ECW: Scots v. New Model Army

Each side had two divisions & two Generals.
Scots: Steve & Mark.
English: Mike & Chris.

The English are on the near side.

The English advance their cavalry on both wings.

There are indecisive cavalry melees on both flanks as the foot advance in the centre.

Both sides have wins & losses all along the front.

The combats along the line have almost all been hard fought leaving the winners shaken & unable to exploit their win.  Neither side has lost half strength, but the Scots have only 2 units fit to fight (that is unshaken & not broken while the English have 6 still fit to fight, so the English have won.

ECW: Scots v. New Model Army

 A small one on one battle to welcome Chris back from OS & bring him up to speed on the new simultaneous movement sequence developed while he was away.
Scots (Chris): 4 P&S, 4 Highlander, 2 Musketeer, 4 Medium cavalry, 2 guns.  All regular except wild highlanders.
English (Jim): 3 P&S, 2 Musketeer, 3 Heavy Cavalry, 3 Medium Cavalry, all veterans with very good command.

The Scots are on the far side.

The English immediately advance all along the front.

On the left the English cavalry ride down one musketeer unit & the gunners, but one musketeer unit holds on.  
In the centre the English foot charge home without stopping the fire.
On the far flank the English musketeers defend the farm against the highlanders.

The Scots musketeers on the hill have beaten off one cavalry unit, but have been charged by a second.  The two victorious English Heavy Cavalry units have charged on taking out the first line of Scots cavalry & engaging the second line.  
In the centre the English have won on the RH end, are losing the LH end & the centre is still in the balance.
On the far flank, the English musketeers have beaten off the first highlander attack, but a second one is coming.

The English cavalry are moping up on the left. 
The English have lost the LH end of the infantry fight, but have won the centre & right.
The English musketeers are holding off the second wave of highlanders on the right.

The last Scots P&S in the centre has been broken by the combined fire of the two victorious English P&S units.  The last of the highlanders have been repulsed.   The last of the Scots cavalry is facing 2:1 odds & about to break.  It's game over for the Scots.
 

ECW: Scots v. English

Scots (Mike): 4 P&S, 3 Highlander, 2 shot, 8 med cav, 3 guns.
English (Jim): 4 P&S, 3 shot, 4 heavy cav, 4 med cav, 2 guns.

The Scots are on the far side.  The English have put all their cavalry on their right flank.  The Scots have put most of their cavalry on their right flank.  

The Scots advance their right.
The English prepare a defence with their left anchored on the village while they send half their cavalry their left flank.

The Scots cavalry have deployed to face the English flank, but the English have had time to prepare a strong defence.
The Scots are attacking the angle in the English line. while their artillery bombards the English centre.

The English cavalry have counterattacked the Scot's right, but the corner of the English line is in trouble.
The English have pulled their centre back out of artillery range after receiving serious casualties.

The English cavalry counterattack is driving the Scots cavalry back, but they have had to pull back their centre after the corner unit broke.
The Scots have begun to advance in the centre, 

The English cavalry on their right have advanced to stop the Scots infantry advance on the centre.

The English cavalry on their right have charged between the pike & shot blocks to take out the Scot's artillery.  On the far flank the Scots cavalry is down to it's last line.  In the centre the English have fallen back,  but the Scots don't have enough troops left there to follow up while their left is tied up by the English cavalry. 

On the far flank, the surviving Scots have fallen back behind the hedgerow..
In the centre, two English cavalry units have crossed behind the Scots rear, but have been met by the Scots cavalry reserve. 
On the near flank, the Scots foot have resumed their advance now only two English cavalry are ,left to face them.  The English cavalry are falling back out of musket range.

At our 10pm curfew, nightfall ends the battle.
The English have pulled their left back behind the hedgerow.
On the far flank, the hedgerow bought the Scots right some time for the their cavalry reserve to save the day by stopping the English rear manoeuvre.   

