Camp Cromwell Bulletin 03/05/07

SteveJ's Seleucids v. Nick's Pergumenes

Ancient battle using latest revamp of Camp Cromwell Rules.

Both sides had the usual deployment of phalanx in the centre, light troops on the flanks.

Nick made a big push forward with his cataphracts on the left of his phalanx. The cataphracts pushed their opponents back consistently without gaining a knockout blow, but their advance exposed the flank of the Seleucid phalanx as planned. Nick's flank attack on the phalanx broke one unit, but some bad luck & Steve's Argaraspids arriving from reserve stopped the rot & the centre bogged down in a rugby scrum.

Nick's cataphracts finally broke though, but they failed to rally promptly and then refused to activate orders to return to the fray.

On the flanks the Seleucids eventually won the fights between the light forces. The Seleucid light cavalry threw exceptional dice to rally and take new orders. Their arrival in the rear of the Pergumene phalanx broke the stalemate. The light cavalry & the Argaraspids rolled up the Pergumene phalanx to clinch victory.

The battle could have gone either way, Nick just missed out on an early chance to win & in the end it was a matter of whose winners came back first - against the odds it was Steve's irregular light horse.

New systems being tried included:

• Alternate movement...this worked very well.


• No casualties - just 3 states for units - fresh, shaken (denoted by a bottletop) or routed...this worked very well - much easier than all those counters & the lack of steps didn't seem to matter at all.


• New combat resolution system - involves throwing handfulls of dice...worked pretty well but needs a little fine tuning - at present there are too many draws. But I think it is potentially an improvement on the old system we've used for so long.


• No written orders - just dice to activate orders...seems to work ok.


• Shorter basic moves, but double moves allowed in some circumstances... still working through this one.