Slitherine

The MOAB 2013 tournament was 25 mm, 650 points on 1.8 x 1.2 m tables using 1 inch MUs. Although it was open to any army, it turned out that most people something from either Immortal Fire or Legions Triumphant. However, as most of us were using loan armies generously provided by Brett Kvisle, this may say more about what he has collected rather than what people thought would be effective.

I used Brett’s Classical Greeks posing as Kyrenean Greek. I don’t play very often, so I thought it best to take a simple army and one that I have used before in 15 mm, although not with this exact composition. And with the recent thread on here extolling the virtues of offensive spear, what could possibly go wrong?

IC and 2 TC (represented on the first day, due to a slight oversight, by a medieval knight and two Dailami infantry)

8 poor LF JLS javelinmen
6 average LF slingers
4 xystophoroi (drilled, superior armoured lance-sword cavalry)
4 BG of 8 hoplites (HF average, undrilled, protected offensive spear)
12 Phalangites (HF average drilled protected pike)
6 thureophoroi (MF average drilled protected offensive spear)
8 Cretan archers (LF superior bow)
Unfortified camp (represented by a felt rectangle as Brett had a lot of armies but only one or two camps)

The basic plan was to line up the HF, aim them at the enemy and use the xystophoroi and thureophoroi to echelon back and protect the flanks. The IC and one hoplite BG in rear support would increase the chances of the front line staying steady. The Cretans would target something vulnerable to shooting and the other skirmishers would just make up the numbers or delay the enemy wide on the flanks.

Game 1 vs Guy with Seleukids

I won initiative and chose desert. The battle was fought in the open part of the table.



Both sides advanced and Guy moved his Thorakitai from their flank guard position to his front. An initial assault by scythed chariots and elephants failed dismally. The chariots lost a base in impact and the elephants lost one in melee. A light foot melee temporarily blocked my hoplites’ advance and resulted in the rout of my slingers.

The heavy foot clashed and 8 protected spear proved that they could beat 6 protected heavy weapon medium foot. However, the Seleukids had better match-ups everywhere else (superior versus average pike, pike versus spear, armoured versus protected spear) and I lost my pikes and a spear battlegoup.



I can’t remember what happened with the Thorakitai, but I think my 8 hoplites might have beaten the 6 of them. However, I failed to get my armoured lancers out of the way of the heavily armoured cataphracts, so lost them, and the victorious enemy pike block was able to beat another battlegroup of hoplites. Either that or the cataphracts sacked my camp. Game over.


Game 2 vs Ian with Middle Republican Romans

I won initiative and chose desert. I found my deployment constrained by a large soft sand area and my only avenue of approach to the enemy camp was over a gentle hill between an impassable and some broken ground. This was defended by 3 BG of average hastati and principes (6,6 and 4 bases) and 4 bases of triarii (superior). All were armoured. I set up to attack this line as best I could, hoping that my skirmishers could inflict some disruption on the small battlegroups and provoke some uncontrolled charges off the hill. Meanwhile, some Italian auxiliaries (superior armoured MF light spear sword) and a Pergamene ally were ready to attack my exposed flank.



My assault on the hill started well as the triarii charged down without orders, drawing the rest of the line with them in the manoeuvre phase to prevent their being attacked alone. My charge then managed to destroy a base from the triarii. However, I made little impression elsewhere and my thureophoroi were in trouble from the start against the hastati/principes.

The Pergamene lancers were moving through the broken ground intending eventually to flank charge my pikes - if they couldn’t beat the legionaries in time to pursue out of the way. My counter to this was to move up the Cretan archers to shoot the lancers down (4 superior dice at evens needing only 2 hits to cause a test at -1). Unfortunately this plan was scuppered when the Pergamene hoplites expanded one base in a melee against my hoplites to put the end of the Cretan battlegroup in their restricted area. My troops came off worst in the hoplite on hoplite action. The troops were identical but his had a general fighting. Actually mine had a general fighting too, but he was killed on impact.