Applying our new Army Status test, we found that the the Scots had 12 unit points left capable of fighting & the English had 11.  Only one difference, so the battle was declared a draw.  A fitting result for a good attack plan met with a sound active defence.

Rome v. Carthage

 Rome: Jim & Mark: 12 hastasi/principes, 3 Triari, 9 veletes, 6 med cav, 2 light cav.
Carthage: SteveJ & Mike: 2 Vet imitation Romans, 2 Citizen spearmen, 4 Scutari, 8 med cav, 5 skirmish cav, 4 elephants.

The Romans are on the near side of the table.

The Carthaginians have advanced on the right.
The Romans are leading with their legions in the centre.

The Carthaginians have now advanced to meet the Roman advance.

While the heavy infantry slug it out in the centre there are swirling cavalry fights on the flanks.

On the far flank, the Roman cavalry supported by allied infantry is getting on top.
On the near flank the Carthaginan cavalry supported by elephants is gaining the upper hand.
In the centre both sides have had wins & losses.

On the far flank the Romans eventually win, but at high coast.
In the centre the Carthaginians are about to break completely.
On the near flank the Romans are reduced to just one doomed allied infantry unit.

As with last week the end game was messy making it hard to determine a winner & our AEmy Morale Test didn't deem to be right. When time ran out at 10pm, we assessed the situation using two possible tests.
Under the old test where an army fails if it loses half or more of its unit points, the Carthaginians won, with just over half their units still unbroken while the Carthginians had just over half broken.
Under new proposal, where we count he unit points for units still fit to fight (ie, not broken or shaken), the Romans won by 1 point, because most of the  Remaining Carthaginians on the table were shaken.

My proposal for a new Army Morale Test for M2M is:

1. Fight on until either one side concedes, or the agreed time is reached.
2. Count the number of unit points left not shaken or broken.
3. If one side is at least 2 better than the enemy, they win.
     If the difference is 1 or 0, it's a draw. 

On that test tonight's battle was a draw, which looks fair.

 

Carthage v. Macedon

Macedon (Mike): 4 phalanx, 4 hoplite,  16 skirms, 2  Companions, 2 heavy cav, 2 medium cav, 5 skirmish cav.
Carthage: (SteveJ & Jim): 2 citizen spears, 2 veteran heavy inf, 4 scutari, 16 skirms. 8 medium cav, 4 elephants, 4 skirmish cav.

The Carthaginians are on the near side of the table. Both sides deployed cavalry on both flanks & their heavy infantry in two lines (which meant there was a plethora of skirmishers).

Both sides advanced their infantry centre cautiously. The cavalry generally keeping pace, except for the Punic right wing which attacked.

When the infantry closed in the centre The Carthaginians realised they had made a mistake putting their scutari in front as it was no match for the Macedonian phalanx &the RH end of the line broke on first contact.  Poor dice throwing by the Macedonian saved the Carthaginian centre from breaking, but the 2nd line of veterans managed to stop the rot. 
On the far flank a cavalry fight has started but is not yet decisive.
On the right the Carthaginians are doing well.

The centre has turned into a hard slog between the best troops of each side. 
On the far flank the cavalry fight is till indecisive, but on the right the Carthaginians are getting well on top.

The Macedonian left has been broken & the Carthaginian cavalry is wrapping around the Macedonian infantry's left flank.
On the far flank its mostly mutual destruction, but the Macedonians had to pull back their left as elephants threatened it.  

Up until now the Carthaginians had many more units broken than the the Macedonians, bit with Punic cavalry loose in the Macedonian rear their position deteriorated rapidly.   Bot sides went over half their units broken at the same time.  So technically it was draw, but the Macedonians had lost 1 more than the Carthaginians & their strategic was hopeless, their remaining units being mostly shaken, surrounded & doomed with little no hope of inflicting more losses on the enemy    So the Carthaginians considered it a win for them.  

Finding an army morale test that always looks right is a dream I've never been able to realise. This was one of the cases where one side was clearly on top  regardless of the losses. 

