numbers of cards in the deck
with their portrait that allowed them to activate them and their "divisions"

To simulate the better command and control of the Romans vs the Germans they received seven
Carpe Diem cards to the Germans five, based on one card per formation, plus the Roman bonus.

The main German attack moves in against the Roman Auxiliary division ahead, set up unprepared facing straight ahead

The final cards in the deck consisted of two Meridiatio cards which with the first card drawn warn players that the phase is close to ending and with the second ends the phase of play by concluding the outcome of any hand to hand combats that have occurred in prior movement, allowing unactivated units to shoot and react. Once done the pack is reshuffled and a new phase of play begins.

German light and Noble cavalry cover the open ground in the centre

As indicated at the set up, the Germans took full advantage of the terrain which aided their initial placement and attack and did nothing to allow the Romans to make full use of their manoeuvring advantages.

The first attacks when they came caused the Romans to have to expend their advantage in Carpe Diem cards as the auxiliaries fought to keep the German division at bay.

Tribesmen - fousands of em!

With little option left but to fight, the plight of the auxiliaries gave us ample opportunity to try out the combat system as cohorts slammed into warband and the mayhem began.

The combat process is very straight forward with each troop type given a combat attack (CA) factor with the auxiliaries on a 3 and the warbands with their size of unit advantage on a 4. This basic factor is used to find the column on the Combat Attack chart and aligned with the row that corresponds with the enemy's armour. Thus the Germans with no armour gave the auxiliaries a basic chance to hit of 6 or less on a D10 whilst the Germans against the auxiliaries medium armour were hitting on a basic 5.

This hit number can be adjust up or down according to circumstances, for example flank or rear attacks, winning previous round of combat, first round if Romans had thrown pila, plus others. Each unit would then get to throw a set number of D10 determined by size of unit thus the warbands were generally throwing four dice to the auxiliaries three. Again the dice thrown could be adjusted with attached commanders able to add a die and Romans in second round of combat getting an extra die for their "Gladius" special rule.

The number of hits were then recorded with the micro dice and an eye kept on the total hits suffered, as once the unit's outlook number was equalled by the hits taken the unit was deemed Shaken, severely impacting its ability to fight and increasing its chances of breaking.

The Roman Commander's card. His head was last seen atop a German spear,
disappearing among the trees

Roman Auxiliary infantry with Roman Ala cavalry top right

The indication of how straight forward the combat was, was how quickly we started to roll through the stats to resolve it, not without a few mistakes along the way, but that's why you play test games.

The first unit on Roman Auxiliary infantry charges in trying to hold up the impending German attack

Shooting attacks were conducted similarly to combat with the added factor for range and shield etc.

The whole idea is to degrade the enemy with hits quicker than they you and thus break units and then complete formations to gain a victory.

Commanders and Carpe Diem cards become critical as the action intensifies, and the ability of commanders to influence the larger battle degrades as they get caught up trying to do multiple tasks at the same time.

Lots of Germans closing in on the Roman right flank

In our game the Roman forces were under growing pressure to win combats forced upon them that commanders were forced to add their extra combat die effect by attaching to units but then running the risk to themselves.

The German centre moves in as the battle on the Roman right flank develops

The reaction tests that followed required the rolling of 2D6 and looking to roll lower than the morale rating for the unit to be ok, thus auxiliaries were testing on 7 and warbands on a 6. To the dice roll were added or deducted situational factors, such as excess casualties suffered compared to the enemy, being attacked in flak or rear, already shaken, deductions would include rear and flank supports, the general attached etc.  

If the morale rating was exceeded then the size of the excess determined the severity of the reaction ranging from disorder to disperse with a result of 5 or more in excess.

More fighting and push-backs as the battle on the Roman right develops

As our battle unfolded, it became more and more obvious that the Roman position was untenable and given our focus of throwing units into the fray to see how the rules worked, it was little surprise when with two Roman generals killed, the auxiliary division broke, leaving the Roman cavalry and legionaries to face a fast approaching horde of German warbands intent on sealing the deal.

Meanwhile without new orders the German right flank holds its ground

The accompanying pictures reveal the progress to this invertible defeat.

So what did the game demonstrate other than not to put your legionaries so far away from your auxiliaries and take extra care on a table covered in German forest? Quite a lot I think.

The game rolled along really well with lots of entertainment and drama generated especially in the combat. The game is not complicated and with plenty of scope for tailoring units and scenarios by adjusting the various stats and set up options.

I now know what markers are needed to make the game more attractive and easier for players to monitor the status of their commanders and units.

I know we made mistakes in the game and that some were spotted as we went along and others with reading and checking the rules after the game, but nothing major and only confirms my thinking that these are a straight forward set of rules to play with no major quirks revealed.

After just one play I have to say I really like them a lot and I want to play them more regularly and am now thinking about what I need to create in the way of stat cards for units and other table top markers that will be easy on the eye.

So lets see what Mr Steve thought?

Casualties mount - the little red marker dice record the hits taken and will determine who has to take a Reaction/Break test

First up I would like to say that my collection of ancients is sadly lacking much in the way of any Roman figures therefore when Jon asked me to supply armies so that he could try out this set of rules it was looking a little bit tricky. For Imperial Romans I substituted some old Marian period figures I found in a dusty box and which one day might be used to fight the Pontic army currently under construction and the best I could do for Auxiliaries was to use various Republican Romans and any odd Thorakitai I had available. Apologies therefore in advance .

