A great start to a Saturday morning. My best mate Jack brought up his collection of 6mm Historical Minis, a whole spread of Greek Hoplites, skirmishers, and Peltasts for me to wield against his collection of Roman Legionnaires, Cavalry and Skirmishers. We both built forces of 700 points a side. Greek Hoplites vs Roman legionnaires.
We set the table up using an abbreviated and altered set of rules from Little Wars TV "Age of Hannibal". Dividing up the table into segments, dealing out cards, we alternated placing them in a segment of the board and revealing them to create a diverse range of board and terrain. Unfortunately 5 of the cards between us were wide of plains, and not covered in sections of difficult terrain, and I hadn't had the chance to at least get some green felt to make the board look like fields. (This will absolutely be the first priority now for the next game we play)
Turn 1 began and I managed to seize initiative, marching my troops down the field, passing all command rolls to ensure they all made it up the field. Managing to snag first turn seemed a great boon but as the game would progress, perhaps it mightn't have been.
At the top of Jack's first turn his Javelins close the gap, almost blundering his command rolls, the drilled Roman's managed to march despite the chaos of the early battle field. The Cavalry of his first division charge into my Cretan Skirmisher Archers, and as they attempt to evade, the follow through movement catch them and slam hard into the evading skirmishers.
So, as any good mates jamming games together to have a good time, it was at this point we made the first mistake of the rules, but it made no major impact. We both misunderstood the idea of Counter Charging. We played it as something able to be done by the infantry, turns out in the post game, we missed on the rulings that it was meant to be for Cavalry units only.
Jack's division of Elite legionnaires charged into my Heavy Spartan Hoplites. I counter charged. Heavy Shield, slammed with heavy shield, Elites against Spartans. With this proper opening clash the tone was set. Truly battle on an epic scale was being waged.
As the combat waged on, our units traded wounds, not many but these would start to chip away, adding up bit by bit as the battle waged on.
The first Shaken and then breakin' unit of my Cretans as they flub their break test roll at the end of combat, being utterly obliterated in a single turn.
Top of turn 2
My mistake of deploying my skirmished out on the far wing of the field, was not working, only managing a single 6 inch movement again, they trudged their way slowly around the forest. We began to joke and laugh that these skirmishers had missed the trumpet sound of battle and were off busying themselves foraging for food and berries for the army to eat.
I made a number of charges of units into the Cavalry units of Jack's. 2 units of Spartans attempted to charge into the archers and failed.
A Blunder! from my Elite Hoplites! On a roll of Box Cars, the unit of Hoplites who were planning a charge end up drifting forwards and to the right, not completely out of the way of where they were heading, but definitely out of place and in the line of sight of a perfectly placed charge next round by Jack.
As combat phase kicked in a unit of my elite hoplites were dealt 4 more wounds, and later failed their break test, broke and fled being crushed and obliterated. My Spartan units that managed to connect charges crushed the Elite legionnaires forcing them to give good ground. Having managed a flanking maneuver the spartans caused the Vet Auxiliary unit to break. These spartans then made a sweeping advance into the Elite legionnaires who had been made to give good ground, locking them down for another round of melee the next turn.
As my turn ended, Jack made plans. His archers and skirmishers fell back, revealing another mass of legionnaires on the other side of the hill with the intention of charging me back. An unlucky roll in his command phase ensures his legionnaires can not charge effectively into my spartans, allowing me to stand my ground and being ready. Jack began to multi stack his troops into my Levy Hoplites, charging with his Veterinary legionnaires supported by the Elites. Backing this up, he charged his Numidian Cav into the flank. But little did he know, this was just the beginning of the tale of the Levy of Hoplites holding out against insane odds.
Going into Combat the Levy Hoplites should have been obliterated, with the number of units locking them down. But Greeks have the glorious Phalanx rule, Allowing them to draw if they lost a combat by less than a difference of 2 points. With some less than glorious rolls from Jack, the Levy only managing to be made to give good ground in order, falling back with no major loss.
My Spartans that were prepared for the charge managed to crush and break a unit of Elite legionnaires.
