Great Captains Franco- Prussian war

 Today, Pete's lot were doing Great Captains at the club, and asked if I could take a few pictures!

The French (right, held a long ridge against the Prussian advance.

Lovely figures! --the French in the centre.

The French right.

The Strong Prussian Left - their plan was to attack under cover of their artillery, which paid off!

The Bavarians

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Pics from the club

 Today there were several games on at our club:

Great Captains Napoleonic (Pete Foggin's game)

Ian  was doing Five Parsecs from home.

Dave and co were doing 'General D'Armee'

And Lawrence, Phil and myself did Wings of Glory!

Not too many of us in today, but we had a lot of fun!

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Colonial shenanigans!

 Last Saturday (20th April) Pete Foggin and co did a Colonial game using their 'Great Captains' rules, which seem adaptable to many periods!

The game was to be a British attack on a Dervish stronghold, but the British army to be ambushed on the way . 

After much slaughter, the Tactical victory went to the British, as they routed many more Dervish, but the Strategic Victory went to the Dervish because they managed to penetrate to the baggage train , which of course meant the destruction of the means of the  transport of water in the desert!

Enjoy!

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A Great Captains game at the club!

A Very Pyrrhic Victory

A Hellenistic v Roman game using the Great Captain Rules written by club members Pete Foggin and Craig Parker.

The battle report is set in 279BC, during Pyrrhus’ invasion of Southern Italy.

Great Captains uses an alternative move system, with players determining which general has the initiative at the beginning of each movement phase.

The Epeirot general opened hostilities by launching a strong
attack, on the Roman left, with a combination of Tarantine cavalry, Psilos and Peltasts. 
The Roman cavalry and Leves moved forward, eager for the fight. However, the Roman horse found themselves in the unenviable position of seeing the Tarantines flowing around their flanks, and though inflicting little harm they kept the Romans horse occupied skirmishing with them on one side and then another. While the Leves had the worst of the exchange with the Psilos and Peltasts. With some of them recoiling and disordering the Hastati. 

Roman Allied Cavalry awaiting orders

To avoid any possibility of further 
disorder occurring the Leves were ordered to withdraw through the Legions.
The Roman Allied and Epeirot Greek Horse played little part in the Battle The Roman general now took the initiative, ordering the Legions forward. The remaining Leves continued moving forward
in support. However, the majority of the Leves were engaged by more Psilos emerging from the wood, with only a few harassing the Epeirot Phalanx. After receiving a few well-placed javelins, the Phalanx lowered their sarisa and advanced towards the Legions.

The Roman cavalry charged
forward, although harassed all the way by the Tarantines, they rode down the Psilos to their front. While the rest of the Psilos and some of the Peltasts, upon seeing their charge broke and fled. However, the Epeirot cavalry counter charged, smashed the Romans and together with Tarantines pursued them off the field.




Struggle between Epeirot and Roman Cavalry with the Tarantines harassing the rear of the Romans

The Roman general now took
the initiative, ordering the
Legions forward. The remaining
Leves continued moving forward
in support. However, the
majority of the Leves were
engaged by more Psilos
emerging from the wood, with
only a few harassing the Epeirot
Phalanx. After receiving a few
well-placed javelins, the Phalanx
lowered their sarisa and
advanced towards the Legions.




Although a hard-fought fight the Phalanx got the upper hand pushing back both the Hastati and Principes. However, while the Legionaries in the centre recoiled, the Romans were able to overlap both wings of the Phalanx.
The flexibility of the Legionaries now showed when the Maniples on the Roman left about turned and charged the exposed flank of the Phalanx.
The Epeirot general now ordered the Oscans forward, out of the woods, to engage the Legionaries, stopping the left wing of the Phalanx from being enveloped. While the Roman Allies moved forward to support the Legions and engaged the Oscans.

The Phalanx and Legionaries clash

With the Triarii holding the centre and the Maniples on the left arranging their lines to complete the envelopment of the Epeirot right wing. The initiative swung away from the Romans when a division of Tarantine cavalry returned and attacked the rear of the Legions. With the Phalanx pressing their
front and the Tarentines to their rear, panic ran through the Legionaries causing the Roman centre to collapse.

Great Captains requires an army to take a morale check immediately when it loses 33% of its total army points. With further a test each time another unit is lost. With the collapse of their centre the Romans incurred losses of 37%. This required a score of eight or better (from 2 x 6 die) for a successful army morale

A Dice throw of nine kept the Romans in on the field.
The Epeirots went on to slaughter the surviving Romans in the centre increasing Roman losses to 40%. Resulting in a further morale test this time requiring a score of nine or better to pass. Dice throws of eleven enabled the Romans to fight on and allowed the Extraordinarii to rout a single unit of Oscans.
This brought the Epeirot losses to 33%, requiring a score of seven or more for a successful test. A throw of six resulted in the immediate surrender of the remaining Oscans and the retreat of the Epeirot Phalanx and Greek cavalry, leaving the field to the Romans.
After the battle a triumphant Roman general, made sacrifices to the gods thanking them for their support. While a perplexed Epeirot general wondered if fortune would favour him in his next encounter, how many casualties he would need to inflict to defeat a Roman army or whether an offer of a Sicilian interlude would be a worthwhile adventure.

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Today at the club!

Today, we did a WW2 skirmish to try out my newly updated rules. The write up is on my blog as ever, Herkybirds nest

Enjoy!

Elsewhere, Pete, Frankie et al (whoever al is!) were doing Great Captains renaissance - and it looked a very pretty game, here are some pictures of it:

 In the background, Andy and Malcolm were doing Rapid fire.

There was a 7 years war game on too, and a Napoleonic one, of which I have no pictures, sorry!

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The club today!

Well, on Saturday actually!

My games are viewable on my blog (Game 1 and Game 2)

Most of the club was in Scotland, gaming, so only ours and Petes games were on:

Jimi and Phil at our game, Pete, Craig and Frankie at the back.

 Our little planes in action!

The other tables rennaissance game..

Note the cannon shooting moles! 

Nice looking game!  

 Thanks for viewing!

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Samurai at the club!

Yesterday, we did a fair mix of games at the club....

Pete, Frankie and Craig were doing a spectacular Samurai game in 10mm using their 'Great Captains' rules.

Impressive!

 

 

 

 A Wild west game was in play too! 

Dave and the Napoleonic lads were doing 'I ain't been killed yet Mum', a WW2 game by the 2 Fat Lardies, it seems to be gaining a following in our club! 

 

Gareth, Lawrence and myself were doing a Wild West game too, but a solo one using my own rules...weird! - you wait for one Western game and 2 come along at once!

The full AAR can be viewed on my blog at: Herkybirds nest

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