Persian problems DBA 6 x 6 AAR

After my slight diversion in South East Asia, I got back on track with the 6 x 6 challenge this afternoon and played my newly painted Spartans and Persians against each other.

The Persian army

The Spartans opposite

The Spartans were the attackers and so the Persians chose lots of terrain which thanks to some fortuitous rolling all ended up on the table. It included a difficult hill, a woods and boggy ground, as well as the compulsory 2 ploughed areas. I thought that this might play into the hands of the Persians quite nicely, and wanted to see how it might work in their favour, so the Spartans chose the emptiest table edge to deploy on.

Persian deployment took advantage of the woods and difficult hill.

The Spartans took advantage of having a big long line of spears, with more spears in behind. The helots ended up in the bog, because really, who cares about the helots?

The Persian light horse started off with a magnificent flanking manoeuvre, and by the second turn they were beginning to disrupt the Spartan army.

Except a 6 and a 1 on the die rolls saw them run away!

Never mind, next turn and we'll have another go with the Spartan frontline.

Persian shooting knocked back a spear element and began to disrupt the Spartan line - this was the Persian plan - make life hard for the Spartans by getting them to need piles of PIPs and turning the flanks.

A second shot knocks back spears on the other side of the general while the Psiloi speed bump are forced to recoil behind the spears.

However, the initial Spartan charge pushes the Persian left back.

And next thing you know a bow element explodes, exposing flanks and causing all kinds of worries for the Persians. All is not lost though. The Persian left flank bows are on difficult going which is going to disadvantage the Spartans more than them, and an element of Persian cavalry is hovering for a flank attack.

The next Persian move gets 2 pips. This is enough to spring the trap on the left and kill off a spear element, but on the right the Spartans just begin to make a bigger hole.

Which they happily go through and close the door to turn the auxilia... 

...Who go splat. That and the defeat of the bows on the difficult hill ends the game.

The comparative losses - Spartans deliver a thrashing. The final score is 5-1 as the first double based element lost counts as 2. The final 2 elements were both lost in the same turn.

I think I deployed the ploughed areas wrong - they both should have entered two board quarters. I'm not sure if they have to be deployed in the same quarter as each other - that might be a question for the Fanaticus forum.

In terms of the battle, I don't think the Persians did anything wrong as such. The plan was pretty sound, but there were a number of 6-1 opposed dice rolls that went in the Spartan favour, and low PIP dice for the Persians in the last couple of rounds. Spear armies are certainly more effective than they were under DBA 2.1, and the mass of spear elements did an impressive job on their opponents. I'll definitely be taking these two armies for another run soon to see if I can develop tactics for the Persians. I think the Spartan tactics are pretty straight forward.

Nate

Save the Senator's daughter! - SBL 6 x 6 AAR

In his bid to destroy the power of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus, Sextus Pompey has made a deal with the cult known as the Children of Neptune. They are promising him victory through the supernatural intervention of their deity. All they need is a blood sacrifice, and the bluer the blood, the better. This leads Sextus to order a raid on the Campanian coast to abduct the daughter of Senator Claudius Cassus Belli, a staunch supporter of Octavian. On hearing of this, Octavian dispatches Vorenus, Pullo, the Frumentarius Umbra and a small band of elite troops to rescue her, before she is sacrificed.

A scene from the battle

In this set up, the High Priest of the Children of Neptune is preparing to sacrifice Claudia, the senator's daughter, in an ancient temple on the shores of Sicily next to the water. He is a summoner, but in order to summon the greater demon, he must be next to the priestess and roll three activations. If he does this, then the senator's daughter is killed, and the Roman warband must concentrate on killing all of the enemy. The Children of Neptune start with four Cultists on the board defending the temple. The demons of the deep are to be summoned from the sea as the game progresses.

The table at the start of the game.

I began with a random deployment, numbering the edges 1-4 and rolling a d4 for each Roman figure to see where they came on. It ended up being quite an even spread. The priority, of course, was to try to get into the temple as fast as possible. We'll let the photos tell the story from here.

Starting position for Pullo's team.

Starting position for Vorenus' team

Vorenus leads the charge towards the temple

The first sea demon is summoned.

As the valiant legionary races to the temple a second sea demon emerges,but is taken down by the supporting fire of the Cretan archer.

A cultist is killed by pilum while the remaining cultists are engaged.