  

   

 

Last week's battle reprised

On thinking about last week's battle we realised that most of the issues we had were to do with us not having played ancients for a long time & we were misremembering rules.  This week we fought with almost the same armies as last week, but having boned up on the ancient rules as well as making a couple of minor tweaks to the new order system. 
Only two players this week, Jim as Seleucis & Mike as Dimetrios.

Seleucis' army is on the near side of the table.  He has placed his phalanx in the centre flanked by Galacian foot on both sides of it & Galacian cavalry supported by elephants on both flanks.  His companions are in reserve behind the centre.
Dimetrios also put his phalanx in the centre with mercenary hoplites on the left & most of his cavalry on their left.  The other flank was covered by just two cavalry units & some horse archers.

On the near flank Dimetrios is trying to delay the Seleucid advance with his horse archers. 
In the centre the phalanxes advance cautiously on each other.  On the right of them Galacians have charges the hoplites which have been deployed in massed formation.  On the far flank Dimetrios is attacking with his cavalry,  Seleucis has sent his companions to support his right flank.

On the near flank the Seleucids are advancing despite significant losses to the horse archers.  In the centre the phalanxes have locked horns while the hoplites are getting the upper hand over the Galacians.  On the far flank Dimetrios' cavlry is getting the upper hand.

On the near flank the Galacians have overlapped Dimetrios' phalanx.  On the far flank Seleucis has had to commit his companions to plug the holes. 

The phalanx blocks at the right hand end of both phalanxes have been broken.  The hoplites have broken the Galacians on their flank, but the companions are pinning them down.  Both extreme flanks are still indecisive. 

Seleucis' left hand phalanx block has moved to the right to cover Dimetrious' victorious phalanx block, while the Galacian continue rolling up the other end of Dimetrious' phalanx.  Both flanks remain indecisive.

Both flanks have end up pretty much M.A.D. but Dimetrious' phalanx has been destroyed, rolled up from it's right flank.  In the last turn both sides went over 50% losses.  Dimterios having had 10 unit points broken out of 18 & Seleucis had lost 11 out of 21.  So a Phyrric victory for Seleucis.

The battle went much more smoothly than last week.  Having read up on the ancient rules helped, but also the tweaks made to address the issues that ancients showed up in the new system worked really well.    The simultaneous system provided a lot of instances in this battle where the players had to make decisions where the right choice depended on what the enemy did - introducing a skill element lacking in IGOUGO.

 

Successor battle with simultaneous movement

Seleucis: Jim & Mark: Phalanx, Galacian foot, Companions, Medium cavalry, Elephants, skirmishers.  
Dimetros:  Steve & Mike: Phalanx, Hoplites, Heavy Cavalry, horse archers, skirmishers.
Deployment method. Loser of toss puts down a brigade, then the winner puts down a brigade.  Toss again & repeat until all deployed.

The Seleucids are on the right.

Seleucis has deployed elephants behind his cavalry on both wings to support his & disrupt Dimetrios'. Dimetrios attacks with his cavalry on the near flank.
Both sides make a cautious advance on the far flank.  
Both sides are holding back in the centre.

On the far flank a confused indecisive fight is ongoing.
On the near flank Seleuicis is doing slightly better than Dimetrios.
In the centre Seleucis' phalanx has advanced, but not attacked. 

On the far flank Seleucis has turned a phalanx right to support his cavalry & elephants.
In the centre the hoplites have counter-charged the advance of the Seleucid phalanx.
On the near flank both side have heavy losses, but no one has won yet.

The far flank is pretty much M.A.D.
The Seleucid phalanx has failed to beat the hoplites & is falling back.
Dimetrios's phalanx is now advancing towards the Galacians.
The near flank is still indecisive. 