Finally my xystophoroi were able to charge the Italian medium foot threatening the flank of my hoplites. Unfortunately they lost the impact and disrupted. The hoplites broke in melee, causing the xystophoroi and the Cretans to become fragmented. The hoplites then routed through the rear corner of the xystophoroi and broke them and this caused the slingers to become disrupted. Meanwhile my thureophoroi autobroke on the other wing and the pike phalanx, which had made no impression on the legionaries it was fighting, was flank charged. There was some good news, the triarii were fragmented and one hastati/principes group was disrupted.



Before long, the phalanx and slingers were broken and I think some hoplites became fragmented after a loose legionary BG turned onto their flank. Game over, but I had managed to break the triarii and the 4-base hastati/principes battlegroup.

Day 2.

I now had some proper Greek commanders. Reflecting on the previous games, I came to the conclusion that my opponents were able to cover my front line with troops at least equal to and mostly better than mine and with more generals and with a spare unit to hit me in the flank if I kept my spare unit in rear support. Also winning and keeping initiative didn’t seem to have helped me much. I might need to change my tactics.

Game 3 vs Neil with Dominate Roman

I started my new tactics by losing the initiative roll and being made to fight in agricultural terrain. The battlefield was, nevertheless, pretty open, with some open fields on my right and a small steep hill towards my left, in front of my deployment area and roughly in front of the Roman camp. Between the hill and the open fields was enough space to deploy my army with a of a front line of hoplites and pikes, hoplites in rear support, thureophoroi extending the line on one flank (to take the hill) and xystophoroi in reserve (i.e. back to the original tactics).

In front of me was a line of Gothic warband (2 x 8 average undrilled protected impact foot swordsmen) with 4 bases of skilled swordsmen legionaries (with 2 supporting LF bowmen) on each end. in front of the camp were the Gothic lancer cavalry. Ready to go round my left flank (opposed by my slingers) were 2 x 6 armoured average light spear swordsmen medium foot auxiliaries and some poor medium foot militia. A battle group of light horse was posted on each wing next to the table edge and there were a few light foot floating around.



The battle got off to a good start as my javelinmen found that being poor was no disadvantage if the enemy needed three hits with two dice to cause a morale check. The opposing poor javelimen soon lost a base and dropped to fragmented. My right-wing hoplites moved up to the open field so if the legionaries attacked out of it they would be disordered. The roman solution to this was to bombard with javelins, but needing three hits out of three, this proved to be a futile exercise. On the other flank, my slingers gained some space, then retreated in front of the enemy light horse.



In due course the enemy light foot were routed, but their sacrifice bought time for the Roman flank attacks to develop. The thureophoroi on the hill were in trouble, disordered by the terrain and assaulted by twice their number of armoured swordsmen. On the other side of the table, light horse charged the flank of the hoplites, but achieved nothing other than breaking off with a base lost. The warbands charged my skirmishers without orders and ran into the hoplites behind, and if I remember correctly both warband battlegroups lost the impact. Soon, one of the warbands was routed. The pikes had not got into combat yet as I needed to pull back the Cretans. The xystophoroi were in a position to charge the poor militia, but the Gothic lancers moved up ready to intercept this charge.



The xystophoroi charged and were intercepted, then lost the impact. Next turn the were finished off by a flank charge from the auxilia and the pursuing Goths clipped the corner of the pike block, dropping them a level, then another one in impact and another in melee. By this time the pikemen had taken two bases off the legionaries fighting their front, but not managed to cause any cohesion loss and now they had nowhere to run, so were removed. The Gothic foot had now all been routed, but the battle by the field was a stalemate and the light horse didn’t fancy their chances with another flank charge. The (formerly) rear-supporting hoplites where slowly wheeling to intervene but were still some way off. The thureophoroi were also in rout. The other light horse had still failed to catch any light foot, but had shrugged off any shooting.



The battered legionaries move away from my victorious hoplites, who would now never be able to catch them. The Roman light foot that had been in the field moved to shoot at some other hoplites, but discovered that (having become disrupted when the Gothic warband broke) they did not have enough shooting dice to do damage. My reserve hoplites charged these LF but didn’t roll the VMD they needed to hit the flank of the other legionaries. Three enemy BGs charged my light foot from all directions, but caught only one and that survived to the end of the turn with only a disruption. Time ran out, so it was a draw, but I wouldn’t have lasted much longer.



