The Battle of Dvin, Spring 363 AD

Outside the City of Dvin, March 23rd 363 AD

Vahan Vzur glanced about nervously as he waited for his army to assemble for battle. The morning had seen the accursed Roman garrison march out to face down his army. The siege was still young and his men were spoiling for a fight. When all was prepared, he marched his men forward under the defiant bellow of the trumpets. Ahead, the Roman banners fluttered in the wind, almost beckoning his men forward. Vahan was painfully aware his predecessor had died shortly after attempting to take this city. "His mistakes will not be mine.." he muttered under his breath "These lands will bow to the King."

This battle, the fourth of the Caucasian Campaign, pitted the might of the two great empires of the region, the Eastern Roman forces sallied out from Dvin where they had been besieged by the Sassanid Persians. Johan commanding the Romans set up the terrain in a nicely symmetrical manner with a solitary hill in the middle of the edge of each of the four sides.

Johan's Romans:

General and Bodyguard (10 A Class Heavy Cavalry)
Clibanarii (10 B Class Armoured Cavalry)
Cataphracts (10 B Class Fully Armoured Cavalry)
Horse Archers (10 B Class Light Cavalry)
Light Cavalry (10 B Class Light Cavalry)
Comitatenses A (24 B Class Heavy Infantry)
Comitatenses B (24 C Class Heavy Infantry)
Medium Archers A (18 C Class Medium Infantry)
Medium Archers B (12 C Class Medium Infantry)
Allied Heavy Cavalry (Western Roman Empire) (10 B Class Heavy Cavalry)

All Roman troops are Regulars

Arvinda's Sassanids:

General (Armoured Cavalry)
2 x Immortal Cavalry (10 B Class Armoured Cavalry)
2 x Cataphracts (10 B Class Fully Armoured Cavalry)
2 x Light Cavalry (10 C Class Light Cavalry)
Light Slingers (12 D Class Light Infantry)
Hunnic Cavalry (15 D Class Light Cavalry) (Note: Due to my idiocy only 10 of these appeared on the field, not that it made any difference)

All Irregular troops.

Deployment:

Johan's mathematically precise terrain deployment was entirely dictated by his planned deployment. Centering his line on the hill, he deployed his medium archers on the hill, with the Comitatenses regiments deployed at its base to protect them. To their right, he placed his general and bodyguard, the cataphracts and on the far right his horse archers. The left cavalry wing comprised the allied heavy cavalry, the light cavarly and the clibanarii on the far left.

Arvinda deployed his forces in a line between the central hills, from left to right comprising his two light cavalry units, the two cataphract regiments, the two Immortal regiments, the Hunnic cavalry (with the general) and the light slingers deployed on the right hand hill.

The armies assembled and ready for battle.

The Plans:

Johan:

I strategically placed my archers on a hill outside the city walls. I placed my heavy infantry so that the Sassanid scum had to approach within archery range to take on the infantry. I put my fastest cavalry around the outside so that I would be able to encircle the Sassanid scum should they go for my infantry and archers.

Arvinda:

Attack!

The Battle:

The battle began with the Sassanid line sweeping forward and the Romans waiting patiently for them to come closer.

The Sassanids approach the waiting Romans

Soon after, the Roman archers began to fire which started off a hail of bad rolls from Johan who couldn't pass a single kill roll for several turns. Initially outranged, the Sassanids were unable to respond and continued there advance. With the wave of enemies approaching apace, the Roman cavalry wings went onto the offensive. Arvinda sent his two light cavalry regiments smashing into Johan's horse archers on the Roman right.

The Roman cavalry races towards the enemy and the first fights break out.

Unsurprisingly, the heavily outnumbered Roman Horse Archers, who were further disadvantaged being Missile troops fighting Basic type troops, got the worst of the hand to hand fighting and broke with the Sassanid Light cavalry in hot pursuit. One of the Sassanid units had the misfortune to smash into the Roman cataphracts and after a brief fight they shattered and broke off. Meanwhile, Johan's general and bodyguard found themselves facing off with both of the Sassanid Cataphract regiments. One of the cataphract regiments managed to push back on wing of the bodyguard, while the other wing pushed back the Sassanids, effectively splitting the bodyguard into two separate units.

In the centre, arrow fire from the Roman archers and darts from the heavy infantry regiments began to cut into the Immortals, whose return fire was relatively ineffective.

On the Roman left, Johan threw his allied heavy cavalry and his light cavalry after Arvinda's general and the Huns. Faced with an imposing wall of steel heading their way, they wisely chose to fall back. The Roman Clibanarii charged into Arvinda's slingers, shrugging off the barrage of lead missiles from the Sassanid light infantry and hitting them in the rear as they tried to flee. The result was predictable and the slingers routed.

Chaos begins to engluf the battlefield.

In the next turn, the slingers were futher cut apart by the victorious Roman clibanarii, with losses mounting to 50% of the unit's initial strength. Johan managed to halt the allied heavy cavalry while leaving his lights to chase off the Huns and Arvinda's general. In the centre of the field, the Immortals attempted to charge the Comitatenses. One unit passed its morale checks and smashed into the Roman infantry and began to push them back. The other unit, however, failed the checks (spectacularly in a classic example of Arvinda's magic dice rolling) and instead the Roman infantry charged the stationary cavalry and began to cut them apart.

On the Roman right, the Roman horse archers fled off the field and Arvinda was just able to halt his pursuing light cavalry (one of the downsides of irregular forces under the rules is a significantly increased chance of refusing orders). The Roman cataphracts began a half hearted pursuit of the other Sassanid light cavalry unit as they vanished off into the distance. The ongoing fight between the Immortals and the Roman general's bodyguard continued in two halves, with the Roman general and his segment of his bodyguard continuing to push back one regiment of Immortals (with Arvinda rolling poorly and losing by a single point) and the other regiment of Immortals further degrading the other half of the Roman bodyguard cavalry.

Both armies are now more of less fully committed to battle.

In the next turn, the regiment of Immortals that had been charged by the Roman Comitatenses broke and fled to the shame of their reputation. The other Immortals unit, despite heavy losses, managed to shatter the Comitatenses facing them and they broke through the supporting medium archers, demoralising them in the process as the Immortals followed up.

On the Roman left, Johan managed to halt his clibanarii from their pursuit of the slingers and began to draw them back into the central melee. The Huns and the Sassanid general were pushed to the very edge of the field. The half of the Roman bodyguard cavalry that had been losing continued to do so and their morale broke and they fled. Around the Roman general a giant mess ensued as the Sassanid light cavalry closed in from the Roman rear and the Roman cataphracts closed in behind the badly battered Sassanid cataphracts to make a four layer sandwich melee.

The field empties as units flee or are drawn into the central vortex around the Roman general.

The final turn saw the Sassanid general exiting the field with the Huns, the Sassanid cataphracts chasing the routed half of the Roman bodyguard refusing to halt their pursuit and heading off the field after them and the Immortals punching through and routing the large medium archer regiment in their pursuit of the Roman heavy infantry. At this point, Arvinda's only real hope for victory was to kill the Roman general and hope that broke his army.

