Ancients using Camp Cromwell Rules du Jour:
Jim's Romans v. Steve's Carthaginians.
The Romans rested the right of their legion on a wood, extended their cavalry to the left, and put the triari behind the cavalry.
Jendrubal also rested his flank on the wood with cavalry on the other flank. He had cavalry & mercenaries in reserve and a light cavalry unit on his left for an outflanking manoeuvre round the wood.
Both sides made general advances, somewhat discoordinated by bad activation. One triari was sent across to the right to cover that flank, the rest edged right to fill the gap opening between foot & horse.
In the infantry clash, the Nubian spearmen initially pushed back the Romans in the centre, but the Romans held their own against the Spanish & Gauls.
Most of the Roman horse was smashed quicktime. Only the far left flank unit held on - it was only fighting light cav. In the centre the Triari plugged the gap between horse & foot. The Noble cavalry lead by Jendrubal himself found out how tough the Triari are the hard way. They bounced off the first time, then routed when they charged again. But the victorious triari didn't have time to celebrate - they were immediately attacked by the mercenary hoplites & routed themselves. Jendrubal himself managed to dis-attach himself from the rout and returned to command after 1 turn.
Back on the right, the Roman infantry fought back. The Gauls broke in the centre giving a Triari unit a chance to go in on the flank of the Nubians. They broke, soon followed by the Spanish on the far end of the line. An attack by the Medium Cavalry reserve on the infantry that beat the Gauls was held off & when the Carthaginian light cavalry on both flanks routed (by heavy cavalry on one flank & triari on the other) the Carthagians failed the Army Morale Test.
But we had time to spare & were having fun, so we kept going. The victorious Carthaginan right turned to attack the victorious Roman right. The lone Triari unit in the centre kept the Carthaginian horse at bay while the rest reorganised & the Carthagian last gasp attack petered out.
As we had nothing planned beforehand and I haven't re-done the points spreadsheet, when we set up we just checked that each side had about the same no. of combat dice. (No elephants as their rules haven't been reviewed yet). The Romans looked awfully outnumbered with their little maniples, but they are tough little buggers. Probably the Romans had a bit of a points advantage because they had 5 Fearless Vet triari with long spears.
Jim's Romans v. Steve's Carthaginians.
The Romans rested the right of their legion on a wood, extended their cavalry to the left, and put the triari behind the cavalry.
Jendrubal also rested his flank on the wood with cavalry on the other flank. He had cavalry & mercenaries in reserve and a light cavalry unit on his left for an outflanking manoeuvre round the wood.
Both sides made general advances, somewhat discoordinated by bad activation. One triari was sent across to the right to cover that flank, the rest edged right to fill the gap opening between foot & horse.
In the infantry clash, the Nubian spearmen initially pushed back the Romans in the centre, but the Romans held their own against the Spanish & Gauls.
Most of the Roman horse was smashed quicktime. Only the far left flank unit held on - it was only fighting light cav. In the centre the Triari plugged the gap between horse & foot. The Noble cavalry lead by Jendrubal himself found out how tough the Triari are the hard way. They bounced off the first time, then routed when they charged again. But the victorious triari didn't have time to celebrate - they were immediately attacked by the mercenary hoplites & routed themselves. Jendrubal himself managed to dis-attach himself from the rout and returned to command after 1 turn.
Back on the right, the Roman infantry fought back. The Gauls broke in the centre giving a Triari unit a chance to go in on the flank of the Nubians. They broke, soon followed by the Spanish on the far end of the line. An attack by the Medium Cavalry reserve on the infantry that beat the Gauls was held off & when the Carthaginian light cavalry on both flanks routed (by heavy cavalry on one flank & triari on the other) the Carthagians failed the Army Morale Test.
But we had time to spare & were having fun, so we kept going. The victorious Carthaginan right turned to attack the victorious Roman right. The lone Triari unit in the centre kept the Carthaginian horse at bay while the rest reorganised & the Carthagian last gasp attack petered out.
As we had nothing planned beforehand and I haven't re-done the points spreadsheet, when we set up we just checked that each side had about the same no. of combat dice. (No elephants as their rules haven't been reviewed yet). The Romans looked awfully outnumbered with their little maniples, but they are tough little buggers. Probably the Romans had a bit of a points advantage because they had 5 Fearless Vet triari with long spears.
The pic was taken after the battle was technically over. Carthaginian cavalry swamp a couple of maniples, but but are about to be hit in flank themselves. Mercenary Hopites in the foreground & Romans in the background are rallying after wins. The victorious Romans on the far flanks (cav on left & triari on right) are out of the pic.
Comments on new rules:
Last week the combats were too indecisive - we then required 2 fails after all shaken to = rout. So this week rout was 1 Fail after all shaken to = rout. At times units seemed a bit skittish, so we might have gone too far. Maybe the sweet spot is 1 fail too many = one last morale test to save, 2 too many = rout.
The simultaneous movement system works real well. We had some complex situations and they resolved themselves pretty painlessly.
We used units of various sizes this week as Steve's troops were in various sized units & the Romans were in small maniples. The rules dealt with this ok.
I was happy with the diced command system - a bit of luck, but some skill too in having the general in the right place to skew the odds.
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