Game 4 vs Glen Noonan with Early Achaememid Persians.

Finally the promise of some hoplite on sparabara action, although Glen started with a time wasting strategy based on repeatedly accusing me of having played slowly in a DBMM game we had played at Cancon.

If I remember correctly, Glen won intitiative and chose desert. He then built himself a terrain fort and put a large gully where it would impede my advance. He deployed average sparabara and some medium foot defensive spearmen all in uneven and difficult terrain. In the centre, between two areas of soft sand, he deployed armoured hoplites and armoured bow/sword cavalry. One flank was protected by an impassable hill.Wide on the other flank he deployed a mounted wing of two light horse archer BGs and one of cavalry.

I tried a new tactic of deploying in three foot groups with no rear support. The xystophoroi were in reserve.



I started my plodding advance, shifting some hoplites to make room for the thureophoroi, and sending the xystophoroi to the right of the gully. Glen sent forwards his light foot (on my left) and his mounted wing (on my right). The armoured hoplites advanced and the other cavalry unit moved across the front of the hoplites towards my right.

I had intended the Cretans to shoot up the light horse, but they had to keep evading charges and then were not able to get in front of the hoplites and shoot again for a couple of turns. Thus the poor javelinmen were doing most of the shooting. I angled the right wing hoplites towards the single-ranked cavalry.



Glen judged that waiting to evade my charge, or using 180 degree turns would not get him out of the way quickly enough, so he decided to charge the spears, then break off at the end of the turn. As it turned out, it was not so much a break-off as a rout-off. My camera battery went flat at this point, so I don’t have any pictures of this battle.

The other cavalry battlegroup got clear of their own hoplites and turned to attack mine that were emerging from the gully, while the Medizing hoplites joined in against my centre. The armoured hoplites routed my protected troops, but the cavalry were routed after my xystophoroi flank-charged them. The pursuit took the xystophoroi into contact with the sparabara, who had a corner outside the sand dunes and were routed in turn. The central reserve sparabara had been trying to intervene in this, but repeatedly failed its CMTs to turn or wheel.

My right wing hoplites had been continually alternating advances and expansions to trap the light horse, which retreated to the rear table edge and formed columns facing into the sand dunes. I was not able to get close enough for a charge before the time ran out. On the other wing I chased the light foot until I reached the dunes and I don’t remember much happening after that, though I have a feeling at least the thureophoroi charged into the dunes and got beaten. Do remember some of the armoured hoplites failing a CMT to stop pursuing my broken centre, which resulted in their not quite managing to get back into the battle in time to attack the rear of some of my other troops.

Day 3

Game 5 vs Michael Morgan with Federate Roman

The Romans won the initiative and chose agricultural. The terrain was largely open apart from a vineyard in one corner, in which the Romans situated their camp. I lined up the thureophoroi and some hoplites to attack the camp and contined the spear and pike line from there. The Romans defended the camp with some protected medium foot auxilia, legionaries and a small light foot BG, faced the rest of my army with a skirmish line of cavalry and light horse, and deployed a mass of cavalry lancers and cataphracts facing the empty space in my right, empty that is, apart from my slingers who would do their best to delay the inevitable flank attack. The Romans also had an inspiring commander. I placed my Cretans opposite the single-ranked cavalry as this was a target they might actually be able to kill.



Both sides advanced. The light horse charged the Cretans and forced them behind the hoplites, who then shooed the light horse away. My two right hand heavy foot units started wheeling out to the right to try to face the cavalry attack and allow the xystophoroi forward into empty space. The Roman javelinmen charged mine. Although mine were poor, I had a 2:1 advantage in numbers so elected to stand. Also
I needed to break these LF (plus the other Roman foot, the camp and the skirmishing cavalry) to win. Luck was with me and the Romans lost a base at impact.



The light foot melee continued. This stalled my advance and the other Roman infantry turned round and retreated back to the vineyard.

The cataphracts charged the hoplites and I think won the impact, then being a POA up and superior with a commander fighting, quickly broke the hoplites. The remaining cavalry chased the slingers. The pike block continued wheeling.