In the most complicated melee we've had thus far in the campaign, the general's bodyguard took a casualty and (for the second time in the game) Johan rolled one point off the score that would cause that hit to be on the general. The final blow was the rout of the cataphract regiment

With his army collapsing, Arvinda conceded the match. Johan had managed to inflict enough damage on Arvinda's army to gain an additional VP, giving him a 4-0 victory. (Note: I'm thinking of including half the value of routed units to the "killed" VP list to give more of these consolation VPs.)

'Blasted barbarians' muttered Vahan Vzur as he rode around rallying scattered survivors of his army. His anger was with himself, placing himself with the weakest link in his army had meant he had barely any influence over the entire battle and that had cost him. It had cost many of his men their lives, and with this failure he may lose his own life at the hands of the Royal Executioner. 

Perhaps this city of Dvin was a cursed place for his people, he mused as he chased after a small knot of cavalry.

Closing Thoughts:

This battle turned on a few key rolls and moments. Twice Johan's general was nearly killed in the frantic fighting on the Roman right, and if he had fallen it could easily have broken the Roman army, even in the last few turns. At the same time though, the Sassanids failed to make the best of their strengths. As a missile heavy army with high mobility they could have chosen to concentrate on one section of the Roman army at a time, weakening them in sections, whereas they chose to throw themselves at the Romans in big wave across the front, despite being out pointed by around 250 points.

The battle also demonstrated the value of Regulars several times, with Johan being able to bring back several units into the fight after they had broken one opponent, whereas Arvinda had to watch two units of his best cavalry storm off the field in pursuit of broken enemies.

Casualties for both sides in the battle were heavy, with Arvinda losing ~250 points out of 1100 killed and Johan about 160 points out of 1350, a reflection both on the relatively expensive nature of most of the troops involved (a single cataphract or clibanarius figure being worth around 20 points)and the stubbornness with which both sides fought.

Johan:

I lost my horse archers early from a miscalculated charge. Although I easily routed his slingers  as his Immortals approached my heavy infantry I wasn't able to encircle his troops. Arvinda fought very hard and refused to give up even though the odds were stacking against him as his army fled the field.

Arvinda:

Why is it always me?

The Battle of Petra, Spring 361 AD

Outside the city of Petra, 18th February 361 AD

Marcus Alfidus was roused from his sleep by the bellowing of the horns around the camp. The barbarians within the city were pouring out and forming up for battle nearby. Cursing all barbarians, Marcus struggled into his armour as the army was brought to order. Soldiers swore, officers yelled and the servants scrambled to provide all the services needed. 

Presently Marcus was leading his army out of camp to battle. For the past few weeks, the army had been assaulting the city, his men were tired and many were wounded. If he could defeat this army in the field he could reward his men (the Emperor's men he mentally corrected himself, mindful of the presence of several Imperial appointees in his bodyguard) with the sack of a city. All that was needed now was to drive back the barbarians.

He rode out in front of his men, met by deafening cheers and the bellow of horns and trumpets. Over the field the Huns were bellowing their own unintelligible, barely human, language, or the closest they came to it. The thud of their battle drums could almost be felt in the air. "Today, brothers, we drive back the barbarians, in the Name of the Emperor. Cut down the savages, show no mercy!"

The third battle of our Caucasian Campaign, the Second Battle of Petra pitted the forces of the Eastern Roman Empire under Johan, who had been besieging the city, against Joe's Hun garrison who had sallied out. Joe was defending and set up another of his now classic empty battlefields (see here for the first example) with a handful of hills around the edge of the battlefield and a large, open, cavalry friendly area in the centre. The stage was set for quite a game.

Joe's Hunnic Army:

1 x General (Command Value 3)
4 x Hunnic Heavy Cavalry (10 figures per unit, B Class Heavy Cavalry) *One unit suffered from demoralisation due to Roman subversion attempts so was reduced to C Class.
3 x Hunnic Light Cavalry (10 figures per unit, B Class Light Cavalry)
2 x Hunnic Light Cavalry (15 figures per unit, C Class Light Cavalry)

Johan's Roman Army:

1 x General (Command Value 2)
1 x Bodyguard Cavalry (10 A Class Heavy Cavalry)
1 x Clibarnarii (10 B Class Armoured Cavalry)
1 x Cataphracts (10 B Class Fully Armoured Cavalry)
1 x Horse Archers (10 B Class Light Cavalry)
1 x Comitatenses (24 B Class Heavy Infantry)
1 x Comitatenses (24 C Class Heavy Infantry)
1 x Medium Archers (18 C Class Medium Infantry)
1 x Medium Archers (12 C Class Loose Order Medium Infantry)

Deployment:

Johan deployed on the hilliest side of the battlefield, two small hills dominating the left side of the battlefield. His line from left to right and starting from effectively the centre of the field was made up of the B Class Comitatenses, the Clibanarii, the Cataphracts with horse archers and the larger Medium Archer unit in support. The remaining Comitatenses formed the far right flank with the small Medium Archer regiment supporting them and the general and his bodyguard in close attendance.

In the opposite corner the Huns were formed up in a wide double crescent with four units of light cavalry (two small and two large) forming the forewardmost arc, the other light cavalry unit and the heavy cavalry units forming the rear arc.The general was attached to one of the heavy regiments.

The Plans:

 Joe:

Charge!!!!

Johan:

My initial plan was to advance on Joe, shower him with arrows and then smash him with my cavalry. As Joe failed to cooperate by staying still, I had to improvise and a running battle developed.

The Battle:

The battle began with a general sweeping advance by both sides towards the centre of the field. The Roman cavalry rapidly outpaced the footsloggers, beginning what appeared to be a very dangerous dispersal of the army, while the Huns began to close down the Romans, getting around the cavalry on the Roman left and moving in to threaten the infantry from the flanks.

Cavalry thunder across the field as arrows begin to fly.

The Romans were soon feeling the effects of massed Hunnic bows, particularly the Roman Horse Archers who were far ahead of the other Roman forces and facing rather daunting odds.

An arrow storm descends on the Roman light cavalry.

To try and alleviate the barrage of arrows, the Romans threw their Heavy Cavalry, Cataphracts and Clibanarii at the leftmost Hun Light Cavalry unit, which wisely chose to fall back away from the ironclad horde bearing down on it. The Roman Horse archers charged into another unit of Hunnic Light Cavalry who countercharged into melee. Pressing the advantage with the Roman cavalry fully engaged elsewhere (including almost half of the points value of their army charging after a single low cost Hun unit) Hunnic cavalry swept into the virtually abandoned Roman infantry who were barraged with arrows.

Roman cavalry chase an elusive target back toward the Hunnic rear while Hun cavalry sweep around the exposed Roman infantry.

