Showing posts with label Ancients. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancients. Show all posts

Friday, 30 July 2021

An Ancients Batrep - Romans v Germanic Tribes - The Battle of Alara River 16AD


Some of the Rejects got together for a Roman v Germanic Tribes bash last weekend.
We wasn't expecting such a big game?


The setup


My pal Neil came to the game, he's only played 2 games of 15mm FIW using Donnybrook rules before, so this was a big test for him.


The Romans looking very powerful.


and their Auxillia troops on the flank.


The Germanics standing on the hill taunting their foe.


First turn and all the Celts moved forward.
Our plan was simple, attack as quickly as possible!


Including our flank. But in true Celt fashion we had some hidden troops?


The Romans
Oliver, Dave and Surj


Luvvly looking troops!


Hmm?
The Romans start to redeploy?


We carried on moving forward


Our main attack was on the bend of the Roman lines, in front of Richard's units.


Neil moved up and traded fire with the Roman Auxillia archers.


Richard's main attack was hampered slightly by the woods!


Their was a spot of bother in the Roman ranks, as they couldn't seem to agree what to do and kept moving each others command?


We all had character figures. Richard had a witch. And she was gonna cause trouble. If she was attached to any unit they would get a +4 in melee and morale!


The arguing carried on, on the Roman side so the decided to move around the flank?


We're closing in.....


Oh and there's the surprise!
Surj moved his cavalry onto the hill, and saw a nice surprise.
4 hidden Cavalry units.
Look at poor Dave's face!


The Romans are a tad worried.


The entire table


Looks a little daunting, but I'll give it a go.


Richard get the first charge in!


Then its Neil's turn with the Cavalry.


Its gonna be close???


Neil brings the rest of his infantry up to support the cavalry attack.


As does Richard.


Richard lost both melees and is pushed back.


Oliver and Dave moved up the Romans towards my lines.


The Romans are thinning out.


In the centre I'm facing the 1st Cohort, which has been moved to the front of the Roam lines and is double the size of the other cohorts.


And we're in!


This should be close.



The Roman Cavalry are beaten and what's left runs!


Richard's not having it all his own way, as a unit is knocked back, but the Romans lost a few more figures and are looking very fragile.


The Celts contact the Romans just before they contact my javelinmen.


But still lose the melee and are punched back, leaving the Romans free to attack the javelin men.


Who flee back through the woods.


Then fail their morale check and flee the field.


Richard and Neil make pretty patterns as they advance towards the now retreating Romans


Its a struggle to the death, the Romans have lost their back rank and I've nearly lost mine.


And they're gone. The 1st Cohort is destroyed to the man, in doing so we captured their Eagle.
Which as all of you may know, would mean disgrace for the Legion.


You may ask the question, I know we did, where is the support for the 1st Cohort and why the hell is it trying to take my left flank???


Richard charges and captures another standard. And at the end of the turn Postie gave us, the Celts the victory. We had captured many Roman standards including their Eagle and there was no way back for them. 
The Romans lost 5 units, the 1st 3rd and 6th Cohorts the 4th Auxilla and the Auxilla Cavalry. 
The Celts only lost light troops, 3 Javelin and an archer unit.


T'was Cup o' Tea time, and our Celtic Chieftain Richard, collected the Man of the match award!
Great game was had by all.....I think?
We stuck to our plan all the way through, while the Romans seemed to change their minds every turn, which didn't help there game at all. Not sure why they just didn't stand and wait for us to come onto them, at least they would have been able to fire their bolt throwers every turn.
To the end Surj said that wouldn't have helped them, that they had to try and take the flank???
Can't see it myself, Just glad I was on the Celt side!




Thursday, 3 October 2019

The Battle of Trebbia 218 BC - To the Strongest - Batrep


Postie was given a well deserved rest last Sunday, as BigLee ( Lee's report here) took over the reigns as the Ref and cheif organiser. Lee had been planning for some time to introduce the rest of the Rejects to Simon Miller's excellent set of Ancients rules "To the Strongest".
Myself and Richard picked out the Romans, Postie and Surj got the Carthaginians. As this was a playtest (or so we thought?) it was just a meeting engagement and it was a simple clashing of armies.
We did find out halfway through the game we were infact re-fighting Trebbia!!!!
It was actually quite funny, I stood over on the Carthaginian side of the table as me and Richard talked tactics, I noticed the river behind the Roman lines??? "Are we refighting Trebbia?" I asked. Lee's top lip quivered as he lied through his teeth......." No this is just a playtest!"
Lying shitbag!
(I do infact own some never played with 15mm armies for both sides of the Carthaginian Wars, but I've never found a set of rules that I liked because of the dreaded Maniple formation and the swap Hastati and Principis) SO I do know a little about the period, which Lee never knew......


Pinched straight from Lee's blog (Why type it out again?)