As the end of Turn 2 came to a close, almost half of all our units were engaged into a melee and the back and forth of the sustained combat would begin as turn 3 rolled in. But first, there were two hungry commanders in need of a feed. So we broke for lunch before taking up the melee of turn 3.
Returning well fed, the generals continued the battle.
My Skirmishers continued foraging for berries and advancing ever so slowly forward round the outside.
I charge one of my last units of Spartans charge hoping to hold up some more of Jack's legionnaire.
Working through the Sustained combats before diving into the charging combats, my unit of Elite hoplites take another 4 wounds, being completely obliterated and breaking immediately. The first unit of spartans are Shaken and Breakin'! A crushing defeat in combat against elite legionnaires. The greeks don't shake yet, but the commander begins to see some cracks in his lines and realises that we might be fighting an uphill battle to take back any ground here and crush more units.
The elite legionnaires that crushed the spartans make a sweeping charge into the next unit of spartans on the hill.
The slog of combat continued into Jack's turn 3. His horses flub their command roll, causing them to just mill around commandless for the turn. Unites of Aux Infantry also failing their command roll, thankfully being drilled and trained like all great Roman troops, are able to march themselves into support of other units engaged in combat.
This combat was killer for me, another unit of Spartans are shaken and breakin. Following them, the first of the Levy Hoplites also breaks. The Levy having been a tarpit for a good 2 turns of melee now, finally being overrun by 2 full units of Elite legionnaires. With the end of turn 3, my 2nd Division of troops were gone. I was down to 3 divisions worth of men left to fight, and my skirmisher division still hadn't made contact with the enemy yet...
Turn 4 the division of skirmishers make their first contact with the enemy! Pelting away at the units of infantry on the wings of the hills. Except, the first contact was the equivalent of half the units just throwing handfuls of the berries they had spent over half the battle collecting at the enemy. Covering the infantry and bloody looking spots, but not actually causing any wounds.
The unit of Peltasts that I had misunderstood and just read incorrectly as a skirmisher unit, pelted the snot out of the Numidian Cav, shaken and breakin them.
Levy Hoplites, in combat, were the most effective unbreakable tarpit! Rapidly rising in rank towards MVP units for me. The Levy held at bay the Veteran legionnaires and another 2 units of Elite legionnaires.
2 more units of my spartans lost the combat, one unit being crushed and mowed down against the standard legionnaires. And the other unit retreating disordered. Very Quickly were the Greek's resolve failing. More and more units being removed was leaving me up a creek.
Jack's 4th turn kicked off with a crash, more of his units crashing heavily into my remaining units.
A game of cat and mouse began as a number of my skirmishers are charged down by some of his skirmisher units along with aux infantry. They were able to evade and escape some of the charges and keep just out of reach.
My Tarpit Levy held the Vet legionnaires at bay once again. Turn 4's combat ended with draw's across the board and only a single unit of Aux Infantry broke.
Which he charged his legionnaires into my final remaining spartan unit, both in the rear and the flank. I knew at this point things were not going to end well, but no Greek goes out without fighting to the last breath.
Combat was brutal, my remaining units being beaten down and crushed one by one. Jack's legionnaires crushed my Elite Hoplites. His Medium Cav crsuhed the unit of Levy Hoplites.
What broke the greeks and caused them to flee, was the last remaining unit of Spartans being completely obliterated by the Elite legionnaires. From the rear and the side the spartans couldn't about face fast enough to defend and were trampled swiftly.
With another division obliterated, the Greeks had no other choice but to break and flee, retreating whatever remaining units they could and hoping the Roman's would leave them be. Shaking Jack's hand across the table, the Roman's secured victory today.
We made mistakes, we definitely misunderstood rules and did things not quite right. But we had an absolute blast telling a story, rolling some dice and spending a quality day in the Garage slinging dice.
I didn't expect the drawing nearer of dadhood also bringing on a true enjoyment of historical games, but here we are. I am historical pilled and hunting online for 6mm models of my own so that I can build a force of my own to face down Jack another time in another game of Hail Caesar.