The light foot melee continued. Eventually I was able to contract the thureophoroi into a column so they could bypass my javelinmen with a view to joining in the melee.

The cavalry continued chasing the slingers. The pike block continued wheeling. The Cretans emerged from the hoplite line and shot at the cavalry with no effect.



The light foot melee suddenly ended when the Roman light foot lost another base. The other Roman foot continued their retreat as far as the camp, then turned round to make a stand. The cataphracts swung towards my camp. The cavalry continued chasing the slingers, who eventually evaded off table. The pike block continued wheeling. The Cretans continued shooting at the cavalry with no effect.



The Cataphracts bypassed the camp, while the equites sacked it. The pike block continued wheeling. The Cretans managed to find their form for a few turns and destroyed the cavalry in front of them.
The xystophoroi chased the light horse and one of the foederati cavalry units turned round to assist the light horse.



My javelinmen and Cretans were having no effect on the roman legionaries, so I pulled the javelinmen out and sent the Cretans behind the Romans to attack the camp. The hoplites and thureophoroi charged. A column of hoplites that had been heading towards the enemy table edge turned into line and wheeled back to face the cataphracts that were threatening the army’s rear. The pikemen, having wheeled nearly 180 degrees, now turned 90 in an attempt to threaten the Foederati cavalry that had doubled-back to help the Roman light horse. These Foederati were charged by the xystophoroi after the light horse evaded out of the way. 4 bases of armoured versus 6 bases of protected, but the proximity of other troops prevented the Foederati from expanding to get overlaps. I felt this was a critical combat, so put the Inspiring commander in the front rank. Despite losing two combats while their flank was threatened by the pikemen, the Foederati passed all their morale tests. Then the Pikes had to turn 180 to face off some more Foederati that had moved up. Meanwhile the other Roman heavy cavalry was heading in the general direction of the Roman camp.

I had forgotten that the thureophoroi would not be steady in the vineyard and they were soon broken by their swordsman opponents. I would have been better off stopping in the open so that he could not charge without being at a disadvantage. However, the legionaries were being beaten by the hoplites.



With the thureophoroi out of the way, the auxilia could engage the hoplites in the vineyard and soon had them fragmented. However, the legionaries broke, the camp was sacked and the xystophoroi finally managed to fragment the Foederati, which just broke the Roman army. Which just goes to show that hoplites are excellent value, provided the enemy has fewer battlegroups and uses most of them riding around your army without actually fighting, and charges his light foot in suicidally against 2:1 odds, and leaves his cavalry to be shot up by superior bowmen and is unlucky with his lancers. Actually in this game the light foot scored 6 of the 9 attrition points, the xystophoroi 1 and the spearmen 2 by ganging up 16 bases against 6, though the spearmen also conceded at least 5 AP. So maybe a light foot and lancer army is what is needed.



Game 6 vs Brett Kvisle with Medieval Danish.

Good news: the mainstay of Bretts army was heavy weapon infantry with the ability to negate better armour, so I had a huge advantage due to nearly all of my troops having worse armour.

Brett won initiative and chose hilly terrain, which we then both tried to minimise. Significant features were a steep brushy hill on the Danish right, a small wood and river on the Danish left (my right) and a small marsh in the middle of the Danish deployment area. The Danes deployed their heavy infantry (2x 8 pike, one behind the other due to the marsh, then 3 x 6 heavy weapon/crossbow) between the marsh and wood, knights between marsh and hill, some LF handgunners on the hill and some crossbow cavalry to (my) left of the hill, on the edge of the table. A second BG of knights was in reserve near the wood. I deployed my heavy infantry facing his, but included the xystophoroi in the front line as the heavy weapons would not count in impact against them. The thureophoroi were giving rear support on my right where they could move into the wood if need be. Another hoplite BG gave rear support to the left hand end of the main line. The Cretans targeted the enemy pikes and the other skirmishers ganged up on the hill. One BG of hoplites opposed the crossbow cavalry.