More horrors emerge from the depths, determined to serve their summoner.

The cultists put up a good fight, recoiling the stronger legionaries.

The first legionary enters the temple compound and the High Priest runs away, while the sea demon champion comes to his defence.

'Kill him my child!'

Sea demons clash with Romans. Pullo fancies fish for dinner!

But in the struggle he is the victim of a gruesome kill! His comrade, failing a morale test while knocked down, is also killed.

Vorenus jumps the temple wall and lands a mighty blow on the Sea Demon champion, just in time to save the brave legionary who had been battling singlehandedly against the monstrosity.

Umbra is finding theses sea demons a difficult challenge.

Another sea demon arrives in the temple, but in the nick of time another legionary arrives to help out Vorenus.

Watching as the combat unfolds, the High Priest summons a sea demon baron.

Vorenus kills the Sea Demon champion, then turns to help his fallen comrade. 

While the other legionary gets back up and charges into the High Priest, knocking him down.

The Sea Demon Baron arrives to defend the high priest, while Vorenus is too late to help his loyal soldier. He makes sure to take his revenge though. The last cultist charges a Cretan archer, while Umbra finally gets the upper hand against his sea demon nemesis.

Vorenus charges into the high priest, and together he and the brave legionary (who certainly deserves his farm) inflict a gruesome kill on the High Priest.

With no-one left to answer to, the sea demon baron returns to the depths, and the senator's daughter is saved!

Another fun game using the Song of Blades and Heroes system and the atmosphere of the world of Broken Legions.
3 days and 3 games towards the 6x6. I'm on a roll.

Nate

Corunna - 6 x 6 Commands and Colors first game

Not a long post, this one, as I think multiple images of block counters is probably a bit boring.
Last night Mike came around and we played through the Corunna scenario using Commands and Colors. This was our third clash working through the scenario book, and I duly set up Mike with the British and myself as the French. Having won both Rolica scenarios as the French, I thought that maybe Corunna might go a bit better for the Brits, being as it is a classic British 'victory' - you know, like Mons and Dunkirk...

Deployment. The British artillery not being in a position to fire from the beginning was going to be a handicap.

 My plan was to feint on the flanks and pound the British centre into submission before an all-out assault. As I needed to get 6 victory banners to win, my concern was in making sure that I concentrated on destroying whole units and moving units reduced to one block out of harm's way.
By and large this was a successful strategy, although it was closer than I had bargained for. At the end of the game I had 6 victory banners to Mike's 4. A quick look at the map below shows how the strategy worked.

The British centre is denuded, the French right has held the British left, and French units reduced to one block have been largely removed to hide behind the main line.

Hopefully we can get another game in soon, but two 6 x 6 games in 2 days is enough to recall the heady days of January!

Nate

Steak on the hoof - 6 x 6 Pikeman's Lament AAR

My first game of The Pikeman's Lament had been a solo effort, and went rather well. The rules were incredibly easy to use and the game was fun. As I am on holiday at the moment and John was able to get away from work a little earlier than usual, I offered to set up a game to play out. This time, I thought it would be good to start using the officer traits and begin a small role-playing campaign. The previous outing I had created two officers, but hadn't bothered with traits or honour - it was realy just to get my head around the basic rules.

Originally I had thought to use my two characters from the first game - Charles Utterlea-Barking and Luis Alejandro de Jambon-Empanada - but when I rolled on the table for their background, both ended up being quite unsuitable. My Bourbon officer was sly, a son of a merchant without honour, and could never be a an aristocrat like Luis, while the Confederate officer was a foreigner, not entirely trusted by his men. Once again, Utterlea-Barking was just too English to fit that personality. So I created two new characters. Leading the Bourbons was Rodrigo Tapas, while the Confederates were led by a Protestant French exile, Hugh Geneaux. I randomly generated their personal missions for the game. Rodrigo had to kill the enemy leader in hand to hand combat for 3 points of honour, while Hugh had to motivate his force to remove more enemy causalties through hand to hand rather than through shooting.

The scenario I rolled up from the rulebook was 'steak on the hoof', and the table was duly set up. When John arrived I quickly outlined the basics of the rules and found that they were very simple to explain. We got stuck in.

As the battle starts the Condfederate forces are deployed in the centre of the table facing the columns of Bourbon troops moving forward with their pilfered cattle.

