Battle of Charonea: an Ancient & Medieval Warfare refight

Since my first game wasn't entirely satisfactory, I decided to replay Charonea immediately with the Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargaming rules, with an improvised scenarion based on the previous game. I supposed that the much simpler and more intuitive Neil Thomas' rules would probably suit my brain state much better!

 

 

 

I used the following forces:

 

The Pontic Army:

1 unit of Pike (Elite, Medium Armour)

4 units of Pike (Raw, Medium Armour) 

2 units of Auxiliaries (Raw, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Heavy Cavalry (Raw, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Light Cavalry (Raw, Light Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Heavy Archers (Raw, Light Armour)

1 unit of Light Infantry (Raw, Light Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Scythed Chariots (Special) 

 

The Roman Army:

3 units of Legionaries (Elite, Heavy Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Auxiliaries (Average, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Heavy Cavalry (Elite, Heavy Armour)  

 

So some heavily outnumbered but stronger Roman units facing a variety of weaker Pontic units.

 

One side of the board is the slopes of Mount Thurion, whereas the other side is the bank of the River Cephisus (not represented, but keep in mind that that flank was fixed for both sides). 

The Set-Up: 

Pontic Army to the left and bottom, Romans to the right, with the Thracians on their left, slightly refused (i.e. right of the photo); the Pontic camp is to the top-left.

Another view

And another of the main Pontic host

Looking past the Pontics towards the smaller Roman force

The Battle

The Pontic advanced forces (chariots, cavalry, stratiota detachment) advance on the Romans and Thracians.

Another view

The Roman Cavalry takes the initiative on the far flank (bounded off-table by the River Cephisus) and charges the Pontic Light Horse; ordinarily the Light Horse would have avoided being in charge reach of the heavier Roman cavalry, but they are somewaht boxed in by the Stratiota and the archers.

The scythed chariots did their work well - note the damage done to the centre unit of Roman Legionaries (right); now the Javelinmen are moving up to take their turn

On the far (Pontic Left) flank, the Pontic Light Horse have inflicted more damage than might have been expected; they are still getting the worst of it, however.

Meanwhile, the Stratiota are fighting the Thracians on the Roman left (centre-bottom); the Thracians might be thought of as being ahead on points, at this stage.

The left-hand Pontic phalanx is moving up, to try and get at that disrupted Roman centre

The Roman leginaries have taken additional casualties from the Pontic archers and javelinmen in the centre; on the other hand, the Thracians seem to have gained the upper hand on the Roman Left (centre-bottom right)

Taking a calculated risk, the right-hand Legion attacks the leading Pontic phalanx in the flank, exposing its own flank to the Pontic bowmen; its rear is still protected by the threat of the Roman cavalry, who retired to regroup (top-right); the flank attack has been somewhat successful, but the phalanx is still intact

Proving once again that fortune favours the bold, the Pontic archers ran off!! The left-hand phalanx is therefore in a sticky situation; with the defeat of the Stratiotas imminent on the Pontic Right (bottom right), the Pontic Cavalry advance in support (centre)

And in short order, the left-hand phalanx (see gap near Roman L-shape, top-centre) and the stratiotas (centre-right) have been defeated and run-off; the Pontic reserves move up to compensate

The battle has run on a little here; the Pontic Right (bottom-centre) sees the Pontic cavalry engaging the Thracians; two more phalanxes have engaged the two central, and quite weakened, Roman legions (centre); the stratiotas on the Pontic Left (top-left) are facing off against a Legion and the Roman Cavalry; the Pontic javelinmen have moved to the back to get out of the way (bottom-left); the Pontic reserves (a Phalanx and a group of Stratiotas) are moving towards the centre to assist.

The main fight in the centre is weakening both sides equally; in the bloody struggle in the foreground, both Thracians and Pontic horsemen are falling in droves, but slighly more of the latter than the former

However, that Pontic Cavalry unit seems to be fighting down to the last man!  This was matched by the heroism of the Stratiotas on the other flank (top) who have seen off the Roman Right in its entirety - just!

Can't be long now for the Roman centre...