The Roman infantry managed to swing around to take on the flanking Huns, with the archer units giving as good as they got in the missile fire while the Comitatenses regiment on the left pushed forward towards javelin range in the teeth or Hunnic missile fire and a feint charge. The smaller unit of Roman archers attempted to evade a unit of Huns who charged them and ended up being run down and routed. Meanwhile the mass of Roman cavalry charging off after the Hunnic lights came under threat from Hun heavies on their left flank. The cataphracts were halted and started to reform. The Hun heavies charged into the Roman general and his bodyguard, who managed to swing around and countercahrge. Despite being disorganised, the Roman troops managed with the inspiration of their general win the ensuing melee. The Roman horse archers and the Hun light cavalry in the centre fought themselves to a standstill with both units suffering morale losses and being forced to break off.

Heavy fighting breaks out in the cavalry horde and the infantry stand their ground.

The next round, things went south quickly for the Huns. The unit of heavy cavalry facing the Roman general lost their combat and broke, fleeing through another heavy cavalry unit that was then hit in the flank by the victorious Romans and broke after a round of melee. The light cavalry being chased by the Roman Clibanarii fled the field while the Romans managed to bring the Clibanarii under control and keep them in the game. Although they were inflicting heavy losses on the fleeing Roman medium archers, the pursuing light cavalry disobeyed orders to halt and were heading rapidly towards leaving the field in pursuit of their quarry. Other Hun units were suffering morale losses under fire from the Romans, and Roman heavy infantry waded into combat with some Hun heavy cavalry and drove them back.

As chaos consumed the Hun army, the Huns tried to regain the initiative, surrounding the isolated Cataphracts and hammering arrows into them, to little effect. Unwilling to confront the Roman armoured cavalry openly, the Huns commander conceded the match and the Huns fled into the hills.

In one last push the Huns try to break the Romans as the dice turn on them.

Marcus Alfidus watched as the Huns fled into the gathering dark, his men pursuing them halfheartedly. His shield arm was in agony from the battering it had taken, his sword arm ached and his sword was welded to his hand by drying blood from men and horses. Around him, he could hear celebrations from his men, but other troops were helping the large numbers of wounded men to the camp for treatment. In addition, his men were setting upon any Hun stragglers or wounded and cutting them down, in no mood to show mercy after such a hard fight.

At dawn, he accepted the surrender of the city of Petra. He had given the Emperor a victory and a new city, now he needed to reward the army. "It's yours men!" he cried out to the assembled army. A deafening cheer accompanied the army as they stormed into the city.

Closing thoughts:

This was easily the bloodiest of the battles fought up until this point in the campaign. The Huns had a great chance to inflict a devastating defeat on the Romans. The Romans failed to remain in a cohesive whole, leaving their infantry exposed as their cavalry stormed off into the aether. With a bedraggled line of cavalry exposing their flanks, the Huns tried to take full advantage, slamming into the exposed Roman cavalry and infantry, but they were badly let down by the dice.

Joe:

Gargh! Barbarians don't write!

Johan:

In the end Joe lost the battle partly due to unlucky morale checks and disobedient soldiers and partly due to underestimating the morale of my troops. Several times at critical moments Joe attempted charges that were denied for lack of morale on Joe's side.

Battle of Dvin, Winter 360 AD

Outside the city of Dvin. 5th December, 360 AD

Fazir of Mihran looked over the massed Goth ranks ahead of his army. They had spent the year fighting their way through the barbarians' lands, taking two cities with barely a pause, but here, in front of the walls of their capital the advance had stalled. The King of Kings has demanded the fall of the city, and so he and his men were spending the winter here, camped out. The cold was eating at his men and he knew if he had to withdraw many would not survive.

The barbarians had sallied out from behind the walls, intent on forcing the Sassanids back, now they sat taunting them, goading them into attacking. With his officers in attendance, Fazir looked over their force. His men were ready to end this, his officers eager to end this so he signalled his men to their battle formations. Draco standards whipped around in the wind, the drums hammered, drowning out Goth battle cries and insults. The King of Kings required a victory, and Fazir would have to deliver.

Recently we played out the battle that occurred when the Goth army sallied out from Dvin, which was under siege by the Sassanids as the second battle of the Caucasian campaign. The Sassanid army had suffered some minor losses besieging the city in the autumn before deciding to remain around the city during the winter. Whichever side lost the encounter would lose an additional 100 points worth of troops above any battle losses to cold and desertion during the retreat.

Arvinda's Sassanid army consisted of:

The General, Fazir Mihran (Command Value 2)
2 x Immortal Clibanarii (10 B Class Armoured Cavalry)
2 x Cataphracts (B Class Fully Armoured Cavalry, one unit of 10 and one of 5)
2 x Light Cavalry (10 C Class Light Cavalry)
1 x Elephant Squadron (2 Elephants and crew)
1 x Hunnic Cavalry Squadron (15 D Class Light Cavalry)

My Goth army consisted of:

General and bodyguard (Command Value 2, 15 B Class Heavy Cavalry)
4 x Noble Cavalry (B Class Medium Cavalry, 3 units of 15, one of 10)
4 x Light Archers (12 D Class Light Infantry)
3 x Warriors (30 C Class Medium Infantry)

The terrain we would be fighting over consisted of a settlement in the centre of the southern edge of the field with a series of hills to the east and west, with one especially large hill to the east. The Sassanids would be deployed in the east, the Goths in the west.

Ian's Plan:

With the Goths being deployed in the more open end of the field, I had to alter my intention to sit on top of the hills and throw things at the Sassanids. There were two small hills forming two intruding spurs into the field with an open central area between them. My plan was to position infantry on the two hills, providing them protection against the Sassanid cavalry hordes, with my cavalry in between. As these hills were right by the edge of the field, I would deploy well back from the Sassanids, with my cavalry as far back as possible. The idea was to use the open space and cavalry to draw the Sassanids in between the infantry wings and then use the infantry to cut off and smash part of the Sassanid army, then use the cavalry in a general assault to inflict heavy losses on the enemy as they fell back, relying on the speed advantage over the Sassanid super heavies to keep my cavalry safe. Alternatively I could use the infantry to absorb the cavalry assault and use the cavalry as a hammer against their anvil.

This was, however, all secondary to the main plan. Arvinda has a reputation (and he both believes it and would be the first to claim it is true) for bad luck in wargames and being able to snatch defeat from any situation. My plan therefore was to convince Arvinda he was losing, keep the pressure on him and convince him I was totally confident of winning. If I could convince him of this, I could pressure him into conceding fast,  which would allow me to defeat him without losing too much of my army.

Arvinda's Plan:

The plan was to deploy the Sassanid army right up on the line, and reach the Goths in as few turns as possible. I expected the Goths to move towards the centre of the field in a similar manner, where I'd (in theory) have had an advantage with stronger troops. I also learned (I was probably told this well before, but had forgotten) that any troops I lost here could not be replaced until the following winter, so I was keen to minimise losses, even if that meant conceding the battle and losing the city.

Deployment:

The Goths deployed with the small Noble Cavalry unit on their far left (beyond the left most hill), a unit of Warriors with Light Archers deployed in front of them, the three large Noble Cavalry units in the centre of the army, two in line and one in column with the General's Bodyguard behind them. On the right flank the remaining Warriors and Archers were deployed along the edge of the hill they were occupying. The Goths were deployed at the edge of the battlefield.