On the near flank the Seleucids have finally won, but have only 1 cavalry & 1 elephant unit fit to fight.  
The left end of the Galacian line which is not on the hill & has been shot up by horse archers earlier is in deep trouble against a phalanx.  The rest of Dimetrios' phalanx has declined attacking up the hill at the Galacians. 
The advance of the hoplites was halted when the phalanx reached the support of the Galacians.

At this stage neither side has failed their Army Morale Test, though Dimetrios is on wood & Seleucis not far off.  It could still go either way, but time was up so the battle was declared a draw.

This was our first trial of the simultaneous movement system with ancients.  We found that it didn't work quite as easily as with musket era battles we had been trialling it with, but part of that was that we hadn't played ancients for a long time.  With more HTH combat there was more scope for complex interactions of multiple units & we found that the modified HTH combat result table 
needs some fine tuning.   We're going to give it another go with ancients next week.

My new 3D Printer: Creality Ender-3 V3 SE

I bought my first 3D printer nearly 4 years ago.  It was a bottom of the range Ender filament printer that cost about $300.  It was a bitch to assemble & frustrating to learn to use, but once I got the hang of it worked pretty well most of the time.  

The quality of the models made with a filament printer is not as good as a more expensive resin printer, but perfectly adequate for wargame figures, & there's no hassles with noxious fumes.  The most frequent problem is failed adhesion to the base plate which happens occasionally for no apparent reason. There are a number of reasons this can happen, but eventually you learn the signs & can ID the issue & fix it without too much hassle.

After I proved to myself that 3-D printing was the future for wargaming & also useful for my work, I bought a second printer, a better model that cost about $350.  It had a better control unit, but otherwise not a lot different.  I wanted two printers for two reasons:  To speed up production, & to provide redundancy in case of breakdown.  A few months ago the second machine developed a fault in the extruder that I have been unable to fix.  The first machine is still working as good as new.

I bought the first two printers on-line, but Jaycar now stock them locally with a good range of models.    These include the Creality Ender-3 V3 SE on special for $250.  From looking at the display model I could see that despite the low price, it was a significant up-grade from the old models I have & the price was more than right, so I bought one. 

Old printer on the left, new printer on the right.

The old models came as a box of many bits that were a real pain to assemble with inadequate instructions that I needed to supplement with youtube videos & advice from Nick Bowler.  The new model is mainly pre-assembled into just 3 modules which are easily screwed together & also has a manual that is easy to understand.  

The old models require manual levelling with 4 knobs which is tedious & needs to be re-done frequently.  The new model has a self-levelling mode, which though slow is just one click.

Feeding a new filament into the extrusion module of the old design can be annoyingly tricky & I've found the module is such a tightly packed mess of tiny components I was unable to replace a fault & re-assemble it.  The new model has a larger, simpler, & easier to use feed mechanism which looks less prone to fault & easier to maintain. 

The old machines use a mini memory card that is fiddly & easy to lose.  The new one uses a bigger memory card that is much easier to use.  

The control screen is a further improvement over my second model. 

The only problem I had in getting the new one going was bed adhesion.  My first tries had no adhesion.  But the problem was easier to fix than on old modules, as the most common causes, the base getting out of level, or the z-offset drifting off optimum are much easier to adjust.  The self levelling function is one click so I'd done that so I knew that was right.  The Z-offset (the height of the nozzle for the first layer) was factory set at -1.5 but is easily adjusted from the control panel.  By trial & error I found that -2.5 was the Goldilocks spot. 

Previously, I wouldn't recommend getting a 3-D printer to anyone except serious nerds becasue of the  frustrating idiosyncrasies of the machines.  (I was fortunate to have an alpha nerd mentor in Nick to supplement youtube videos, plus engineering experience to help me learn the ropes).   The new model is not only remarkably cheap, but significantly easier to use.  It's still a bit more complex & fault prone than a 2-D paper printer, but not excessively so. 

While making the computer files for a model from scratch is a very difficult task requiring the mastery of very complex apps, there are heaps of ready made files available for download at moderate cost or free.    Apps that convert those files to the right format for the machine are free & pretty easy to use.