The Battle of Pharsalus, 48 BCE - Strength & Honour AAR

Saturday was the main day of the convention, and I had decided to focus on historical games. 

My first game of the day was Strength & Honour, which I haven't had a chance to play in a while. 

We were refighting the Battle of Pharsalus, between Caesar and Pompey for the fate of Rome. 

The Caesarian army was smaller but made up of more elite units, while the Pompeian army was more numerous but less experienced. 

The goal was the break the enemy army (the Caesarian morale was 19, the Pompeian morale was 23). The Pompeians did have a special rule, in that they could send a unit of cavalry off the opposing table edge to try and capture Caesar's scattered baggage train, which would be a Disaster card if successful. 

As the larger army, the Pompeians started with the first turn. Thanks to another special rule (that would give Pompeian legions a first-time only reroll on saving throughs in combat), we move conservatively, keeping our line formed up. Meanwhile, our cavalry force pushed hard on the left flank, intending to hit the Caesarian baggage train and get that Disaster card asap. 

The Caesarians had a tougher go of it, failing several movement tests and moving forward in a broken line. 

The Pompeian cavalry engaged first, forcing back a unit of enemy skirmishers. 

Over on my side of the table, the two battle lines squared off, neither side wanting to commit. 

The Pompeian cavalry pushed back the enemy skirmishers and ended up in the flank of the elite Caesarian Xth Legion. 

The Pompeian light cavalry also managed to get past the Caesarian lines and looted their baggage train. 

In an astounding result, the Xth Legion was broken and fled from the battle! This gave the Pompeian a perfect chance to launch a charge into another Caesarian legion's flank.

The other half of the Caesarian line came on and Roman shields clashed. 

With their better units, the Caesarians largely disrupted the Pompeian lines, but not enough to rout or disrupt any of my units. I was lucky with my movement dice and reformed my line. 

However, the lost of the Xth Legion and the collapse of Caesar's right flank gave them enough Setback and Disaster cards that the Pompeian were willing to call Haemonculus Est. It was delayed for a turn thanks to a Command token, but the next turn saw Caesar's morale collapse. With a decisive victory for Pompey and the Senate, history would be changed forever!

This was a great game, but I felt like the Caesarian players had a rough go of it. Lacking cavalry, they would've had a tough time stopping the enemy cavalry from sacking their baggage, and they had quite  a few bad dice rolls at critical moments that definitely saved me from losing my weaker legions. 

Despite that, I continue to enjoy playing Strength & Honour!

History Repeats Itself - Strength & Honour AAR

This past weekend, I ran a game of Strength & Honour at the monthly SJGA meetup. I'm planning to run this scenario at the Springfield meetup this upcoming weekend (and have volunteered to also run it at Cold Wars in March), so I needed some refresher games to get my head around the rules. John commanded the Romans, while Chris commanded the Pontics. 

The Chaeronea scenario refights a major battle of the First Mithridatic War. Three years into the war, Lucius Cornellius Sulla found himself and his 30,000 strong army facing a Pontic army twice its size, led by the Greek nobleman, Archelaus. 

John set his legions up on top of the heights of Mount Thurium, with his cavalry behind the Roman shields. Chris' pike blocks were flanked by lighter infantry and cavalry, with archers and skirmishers out in front. 

Chris moved aggressively, his massed ranks of pikemen rolling forward and the Scythed Chariots attacking the Romans' Greek allies. 

John began maneuvering his cavalry to swing out to the flanks of the Roman lines. 

Unfortunately, the Scythed Chariots failed to do any damage, and were instead pushed back and destroyed (any Push Back result against Scythed Chariots automatically destroys them, but it only costs a Setback card and doesn't force a Rout result). Buoyed by the victory, the Thureophoroi surged forward to attack the Pontic Cavalry. 

John pushed hard on the left flank, with his Raw Roman Legion joining the Thureophoroi to push back Chris' flank, exposing the line of pikes. 

In the center, legion met phalanx and skirmisher fought skirmisher. 

On the far right, you can see John's Light Cavalry ranging out in a flanking maneuver. 

With Chris' flank tied up, he could only watch as the Roman cavalry turned and prepared a charge into the open side of his pike phalanxes. 

Chris' Thureophoroi had also been caught by the fast moving Roman Light Cavalry. Of course, it didn't help that the Thureophoroi had refused to move for several turns.

