In the grand scheme of things, this can't even be considered a hardship, but it is one more example of the change in daily life that response to the virus requires. My regular DBA 3.0 opponent (and friend) is 70+ years of age and took himself out of group/face-to-face gaming a couple weeks before the country started to embrace "social distancing." I was totally supportive; you may remember that I lost my mother to the "regular flu" a couple years ago. Just not worth taking any chances. . .
So what to do until we get "back to normal?" I might play around with De Bellis Solitarius, but I'm more likely to use the home time to catch up on completing the bases on some of the 54mm French and Indian War units I based over the last 2 years. . . like the French La Sarre troops I just finished.
One great aspect of the Muskets and Mohawks rules I play with is that they are designed to be played solitaire. It is not just an afterthought, but an integral part of the rules!
Last month's DBA 3.0 game was a Big Battle pike-fest, pitting two triple-sized II/16 Asiatic Early Successor armies against each other: II/16a Antigonus (me) and II/16d Eumenes (Bruce). Historical enemies, to boot. Both pike-heavy forces, the main difference was that Bruce/Eumenes had more elephants, and I/Antigonus had some light horse and 3 Pike Generals (Eumenes' Generals were Knights). Terrain ended up on the flanks with little impact on the game.
Eumenes:
Antigonos:
As the Pike blocks advanced, I sent my right-flank Light Horse out to skirmish, and fed Elephants and Pike toward my left flank to defend against Eumenes mounted push.
When the Pikes embraced the Antigonid Pike Generals provided a slight edge in the initial combats. Turned out Bruce had also PIP-starved the Elephants on Eumenes left flank by assigning them the low PIP dice, depriving it of a potent weapon.
These two factors kept the Antigonids ahead of the attrition race and eventually led to the Antigonid victory.
Eumenes "himself" fought off the Antigonid PIkes for a couple of bounds before being finally overwhelmed.
Be safe!
My team finally won the Super Bowl. Still doesn't seem real. . . and I am honestly still basking in it. I was in 6th grade when my family moved to the Kansas City, MO (NOT Kansas) area, the year after the Chiefs won Super Bowl IV against the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings were "our" team then, since we had lived in Minneapolis for a couple years previously - Kindergarten and 1st Grade for me - so we were pulling for the Vikes in IV. I stayed in KC until my mid-thirties, long enough to become a fully-vested member of the Chiefs Nation, before heading back to Minnesota for work. Fifty years is a long time to wait just to have your team in the Super Bowl, let alone win it, in the midst of family and friends, in the burbs of Kansas City, whooping and crying. Congrats, Chiefs! What a fun win!
A couple weeks before, Bruce and I met for our monthly game of DBA 3.0. Bruce provided 2 28mm Classical "Greek" armies: II/22 Alexandrian Macedonian and II/5c Later Hoplite Greek Theban. We played Big Battle format; each army x 3 for 36 elements per army. After dicing I got the Thebans, defending. Not much terrain; a Woods, some gentle hills and ploughed fields, mostly on the flanks. Pretty Classical.
The Macs were Pikes supported by Knights, Cavalry, Auxilia and Psiloi. . .
The Thebans were basically the same, with Spears instead of Pikes, and no Knights. . .
So, it would be a contest of double-depth Pikes against 2 lines of Spears. The Theban army is interesting in that it has a Spear General and an element of double-depth Spears (8Sp), both of which get a +1 in combat in Good Going against Pikes. Number of elements times 3, remember, we're playing Big Battle. Moving into close combat and thereby getting to choose the order of combats could be critical when engaging the Pikes.
The Macedonian mounted threatened my left flank, so I refused and expanded it with my own mounted. Our Auxilia skirmished in the hills on my right flank.
Then I spotted a potential "Gaugamela Moment" on my left flank. . .
. . . and due to very favorable dice roll the Mac General went down fighting!
The loss of the General slowed down the threat on this flank while the Spears in the center pushed into the Pikes and we both fed Cavalry into the skirmish on the opposite flank.
First contact in the center went slightly in the Spears favor, and the subsequent elimination of a couple of Pikes elements, despite the loss of a couple of Spears, led to increased Theban momentum as a couple of holes in the line were exploited. The second line of Spears moved up where needed to plug their own holes. Combats on both flanks also favored the Thebans.
And suddenly, due to their small sizes, both Macedonian flanks were demoralized, and despite the fact that the center large command had taken losses but was still intact, per the rules the demoralization of two commands breaks the army.