I will let Jon cover the actual events of the game itself to preserve my modesty so let’s get onto the rules themselves with the usual proviso of course that after just one play through any subsequent game would be much smoother and be more likely to follow the rules properly (and play all those rules we had missed out). 

With the Roman right flank in disarray, German cavalry move up to take advantage

The randomised movement is of course in line with the majority of other Lardey games so it wasn’t anything new to us, did it work for an ancients game? I think it did; if we played it correctly then you have the possibility of getting two activations per commander which you can then use for one movement activation and then for some other things like boosting fighting or morale/disorder recovery etc. how and what you can do depends on your leaders level of course. Formations/commands get a group order which they must follow until changed and whilst I play this sort of thing in other eras I am still undecided on whether I am for or against it in these rules .

One thing I wasn’t sure on was if you could move your leader in both of his activations , this point arose after I remembered that only the General can amend orders and that mine was miles away over on the left flank and that my right flank leader was stuck with hold orders. There was some discussion later that evening on whether a leader would just sit there and not attack by using his initiative; we decided that you could see various points arguing for and against this happening so as it’s in the rules then that’s what you play to.

The Roman auxiliaries fight a losing battle as they try to stem the German attack

I didn’t see much disadvantage for the Germans in unit control or movement as I had been promised beforehand ; admittedly the Romans could utilise their special advantages to allow them more space between their units and theirs commanders but as long as the Germans maintained a battle line then their much smaller command radius wasn’t a problem, I guess if we had a few broken units falling out then getting them back might have been harder but the beauty of Barbarians is that there are always more tribesmen waiting to take their place.

Fighting is straight forward, you cross reference your attack skill against the opponent’s armour rating , then throw a quantity of D10’s relevant to your unit. However when this takes place wasn’t immediately clear (i.e. we cocked it up), even with my exceptional brightness it took us some time to grasp that we were doing it at the wrong time in the move so perhaps a better layout of the turn sequence is required (my point, I guess, is that however clearly its explained in the rules, we didn’t spot it or get it right for several moves and the majority of us weren’t drunk nor are totally senile yet).

German and Roman cavalry clash (left) that saw the Roman commander killed whilst attached desperately trying to stop the rot, whilst a mixed unit of German light cavalry and skirmishers charge into the rear of an auxiliary column!!

I found it really helps to be a large unit when fighting (any armour helps as well) as you will get more dice to roll and usually a combat can last for several rounds which is as it should be, however as the Roman legionaries were so disgracefully lead we never got the opportunity to try out either the Pilum rules nor their own combat abilities on barely clothed Germans; this may have been much more devastating than what the medium sized auxiliaries units could dish out. I think making all the German units large may have been a mistake but I suppose it was some compensation for being classed in the worst possible defence class.

Most units can only take 4 hits before the next hit shakes them and thus requiring a morale test to be taken against their rating (combat losers always test as well), non fighting supports help in morale so the positioning of troops is important and there are lots of special abilities which is always fun as long as you can remember them.

With the Roman cavalry engaged in the centre with the German opposites the legionaries just in shot bottom move up to oppose the supporting warbands

So let’s run down the key points of any rule set one by one.

Movement: Works Ok, although I must put in a general gripe for all rules to include both 28mm and 15mm measurements covering shooting ranges as well, in this day and age surely it cannot be too difficult to have two versions of the QRF on-line (see Fire and Fury). The variable move works as does the sudden ending of a turn. You also move by formation (i.e. commands) activation which is both speedier and more realistic, units do/can move individually if they wish but all their friends will also get to move as well at the same time . 

Fighting/Shooting. Also Ok.

Simple to do and has enough differentials to cover the Ancient era. I liked the method that fighting is carried out after all movement (eventually!)and as you are not sure when the move will end then units get fed in bit by bit with one side really hoping that the next card up stops the turn.

The battle reaches a full crescendo as two Roman commanders go down in the fighting

Morale. Ok.

Not too many +/- to work out but enough to make it interesting. I would like the results table to be a little better in its meanings and applications and we also spent some trying to work out what happened after combat in all possibilities.

We managed to kill two of the Roman leaders and whilst it is clear what to do when junior generals get their just deserts we couldn’t find out what to do when the Big Cheese himself runs out of breathing privileges.   

Personal Hobby horses addressed:

No points list for army calculation although there are general army lists and unit stats available. I didn’t think our game was very balanced but as I was German I wasn’t the one crying in my beer. 

Obviously not relevant for those who hate army lists.    

Skirmishers, not really effective in their purpose of screening but handled better than in some other rules which I am no longer allowed to mention.

Charge Moves: I have some unease about just doubling your normal move to become its charge move as it is in this set , I think I am probably in the camp of allowing  a little bit extra , say 50% on top of normal but its really not that terrible I suppose.  

The auxiliary division (top left) is broken and the legionary division beyond will be lucky to make it out of the debacle

Overall, Not Bad,

I would strongly suggest that you make up a lot of different markers beforehand to help remember what’s going on or what’s been used etc but definitely a set worth having a go with I would say.

Thank you to Steve L and Ian for joining in the fun and for thoughts from a guest who joined us during the day, another gentleman called Steve, but who we have called Bruce, because we now have a ban on anymore Steve's coming to the club as the older members find it to confusing.