And another legion goes down! The Romans are defeated, with only one legion and the Thracians still in viable units, and both of them heavily understrength

Game Notes:

A nice, fun game with a distinctly lower level of complexity than Polemos SPQR. Because of if, Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargamning is really easy to pick up and play from the shelf after a period of absence, because there really is not that much to remember; in particular, there are very few exceptions and special rules. It does probably lead to an unrealistically 'zippy' game, with the mighty phalanxes easier to start and stop; but on the other hand it didn't seem to make that much difference: in this game, maybe some of the actions on the Pontic Left (top of the board) were slightly more complex than a set which focused more on command would allow, but apart from that, it wasn't so jarring. Neil Thomas' rules are generally fairly attritional, and these are no exception, although the possible of cascading unit morale failure is always there and happened a few times in this game.  Light troops are much easier to use and more effective than in other games, although other troops will crush them if they can catch them. The 'no interpenetration' rules do ensure that there are significant control, if not command, problems. Of course, given the emphasis on attrition, the Romans in this scenario were always going to be in for a thin time, it is extremely difficult to win in these games unless a force is at least 75% strong as its opponent, with some morale or tactical advantages to assist.

But genuinely really nice to get these rules to the table again.

 

Battle of Charonea 86BC: a Polemos SPQR Refight

I managed to get in an all-too-rare game earlier this week - this time, a refight of the Battle of Charonea 86BC. The scenario is taken from the Polemos: SPQR rulebook, of which more anon.

 

Essentially Charonea features a large and varied Pontic army taking on a significantly smaller and simpler Roman army, helped out by Thracian allies. This works out as:

 

Pontic Army: 18 bases Pike, 11 bases Stratiotas, 4 bases javelin skirmishers, 4 bases Archers, 6 bases Cavalry, 4 bases Light Horse, 3 bases Scythed Chariots

Roman Army: 12 bases Legionaries, 5 bases Thracian stratiotas, 2 bases Cavalry

 

The SPQR scenario gives some more details, but that gives a raw summary.

 

Set-Up: 

The Pontic Army is on the left, with a huge phalanx in the centre - flanked by archers and preceded by javelinmen, a smaller phalanx behind and to the right (i.e. bottom-left), cavalry to the right and then some stratiota coming down the slopes of Mount.. at the bottom of the shot. Top-left (i.e. on the Pontic Left) is a 

The Pontic flanking detachment on the slopes

The main Pontic force: one main phalanx, one smaller phalanx in reserve (top-left), a cavalry detachment on the right (bottom-left) and the light cavalry and a supporting foot detachment on the Pontic left (top-right)

The Romans have the legionaries on the right (top) and the Thracians on the left (right); each wing has a small cavalry detachment

And another view

The Battle:

The initial set-up  - plus the logic of the game mechanics - make this a game of blow-by-blow; so Pontus moves forward with its Scythed Chariots and its Cavalry and its flanking Stratiota.

The battle lines have clashed! The cavalry fight is sort of even so far, with the Roman cavalry pushed back, but the Thracians have formed an effective block and repulsed the bulk of the Pontic horsemen; the Scythed Chariots have caused some disruption and losses, without sweeping the legionaries aside.

A little later, we find that the Thracians and Roman Cavalry have had rather the best of it on the Roman Left (near); the Legionaries are tidying themselves up as the Scythed Chariot attack has lost its impetus somewhat on the Right (towards the top)

The Roman Cavalry on the Left counter-attacks, causing severe panic amongst the Pontic horsemen! They are putting themselves in some danger of being cut off though...

Meanwhile in the centre and on the Roman right, the Pontic light troops (horse on the Pontic Left, top; foot in the Pontic Centre, centre) are skirmishing with the Legionaries and other Roman cavalry, without much effect other than slightly delaying some of the Roman line-straightening moves, having dealt with thre remnants of the scythed chariots

The Romans have (surprisingly) chose to charge home, to try and get the initiative away from the Pontic phalanx (centre)

The Roman Cavalry pursuit on the Left (bottom-left) ends when faced with the phalanx of Bronze Shields comprising the Pontic Reserve

The action hotting up in the middle - the Romans take the fight to the Pontic pikemen, causing some disruption, especially with the Pontic javelinmen intermixed; the Roman Horse on the far right (top) have charged home, but the Pontic Light Horse have fought back surprisingly strongly

The remainder of the Pontic Cavalry (foreground) have been worsted by the Thracians (bottom-right) and are in severe danger of being entirely routed

The battle of legionary and phalangist in the centre ebbs-and-flows

Game Notes:

I stopped the game at this point, feeling a bit disheartened.  This was a clash I had been waiting a while to do and was looking forward to playing, but it didn't really click. There were a few issues I had with the specific scenario and a few with the rules, which didn't help - although I have played and enjoyed Polemos: SPQR many times, so I don't have a general issue with them, so it might well have been my brain at fault rather than the rules on this occasion. 