At least Chris' attack on the Roman left flank was going better. Two pike phalanxes, supported by the Pontic Light Cavalry, were pushing back two of John's legions. 

With the skirmishers on both sides chased out of the line of battle, the Roman legions and Pontic phalanxes continued to clash. 

However, the Pontics were in a precarious position. With the legions to the front, and flanked by cavalry, Chris' Veteran Phalanx was automatically Disordered. And his Thureophoroi ended up fleeing the Roman Light Cavalry... right into his phalanxes' other flank!

Being stuck between two enemy units in Strength & Honour (really, in any wargame) is pretty disastrous, although I did mess a few things up. There probably shouldn't be this many Disorder markers on the phalanx the Pontic general is attached to, or on the skirmishers. But by this point, Chris had accrued enough Setback cards that, when John called Haemonculus Est, they were well above the Pontic break point of 20. 

Chris and John were great players, and I really appreciated them helping me out.

Later that very same day, I then went up to Ted's and replayed the game with him, Chip, and Steve. Steve and I played the Romans, while Ted and Chip played the Pontics. 

I won't get into the full details of the game, but it seemed like the Romans' luck had turned sour, and we were gathering Setback cards left and right. However, a reversal of fortune from the Pontics gave us the momentum to win some important combats and give the Pontics enough Disaster cards to barely eke out a win. 

Chip was a major help in figuring out several rules that I had misread or misapplied, which will be great for this coming Saturday. And it's a reminder that I shouldn't play in games I'm also trying to teach! It does my head in trying to do both at the same time (although already having played the game once, and not sleeping all that well the night before didn't help).

All that aside, I'm definitely more confident in running this scenario. I do think I need to "pretty up" the tale a little more. I do need to make the stream that the scenario mentions (which is entirely fordable and doesn't impact the battle), and maybe toss down some green tufts for small groves of trees. 

Painting Update - Strength & Honour Terrain

The blog has been quiet for a bit, but I'm back with some painting updates. 

 

I've been working on some terrain for Strength & Honour. Korhyl makes some great city tiles that are the same size as in-game units, so I bought two of them. 

I also purchased a set of the farms/villas for more, smaller built-up areas. 

Strength & Honour uses camps, and while the 2d paper printouts are nice, I do prefer 3d versions. This half of a Roman cmoamp is perfect for using either out on the frontiers or deal with civil wars. 

 

 

And finally, I also completed a couple of generic wagon circles for any non-Roman opponents.

Alea Non Est - Strength & Honour AAR

Warning: The title's not the only bit of bad Latin in this week's post. 

This past weekend, Ted invited me to bring my Strength & Honour forces for another game. I obliged, as I wanted a refresh on the rules, and it's going to be one of the games for this month's club meeting.

As my order from Korhyl is currently making its way from Italy to the States, I used the same units from my first game of Strength & Honour. Individually, the Roman Legions are more than a match for most of the Pontic Greek units, but the Greeks were more numerous and had three units of cavalry to the Roman's none. 

Last time the Greeks had received a decent beating, so I was interested to see how it'd turn out in this game. 

John and Ted controlled the Greeks, while Steve and I controlled the Romans. 

In the first couple turns the Romans largely advanced as a front, while the Greek cavalry surged forward, outpacing their infantry counterparts and forcing a unit of Roman Skirmishers to retreat.

And it was fairly early on that, if I were to latinze the appropriate idiom, stercus percussit flabellum. 

A failed discipline test saw the only Veteran Legion, which had been a powerhouse in the previous game, instantly rout. Not only that, but the Legion lost their Eagle as well; a double Disaster Card result. 

With Steve's Experienced Roman Legion keeping the flank protected from the Greek's Skirmish Cavalry, his Raw Legion was facing both the Pontic Cavalry and Cataphracts. I swung my own Experienced Legion to hit the Cataphract's flanks, but was then flanked by one of Ted's Imitation Legions. And my own Raw Legion was staring down the length of a wall of pikes. 

One early result may have sealed the Roman army's fate early on. Now Steve and I were on the back foot, trying desperately to find some sort of equilibrium. 

Of course, my own traitorous dice weren't having any of that. 

To try and stem the Pontic tide, Steve and I both used our Skirmishers to head off enemy units. Unlike last game (where one unit of Skirmishers routed two Pike Phalanxes), this was more in line with how skirmishers should act in a game. 

