"Trasimene demo game - thoughts and suggestions please" Topic

All being well, The Ilkley Lads will be doing Trasimene at Sheffield Triples this May. I've just done a very rough mock up of the layout – any suggestions would be appreciated.

Please, remember that this is a mock up, so comments about pink hills and paper footprints…………….blah, blah, blah.

link

Thanks,

James

People have suggested to me that I do this, the problem is getting people to play the Romans – example, who wants to play Custer at the Little Big Horn.

Looks good, do you plan on using mist in the battle? or should i say something representing the mist?

Im hoping to do a game in 10mm, whilst everyone knows the Romans are going to get ambushed, im trying to think on the mist being a minus combat bonus for the Romans.

Either way, look forward to seeing this in May

Hi sector 51, I think, like most lop sided histoical battles it depends how you set the victory conditions.

In this particular case, unless the Carthaginians roll very bad dice ALL day and the the Romans roll very good dice ALL day, the Carthaginians are sure of winning the battle – but they might lose the 'game'. The Romans may do better than they did historcally, lose the battle but draw the 'game', or much better and lose the battle but win the 'game'. It's only a matter of giving the Roman players something to play for other than a 'battlefield victory' – honour in defeat, you might say. In this case, it could be how many units the Romans can escape with?

I once played a series of historical AWS and 7YW battles, with some very lop sided affairs. Points were awarded Ryder Cup (golf) fashion. You had to do better than history to win the hole, anything else and you halved it. It meant that players were not restricted to one side during the series, and there were more people who wanted to take the part of the historical loser than the historical winner; because it's harder to do better than the winner did (in most cases) and easier to do better than the loser did. At the end of the series each player totted up his points. Great fun, and very hard fought.

Its a demo game, so it doesn't really matter if it is 'unbalanced'.

Looking forward to seeing it, the Ilkley Lads always put on a good show.

Looks pretty good. You seem to ahve the elements in palce.

Issues such as "mist" are taken care of through various command and/or activationr estrictions.

Issues such as "mist" are taken care of through various command and/or activation restrictions.

Agreed. I'll be using a variation of Command & Colors, so it'll be easy enough. I'm thinking of lessoning Roman activation on 'activate' cards by rolling 1 die per activation pip – activate on symbols only (like a 'rally' card) – for the confusion, until the mist lifts. The same will not apply to the Carthaginians – they'll be lovin' it.

Of course, I'll be using my own 'C&C' movement by command system to speed things up – it's on my blog somewhere, and in a back issue of Slingshot from last year (can't remember the issue #).

I do not see one sided as being an issue at all. I have seen Little Big Horn run about 30 times and it is always a good game. The tournament oriented gamer might not like it but it is great fun. I helped do Trasimene few years ago and the key for the Romans was a break out of the advance group and getting units in column into battle line and fighting for survival, much fun all around. Good luck, figures look fantastic and I am sure you will have a great game. Be sure to post more images as it progresses.
VR
James Mattes

Olicana,

While I do think there is a strong argument for the Trebia remnants to be at Trasimene (we had this conversation before!) but I think the addition of these troops will go a long way to making the scenario more playable giving the Romans at least a small chance.

John

As has been mentioned, in wargames nothing is one-sided, the luck of the dice and the enthusiasm of the players means every games a good one.

An the IIkley Lads always have great games.

We did Trasimene at Stockton some time ago. The Carthaginians were placed 'in ambush' on the hills and bottlenecks, but were concealed from view by a thin white gauze sheet, to represent the mist. This was rolled back gradually, (away from the lake shore), to reveal the Carthaginians, who then came into play, and slaughter ensued.

We did Trasimene at Stockton some time ago.

Indeed I came across the pictures I took, a couple of days ago. I must post them on the net.

As far as the game goes, the Romans were surprised in column of march with a lake on one side (anyone who flees into that, drowns). Now in real life the Romans were massacred; half of them killed, a third escaped and the rest captured.

Not much for the Romans to do other than stand and fight. So if the Romans do better than historically, is it down to the rules used or good dice rolls? In fact do the Romans need to be played at all or just have automatic rules for their behaviour?