In any case, it makes sense to concentrate on the scenario first. In general, it is a very good scenario, decent background and lots of options - 'small', 'medium' and 'large' scenarios are detailed (essentially more or less bases on a bigger or smaller table), but I would argue there are in fact four: the units given on the scenario map imply a 'regular' scenario, situated somewhere between the 'small' and 'medium' sized battles. However, the map, although attractive and clear, has a couple of obvious issues and one more subtle one, which ended up being the main problem I had in my refight.

The first obvious issue is that of dead space: over a sixth of the not very big battlefield is impassble, because the River Cephisus is  considered unfordable. Not an issue, with a little re-orientation of the map, it can be seen that it will/should fit on a fairly small board indeed, hence my selection of a 2'x2' board for this particular game. But doing this reveals (more clearly) the second issue: the deployment of the Pontic Left. I think it seems a bit unlikely that any army would deploy like that - facing an unfordable river, and with no space for it to advance, whilst refused behind the Centre. Obviously the latter wouldn't be a problem per se, but it is a problem if it means the Left can't actually do anything.  The whole army lines facing each othere are at a very strange angle, which becomes quite clear if you orientate the scenario map so the unpassable river is the top-edge. The Romans, if outnumbered to any degree, would seem to have been unlikely to choose such an angle of deployment.

The more subtle issue was how the deployment on the map fits with the concept of the group in Polemos: SPQR and the concept of orders. I got into a real muddle with the phalanx - this is the first time I have used one in a game (since this is the first time I have had pikemen available - more anon!). The SPQR rules allow mixed troop types in the same group, but within limits. This implies that the skirmishers preceding the phalanx have to be a different group (you can't have unformed and formed troops in the same group). Presuming the skirmishers to be unformed and the phalanx to be formed, they therefore operate differently. But also, if the skirmishers are ahead of the group, it is very different for the phalanx to pass through the skirmishers, because the Phalanx has to break apart into separate groups to pass through the skirmishers (or have the skirmishers pass through them). To pass through, the leading rank of the phalanx must separate from the remainder, which then becomes a separate group.  This ends up costing a huge amount of Tempo Points (i.e. command points) for a Phalanx five bases wide. Perhaps the intention is that the Phalanx leads the attack with the skirmishers in position? But that is tactically so sub-optimal (the Legionaries will make mincemeat out of them) that it feels difficult to imagine that is what was intended.

Now, there probably are some sensible solutions to this. But I reached the point where I felt I was trying to master a euro-game rather than refight Charonea as a wargame, so I decided to stick a fork in this game and maybe return to it later with SPQR when I had it more sorted out in my head.  They are a reasonably intuitive set of rules, but there are a lot of factors in some of the tables and it has been a while since I had had a game.

As a last thing, I thought the scenario might have been a little more informative about troop types - for example, Pontic Cavalry are definitely Raw (in the scenario) but they might also by Armoured/Unarmoured and Formed/Unformed. I expect that they should be Unarmoured Unformed (this would be the logic from the Army List), or perhaps Armoured Unformed if the Roman Cavalry are counted as Armoured; and whether the Roman Cavalry are Formed or Unformed. It was easy enough to make a ruling, but it is always good if the scenario designer lets us players know what they used. 

On a more positive note, perhaps regular readers will notice some new troops in action! These are a bunch of some of the 6mm Baccus ancient figures that the Polemarch had deemed surplus to his requirements and kindly offered them up for players wanting to re-home them. So I was really pleased to get this new army to the table. I am still deciding whether to rebase them or leave them as is. I had originally intended to do the former - I find the 60x30 bases more handy for gaming, and they would fit in better with my own armies - but OTOH I now see possibilities of using them entirely separately, since the collection is maybe big enough to do that. Still thinking this one through...