Unfortunately, my one Experienced Legion was still stuck with an Imitation Legion in its flanks (thanks to a failed maneuver test), and my Raw Legion was pushed back and Disordered. The Romans were accruing Setback cards at an alarming rate.

While somewhat scatted, Steve's unit were at least hanging on. My Raw Legion managed to rally, and while Disordered the Experienced Legion at least ended up next to its Raw counterpart which had successfully reformed.

Distressingly, I was utterly outnumbered on the Roman right flank, and it was only due to a couple Greek Reversal of Fortunes that had kept my lone Experienced Legion from being overrun. 

Of course, that didn't much matter much after my Experienced Legion in the center failed to reform and instead routed and lost its Eagle (for two more Disaster cards)! 

John and Ted finally took pity on the poor, beaten Romans and called Homonculus Est. The final tally was 34 points against the Romans, and a measly 2 points against the Pontic Greeks. 

This was an even worst disparity compared to the last game! Here it seems like the Romans couldn't get anything right, as though the entire army had managed to drink the same soured wine the night before. 

At the very least, Ted's ordered Germans and my reinforcements should be arriving soon, at least the variety of armies I'll be defeated by will soon increase. 

Painting Update - Dieselpunk, Ancients, WW2 French

Let's take a break from the battle reports and take a look and what I've painted since the last update. 

I finished up the rest of the dieselpunk tanks. I went for a pea-dot camo pattern for these larger tanks. 

They're great looking tanks, inspired by Ghibli movies; rounded edges and bristling with guns. 

This larger tank got a simpler camo scheme, as who would really bother trying to hide a tank the size of a house? 

Speaking off, I also finished a set of 6mm houses. These were 3d printed and intended for ACW gaming, but they should work for any small scale wargaming that needs generic houses for built-up areas. 

I also finished my Pontic force for Strength & Honour. 

The Pontic army lists has some of the same infantry types as the Romans (Skirmishers and Imitation Legions), but they're one of the few factions in the rulebook that still use the Pike Phalanx (the others being Eastern Client Kingdoms and Armenians). I had an interesting time creating the pike effect, by combining drybushing on the resin unit base and painted brush bristles to imitate lowered pikes. 

Unlike the Romans, the Pontic army makes much more use of cavalry, like the above Cataphracts. 

They also have options for Light Horse and generic Cavalry.

And they can even take Scythed Chariots!

With all of my 2mm Ancient painted, I decided to move on to a new project - 28mm WW2 French. 

Usable for a variety of rules (most likely Bolt Action and Chain of Command), this platoon and accompanying support units will be an excellent opponent to the Germans I painted for the Polish campaign that the SJGA ran last year. 

Ultimately, I'd really like to be able to use these to play out the "Taking the Gembloux Gap" campaign from TooFatLardies. I would need to add some more armor to both sides, but the infantry should cover most options needed. 

 

The French have an interesting platoon organization; 12-strong squads, each equipped with a light-machine gun and a rifle-grenade launcher which can be seperated out as a separate squad (at least, in Chain of Command). 

'Crowning' Achievement - Strength & Honour AAR

This past weekend was Kozcon, a small mini-convention put on by a group of wargamers from Pennsylvania in memory of a friend and fellow wargamer. The ticket costs are donated to the American Cancer Society. 

It was a well attended event with over two dozen players. There was an ADLG tournament (28mm open) along with several other participation games. The main event was a dice-off raffle with plenty of prizes. 

I met up with Ted and Steve, who had agreed to play our first game of Strength & Honour at the convention. I had just finished the Pontic Greek army a few days prior.

Another attendee (Russ) dropped into the fourth player spot alongside me as the Pontic commanders. Steve and Ted led the Romans. 

As to not complicate things too much, we kept the terrain and scenario simple; a good ol' brawl to test the rules. 

The Roman force consisted of:

    x1 Veteran Legion  

    x3 Experienced Legions

    x2 Raw Legions

    x2 Skirmishers

The Roman Legion in Strength & Honour is a big, tough block of troops. Even the Raw Legions can put up a decent fight, and the Veteran (and Elite) Legions are implacable, deadly, and relatively nimble for formations of around 5,000 soldiers. 