The Sassanids were deployed with their Elephants on their far right, followed by Cataphracts preceeded by the Light Cavalry regiments. The General and the Immortal Cavalry formed the centre of the Sassanid line, with Hunnic Light Cavalry on the far left of their formation. The Sassanids had chosen to deploy as far forward as possible.

The armies stare each other down across the field of battle.

The Battle:

The battle began with a general advance by the Sassanids aiming towards the Goth positions on the hill to the Sassanid right. Unfortunately for the Sassanids, they chose to advance all units at their best speed, which left the Elephants and heaviest cavalry far behind the lighter cavalry. The Goth foot bowmen could outrange the mounted archers of the Sassanid forces and began to inflict light casualties. When they were in range Sassanid forces began to reply in kind.

The opening flurries of arrows begin to fly.

The first Sassanid forces to close on the Goths were the Light Cavalry who charged (boldly or foolishly depending on your point of view) uphill into the waiting Goth infantry after the Light Archers fell back behind the waiting lines of heavier troops. To the left of the Light Cavalry, the Huns in Sassanid service swept into the open area between the two hills and towards the Goth Cavalry.

The Light Cavalry charge came to an abrupt end when both units failed their 30 Yard Check. This check occurs when cavalry charges infantry. Given horses, being far more sensible than people, will sometimes refuse to charge into a solid mass of people holding sharp objects, and if they don't refuse that said block of people will tend to run away, this test gives the opportunity for these effects to occur. In this case, both light units refused to charge home. Unfortunately for the Sassanids, both units had lost morale from taking losses to missile fire, and with the additional morale loss from being forced back they began to retire from the action, directly through the lines of the supporting Sassanid forces.

With the initial Sassanid push checked, the Goths went over to the offensive. Their right wing infantry and archers swept forward to put pressure on the Sassanid left with both missile fire and sheer physical presence. The Goth cavalry also went onto the attack, with one unit charging into the Huns.

Suddenly the Sassanids find themselves facing the fury of the Goths as the enemy sweep forward.

The Huns managed to counter charge the onrushing Goth cavalry and a brutal melee broke out, with the Huns getting the worse of it due to being outnumbered by the more tightly concentrated Goths. The poorly motivated Huns broke and fled, leaving the heavy Sassanid centre isolated with Goth forces beginning to swarm around them.

The Sassanid centre suddenly feels rather vulnerable as their light supporting elements break and run.

At this point Arvinda, intimidated by the various losses and the imminent prospect of being surrounded, conceded. Having saved my capital with minimal losses to my forces while inflicting some losses on the Sassanids I let him flee with no further harm, not wanting to pit my forces against his heavy cavalry.

Fazir rode his starving mount over the mountains. The cold was cutting through his clothing, even with the additional furs wrapped around him. He couldn't quite understand what had happened, from his position deep within the saravan he only saw brief flashes of action, his Huns and Sassanid light cavalry surging forward, arrows hurtling into the clibanarii unit in front of his. Then the light cavalry running back in various levels of panic. His elephants and cataphracts were likely to lose heart seeing their allies breaking and from somewhere Goth forces were swarming in from both sides. He signalled a general retreat, better to save the army than fight to death for the dunghill that was the Goth capital.

His men were dejected, dragging themselves along the road, the twin daggers of defeat and hunger cutting into their hearts. Here and there small mounds in the snow marked where a man or horse had just given up the fight and lain down to die. The King of Kings would require something to wipe away the disgrace of this failure, and fortunately the army was mostly intact.

Closing Thoughts

Ian:

Well the plan worked better than I intended. Arvinda's army lost some minor supporting elements but he came to the conclusion he was doomed. The truth of the matter was his army was in a poor position, but at the same time his remaining forces, the Cataphracts, Immortal Cavalry and Elephants, were his best and I had little that could match them. I would have had to rely on numbers and being able to bring back the cavalry unit that was pursuing the Huns off the field, neither of which were certainties. One factor that really aided me in the fight was Arvinda's use of his troops. He effectively reversed the roles, with his heavy forces relying on missile fire and his light troops boldly/foolishly being used as contact troops, which did provide me with critical advantages at key moments.

Nevertheless the battle has shown that the Goths can beat the other factions with some careful planning and good luck, plus a good dose of mindgames. Now to throw those Sassanids out of my lands completely.

Arvinda:

 Everyone knew how this was going to end when they heard Arvinda was playing... I wasn't keen on having a severely depleted army for the rest of the year, so decided to concede before I lost too much of it. Apparently I actually had the advantage at this point, but I didn't want to hang around and prove that wrong!

The Goths earn 3 VPs for winning the battle and again neither side destroyed enough of the enemy to earn additional VPs (Goths being about 10 points short again!).

The First Steps

Border Wars Campaign: 360 AD

So the first round of our campaign began recently. The three players chose their forces and their winter quarters and prepared to move into conflict over the Goth territories.

The Campaign Map. The campaign is centred around what is now Georgia/Armenia etc. Red cities are under the Hun's control, Blue the Sassanids, Purple the Romans and Brown the Goths.

The Huns wintered in Arkhalopolis (3), the Romans in Kitharlinda (17), the Sassanids in Xenin (20) and the Goths in Dvin.

Spring 360 AD:

The Huns immediately moved into the attack, reaching Petra (4) and laying siege. They suffered some casualties attacking the walls, and failed to break into the city.

The Goths moved their field army to Artariaj (6), unable to reach the Huns to confront them this season.

Roman forces advance to Vars (18) and were held by the Gothic garrison, losing men during the siege.

Sassanid forces advanced to Sartaxa (9) and successfully stormed the city.

In preparation for the next season, the Romans hired a spy to gather information on the Sassanid army.

Summer 360 AD:

The Romans continued to besiege Vars, which stubbornly held out against them, with the Romans suffering further losses in the fighting.

Trusting that the cities between the Sassanids and the their capital would slow the Persian advance, the Goths attacked the Huns besieging Petra. The Huns elected to stand and fight the attackers.In the ensuing battle, the Huns triumph. The defeated Goths fall back to Artariaj (6). Disheartened by the defeat of their army, the defenders of Petra surrender to the Huns.

The Sassanids advanced to Kapalak (8) and were again successful in storming the city, leaving them within striking distance of the Gothic capital.

Autumn 360 AD:

The Romans finally manage to storm Vars. After the Battle of Petra, the Huns proceeded to attack Trapedaosa (11) but fail to take the city. The Goths call a general muster of the tribes at the capital Dvin. This allows them to restructure their army to a certain point limit based on the number of cities they control and how recent battles have gone. This mechanism is primarily to allow the Goths to contine to cause trouble long into the campaign. The Sassanid army advances on Dvin and lays siege with the Goths inside the city. The fail to take the city and lose men to the skirmishing.
 

Winter 360 AD:

The Huns fall back to winter camp in Petra. The Romans move their army to Traedaosa (11) for the winter. Goth forces sally out of Dvin to face the Sassanids and drive them back from the city after a brief and savage battle.  The Sassanids fall back to Kapalak (8), losing additional men to cold, starvation and desertion during the retreat over the mountains.