Order of Battle
Romans  C/O Consul Tiberius Sempronius Longus  (267 Points)
1st Command - Sempronius    Mounted, Detached, Senior 
   2x Equites Romani           Cavalry, Javelin
   Equites Extraordinarii          Cavalry, Javelin, Veteran
   Italian Allied Infantry          Javelinmen
   Gallic allied infantry          Warriors, deep, hero
2nd Command - General         Mounted, Detached
   3x Velites                          Light Infantry, Javelin
   4x Hastati/Principes          Legionaries, Special
   3x Triarii                          Hoplites, Veteran, Small
3rd Command - General          Mounted, Detached
   3x Velites                           Light Infantry, Javelin
   4x Hastati/Principes           Legionaries, Special
   3x Triarii                           Hoplites, Veteran, Small
4th Command - General          Mounted, Detached
   2x Equites Latini                  Cavalry, Javelin
   2x Allied Light Cavalry   Light Cavalry, Javelin
   Italian Allied Infantry          Javelinmen


Carthaginians  C/O Hannibal Barca (234 Points)
1st Command - Hannibal   Great Leader, senior, mounted, heroic, detached and brilliant 
   2x Punic Cavalry                 Cavalry, Javelin
   2x Numidian Light Cavalry Light Cavalry, Javelin 
   African Elephants          African Elephants, Deep
   African Skirmishers         Light Infantry, Javelin, Raw
   Balaeric Slingers                 Light infantry sling, Veteran
2nd Command - General        Mounted, Detached
   2x African Spearmen         Spearmen, Veteran
   2x Italian Allies                 Javelinmen
   2x Iberian Scutarii          Javelinmen, Shock Weapon, Veteran
   3x Gauls                          Warriors, hero, deep, (two of the three are Veteran)
3rd Command - General         Mounted, Detached
   Punic Cavalry                 Cavalry, Javelin
   2x Numidian Light Cavalry  Light Cavalry, Javelin
   African Elephants            African Elephants, Deep
   African Skirmishers         Light Infantry, Javelin, Raw
   Balaeric Slingers              Light infantry sling, Veteran
4th Command - Mago             Mounted, Detached, Senior, Brilliant 
   Punic Cavalry                  Cavalry, Javelin, Veteran
   2x African Spearmen          Spearmen, Veteran


The Carthagian Centre - left


With some rather nice looking Elephants


The Roman right, my Command, we found out that this really should have been Richard's command as he was CnC.


The Carthaginian right, facing Richard.


The Romans moved first. We decided to move the whole army full move forward and get int conatct as soon as we possibly could.


The Carthaginian's kept their centre in place and moved their flanks forward.
They were trying to get their Elephants out of the way of the other troops. Which was probably a good idea?


We moved up again, pushing some Velites out in front to try and take a shot at the enemy.


Looks like Postie has freed up his Elephants.


Surg moves his light troops out, to counter ours.


Posties Elephants and Cavalry charge!!!
The yellow markers are casualty markers, most units (bases) can take 2 hits and are then destroyed.
Skirmishers can only take 1!


Postie takes the first casualty of the game when he destroys my Roman Equites!


I decided not to charge Posties Elephants, I threw my Javalins instead causing a casualty,
which Postie failed to save. So that was the end of the Elephants!
And to make things even worse for Postie, the Elephants rampaged back, straight into his 
Numidian Horse, causing a casualty on them, once again as they're skirmishers they too were removed from the table!!


Over on the Roman left, Richard moved up to shoot with his Allied Cavalry.


He threw very well and destroyed Surj's Elephants!
We were both very pleased with how it was going!!!


I held my Allied Infantry and Gauls back on our right, trying to tempt Postie forward.


The loss of the Carthaginians Elephants left a gap in their lines. We hoped Richard could take advantage of the flank next turn.


Hastati, Principis and Triarii
Looking good!


Hang on a minute!!!!
WTF!!!
It was at this point Lee admitted we were actually playing a re-fight of Trebbia!!
Which meant that Hannibal's brother Mago, appeared on Richard's flank!


AND what made it even worse was that Lee, let them charge into Richard's flank straight away!!!


Richard couldn't even fight back, as he was hit in the flank and destroyed!!


I could only manage to move up and face the Gauls in the centre of the Carthaginian lines.


Our plan on our left is in tatters, thanks to the attack from the flank.




Ricahrd, Lee, Surj and Postie


Postie gets the charge in, but I save everything. Postie also loses a Gaul unit, leaving a rather nice hole, in their lines.


With some good throwing, Postie manages to fill that hole with a unit of African Spearman.


On our left Richard tries to halt the flan attack by turning units 


There were many casualties caused in this turn.


Postie loses 2 units from the left of his line


What a mess, I can't even tell who's who????


All the Roman front line are in now!


My Hastati and Principes swap positions and get to throw their Pili


Richard's just managing to hang in on the flank


On the other flank Postie isn't having any luck.


Its a bloody affair in the centre. I need 2 casualties to be destroyed, while Postie Gauls need three.


We all lose units in the centre. This is gonna be close.


We both thought Surj would smash the flank, but his dice let him down.


Disaster for the Romans, in the centre, I lose a unit, then another units fails a test and also runs.
Have I just given the game to the Carthaginians?


No...........I managed to take the last casualty we needed to force the Carthaginians over their break point......phew!


The table at the end of play.

Conclusion

A hard fought victory goes to Richard and myself. We could so easily of lost the game. I have to admit our dice rolling was quite a bit better than Surj and Posties. This helped no end!
I enjoyed the game, as I think the other did. They're kind of a cross between a normal wargame and a board game? Although they look simple the rules are quite intricate and are gonna take us ol boys some getting used too, we all made mistakes, which I suppose we were going to as it was our first game. The question is.... we will remember the things to do and not to do in our next game???? Probably not!
Well done goes to Lee, for putting on a great and beautiful looking game and trying to control us 4 ruffians!!! 
We did test him and argue a few points. Fancy letting Skirmish infantry charge skirmish horse front on???? And letting them charge on the same turn as they entered the table!!!! Oh dear oh dear!!! Bad boy Mr H!

I shall look forward to our next game!!!