2nd game of Strength & Honour

After enjoying my first game I was eager for a second. I kept the same lists as the first battle but I used the full length of the gaming cloth. This gave the battlefield a few more squares length and depth (20x14). More squares to close between armies and more space to deploy so the Warbands were deployed this time in depth. With the Greek line being longer, the Romans deployed slightly offset so the Veteran Legion on the Roman left were expected to hold against the Warband and Thureophoroi. I later realised that I neglected to test the risk to generals after combat, I'll need to get some gaming aids for future reference until I'm well drilled in the procedures. Rome pulled 6 command points from the entrails while the Greeks scraped 4.

Turn 1

The Greeks began, the Warbands surging forward 3 squares, the Thureophoroi taken aback by the eagerness of the Warbands they failed to move themselves. All the other units save the Veteran Phalanx advanced possibly taking the auguries warnings very seriously! 

The Roman Cavalry wings manoeuvred outwards to square up with the looming Greek cavalry wings. The Legions failed to activate for a group move, some sort of confusion between the officers perhaps!

Turn 2

The Greek advance continues with all activated units moving and trying to form a line catching up with the Wabands who stayed put for a bit of sword clashing on their shields! The Veteran Phalanx did move but only one square... still lacking enthusiasm for battle, unbecoming of the cream of the Army!

The Roman cavalry wings advanced and the Legions finally received their orders to advance together, costing the last movement CP and obviously the frustration of the general was being felt as the Legions advanced 3 squares forward!  

 

Turn 3

The Veteran Phalanx probably aware of their lagging, surged forward to be the leading unit, and the Imitation Legionaries lined up with them. The Phalanx failed to activate so the Thureophoroi and Warbands stayed put. The Greek cavalry charge the Romans and crunch them back one square. The Cataphracts fail to activate.

The Veteran Legion and its neighbouring Legion advanced, but the other Legion and Raw Legion fail to activate ending the turn.

Turn 4 

The Greek general leads his cavalry to combat but the fight ends inconclusive as the Romans defend the attack. The Cataphracts advance 2 squares. At this point the Greek army blundered, the Warband miscalculating its advantage found itself charging against the Veteran Legion. If they had allowed the Thureophoroi to advance first, instead the Warbands were repulsed. The Warbands were stopped in their tracks but maintained order. The Veteran Legion lost some of their skirmishers.

The setback suffered by the Warbands seceded the initiative. the Veteran Legion still in contact began a counter attack. Although the advantage was with the Veteran Legion the attack was faltering but with the leadership of the Legions officers the attack effort was saved and the Warbands suffered a crunch, the Warband was pushed back 3 squares and despite the efforts of the tribal leaders the Warbands were disordered. The Veteran Legion worn from the attack failed to advance further. While the Veteran Legions adjacent Legion held the line to keep the line intact the following Legion and Raw Legion planned to advance, which the Raw Legion failed to do! The Roman Allied Cavalry charge the Cataphracts but the fight is inconclusive. On the other flank the Roman cavalry in combat with the Greek Cavalry were about to be repulsed but the command effort managed to completely reverse that fate and crunched the Greeks.

Turn 5

The Phalanx fails to advance, not the best start of a turn! Next the Greek Cavalry counter attacked the Roman Cavalry and were repulsed despite the added command effort in the attack. They were in fear of falling into disarray save for the personal intervention of the general who kept them in order but still handed the Romans the initiative.

The Legions advanced steadily maintaining battle lines as best as possible. The Roman Allied cavalry attacked the Cataphracts. It ended in disaster the attack could not be saved and the disorder not rallied off despite further command effort, so much was the fight with the Cataphracts that the Allied Cavalry routed from the field, leaving the Raw Legion's flank very exposed!

Turn 6

The Cataphracts took advantage of their victory and advanced ready to turn next on the activation. The Imitation Legion advanced hoping for future advantage and the Phalanx moved to contact but did not combat. The Greek general's cavalry charged to an inconclusive fight and the Warbands failed to reform their ranks.