 

The Other Partizan 2025

I popped along to The Other Partizan show on Sunday with my youngest. It was very busy! Probably a bit too busy for me, I find it hard to look/shop/play/concentrate with that many people around. I had tried to persuade my son to go in the afternoon instead when it was a bit quieter, but he couldn't wait, in that way that 9 year olds' can't - maybe next year! It did mean that I probably bought less than I would have otherwise though? I came away disappointed that I hadn't spent more, so that is a lose-lose I guess. Or perhaps shopping online is just better. I did get to catch up with a couple of people, which is always nice, and missed catching up on a few more, which is always a bit disappointing.

 Anyway, becasue of the busy-ness of the event, I ended up taking the photos in a much less organized pattern then usually, which has made it even harder for me to recall which group put on which game - not helped by Blogger sometimes putting groups of photos in ascending, sometimes in descending, order: I wish I could figure out which setting causes it to do that! In any case, please forgive (and correct!) any omissions and errors. 

The Forest Outlaws doing Salamanca in 6mm - Napoleonics in 6mm always presses the right buttons for me: 

Like a Stonewall doing Blackhawk Down reskinned for the NW Frontier

Mr. Dale Yates doing some kind of 28mm medieval plunder and pillage type skirmish

 

 

The Shrewsbury Club doing a huge WH40K game. Always good to see a Warhammer game at these shows, since it is by far the most widely played system in the world, and also (by comparing it to the other games) showing there really is no such thing as 'the Warhammer Hobby', it is just wargaming like any other. Anyway, it was based on Rorke's Drift...didn't GW publish Orc's Drift as a scenario way back? Or was that for WFB?

A small Cold War game (which is quite unusual); if memory serves, by the 1/72 wargames group (moonlighting in 1/35??)

This one 'might' be from the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers. Great-looking figures in any case, some Eastern European affair, don't recall the details unfortunately.

Snowy terrain...tricornes...the Austrian left flank getting stoved in...someone attacking in some kind of echelon...must be Leuthen!

The Very British Civil War group doing their thing...

 

Next-up, ACW affair (I think). May have been Forest Outlaws again...sorry, got a bit muddled in this section

Russo-Polish War next...may be the Lincoln group?

More SYW action next: Kolin. This may have been Chesterfield. Spencer Smith action?

A nice looking Normandy game (one of several at the show); this one may have been the Burton group?

More Normandy! Caen this time...by Mr. Joe Bilton? It looked so suitably ruined, my bairn thought it might have been Stalingrad at first glance!

The Solent group put on two games side-by-side: Ancient Naval...

and some Ancients game, I definitely didn't get the details of this one; looked nice though (my camera struggled a bit with this game for some reason, so looking back at the pictures afterwards was no help!).

A Very French Civil War! It looked great, though it did make me wonder a bit why the actual big 1930s civil war in Spain gets less love than it might do...

Next up, a Gaslands Car Wars type game (the Gentlemen Pensioners?).

Then a Bijou ECW skirmish game using Donnybrook

I think this one was by the Barely Legal group, a Zulu War affair anyway (Ntombe, or Intombe)

There was a really nice ACW-type game next. It seemed to be some kind of book tie-in, but the reference escaped me. 

Next was a big 6mm Pony Wars/Old West affair.

Pulpy-SF next (from Bunny Badger games?), which seemed to mix Mars Attacks with a James Bond type rocket. Looked fun, whatever!

Ok, I think this was a What a Tanker game. Looked nice, with all the focus on buildings and model vehicles.

 

 Next to a set-up you don't see every day: the Songhai Empire in action.

Gang-fighting in the Forum:

A nice-looking fantasy game next, seemed quite LotR to me. A very late 90s White Dwarf aesthetic too, I thought.

Wings of Glory next, always looks so fun

I am guessing this was Sails of glory to go alongside (!) it. The land terrain looked great to accompany it!

A turkey-hunting skirmish game!

 

Some kind of Judge Dredd-ish affair, by COGS.

  

 An ECW skirmish game, with a nice fighting up the town-steps design. Really effective!