The heavy foot lines advanced, but the first combat was between the light troops on the hill. Here the large BG size of my javelinmen was a problem because it meant that both the handgunners and knights could charge them. I evaded the knights, but the handgunners caught me on the second attempt and the javelinmen were soon routed.

On the far left, the hoplites began their crawl forward towards the crossbow cavalry. The cavalry attempted complex moves each turn but couldn’t pass the test.



When the heavy infantry clashed it was fairly even, except the Danish BG that was charged by the xystophoroi was quickly routed. The pursuit took the xystophoroi out of overlap. I thought I couldn’t turn 90 with them as this would be an illegal move into contact, but when Brett saw me turn 180 he assured me that I could turn 90 but not count as in combat until I could declare a charge, so I thought I might as well do that.

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Near the wood, the Danish foot was now in trouble and a column of knights behind them was right in the anticipated rout path. The knights squeezed between the foot and the wood and got the head of the column into overlap. The foot broke and were able to shift a base to avoid the tail of the column. My hoplites pursued and hit the rear element of the column, leading to the now notorious kinked column flank charge incident, which we eventually diagnosed as a frontal charge.



The hoplites lost this impact and possibly lost a base, but held cohesion so the knights broke off. I wheeled the hoplites to angle the knights towards the wood if they charged, conformed and broke off again. Unfortunately, when the knights charged again they disrupted the hoplites, who never recovered. Although I had the thureophoroi free in the area, under the FOG2 rules it would take them ages to get into position and formation for a flank charge on the knights. I contented myself with getting ready for a flank charge if the hoplites broke and the knights pursued.

On the other side of the table, the hoplites managed to charge the crossbow cavalry and disrupt them, after which they broke off. It would take 2 more turns to charge them again. In that time they tried two more CMTs but failed and Brett chose not to move them at all. The next charge did no damage but forced the cavalry back with another break-off.

In the centre, the other knight unit charged to the aid of the Danish pike block and between them they routed a hoplite unit. The xystophoroi’s flank charge initiated the terminal decline of the last Danish heavy weapon/crossbow unit. When that broke, the xystophoroi pursued into the flank of the pike unit and, with the aid of the Greek pike phalanx turning into overlap, broke that too. The phalanx then pursued into the flank of the knights, but hadn’t started behind the flank, so it was a frontal charge and the pike POAs didn’t count. Losing impact to lancers and already disrupted with 25% losses and a bad dice roll, the phalanx was routed. Seeing this, the xystophoroi fragmented.

Meanwhile the handgunners had fragmented the slingers in an exchange of missiles and chased them to the edge of the table, and the hoplites near the wood had been broken by the knights. This meant the Greek army was now broken. The Danish army was one AP away from rout. Brett commented that his crossbow cavalry were lucky to survive as he hadn’t been able to pass a CMT to expand so he could evade. I had wondered what all the CMTs had been for and pointed out that expansion is not a complex move for undrilled cavalry.




Many thanks to Southern Battle Gamers for organising the tournament and to Brett for the loan of his army.

Some good games, although not much success. As it has been established that spears are really good troops, I must be doing something wrong. Any suggestions for improved list design and tactics would be gratefully received.

"Any suggestions for improved list design and tactics would be gratefully received"

Make the hoplites armoured.

Brett commented that his crossbow cavalry were lucky to survive as he hadn’t been able to pass a CMT to expand so he could evade. I had wondered what all the CMTs had been for and pointed out that expansion is not a complex move for undrilled cavalry.

it used to be

philqw78 wrote:

Brett commented that his crossbow cavalry were lucky to survive as he hadn’t been able to pass a CMT to expand so he could evade. I had wondered what all the CMTs had been for and pointed out that expansion is not a complex move for undrilled cavalry.

it used to be

Expansion while stationary for undrilled cavalry is still complex in my V2 rules. Is there an errata that changes this?

Chris

batesmotel wrote: Expansion while stationary for undrilled cavalry is still complex in my V2 rules. Is there an errata that changes this?

Chris

Blimey, so it is!

Come to think of it, I don't think any of my armies contain undrilled cavalry. Undrilled light chariots, yes, but they always go around in 1 rank anyway so I never need to expand them.