End of Year VP Standing

Huns: 3 VPs from the Battle of Petra, 2 VPs for capturing Petra. Total 5 VPs
Goths: 3 VPs from the Battle of Dvin. Total: 3 VPs.
Sassanids: 2 VPs for capturing Sartaxa, 2 VPs for capturing Kapalak. Total: 4 VPs
Romans: 2 VPs for capturing Vars. Total: 2 VPs

The Battle of Petra, Summer 360 AD

Hyspos, near Petra. 12th August, 360 AD

Valamir looked over his men as they formed up for battle. Many of his men were tired, or sported wounds from the hard fighting trying to take the city of Petra, some miles to their rear. Now his forces were faced with the prospect of a hostile city to their rear and the field army of the Goths closing from ahead of them. 

Across the plain, he could see dust clouds and banners as the Goths moved into battle formation. Clearly they intended to force the issue today. Valamir approached one of the formations of heavy cavalry, signalling for the battle horn to be sounded. As the sound rippled across the ranks of Hun troops it was joined by drums, more horns and battle cries. An answering bellow came from the Gothic forces, brass trumpets mixed in with the cries. Sliding his helmet on, Valamir grimaced. He and his men had beaten the Goths before, he prayed to the Gods that today would be no different.

This was the first battle of our Caucasian campaign, fought between my Goths and Joe's Huns. The Goths were attacking the Hunnic forces besieging the Goth controlled city of Petra, a coastal city in arable terrain.

The Goth forces consisted of:

The General (Rank 2) with a bodyguard of 15 Heavy Cavalry (B Class)
3 Units of 15 Noble Cavalry (B Class Medium Cavalry)
4 Units of 30 Warriors (C Class Medium Infantry)
2 Units of 12 Light Javelinmen (D Class Light Infantry)
2 Units of 12 Light Archers (D Class Light Infantry)

The Huns forces (after losses incurred besieging Petra):

The General (Rank 3)
4 Units of 10 Heavy Cavalry (B Class)
2 Units of 10 Light Cavalry (B Class)
1 Unit of 15 Light Cavalry (C Class)

All troops on both sides were Irregulars.

As the defender, Joe got to set the terrain, which resulted in a very sparse table allowing him maximum mobility for his cavalry. I chose to attack from the most open end of the table, with hills to the Hun's rear. Due to a miscalculation on the part of the referee (me!), the table was a bit too large. Future battles will be more reasonably sized so that terrain can play some part in the games!

The procedure we're using for the battles is that each side will draw a deployment on a map before deploying. The attacker may then chose if he wishes to force a battle with those deployments. If he declines, both sides re-draw their deployments (if they wish). The attacker may decline twice, but must either fight on the third deployment or withdraw, conceding defeat. When the attacker decides to press the issue, the defender may either accept battle or withdraw, conceding defeat.

When both sides deployed for the first time, the Goths had their archers and a single warrior band on their far left flank, a unit of noble cavalry in the centre, their javelinmen with three units of warriors in close support to their right, with the two remaining units of noble cavalry ahead of the general and his bodyguard. On the Hun right, there were two units of heavy cavalry and one of B class light cavalry, with a distinct break in their centre and a left flank force of two units of heavy cavalry flanked with the light cavalry forming the extreme left wing of their forces.

Dawn rises over the field of battle with the armies fully deployed

Both the Goths and Huns were happy to engage in battle with these deployments, so we proceeded. My plan with the Goths was to lure the Hun heavy cavalry on my right into my infantry, then grind them down by sheer weight of numbers, while my central cavalry regiment, one of the right flank regiments and my general and his bodyguard closed in from either side and crushed them, hopefully taking the fight out of the Huns and killing their general to boot. My left flank units were effectively a sacrificial goat, I was hoping they'd hold the Hun forces on that flank or at least that the Hun forces would go out of control and pursue the remnants of my troops far enough that they'd be effectively out of the battle. My last unit of Noble Cavalry on the right flank was to drive back the Hun horse archers and allow me to crush the Hun heavies.

 <Joe's plan would go here but he claims barbarians can't write>

After a couple of turns of tentative movement and some desultory bow-fire, a series of charges were declared as the armies closed. On the Goth left, all three of the Hun cavalry units declared charges against the Goth unit nearest them. Astoundingly, the two units who should have charged the Goth Light Archers both failed their morale checks and failed to charge, while the central heavy unit charged home against the warriors in the centre. On the right, the rightmost Noble cavalry regiment charged at the Hunnic horse archers, driving them back, but losing several men to Hun arrows for their pains. The Goth unit that had taken losses to Hun arrow fire was charged by a Hunnic heavy cavalry unit, so they countercharged. Finally a Hun heavy cavalry unit with the general attached charged at a unit of javelinmen, who retired behind a nearby warrior unit. Unfortunately, they were panicked by the charging cavalry and broke. The cavalry charge smashed into the warriors, who stood firm.

The armies close in under a hail of arrows

The Hun's smash into the Goths and brutal fighting ensues on the right flank.

Astoundingly two units of Hun cavalry cannot brig themselves to run down some light infantry

Arrows were traded to some small effect by the archers and Hun cavalry units, inflicting minor losses. Meanwhile, the Goths proceeded to lose all the combats, with their left-most warrior unit being driven back, suffering only minor losses. The combat with Hun heavy cavalry cost the Goths two figures of medium cavalry, although a kill was inflicted in return. Finally on the right, despite inflicting some losses, the Goth warriors facing the charge of the Hun general and his men were beaten, and their morale began to collapse.

The next turn saw the Goth's fortunes worsen. On the left, although the Hun light cavalry was prevented from advancing by a poor morale result, the uncommitted Hun heavy cavalry unit was able to contact the light archers from the rear as they were evading. The Goth general was forced to charge the remaining Hun light cavalry or face a constant barrage of arrows. Other Goth units attempted to close in on the Hun general, but none could reach in time to aid their bretheren already engaged. The Goth infantry on the left flank collapsed after under the pressure, and the archers understandably joined them in routing. In the centre, the already weakened infantry collapsed after another bad round of fighting. The Goth cavalry fought on valiantly, but were still being beaten, taking heavy losses in the process.

The Goth right just before it collapses into rout.

The knock-on effects of the units routing precipitated a general collapse of the Gothic forces. One infantry unit in particular warrants special mention, as what started off as a -2 morale modifier ended up after a spectacular run of 7 1's on a d6 being a -16 modifier, resulting in a collapse from steady to routing (and a fair bit further too!).

The end on the left.

At this point, with my army in tatters, I conceeded the match and Joe was gracious enough to accept with no further turns (if a player concedes, their opponent can either accept, ending the battle immediately or refuse, causing the battle to last another d3 turns), partially in order to catch a train and partially as I was in a position to potentially inflict more losses on some of his heavy cavalry, which he felt he may need in future battles.

