BHGS CHALLENGE AAR No 4 – NUMIDIANS MEET THE PONTICS(Photos)

[neilhammond]

Numidians were “most efficient and formidable when in pursuit of a flying foe”, but “once they give way continue their flight for two or three days, trying to get as far away as possible”. (Polybios)

For Game 1, battle plan and my army construction see viewtopic.php?p=50882#50882 for a breakdown of my Moorish army. Game 2 and 3 are also on the After Action Reports on the Field of Glory AARs subforum.

Game 4

I was facing Clive Vaughan’s Pontics. Clive lives a few miles from me and is my regular gaming partner, so we knew each other’s armies and style of play extremely well.

Clive's army consists of:

1 FC
3 TCs
4 LH unprot average bow
4 LH unprot average jav/lt spear
4 Saka Cav armour average bow + sword
4 Pontic Cav armour superior lt spear + sword
6 Cataphracts superior lance + sword
6 Sarmatians armour superior lance + sword
2 x 8 LF ave bow
1 x 8 LF ave jav/lt spear
12 poor prot pike
6 MF Bastarnae superior prot hvy weapon
2 x 6 MF Thupeophoroi ave prot off spear

13 units, most are undrilled except the pikes and thupeophoroi.

I’ll let the photos narrate the game. I’ve show the photos in chronological sequence, so they will tend to pan across from one wing to the other as the narrative unfolds.













Meanwhile, back on the Moorish left wing...




Whist all this was going on, a desperate struggle had been going on in the centre to dominate that area of the battlefield:


And back on the left wing, things were starting to resolve:




Meanwhile, things were also resolving themselves on the right wing. This overview shows initial moves and subsequent actions:






It was a fast and furious game, and enjoyable to play. At the end of this the Moorish army was doing well, with the possibility of getting into 5th or 6th place if the army repeated its recent success in the final round. Could it be done, or would the Moors get relegated to 4th Division?

The final report can be found at viewtopic.php?p=51473#51473, against Ray Duggins’ medieval Spanish well-honed Santa Hermandad Nueva Castilian army.

[Quintus]

Very good.

I haven't played the game yet and was interested to see how fluid the battle lines were. No doubt this was to do with the compostion of the armies.

[neilhammond]

I haven't played the game yet and was interested to see how fluid the battle lines were. No doubt this was to do with the compostion of the armies.

Yes, partially due to the armies used. Also, Clive and I play reasonably quickly so we tend to rattle through the turns. And we know the rules reasonably well, so we seldom have to refer to the main rules, sometimes we might have to refer to a QRS, but that 's about it.

[SirGarnet]

Nice work with the photos - it makes crystal clear all the different forces bearing down on your position and the tactical interplay. I'm sure the Spanish gloated over having exclusive pickings of the Pontic camp ahead of their rapacious light horse comrades.

Clive made pretty much a frontal attack across the width of the field. What was your intention in massing your heavies well back at the uneven ground and the lights forward but well out on the wings? Keep him busy on the right while swarming his medium cavalry with your LH so it could then flank and help crush his heavy horse? Or was it a different plan?

[Maxshadow]

Another attractive, informative and easy to follow report, thanks.
Did the spanish just run straight over the top of the pikes?

[rbodleyscott]

Did the spanish just run straight over the top of the pikes?

Well it was clearly too fast to be photographed.

[thefrenchjester]

Hi Neil ,
congratulations for your 4 excellent battle reports , hope to you at Britcon this summer ;
best regards

thefrenchjester

[Maxshadow]

Maxshadow wrote:
Did the spanish just run straight over the top of the pikes?


rbodleyscott
Well it was clearly too fast to be photographed.

ROFL! Yes apparently. Does anyone know if Mithridates experimented with skirmishing Pikes?

[timmy1]

Neil, not being a PC techie, I am impressed both by the photo's and the nice text and extremely helpful arrows that you have added to the photos. How did you do it (software package used would be a start, don't tell me I did it on a Mac and that makes it so easy...)

[neilhammond]

Neil, not being a PC techie, I am impressed both by the photo's and the nice text and extremely helpful arrows that you have added to the photos. How did you do it (software package used would be a start, don't tell me I did it on a Mac and that makes it so easy...)

I brought Adobe photoshop a couple of weeks ago and have been playing around with the basic tools. I use a reasonable quality digital camera, but not a hugely expensive one. Upload the photos from the camera then edit them.

[neilhammond]

Did the spanish just run straight over the top of the pikes?

Yes. The pikes narrowly lost the impact and failed the CT to disrupt. They also lost the melee badly but threw 6 & 2 for CT. No problem.... except that poor troops reroll 6's. So Clive rerolled and got a 1. Double drop. Rout.

[neilhammond]

Clive made pretty much a frontal attack across the width of the field. What was your intention in massing your heavies well back at the uneven ground and the lights forward but well out on the wings? Keep him busy on the right while swarming his medium cavalry with your LH so it could then flank and help crush his heavy horse? Or was it a different plan?

The basic plan is outlined in my first report, but essentially the standard plan was to skirmish on both wings and hold back with the Fakes & ele's until something turns up.

To an extend, what you do with the two skirmishing wings depends on what the opponent does. If he goes under-weights the wing then you try and take out the wing and/or sneak units through and attack the camp and/or the rear. If he attacks heavily then you try and tie those troops down and win elsewhere.

You have to play fast because you need to get the turns in to allow the skirmishing to take effect and to move up the Fakes.

[timmy1]

Neil, thanks. I had lookad at Adobe Photoshop but it was too rich for me. I will see if I find a special offer somewhere.

[neilhammond]

Neil, thanks. I had lookad at Adobe Photoshop but it was too rich for me. I will see if I find a special offer somewhere.

GIMP is the shareware equivalent (GIMP 2), and is free. It looks pretty powerful but isn't as intuitive to use.

[timmy1]

Neil, thanks, I will give it a try.

[clivevaughan]

My plan was to get the lancers around my force blocking the elephants into the fake legionaries - it partly worked. With hindsight I should have added the Bastarnae to the jumbo-hunters.
What Neil neglected to mention was that he lost 14APs out of 16 to my 13 out of 13 - a bloodbath that Pyrrus would have been proud of!!!!
A ever Neil a superb game and the quality of your battle reports is breathtaking