Battle of Baecula 208BC - Spain

Thursday night sees the return to the second punic war between Rome & Carthage.

The battle of Baecula took place in Iberia and was an open battle field in between two valleys.

Scipio Africanus led the Roman army of 35,000 men against Hasdrubal Barca representing over 25,000 men plus allies.


The Carthaginian army will deploy in a heavily defensive position with  high and deep plateau south of Baecula, protected by ravines on the flanks and the river to the front and rear. On the game table I will only be representing one river which will stand between the Romans and the Carthaginian s.

Both sides of the table will be steep hills so the Roman army must cross the river

The river will only slow the Roman's down and I will make the Roman's roll per section when crossing. A  6 will mean that that section is particularly difficult and will take 2 phases to cross,

Whilst in the river all troops will be penalised as difficult ground, no combat can take place in the river but the Carthaginian's could use missile weapons should they be in a position to..... 

Despite the terrain advantage, in the actual battle Scipio managed to rout the Carthaginian's and Hasdrubal fled into the Pyrenees.


The Roman's need but sack the Carthaginian Baggage to claim a victory.

It should be an interesting match up........

Gaming weekend

There has just been a gaming weekend at Broughton and it got me thinking as to whether we should be making the most of this opportunity.  Is this a resource we are not making the most of?

The benefits are two days with a greater amount of space than I am able to offer.

So, I have two games that would fit this bill, both of them WW2 spearhead.

Operation Battleaxe

Jon, Mark and myself have played this before.  An early war British v Axis mini campaign in the desert.  Simple campaign mechanics along the lines of the Malayan campaign.  The battlefields are played on 8' x 6' tables and the benefit of the club is that we can play two scenarios back to back with the aim of getting four games played in the weekend.  Rules and figures ready to go.

The Road to Berlin

This is a large single battle played on a 10' x 8' table featuring autobahns and entrenchments.  A Soviet shock army v a weakened German Korp comprising Volksturm and elite Panzer instructor units.  The last gasp of the Third Reich featuring aircraft, tanks and huge Soviet artillery strikes.  I suspect between us we have a lot of the troops and terrain but we may have to make up a few specials and get hold of an Autobahn including bridges that can be demolished.

Have a think and let me know what you think.  It may be that we are missing out on adding another dimension to our gaming.

Trees,Trees and more Trees

Links for the trees and the sellers I have recently been purchasing from:


http://stores.ebay.co.uk/WEHONEST/Scenery-Trees-/_i.html?_fsub=1772587012&_sid=149381402&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322





http://stores.ebay.co.uk/everestmodel/Model-Trees-/_i.html?_fsub=791174014&_sid=228614374&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322




https://www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk/eb20-etched-brass-tree-p15-p16-p20-p24-p25-p26-p31-p32-p33-p34.html

Joy of Six

It's time to make a decision about who wants to attend this years event and what battle we want to put on.  My two proposals are;

Plassey

I have most of the figures and battlefield ready.  It's an exotic location which I can enhance with a more elaborate Bengali fortified camp.  Two elements I never included in the original game are a sloop of war, which covered Clive's river flank

and two batteries of fully mobile oxen propelled Bengali artillery

Not sure how I would go about making these monsters but for a show I would make the effort.

And the other offering would be;

Pelelui

Again, I think this game has a lot happening in it to make it interesting.  We've played it and we have all the figures.  But we would need to look at enhancing the terrain and I am not sure a 6'x4' table would be interesting enough unless I could increase the size without buggering up the game.  Alternatively, we could do Tarawa which would look fantastic, but again, we would need to look at enhancing the scenery.  Also, we could look at getting these;

Anyway, those are my ideas, you may have something better.  However, it must be something we have already played and it should have enough of a scenic element to make an impact at the show.  Basically, we will spend the next few months polishing a game we have already played.

Russ has checked out hotels and it seems something else is happening in Sheffield that weekend to make rooms more expensive than last year, so we will need to book soon.  The new venue is very close to the old one but looks a lot smarter.

Some feedback on rules........

Following Thursday nights clash between Carthage & Rome I made some mental notes during the game and subsequently posted on the forum.

I wanted to clarify evades and also how to deal with units that fought after they had been activated.

Mark Lewis kindly replied and I thought it a good idea to post the details here while it's fresh.


1. Units that have already been activated in a phase.

If you have activated a unit in a phase then it's cost you an action dice, you get to move /shoot / charge and fight. If as it seems to happen one of your units is charged and you don't have a dice allocated to it then the melee is fought as normal BUT you do not receive any impetus bonus, after resolution a dice from your own pool is drawn from the bag and placed next to the unit showing a 1.

Mark explained that this stops any further activation of that unit in that turn and also works as a penalty against you for being caught napping as it costs you a dice but you do not get any impetus.

If by chance that unit ends up being charged again in the same phase or another in the turn it will fight but just with it's strength. No further dice are drawn from the bag.


Mark also confirmed that if a unit is activated and performs an advance (not a manoeuvre) it will still receive it's impetus bonus if it is charged by another enemy unit in that phase only.

I might of missed this on Thursday when Ian charged Phil's Velites who sucessfully evaded. Ian then charged moving full distance and was subsequently charged by Phil's Roman heavy foot. Ian's unit should of still received it's impetus as Phil charged in during the same phase. Something to remember for next time.......


2. Evading

We seemed to have done this correctly as per the rules. Just remember for future reference that only skirmish troops (light foot and light horse) can evade.

If they have already been activated in the turn then they won't be able to evade and are likely to be run down.

You either just need to have an action dice already allocated to the unit or draw one from you pool and make a discipline test to pass and evade.




Looking forward to our next game

URAHH!!!!

The sons of mother Russia are coming

with the promise of one square meal a day and if their lucky, some boots.

These are the first recruits to the glorious Russian WW1 army.

 

I need more stuff now

More Infantry

120mm howitzer  ????

4.8" howitzer  ???

Larger  artillery pieces for corps level????

Odds and sods to make up corps and Div command stands

Was wondering weather the H+R British cavalry would do for my cavalry Div

 

Any Ideas let me know



An Englishmans home is his castle

|or visa versa

This is the new  castle wall prototype from Leven miniatures

Lovely stuff

apologise for some blurred photos, I need Russ's super duper camera

I will bring it down to the club on Thursday so you can get a better look.