Monday 30 January 2012

Carthaginian mercenaries in Southern Gaul

Just a quick report to keep the campaign up to date.  Last Tuesday the Carthaginians took Gaul as a precursor to Hannibal's assault on the Romans.  The Gauls had a long defensive ridge line and a bit of rough to their left. The army was basically warbands in the centre and all of the cavalry on the open right, with a lone unit of Soldurii as back-up. The Carthaginians set up with infantry in the centre and two cavalry wings.

The rules force Gauls in non-disordering terrain to test to avoid reckless charges, and so in they went right across the line, leaving the hills behind them.  Carthage managed an overlap with heavy cavalry as the warbands charged past the rough, and then the whole Gallic line was rolled up in classic fashion.  Not a lot could be done about this situation - the Gallic commanders saw it coming and hoped for a quick result in the centre or on the right to compensate.  It didn't happen.

I might suggest changing the rules, since they force the Gauls to do stupid charges even when they have a defensive advantage, which doesn't seem right to me, but no one was surprised by the result anyway.  The warbands on the flat next to the rough ground would have had no choice, and in fact they were the ones who led the charge.  It looked glorious, if futile.  I didn't take photos since we were using Paul's Gauls for the first time, and I wasn't sure how they compared with our other figs.  He has his based for WAB, but as it turns out, mostly on six-figure bases, so they worked really well.

Next up is a Successor game tomorrow evening as Bactrian Greeks move into Mesopotamia. In campaign terms, this represents Persia attacking.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the update, warbands are always reckless....

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  2. Is the rule-set Impetus? It can be frustrating when Gauls and other troops run in when you don't want them to (although they were supposedly renowned for it). Would you make the rule change based on they'd never leave a good defensive position or have it that a random element still counts?

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  3. Hi guys, thanks for looking. The ruleset is Tactica II. I'm thinking of making the change such that they don't have to roll for command if they are in a defensive position, which under the rules isn't quite the same as disordering terrain. In our game on Tuesday it probably wouldn't have mattered since the rot set in on the flat between the ridge and the rough. But then I might have deployed them differently if I had know there was more chance they would stay on the hill. Gauls tend to be a bit mental!

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  4. Ah, I'm not familiar with that ruleset. Gauls seem to have discipline problems in just about every ancients system I've ever seen. I'm not enitrely sure how historically accurate that is in certain periods, but it certainly gives them character.

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  5. I probably should explain further: Tactica II is the second edition of Arty Conliffe's Tactica. It isn't available yet; we are one of the playtest groups, which is why we have access to it. We think it works well, and we'll be using it for Plataea at Carronade and Claymore. Anybody fancy a game?!

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