The Veteran Legion supported by a Legion on its flank, charged the Thureophoroi and the advance was heroically defended against by the Thureophoroi! The Veteran Legion lost its last skirmishers. The Raw Legion advanced against the Imitation Legionaries however they remained in place. The Legion adjacent to the Raw Legion pushed the Veteran Phalanx back and the Legion next to them pushed back their opposing Phalanx, who then fell into disorder then rout! A disaster for the Greeks the Romans call it and the Greeks suffer 20 break points more than enough to break the Greek Army morale! Just in time to save the Raw Legion from the Cataphracts!

Post Battle Thoughts

Another great game, and it highlighted a puzzle element to the rules. In the case of the warband it showed it would have been more advantageous to advance the Thureophoroi without making a risky attack to deny the Veteran Legion its support then charge the Warbands home. There would still be more moving parts for that to go wrong also but of it had worked the Veteran Legion wouldn't have had it so easy. 

For future games I'll probably use less bases per unit and with a smaller unit size I could do with smaller skirmisher markers. I'm currently thinking of making some individually based skirmishers that won't get in the way too much.

Next I'll have more of a focus on painting. I've got some command figures for Hannibal's veterans and Iberian warriors to finish off some units that are currently going through rebasing. I have pictures of the rebased Velites that have been involved in these battles. 

Romans deployed on the left Greeks on the right

Greek line

Roman line

Veteran Phalanx and the Phalanx

Greek general leads his cavalry on the flank of the Warband

Legions with skirmish support

End of turn 1

End of turn 2

Greek cavalry charge the Roman cavalry

End of turn 3

Lines close

the charging Warbands were repulsed and fall back in disarray

Phalanx struggles against Legion

Roman allied cavalry repulsed falling back in disarray
which quickly became a rout 

End of turn 5

With the Phalanx routed Rome 
calls Homunculus Est!

Cataphracts attempt to gain the Roman flank is to of no 
avail as the Phalanx's rout causes the army to flee 

Veteran Phalanx looking exposed

The Thureophoroi after the Warbands failed charge 
held up the Veteran Legion as well as the neighbouring 
Legion putting the Phalanx's performance to shame!

 

Strength & Honour First Blood

When I first heard of Strength & Honour, before its release, it immediately appealed to me. Being both grid based, focussed on large scale battles and set in the Roman era it hit just about everything I look for. Leading to its release there were quite a few promotional videos on YouTube including a play through of the rules, which all presented extremely well how the rules work. So I ended up buying the hardcopy not long after its release but with gaming time being hard come by its taken until now to learn them for myself! 

SET UP

After knocking up some basic "Setback" and "Disaster" cards along with a few unit labels I was ready to set it up and get my head round the rules. I divided the table into 9cm squares 16x10, which had every other corner marked with my round terrained washers. I had already chosen the armies; Rome had 4 x Legions of varying quality, 2 x Cavalry and 2 x Skirmishers to be distributed to the Legions. The Greeks had 2 x Pike Phalanxes flanked by Thureophoroi on one side and Imitation Legionaries on the other, the flanks were covered by Cataphracts on their right and Cavalry on their left lead by a general. I also had 2 x Open Order Warbands which were left in reserve due to the constriction of the battlefield and not wanting to provide a mass of troops to be pushed back into. In hindsight skirmishers would have been more useful, but this was more of an exercise in learning the rules. With the low number of units I gave each unit 4 bases to give them a bit more mass.

THE BATTLE

The Greeks started the battle with 6 command points and the Romans 4.

The Greeks started and used a movement command point to advance as a group moving 2 squares, Rome mirrored this movement.

Greek cataphracts fail to activate, while on the other flank the Greek cavalry charged the Roman Cavalry but the combat was a stand. The infantry move as a group once again expending another movement command. With all Greeks activated the Romans now activate.