Closing Thoughts

Ian:

Overall, I think my initial plan was reasonable. Given the higher mobility of the Huns, I was always going to have to rely on luring Joe into attacking where I wanted him to and then being lucky and taking him out. I could have perhaps done with Joe's deployment being more cooperative to the plan, but allowing him the chance to redeploy while he had such a powerful force facing my holding force on the left would likely have done more harm good. I probably over-estimated the ability of my infantry, being used to having B Class Heavy Infantry in most of my previous games. The plan may have succeeded had I used my cavalry to pin the Hun heavies and then mobbed the infantry in.

While I would like to blame bad dice rolls for my eventual defeat (and they definitely didn't help matters), Joe played his forces well. Aside from his general charging into my central trap, his forces were engaging consistently with a local advantage in combat power, despite me having a slight points lead overall. That said, had my infantry managed to hold the Hun assault for a turn more I may well have been able to swamp Joe's general and pull some kind of victory from the battle. Alas, it was not to be, but the Gothic people will not fade away just yet.

Joe:

Barbarians don't write Gargh!

Final Scores:

Joe gets 3 VP for the win, neither side achieved enough points destroyed or a sufficient lead points destroyed to get any bonus VPs (the Goths being 11 points short of snatching a consolation VP).

Valamir smiled grimly as he watched the Goth horde retreating over the hills, back up into the mountains. Across the field, his men were dispatching any Gothic survivors or wounded they could find, collection loot and bringing their own wounded and dead back to camp for proper treatment. The battle had gone their way, even if he had, for a moment, felt he had charged headlong into a Goth trap. Still, it was a reassuring omen for the invasion of these lands that the Huns could still instill such fear in the Goths. Heralds were already braying news of the Gothic defeat and displaying heads to the defenders of Petra, so it was likely soon that the city would capitulate, giving his men yet more plunder.

One victory and one city taken in these new lands.

'May they be the first of many' prayed Valamir silently.

Firey Urgency

From the Diary of Lucius Alfidus, Wine Merchant of the Aventine

Ides of August, Second year of the reign of Our Emperor Domitian.

Today I had the privilige of attending the Games in the Flavian Ampitheatre, a game, I hear, devised by our Princeps himself. Two teams of gladiators were drawn up at either end of the ampitheatre, each guarding a gladiator from the ludus of the opposing team, tied to a stake above a pyre. Each team would have the challenge of rescuing their compatriot from the pyre before the other could light it and burn them to death.

The first team, of the Ludus Servitus et Dubous consisted of Silas the Crupellarius, Apollodorus the Scissore, Verus the Laquearius, Scylax the Cursed of Neptune, a Retiarius, Ordones the Saggitarius and Triton the Velite. Facing them were the Ludus of Arvindus et Paulus. Their team consisted of Turbus, Champion Neapolis, Icarus the Pictish Warrior, Bomilcar and Garrus, Secutore, Hyspax the Hoplomachus and Massina the Retiarius.

The match started with the Arvindus et Paulus team leaving Massina to light the pyre beneath their captive, while the remained of the team ran towards their foes. In what was a calculated, if not exactly courageous move, the Servitii fell back into a defensive line, while Verus and Triton attempted to light the pyre. Ordones struck first with his bow, targeting Turbus, drawing some blood, although it was only of small comfort to the audience who were crying out for combat. A further success for the Servitii was the ignition of the pyre. This development certainly lit up the audience, if you will pardon that horrendous pun.

While the main body of the Arvindii continued to charge towards the Servitii, Hyspax broke to their left hoping to cut around the defensive cordon and reach the captive. The Servitii crept closer to the advancing horde, while Ordones managed to wound Garrus. The crowd were now jeering and crying out as the Sevitii still refused to clash with the enemy. Even our Princeps seemed to be losing patience, it is claimed he was murmuring something about condemning the entire Ludus to death.

Finally, the two teams clashed in hand to hand combat and blood began to flow as Verus swept across the sands towards the captive and Triton launched a javelin at Hyspax, tearing open his flank. Bomilcar the Secutor managed to cut down the much more heavily armoured Silas. He then moved on to attack Ordones, who managed to switch to his gladius and inflict a savage wound on Bomilcar, to the delight and astonishment of the amassed spectators. Nearby, Scylax managed to ensare Garrus with his net before skewering him with his trident, tearing open his bowels. Turbus and Icarus between them managed to dismember Apollodorus between them, cutting down the second of the Servitii heavies. Hyspax managed to reach the pyre and began to clamber up. The sands seemed to favour the Arvindii.

The crowds cheer as blood flows and gladiators fall

The next moments saw Triton charge up behind the climbing Hyspax, hauling him off the pyre and gutting him with his gladius, ending the first rescue attempt of the match. Scylax and Ordones faced down the badly wounded Bomilcar and Icarus. Bomilcar was cut down by Ordones, while Icarus and Scylax traded blows, with Scylax drawing blood.

Triumph begins to fade to tragedy for the Arvindii as they fall.

Far from the main action, watched over by a Psychopompus, Verys and Massina clash around the burning pyre.

Verus and Massina clashed by the captive at the Arvindii end of the arena. Verus managed to ensnare Massina in his lasso, but even while thus hampered Massina managed a wicked trident thrust that caught Verus in the throat, sending him to the Underworld in a shower of blood.

Massina stands victorious.

Triton, a relatively inexperienced gladiator found himself face to face with Turbus, a legend of the sands. Moments later, a legend lay broken on the field, torn open from shoulder to waist, Triton stood victorious, guarding the screaming remnants of the Arvindus now roasting on the pyre.

Triton stands over the corpse of his would-be conqueror as a new legend is born.

Scylax and Ordones managed to finish off Icarus as the crowd was swept up in the drama of a legend being born.

The last survivor of the Arvindii, the Retiarius Massina raised his finger to appeal for mercy, which the crowd supported. The editor of the games granted him mercy as Ordones sprinted the length of the arena, scrambled onto the burning pyre and cut the captive free, badly burnt but alive.

Tragically for the Arvindii, Domitian commanded that their captive be left to burn. As the flames crept higher, his screams were drowned out by the crowd cheering Triton and the Servetii celebrating their victory.

The games were a success with the crowd and I trust this is but the first of many delights I will behold in the great ampitheatre.

Wooden Hulls, Iron Men

Somewhere in the Caribbean, 1586

This little clash was played out at the latest of our monthly wargames evenings at the office. It was a straight up fight between an English fleet and a Spanish fleet somewhere in the Caribbean. Outside of the battle, the theme of the evening seemed to be the dismasting of various models, exclusively by the Spanish players, which led to me making various remarks about the relative sailing skills of the Spanish and English admirals.

The English fleet consisted of one 'heavy' squadron with two large race built galleons (the Ark Royal and the Royal Sceptre) with two small race built galleons in attendance (the Hawk and the Viceroy) on their left flank, and two 'light' squadrons with a medium race built galleons plus two small race built galleons each. The centre squadron was led by the Revenge, escorted by the Endeavour and the Prince Hal, and the right hand squadron of the Golden Lion escorted by the Alfred and the Fortune. The English had excellent crews and squadron commanders, and in the pre-game set up the vast majority of the English vessels with variable ability crews rolled very well. The only fly in the ointment was the reduction of one of the squadron commanders (from the right hand squadron) from Brilliant to Average.

