Pydna 168 BC AAR
Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:12 am
In a rare moment of efficiency, I kept a file of my posting of Pydna, and I'm restoring it here, post server nightmare. Thanks to all for the kind comments last time around! ~Mark
Here's my first AAR. Thanks to all those who have previously posted AAR's, especially Tim, for setting the light & irreverent tone and providing dialogue balloons--from which I have shamelessly plagiarized.
Dale Smith and I playtested this scenario in November. It was (mostly) non-competitive, Dale heading the Romans while I rolled rout dice for the Macedonians.
The battle pits Perseus with the Later Macedonians against Lucius Aemilius Paulus and the Mid Republican Romans. The lists are:
Later Macedonians
Mid Republican Romans
Historical Notes: The armies were camped close together, and foragers from both sides ran into each other at a stream. The fighting escalated as both sides came out of camp to join in. Paulus was in the line organizing his troops. Perseus was on the right flank with the Macedonian cavalry--he reportedly ran off at the first sign of trouble, but the Romans did write the history. The battle lasted little more than an hour, the Roman cohorts moving into gaps in the Macedonian pike phalanx. It's unclear from the accounts whether this was due to rocky terrain or because the phalanx came up piecemeal, and in the reverse of the usual order.
Terrain Notes: Whatever the reason, the pike had difficulty. We've chosen to make the terrain uneven ground, thus disordering all but light and medium troops. This gives the Romans the advantage of being able to count their sword bonus vs. unsteady pike. The brown terrain is uneven, the hill contours and streams are there for reference but have no further effect on movement or combat.
Gaming Notes: The armies start quite close, 6" apart with 1"=1MU in 15mm. Because of this, we expected the action be quick, but because disorder slowed down movement reduced the number of dice the game moved more slowly--but rather dramatically.
We didn't set up victory conditions, and just played to see it this would reflect history, so it's no easy task for the Macedonians. The success of the Cretans was the high point--but unfortunately due (in part) to a few turns of forgetting the Roman armor vs. shooting. So I guess they were dressing up as they ran out of camp...
The first picture shows the disposition of the BG's, and it's on from there:
Here's my first AAR. Thanks to all those who have previously posted AAR's, especially Tim, for setting the light & irreverent tone and providing dialogue balloons--from which I have shamelessly plagiarized.
Dale Smith and I playtested this scenario in November. It was (mostly) non-competitive, Dale heading the Romans while I rolled rout dice for the Macedonians.
The battle pits Perseus with the Later Macedonians against Lucius Aemilius Paulus and the Mid Republican Romans. The lists are:
Later Macedonians
Mid Republican Romans
Historical Notes: The armies were camped close together, and foragers from both sides ran into each other at a stream. The fighting escalated as both sides came out of camp to join in. Paulus was in the line organizing his troops. Perseus was on the right flank with the Macedonian cavalry--he reportedly ran off at the first sign of trouble, but the Romans did write the history. The battle lasted little more than an hour, the Roman cohorts moving into gaps in the Macedonian pike phalanx. It's unclear from the accounts whether this was due to rocky terrain or because the phalanx came up piecemeal, and in the reverse of the usual order.
Terrain Notes: Whatever the reason, the pike had difficulty. We've chosen to make the terrain uneven ground, thus disordering all but light and medium troops. This gives the Romans the advantage of being able to count their sword bonus vs. unsteady pike. The brown terrain is uneven, the hill contours and streams are there for reference but have no further effect on movement or combat.
Gaming Notes: The armies start quite close, 6" apart with 1"=1MU in 15mm. Because of this, we expected the action be quick, but because disorder slowed down movement reduced the number of dice the game moved more slowly--but rather dramatically.
We didn't set up victory conditions, and just played to see it this would reflect history, so it's no easy task for the Macedonians. The success of the Cretans was the high point--but unfortunately due (in part) to a few turns of forgetting the Roman armor vs. shooting. So I guess they were dressing up as they ran out of camp...
The first picture shows the disposition of the BG's, and it's on from there:
