Sunday, September 27, 2015

What a revolting game

Hello to all my followers and guests. I would like to take this moment to let everyone know how much I appreciate each and every person who takes the time to browse though my somewhat scattered prose about playing with little toy models and the great fun we have doing this,

Yesterday Mike hosted another game in this year's ongoing series of lesser know fights and battles. We played the revolt of the Carthaginian mercenaries and their attack on the citizens of Carthage to try to get paid. From what we understand these poor guys who fought very well had not been paid for a very very long time and were a bit upset. No unions back then and arbitration meant getting out there and slugging it out.

Our cast of characters were Jamie, Ken, Bill, Mike and myself. Jamie and Ken took the roll of the Carthaginian Citizens while Bill and I were the unpaid Rebels. Mike sat out at first and then jumped in for Ken do to an early departure for other commitments.

The Carthaginians had the following units:
10 heavy infantry - 24 figures each
1 heavy cavalry split into 2 units of 12 figures each
1 light infantry with slings - 12 figures
1 light infantry with bows - 12 figures
Total of 288 figures

The revolting Mercenaries had the following units:
9 heavy infantry - 24 figures each
2 medium infantry - 24 figures each
1 heavy cavalry - 24 figures
1 Light infantry with slings - 12 figures
1 Light infantry with bows - 12 figures
Total of 312 figures

This was a rather conservative game for Mike and we had a bit more room to spread out the game on his table.

Here you can see Ken assessing his assets and planning his deployment. The second picture show set up almost complete for Carthage and the Rebels ready to go. Please note the wrist support for Jamie who was fighting this battle injured. Too much painting says he!


So as you can see the Rebels line extends far to the left of their their center and overlaps the Carthaginian main battle line. This will be a blessing and a curse as we will soon see.

Below the advance begins. This is how the game looked at the end of movement for turn one. The Carthaginians advanced fully toward the Rebels looking to smash their right flank and center. A small detachment of cavalry stiffened up with a unit of light bowmen on the Carthaginian right was tasked with holding off the Rebels heavy cavalry long enough to effect a victory at the other end of the line. Due to the length of the Rebels battle line, they turned to the right, struggling to get into the fight. There are a lot of dice that are not going to get rolled if they cannot contact the Carthaginian troops.
Here is a shot from the other end of the battle.

Turn two sees the outnumbered but valiant cavalry and light infantry being crushed by the Rebel heavy cavalry and heavy infantry. Further down the line two other heavy infantry crash into the citizens of Carthage. But there is a strange sight on the Rebels far right flank, inactivity! Have these Rebels been bought off? Are they terrified of the might of Carthage and their fearsome reputation? Are they awake? Bill are you there?
At this point we had to stop for a moment to wipe the glee of the faces of Ken and Jamie as it looked like their plan was working out fine.

Why are these Rebels (at the bottom of the picture) not moving?

As the fight continues on the Rebel left flank.

Below can be seen the cavalry sweeping in behind the Carthaginians.

Finally the Rebel right attacks! Bill pushed forward and destroyed the Carthaginian cavalry facing his medium infantry. It is to be noted at this time that Jamie, while a fantastic gamer and painter extraordinaire, usually cannot roll dice to save his soul. But this time his gallant cavalry was almost the doom of Bill's plan. But alas they did eventually fail and ran away after their gallant fight.

Well it seems that the waiting was a major part of Bill's plan. Draw the enemy in deep while I battle away on the other flank. Putting off the combat and losses while buying precious time. Actually he uses this tactic in about 9 out of 10 games. Even though Mike had jumped into the game by this time he could not prevent the eventual outcome and this worked again. The Rebels win!!!

End tally was:
Losses for Carthage:
5 heavy infantry - 24 figures each
2 heavy cavalry - 12 figures each
1 light infantry with bows - 12 figures
1 light infantry with slings - 12 figures

Losses for the Rebels:
2 heavy infantry - 24 figures each
1 light infantry with slings - 12 figures

Even though the tally looks like a massive loss for Carthage it is a bit deceiving as many of the Rebel units were on the verge of checking moral and if the game lasted one more turn it could have gone the other way around.
So another great game at Mikes. One more for this campaign season and I am sure that it will be epic. Maybe we can talk Mike into using more of his gaming area and fight on about 16' of battlefield. Again epic.
So not so much eye candy today but here it is:




 
Mike's stuff is so nice!
Take care and good gaming!
Greg

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