The Pontic army was much more varied:

    x2 Pike Phalanxes

    x1 Thureophoroi

    x2 Imitation Legions

    x1 Skirmishers

    x1 Pontic Cavalry

    x1 Pontic Light Cavalry

    x1 Cataphracts

As one of the few Successors factions in Strength & Honour, the Pike Phalanx takes front and center in the Pontic force; that is, as long as they're not trying to copy Rome with their Imitation Legions. They also had access to cavalry for this game, something Russ would use to good effect. 

We also calculated break points, with the Romans having 17 and the Greeks having 18.

The Romans won the roll off to be the attackers. Their skirmishers moved forward as the Legions began to spread out. The center of the Pontic line moved up, with the flanks staying still. 

The first two units to clash were the Pontic Thureophoroi and Roman Skirmishers, which only resulted in a push back. 

We quickly found out that Skirmishers are a headache to deal with. You need a 6 on the Combat Dice results to really do any damage, and if the opponent can pass their Discipline Tests (which Steve did with flying colors), then you can't give your opponent any Setback cards by pushing the Skirmishers back.

I realized my deployment mistake early on, when Ted's Skirmishers managed to push back my Cavalry from their woods. This left the right flank of the Pontic line up in the air; the worst possible situation for a phalanx!

It didn't take long for both sides to push their attacks on the enemy flank. The Romans had their Skirmishers, who had to contend with the Pontic Cavalry. However, because the Skirmishers were in partially in rough terrain (the small woods scattered around), both sides Combat Rating were greatly reduced, and the Cavalry wasn't able to do much. 

On the other side of the battle, the Pontic Light Cavalry and Cataphracts were lining up an attack on the Veteran Legion. 

The Thureophoroi managed to push back the Roman Skirmishers and the unit was Disordered. 

As the battle raged on, I was desperately trying to stop Ted's Skirmishers from getting into the flank of the Pike Phalanx, but failed. This is especially bad for Phalanxes, as they automatically become Disordered when attacked on the flank. Not only does this result in a Setback Card, but it's only a single step away from the unit Routing!

Meanwhile, Russ was pinning down the Roman flank with the Cataphracts. But with the Veteran Legion's Discipline of 5+, they weren't going to be panicking any time soon. 

Unfortunately, the Pontic Light Cavalry bounced off the flank of the Raw Legion that had failed to move the entire game and became Disordered. 

I wasn't so lucky with my forces. The first of the Pike Phalanxes routed, and the Thureophoroi were pushed back by a Raw Legion, becoming Disorded as a result. I was picking up Setback and Disaster cards left and right!

It was around this time that Steve and Ted called "Haemonculus Est!" to see if the Pontic army had broken. Luckily we only reached around 11 of our 18 break, which let us discard one of the Disaster Cards, but Fatigued the Pontic forces, reducing their movement for the rest of the game.

Despite continually hitting their flanks, my Cavalry couldn't seem to do any damage to the Roman Skirmishers! This meant they were free to hit my second Pike Phalanx in the flank and, with some poor luck, quickly routed the unit. 

Russ' Cataphracts continued to hammer the Veteran Legion, and for a moment the gods shined on the Pontic forces as the Legion failed its discipline test with a critical failure, resulting in the Legion retiring and ending up Disorded and  facing away from the Cataphracts. 

That luck didn't last long, however, with the Pontic Light Cavalry not only failing to reform, but instead dispersing with a Rout result.

Both sides continued the fight, but a second call of "Haemonculus Est!" from Steve and Ted revealed that the Greeks had finally crossed over their break point, which ended the game. We tallied up the Setback and Disaster cards; the Greeks had 23, while the Romans had 10. It would have been a little higher had the Romans not rolled box-cars twice on two separate Discipline Checks (which allows you to remove an unseen Setback card).

The vagaries of Fortuna aside, we really enjoyed the rules! 

One aspect of Blood Bowl (I know, hold on, stick with me for a moment) is the calculation of risk when activating players. There are some actions that are less risky than others; standing a player up should be done before trying to tackle an Ogre with a lineman, or trying to dodge past a member of the other team. 

Strength & Honour scratches that same itch. It's a balancing act of trying to determine what's the least risky activation first. It's recognizing when you should slide that unit of skirmishers up to support a combat so it's two dice, your choice, instead of a single die roll. 

You add that to a fun period of history and a relatively niche scale, and it's a blast. I'm going to be ordering extra units soon so I can run bigger and more varied games. Maybe I could even get a campaign going.