The Spanish had a larger fleet, with their most powerful squadron again on their left flank. This consisted of the flagship, Nuestra Senora de Rosario, a large galleon, with two medium galleons, the Santa Catalina and the Aguila and a small galleon, the Magdalena, as her escorts. The centre of the Spanish line was formed of the weakest squadron with a medium galleon, the Senora de Valencia, with 4 medium hulks as escorts, the Explorador, the Leon de Bronce, the Reina del Ecuador and the Princesa de Ibiza. The final squadron consisted of a large galleon, the Santa Maria, escorted by two medium galleons, the Intrepido and the Gloria. The Spaniards rolled poorly on the pre-game organising, with many of their crews dropping in morale grades. One of their admirals did at least rise from Dull to Brilliant, giving them a fighting chance of siezing the initiative from the English.

The Spanish (left) and English fleets face off as battle begins, while in the distance the mysterious Prawn Cracker cloud billows.

In the opening turns the Spanish used the following wind to sweep towards the English at speed, while the English fleet proceeded ahead and to the right. First blood went to the English as their left-most squadrons opened fire on the flagship of the right-hand Spanish squadron. Combined fire from the Royal Sceptre, Hawk and Viceroy inflicted a devastating hit on the Santa Maria, wounding the squadron commander.

Heavy English fire rips through the Santa Maria, toppling a mast and wounding the Spanish commander.

The next turns saw the Spaniards close in on the English. The Santa Maria and her squadron became intermingled with the English ships opposite them, taking more damage. The injury to the squadron commander limited the actions available to subordinate vessels as the low quality crews floundered. The central Spanish squadron managed to envelop the English squadron opposite them, managing to rake the Revenge from fore and aft. Unfortunately for the Spaniards, these were their worst vessels, and although some heavy damage was inflicted, it was not a knockout blow. English return fire was, at first, ineffectual. Finally, the most powerful Spanish squadron closed in on the Golden Lion and her escorts.

Fighting erupts down the entire line.

The next turn saw the Spanish sieze the initiative, which allowed the Nuestra Senora de Rosario and the Magdalena to board the Golden Lion. In each round of the boarding action the Spanish got the minimum roll required to win the round, grinding the English crew down. Eventually, with most of her crew killed or captured, the Golden Lion fell, demoralising her squadron and causing the Alfred and Fortune to abandon the action. Celebrations abounded among the Spanish admirals, and the English began to wonder how they could extricate themselves from their situation.

After a brutal fight, the Spanish ensign is hoisted on the Golden Lion.

The next turn, the Revenge and her escorts broke away from the central Spanish squadron, pushing to rescue the Golden Lion from the enemy. At the far end of the line, the Ark Royal and Royal Sceptre inflicted another punishing hit on the Santa Maria dismasting her, which caused her to strike her colours, putting the Spanish squadron completely out of command. As the Spanish crews were not of high quality and therefore were unlikely to take action independently, this effectively eliminated the squadron from the action. The Spaniards took this as a sign that it was time to make a hasty exit and began to break off the engagement. Unfortunately for the Spaniards, the Nuestra Senora de Rosario became fouled with the Golden Lion, leaving both vessels stuck fast as the Revenge closed in.

The Spanish flagship and her prize become fouled as the cavalry arrives for the English.

To further compound Spanish woes, two of their vessels collided and fouled, further stringing out their forces. This was followed by a devastating round of fire hitting the Senora de Valencia, killing the squadron commander and demoralising the central Spanish squadron. In the final turn of the game, the Nuestra Senora de Rosario managed to extricate herself from the Golden Lion and fled under fire from the Revenge and her squadron, while the Revenge boarded the Golden Lion whose Spanish prize crew surrendered without a fight. With kicking out time approaching, we called the game. Many of the Spanish vessels were probably far enough away from the English to escape, but the Santa Maria, dismasted and struck, would almost certainly be taken as a prize. The Nuestra Senora de Rosario was well behind the rest of the Spanish fleet, and had taken some damage which had slowed her, and two more Spanish vessels were badly fouled and unlikely to be able to separate. Depending on what the English chose to do they could probably either take the Spanish flagship or both the fouled vessels, or sink them with cannon fire.

Overall the battle was a decisive English victory, albeit a painful one for the Golden Lion's crew. The Spanish plan to withdraw while they were ahead was probably wise, but the implementation was flawed. By failing to ensure their prize could escape before withdrawing the combat vessels, the Spanish left her exposed to falling back into English hands. Furthermore, each vessel was sent away from the fight at its' best speed, which strung out the fleet, allowing the English to isolate and concentrate fire on key vessels as they moved towards the Golden Lion. In contrast, the English fleet was concentrating thoughout the game, allowing them to apply maximum pressure when it mattered.

According to the rules, given the scale of the Spanish defeat, the admiral in charge would be shot "pour encourager les autres" which left the Spanish fleet with no squadron commanders, with one being a "guest" of the English, one shot for their failure and one killed in action. It was decided that the Spanish man of the match would be the commander of the central squadron, who at least met an end worthy of a soldier.

Border Wars

360 AD, the Caucasus

So this is the first mad project which I've embarked on in a while. The plan is to fight a mini-campaign in a fictionalised historical scenario, based in part on actual history, just tailored to suit my available forces.

The Setting

The basic premise of the campaign is that instead of heading west towards the Danube when threatened by the Huns, the Goths (or at least a sizable portion of them) headed south through the Caucasus, invading and effectively destroying the Iberian Kingdom. The new Goth nation is naturally rather fragile, and holds a critical location between the Sassanid Persian and Roman Empires. These two powers both see the opportunity to force the Goth nation into submission and gain an edge over the other, so send forces to take over or subjugate the Goths, while fending off the other Imperial power. Of course, to the north, the Hunnic horde is approaching.

The players will take the role of the commanders of the Roman, Sassanid and Hun forces, while I as ref will play the Goths (and probably mostly get massacred). Each player faction will have some home provinces, but most of the action will probably take place in the new Gothic kingdom.

The Rules etc.

The plan as it stands is to use a DBA campaign style, with forces moving between distinct geographical regions. Of course, rather than use the simple rules there, I want to fiddle massively and bring in new challenges and details.

Firstly, I will not be using the DBA rules for fighting the battles, I will be using my standard rule set (The Shock of Impact). This will take some adaption, so for example, rather than getting 12 bases, I intend to give each player a field army of 1200 points for each year, instead of losing one base each turn of an unsuccessful siege, losing 100 points etc.

Secondly, I want to introduce Victory Points, as I highly doubt we will finish the campaign by annihilation of two factions etc. This will both allow a leader board of sorts, but also allow for alternate victory conditions (get twice as many points as the rival powers etc). These will be earned for taking and holding regions, winning battles and destroying enemy forces. The plan is that you will also be able to buy VPs with gold, representing promoting yourself at home etc. to enhance your prestige.