Thanks for another fun game, Bruce!
See ya!
I recently read three new-ish books on Ancient Rome (mostly) I really enjoyed. First up is Early Roman Warfare: From the Regal Period to the First Punic War.
From Amazon:
Here Dr Jeremy Armstrong traces the development of Rome's
military might from its earliest discernible origins down to the First
Punic War. He shows how her armies evolved from ad-hoc forces of
warriors organized along clan lines and assembled for the city's
survival, to the sophisticated organization of the legions that went on
to dominate all of Italy and then (after the period covered) the entire
Mediterranean world.
Makes a good case for a little "warband-type" skirmishing a la Warlord's new SPQR game.
Next up is Swords and Cinema: Hollywood vs the Reality of Ancient Warfare.
Again from Amazon:
The battles and sieges of the Classical world have been a
rich source of inspiration to film makers since the beginning of cinema
and the 60s and 70s saw the golden age of the ‘swords and sandals’
epic, with films such as Spartacus. Ridley Scott’s Gladiator led a
modern revival that has continued with the release of films like 300,
The Eagle and Centurion and HBO’s mini-series Rome.
While
Hollywood interpretations of Classical battle continue to spark interest
in ancient warfare, to casual viewers and serious enthusiasts alike
they also spark a host of questions about authenticity. What does
Hollywood get right and wrong about weapons, organization, tactics and
the experience of combat? Did the Spartans really fight clad only in
their underpants and did the Persians have mysterious, silver-masked
assassins in their armies? This original book discusses the merits of
battle scenes in selected movies and along the way gives the reader an
interesting overview of ancient battle. It should appeal to the serious
student of ancient warfare, movie buffs and everyone in between.
Was fun to hear someone else echo all the same complaints of "wrong helmets!" and embellished history that I've made while watching historical movies (just ask my daughters!)
Last up is a book I thoroughly enjoyed: Legion versus Phalanx: The Epic Struggle for Infantry Supremacy in the Ancient World.
From Amazon:
From the time of Ancient Sumeria,
the heavy infantry phalanx dominated the battlefield. Armed with spears
or pikes, standing shoulder to shoulder, and with overlapping shields,
they presented an impenetrable wall of wood and metal to the enemy. It
was the phalanx that allowed Greece to become the dominant power in the
Western world. That is, until the Romans developed the legion and
cracked the phalanx.
In Legion versus Phalanx Cole weighs
the two fighting forces against each other. Covering the period in which
the legion and phalanx clashed (280--168 BC), he looks at each
formation in detail--delving into their tactics, arms, and equipment,
organization and the deployment. It then examines six key battles in
which legion battled phalanx: Heraclea (280 BC), Asculum (279 BC),
Beneventum (275 BC), Cynoscephalae (197 BC), Magnesia (190 BC), and
Pydna (168 BC)--battles that determined the fate of the ancient world.
Drawing on original primary sources, Myke Cole presents a highly
detailed but lively history of this defining clash of military
formations.
Mr. Cole does an outstanding job of bringing these epic clashes to life, describing the sights and sounds and smells - all of the experiences of the soldiers on the ground. Recommended!
Recruits is coming up the end of this month! Since I missed last year due to knee surgeries, I felt compelled to bring some new terrain this year. . . here's a look at an early stage.
If you want to see the completed models in action, you can either come play with us at Recruits or wait for the AAR here. We'll be playing a scenario called Revenge. . . 1759-style! using Fistful of Lead: Horse & Musket from Wiley Games. Hope to see you there!
Since I haven't been gaming lately I thought I would share a few images of a new boardgame I supported on Kickstarter. Hannibal & Hamilcar is the 20th Anniversary edition of Mark Simonitch's award-winning card-driven war game of the Second Punic War. A labor of love, the game features new artwork and updated, streamlined rules that include a complete new game of the First Punic War, Hamilcar, complete with new naval rules.
I took some photos of the game "unboxed;" then I went to the Kickstarter campaign page and saw all the great photos of the components. . . so I borrowed a few of them to show off what a great looking game this is. And it is a "transportive" gaming experience, taking players back to the time of Rome vs. Carthage and Scipio vs. Hannibal.
One cool feature of the update is the inclusion of 40mm miniatures of all of the prominent generals of the conflicts, each an individual sculpt.
Card and counter art is top-notch.
And of course I had to have some of the extras. . .
The giant playing mat is printed two sides!
Go to the link I provided above to learn more about the game if you're interested.