The grendier detachment (forlorn hope) and a line company (shot) of the Toledo regiment moved froward with some of the Rios Spanish cavalry regiment (trotters) in support. Rodrigo Tapas was the grenadier officer.

Hugh Geneaux was with Pearce's Dragoons (Gallopers) and a company of Colbatch's 5th Spanish foot. 

True to his mission, Geneaux led his troopers forward towards the enemy.

The Bourbon forces opened up, the Rios troopers performing the caracole.

Colbatch's company also took casualties. no-one failed their morale or fell below half strength though.

Geneaux led his men into the fray and forced the the Rios squadron back.

The Confedrate reinforcements entered the table - some Miquelets and Rivers' grenadiers.

On the otherwise so far anonymous side of the battle (due mainly to heir being no Confederate troops there initially, and to the fact that the Zinzendorf dragoons and Osuna regiment aren't quite finished yet), the Zinzendorf Dragoons and a line company of Rivers' regiment appeared.

I managed to miss taking a picture of the duel, but Tapas called out Geneaux, which was rather extraordinary considering he was sly. It can only be assumed that he was thinking of the 3 points of honour he would take away from this clash. Of course, he lost the duel. Geneaux's triumph was shortlived though, as murderous fire from the Toledo regiment and a renewed charge by the Rios horse destroyed him and his unit.

The Zinzendorf dragoons didn't hang back, charging pell mell into the Toledo company on the far side of the battlefield.

The miquelets moved into a flanking position, but the grenadiers failed their activation and couldn't enter the woods.

The Toledo grenadiers abandoned their cows (later I realised they couldn't do this, but at the time John wanted to get moving and I saw nothing wrong with this) and charged Colbatch's, forcing them into a retreat that would eventually become a rout. The Miquelets took a hammering, but would rally to get off a salvo, which took out two of the Rios cavalry, before being hit and wavering again.

The Valencian militia kept trying to get off the hill and help out the Toledo grenadiers, but consistently failed its activation roll.

Rivers' grenadiers burst out of the woods and smashed into the Toledo regiment, forcing them back, only to be decimated by shooting in the following turn.

The Zinzendorf dragoons repulsed by fire from the Toledo infantry and the Osuna Dragoons, only Rivers' foot stood between a Bourbon victory and a potential draw. But they failed their activation roll to fire twice in a row. They were destroyed without firing a shot...

With the Confederates beaten off, the Bourbon troops safely escort their precious beef back to their camp.

The rules were perfect for a pick-up game like this. John had them down-pat by the second turn, and minimal use of the qrs or book was required. On reflection, I realised that I needed to try and wipe out units in an attempt to break the company but also narrow down the number of manouevre elements open to an opponent - especially as mine were whittled away. I mucked up the deployment of the miquelets and the grenadiers. The former should have been in cover because they are fleet-footed and need the cover to boost their low stamina rating. Weakening your opponent with musketry is also advised before assaulting, but I was trying to play to conditions determined by my honour mission. Hint to self: worry about winning the game before the scenario requirements!

So what about our two heroes? The Bourbon side received 6 honour for securing all of the cattle, and the Confederates received 1 from a double 6 activation roll and 2 from killing more enemy through hand to hand than shooting. However it was all academic. Both leaders became casualties and had to roll on the casualty table. John rolled a double 1 and I thought it fitting that sly old Rodrigo Tapas died begging for his life in the duel with Geneaux. Then I rolled a double 1 as well! My distrusted Frenchman must have fallen from his horse and got on his knee when the Rios troopers charged him. So, next game we will have two new officers.

I'm hopeful that I will get my 6 x 6 completed. Kaptain Kobold has been kind enough to let me have my previous Pikeman's Lament battle report count if necessary (it wasn't originally my game choice), which means four more games of this, one of DBA (I'm saving this one for two new armies which I hope to have out next week), 3 of Song of Broken Legions and six of Commands and Colours. C& C is the only one I'm iffy about, as although it is a quick playing game, I'm not really sure about playing it solo, so it is up to how many times I can manage to get Mike to be available for gaming it.

I apologise for the photos, a number didn't come out very well due to the light in the shed, and even the ones I've been able to use here aren't all that great. My old fluoros have given up the ghost and I'm going to have to get some new ones installed.

Nate