 

English vs French SAGA (done by GB itself, I think):

Battletech (on that type of Hex terrain whose name escapes me!); again, nice to see a game that seems to be relatively popular long term getting a run out at a show (maybe Sheffield?)

 a 28mm Revolutionary/Napoleonic amphibious skirmish. I am pretty sure I have seen this one before at Newark, although it looked just as nice this time! By the Lancaster group.

 

An appropriately shell-scarred terrain for a WW1 game next (Rob Jones?):

A more hard Sci-Fi offering? Looked quite nice.

A game of Silver Bayonet (the Napoleonic fantasy game that isn't Flintloque, more of a small-scale skirmish I think):

Another medieval raiding type game. By the Scourers, I think?

This is Crete 1941 at Operational Level by Chris Kemp of Not Quite Mechanized fame. I didn't get to chat much to game presenters, but I did get a little chat in with Chris, and very interesting it was too. Nice to see something a little different!

Wargames Development's Alexander the Brief; would have loved to have a go at this if I had been able.

Operational Manoeuvre Group do their modern thing.

More WW1 Air: Snoopy vs the Red Baron!

An LRDG raiding game next (it might have been the Veterans' group??):

 Grantham doing their perennially popular Discworld witch racing take on Formula De.

 A really huge game of Napoleonic Risk next. Impossible not to be visually drawn to this one!

A 1940 raid on Britain caper, "The Seagull Has Landed"

A big WW1 naval game

 The Combat of Boxtel by Casemate Publishing I think. I thought this was one of the best games for hitting the spot between "That looks great!" and "I could do that without a degree of effort I am simply not going to exert on a normal games day"

The Gothenburg Gamers did a modern piracy game. Looked very simple but effective. Loved the Gold Bars...

An Ancients' game (Successors vs Indians) in 54-60mm I think?

More WW2 Normandy IIRC; US Paratroopers this time.

 

Boondock Sayntes doing something bright and colonial, as usual (this time in the Sudan); also visually fantastic, as usual!

 

More 1944 WW2, although this time outside Arnhem. A really huge game, this one:

 This next one has me beaten. I thought it migt be ACW, but whilst usually a couple of details stick in my brain, not for this one at all (I think it is because I saw it in the middle of looking at the Arnhem game). Looks great though!

Ok, back to the Arnhem game.

 Next up, James Morris doing Agincourt. Like the Leuthen and Sudan games earlier, it is nice visually when the 'green' games get broken up with a 'white' or 'brown' or 'sand' colour.

 I think this was more WW2 Normandy:

 Peter Dennis doing his thing with the card soldiers. A medieval affair, with a nice motte and bailey castle!

 A big 100YW game next:

 A Weird War 2 (Projekt 47?) game next

Something very different: a multi-level Burrows and Badgers game. This one really did look different! I have seen all the individual elements done before, but not together like this. It felt almost like it was a model made for a Jim Henson fantasy film, then used for a game, if you see what I mean?

 League of Augsburg doing their thing next, always looks great:

 And a very pretty late C17 Wars of the Sun King game:

 A big Vietnam game (by North Riding?):.

 More WW2 Normandy: this time, the attack on Objective Hillman on D-Day by the Norfolks (done by the Fieldcraft group).

More WW2 in 1944 next, but this time on the Eastern Front (maybe Derby group)

A Samurai game next, really nice water, ship, background and cherry blossom!

I wasn't sure who this next group were even at the time I took the photo, but it looked like they were doing two games: the first an operational level bombing raid (the simple wood-cut aircraft looked really effective for this, actually better than a more accurate model) and a 'Robot Rebels' game, which I think I may have seen before in some guise.

Rubicon models put on another one of their very small but very beautiful games. More WW2 1944 this time

And to round it off, Steve Jones with one of his spectacular AWI games, this one based on Bunker Hill / Breed Hill:

Purchase-wise, I had made a long list, but all I actually ended up getting was my pre-order from Baccus. The bairn picked up a box of WW2 USMC, a group of support weapons for them, and a Buffalo from Rubicon to accompany them (which looks a fabulous model - looking forward to us making that together for him!). It is funny, I don't really need any more models at the moment (to the extent that you ever 'need' any of this stuff), but buying stuff at shows is like a reward function I use for work, so I will always try and get a few things. Maybe I need to concentrate on reducing the pile first, so I should take this as a blessing, rather than a missed opportunity!