And finally I plan to add an economic element, where regions earn gold which can be spent on various things. These include (at the moment), spying on enemy armies to learn their composition, attempting to reduce the morale of enemy forces (maybe by bribing soldiers to desert, or poisoning), giving bonuses to troops in your own forces to attempt to raise morale, improving the chance of successfully ending a siege (whether by having better siege engines or inducing treachery), increasing the siege readiness of a location, feeding an army maintaining a siege during winter and hiring mercenaries. Gold will also have to be stored in on map locations, so can be seized by enemy forces.

As of yet I'm still working on the details of what things will cost, but the aim will be to ensure that winning battles and regenerating troops as per the DBA system will be cheaper than hiring mercenaries to make up for bad decisions.

Each campaign year will consist of selecting a field army, three seasons where campaigning is possible, then a withdrawal to winter quarters. Movement of field armies will follow the standard DBA campaign limitations and sieges will be prosecuted in a similar manner with a few tweaks that I'm still working on. If and when field armies meet, there will be a battle fought out on the table.

In terms of what I expect to write up, I plan to write up all the battles that are played out, plus give an update at the end of each campaign year of the armies movements and VP status etc. The battle reports will probably be delayed until after a given campaign year so none of the players can get a sneak peak at the others' armies without paying for their spies!

Random bits and bobs

As things stand I intend for two of the factions at least (the Romans and the Goths) to have a couple of unique tricks. This may be extended to the Huns and Sassanids if I can think of something reasonable for them. The Romans will be able to hire troops from the Western half of the Empire if they wish to as well as Gothic mercenaries. These will function identically, but will just give them some extra options in terms of troop types.

The Goths will behave very differently to the other factions. Rather than regenerating troops in the normal way, they will be able to disband their army anywhere and assemble a new one at the capital, up to a strength dependent on how much of their territory they hold. This new army will be unable to act for one season but then will be able to move and fight normally. This is mostly to keep the Goths in the game as a potential spanner in the works of the major powers.

The Long Drive Home

The Long Drive Home

August 1940, somewhere in North Africa

Colonel Bradwaith was a worried man. Again the Desert Fox had outflanked the Eight Army and triggered a general withdrawal. During yesterday's sandstorm, Bradwaith and his command group had been separated from the column of infantry heading eastwards towards the new line, leaving him and his staff in their lorries and two tanks that had been providing security for this HQ alone in the empty desert. This far off the tracks, the lorry were essentially useless, his adjutant was checking them for maps, documents or anything else that shouldn't be left behind before they were to be burnt. Cramped as it would be, he and his staff would be making the rest of the journey in the tanks. His concern was simple, could the tanks make it back. Even without the enemy trying to stop them, fuel was tight, the terrain hard and navigation was challenging.

His contemplations were interrupted by one of the tank commanders.
"Sir, we're picking up radio traffic from some armour to the north. They're assembling to make a break for our lines in the morning. Sounds like the Queen's Own sir." 
Bradwaith nodded.
"We'll join up with their push then, Lieutenant, light them up, we are leaving."

Two hours later, Bradwaith's pair of tanks had linked up with the remnants of two squadrons of tanks. The plan was to strike out to the east at dawn, hoping the sandstorms off to the west would keep the Luftwaffe at bay. With luck, the column would sneak past any resistance.

We played out this scenario at one of the regular office wargames evenings. The basic situation was that Rommel had (once again) thrown the Eight Army back in confusion and some isolated British tanks had to break through to home, while an Italian force tried to stop them.

The British forces consisted of 9 A13 cruiser tanks (two troops of 4 and a  commander representing a depleted squadron) and 17 Crusader I (a squadron of 3 troops of 4 with a commander plus the armoured battalion HQ of two tanks plus two additional tanks carrying Bradwaith and his staff). Prior to the game the British had to choose which of three routes to take home, with longer routes giving a greater risk of mechanical breakdown or running out of fuel but a lesser chance of coming into contact with off table enemy forces, and whether to proceed in one large group or to have a staggered column.The players chose to proceed en masse along the longest route. This meant that they were able to deploy all their forces on table, but at the same time restricted their deployment area to the edge of the table.

The Italians were fielding two companies of M13/40s plus a battalion command group, with each company consisting of three platoons of 4 tanks, plus two tanks as a command group, with an additional two tanks for the battalion command group. Their pre-game decisions consisted of choosing where to deploy their companies, choosing one company to be deployed on each of the long and middle length routes. This meant that one company could be deployed in defensive positions on table at the start of the game and the other would march on later. Rather cruelly I made the Italians role to see when the extra company would arrive, rather than sticking to my initial plan of a one turn delay, and they, naturally, rolled the maximum possible amount of time.

The area the fight occurred over was little more than a patch of desert with some small sand hills. The entire area was hard sand, so the tanks could move at a blistering pace (90% of road speed under the rules). The Italians deployed behind some hills, rather than hull down on them as I expected them to, while the British similarly used the hills to mask their approach.

Initial deployments, with the British at the far (western) edge, and the Italians in the Nort Eastern corner.

The British plan was to cut south of the Italians at speed, blasting any targets of opportunity aside as they went. The Italians planned to strike into the British force as they moved, holding out until their reinforcements arrived.

A keen eyed Italian tank commander spots the approaching mass of British armour.

 The British cruiser tanks stormed up the board with their high speed, while the Italian forces pushed west. The British sighted the Italian forces as they moved out and opened fire, not achieving any hits. The Italians, ably led by Capitano "Why is it always me?" Arvinda suffered from his traditional bad luck, failing to acquire the British forces.

The second turn saw the first British squadron approaching their escape point and forming a gun line. To buy time, the Italian forces charged headlong towards them, both sides blasting away. The Italian company commander had happened to end up on the southern extremity of their line the turn before, so now formed the tip of the spear, which earned him the attention of two British tank troops, which resulted in his tank being knocked out. Both sides lost an additonal tank apiece.

Leading from the front, the Italian company commander attempts to inspire his men, and pays the price.

 The second Italian company rolled onto the table at the end of the turn, and both threw themselves at the British after the British had assembled their entire force within a single move of the edge of the table. With both sides at close quarters, the shooting was brutal. One Italian platoon was wiped out in a single shooting phase, and several others suffered losses, while a British troop lost three tanks.

Tanks begin to brew up accross the field

In the end of turn morale checks, the Italian first company failed and was forced to hold position or retire from the enemy, while the entire battalion was reduced to half moves or less. The British passed their checks and escaped into the desert.

In the post mission survival rolls for the British, not only did no tanks break down or run out of fuel, no contact was made with Italian or German off table forces, so all the tanks that made it off the table made it back to British lines.

In the end the Victory Points were tallied up, 205 for the British, 42 for the Italians.

A few notes on the scenario, firstly I should have stuck with my original plan of having the second Italian company arrive at the end of the first turn, rather than making them roll. Secondly, I misread a passage in the rules, so the British shouldn't have been able to move as fast as they did and fire, although with the British plan that might just have reduced the amount of shooting in the game. I think I also should have restricted the British movement in some way, maybe with minefields or soft sand, to give the Italians the chance to hold the British.

Overall though, both teams had a good laugh, and we're looking forward to putting these troops back onto the table at some point.