We've had a lot on our plate over the last few months, its been one thing after another with the whole household being burned out and the hobby has had to take a massive back seat. I've been very slowly doing a bit of painting and a rare test game of home brew rules but I haven't had the time or energy to keep up with social media side of the hobby, keeping up with my favourite groups/forums/blogs or Blogging. While things have improved a bit of late its still not plain sailing and time to concentrate on hobby stuff is very limited.
I've been getting the odd moment to paint here and there over the past few months and I've finished the Moria Goblins and some Carthaginian veteran spearmen. A conversion of African armoured spearmen into Hellenistic Thorakitai is almost painted to completion. The Veterans are ready to post up, I haven't done any photos of the goblins yet, I was contemplating having a suitable Moria-esque background but I'll eventually get them dug out and photographed on one of my usual backdrops. I had also been preparing a post about painting Wargames Atlantic Les Grognards so another upcoming post at some point.
On the gaming side I got the Strength & Honour Supplement as well as Command and Colors: Ancients printed off with view to getting to grips with them. Strength & Honour's Reversal of Fortune system in which failures in combat and movement switches the active player provides enough friction and chaos to make a great soloable game. With Command and Colors the fog of war provided by the limited stock of card actions seems to have potential for soloing and by all accounts its a fun system. However as mentioned above I haven't had the time or the mental energy to sit down, digest and get more familiar with the texts but I'm hoping that will change in time.
In the mean time I needed something that could fit onto a page or two and provide a plausible and fun game, even my 2d6 Ancient rules were feeling too clunky and taxing for my tired mind. I once again looked at One Hour Wargames, the base rules leave much to be desired for me personally but the core mechanics and the scything simplicity provides a great base to build a more expansive game. The trick is to build up slowly and I found the first attempt while providing an entertaining game I added too much too quickly. I went back and began to strip back unnecessary rules and took the main message of the book in that does it NEED that rule and does it add anything substantial to the game?
Invariably because I'm focusing on Hellenistic era specific troop types and roles need to be added, as well as command and control to some degree. Unit stats became more of a thing within this expansion. On the One Hour Wargames Facebook group I came across a post about using to hit dice instead of a damage roll also known as the "More Chaos" modification, just what a set for mainly soloing needs so it was quickly adopted. Where I have kept movement and combat as simple as possible, and added in a simple activation system I ended up adding in rules for flight and pursuit.
I've tried to keep them simple also but its more rules to add and to follow, more complexity and I'm not sure if they're truly necessary but I feel that when a unit breaks, according to Professor Sabin, is when the casualties would significantly mount up and why they would be so lop-sided and I feel that would take up quite a bit of time. While the victors pursue and cut down the fleeing enemy they aren't turning any flanks unless they are finished chasing their foe or their commanders have enough control and awareness to stop the pursuit and break the next formation. This harks to Total War games where the pursuit and chasing down units can mean the difference between destroying an army or letting it escape to continue to be a thorn. That along with wanting to basically have a Campaign context for table top battles made me want to include such a thing in the rules. If a unit is caught and cut off it reduces army morale further and if its part of a campaign a loss of a unit. As like with most of my ideas its very untested.
Eventually I set up an impromptu battle, the aim was to see if I could have a quick, satisfying game that was easy to set up, play to a conclusion and pack up within an hour or two. I did a classic Carthage vs Rome in Iberia (Iberian Allies on both sides) Rome had better infantry with four good legions. Carthage had more and better cavalry, Elephants and two units of Veterans so skewed in their favour unless the legions get stuck in.
Carthage moved the whole army without issue, Rome advanced their skirmish line and main battleline but the cavalry were hesitant, but the worry was being driven off the field early. Unlike my previous rules or because of them the skirmish clash has been written to be quick and decisive while having a small chance to inflict hits on the main battle units.
Not long after the Punic cavalry started engaging the Roman cavalry and began to drive them off after a few turns the Roman cavalry melted away and the Punic cavalry began to organise themselves to threaten the Roman rear. Once the Punic cavalry stopped pursuing the Romans they were able to chase down fleeing Iberians running from Elephants. The Roman allied Iberians were struggling with the Elephant unit and the African infantry and Gauls never really got into it with anyone by the time the battle came to a dramatic finish.
The main lines began to clash in places the legions opposing the Iberians began to push them back, but the opposing generals lead their respective veteran units to decisive conclusion. The Roman legion had already took a hit from dealing with Carthaginian skirmishers. In this battle both the African veterans and Legions get 3 attack dice (if the Legion was at full strength it would get an extra die). Both leaders committed to the attack adding a further die but this die came with a risk of death or injury. As you can see below it was an intense fight, both units required 6s to lose strength points both generals were injured and would have missed their next phase. However after taking 3 hits the legion were sent into flight losing their general in the chaos much to the relief of the now battered African veterans!
Overall it gave that quick satisfying game I was after. It had chaos and unpredictability but not to the point of frustrating and generally playable. I think these ones are just about ready to post up with a bit of cleaning and tweaking.
