Comments from latest batch of games

[malekithau]

Hi all,

Ran a couple of games side by side on the weekend at then club. My new Carthaginians versus my old Pontics and a classic Principate Roman versus Early German. Apart from mispointing and having to upgrade my Africans to Hannibals Veterans all went quite well. I ran both games whilst trying to play one which meant that it was a rather slow affair.

Comments from all the participants and several spectators were all positive. They are all keen to play again and suddenly everyone has ancients armies hidden away that haven't been used since DBM came out. Incredible how many stopped playing when DBM was released.

The Romans were smashed quite easily by the Germans. The BGs were all 8 strong but were 4 deep so each 6 strong Legio was being hit by 3 8 strong BGs and not lasting very long at all even with superior rerolls, skilled swordsmen, better armour and IC. They were losing the impact and not able to recover enough in melee. I'm thinking that the Romans are too expensive.

In my game the superior rerolls did little in the central combat and, although it was a long grinding infantry slog, my better quality troops never looked like winning. Hannibal attached to a unit was the only thing holding the centre together. Attaching a general almost won the heavy cavalry fight on the flank as my superior troops were now elites. Then he died and the flank fell apart.

Overall the games ran reasonably smoothly with lots of interested onlookers. All queries were dealt with on the day and no major issues appeared. My only comment is that I'm not sure superior troops are worth the points and for the most part I'd rather have more feet on the ground.

One issue which was mentioned afterwards and prompted some discussion was the lack of elephant rampage. I'm not in favour of random stampedes personally but I wouldn't mind an additional modifier be built into the CT when testing for routing/destroyed Ellies. Perhaps an additional -1 if to the rear and within one base width of the routing destroyed unit to simulate the rampage?

John O