The left most Legion charges the Thurephoroi, the Legion rolls a crunch, this is negated by the Thureophoroi's defence roll. However one of the Roman skirmish lines were dispersed. The next Legion facing the Phalanx manages to advance pushing the pikes back but the Romans stay put to maintain the integrity of the battle line. Next the Veteran Legion facing the Veteran Phalanx have a similar outcome save for a lost line of skirmishers.

Next up was the Raw Legion, who after failing to activate for a charge mistakenly used a movement command point to reroll! The Raw Legion's officers were merely improvising and adjusting the commanders original plan! The Imitation Legionaries were pushed back 2 squares, again the Romans stand firm to maintain the battle line but losing a skirmish line. 

Roman success continues and the Roman Cavalry push back the Greek Cavalry 2 squares and then peruses them. The Roman Cavalry facing the Cataphracts inflict a crunch on them, however the extra defence dice crucially manage to negate the crunch.

It was all for nought as the first activation for the Greeks, the Cataphracts were repulsed by the Romans. Falling back 3 squares and failing the discipline test, a defence command was used to reroll and pass but it was the beginning of the end for the Greeks.  

Rome now began their next phase much like their previous one and began to systematically to thrash the Greeks. The left Legion crunch the Thureophoroi who were unable to defend this time, Roman skirmish line lost again. The next Legion advances pushing back the Phalanx, losing a skirmish line in the process.

Despite having an advantage over the Veteran Phalanx the Veteran Legion had a bad combat roll, however the attached general spurred them on with a reroll which ended with another Roman advance pushing the pikes back 2 squares. Again the Roman skirmish line was expended. The Raw Legion pushed back the Imitation Legionaries losing their skirmishers in the process.

The final attack against the Cataphracts pushed them off the field inflicting a disaster against the Greeks. The Roman allied cavalry did not purse, ready to start turning the Greek flank at their next activation. At this point Homunculus Est! was called, 9 set back cards and 1 disaster card totalling 20, breaking the Greek army. 

POST BATTLE THOUGHTS

It was decidedly a one sided affair, the Greeks when about to make their combat activations were robbed by the very early reversal of fortune, with Fortuna being firmly on the side of Rome who breezed through all their combats and despite the Greeks keeping good order by passing all their discipline checks. The Greeks foolishly were too defensive pooling too many commands in preparation for discipline checks, while neglecting attack rolls depending entirely on the cruel fates. The Cataphracts being the poorest performing unit on the field was exacerbated by the Roman Allied Cavalry being the best performing! Those two full and very successful phases against the Greeks who were unable to respond in kind made it a quick battle. 

I very much liked how the game flows, there are not too many modifiers to learn or check for and I feel like I was picking up the game quite easily. The flow of the game feels like a narrative of battle the various activations show the battle unfolding event by event. Also plays great solo and didn't take too long to play despite the checking of rules on this first play through!

I'm looking forward to playing Strength & Honour again. I need to get the QRS printed and make some better labels for the units. I can quite easily accommodate a larger battle fields by making 1 base 1 unit and making the squares smaller. When I get more familiar with the rules I think it would be good to try larger battles.  

Both armies deployed

Veteran Legion lead by a general

Pike Phalanxes

Unit of Thureophoroi

Unit of Imitation legionaries 

A unit of cavalry lead by a general

Makeshift labels to try out the rules

Both armies advance their lines

Legion charges the Thureophoroi...

The Legion rolls a crunch, however the
Thureophoroi defend against it... 

Despite the inconclusive combat some Roman skirmishers
disperse leaving one line of skirmishers

Phalanx pushed back...

Legion stays put to maintain the battleline, the combat 
however thinned down the skirmish line

Roman allied cavalry charge the cataphracts and inflict a 
crunch, the extra defence dice negated the effects

A disastrous round for the Greeks as the cataphracts
are repulsed. Fortunes reversed after only one activation

Roman Legions drive back the Greeks across the line

Allied cavalry drive the cataphracts from the field,
after the inflicted disaster the Romans call Homunculus Est!

The Greek infantry tired from being pushed around break 
as the Homunculus Est! surpasses the Greek breakpoint