Short CLASH of Spears AAR:
Dionysus tyrant of Syracuse has been pressuring the other greek cities in Magna Grecia to align with him but the city of Rhegion refuses as they believe the tyrant to be betraying their democratic values.
When the gallic tribes descend and sack Rome Dionysus sends envoys to encourage some of the gauls to continue on to Rhegion in an ultimate betrayal against the greek league.
The barbarian hordes are close now and the armies prepare for battle, and here we see to small patrols encountering each other while scavenging for their respective armies.
600 pts
Gauls:
Lvl4 mounted on light chariot
2 lvl2 characters
8 archers
2 units of 7 warriors each
1 unit of 6 armored nobles
1 unit of 6 gaesatae
Greeks
1 lvl4, 1 lvl3, 1lvl 2 characters
2 units of 6 peltasts
1 unit of 8 citizen hoplites
1 unit of 6 armored veteran mercenary hoplites
1 unit of 6 slingers
1 unit of 6 recruited local tribsemen
Scavenging scenario.
I forgot to take picture during the engagement phase so we jump straight to the action.
I'll add some comments on the picture but mainly the gauls tried to push on the right, a timely intervention of the hoplites in the center prevented them from breaking through.
On the gallic left the greeks outmaneuvered the gallic warriors and routed them from the field of battle … in the end with the right side contested but the left flank open the gauls could not do much to prevent the greeks from taking one of the herds away and that combined with heavy casualties resulted in the gauls ( ME ) being defeated by turn 4 after less than 2 hs of game play…
My Chieftain jumped from his chariot towards the end to try to push back some hoplites that were exterminating my archers, but it was a desperate attempt that did not accomplish much, though it looked cool..
fun quick game…
#clashofspears
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this is after the engagement phase… I pushed one of my warrior units further forward at the expense of starting the battle with one fatigue point but I though it would be important to command the center of the field..
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here I push my Gaesatae to the right to put pressure on the right flank..
The greeks seeing this reacted and pushed forward the mercenary hoplites and this immediately forced me to alter my plan..
I think this critical move eventually took the greeks to victory..
It was a risky move because those mercenaries have heavy armor and so they would get tired quickly.. something the greek player mitigated by taking successive defensive actions..
it was a master move…
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On the greek right flank the gallic warriors are trying to hold but it is not easy.. by closing ranks they overlap their shields to protect the selves against javelins and sling bullets but the greeks will soon outflank them ..
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pinned to the front by hoplites the gallic warriors are now flanked by allied hills tribsemen in greek service… they are charged from the flank which forces them to break their close order and eventually loose the melee as you'll see on the next picture
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after the gallic warriors are routed the greeks can concentrate on the gallic nobles.. the greek player decides that it will take too long to maneuver in close order.. time that will allow the gauls to recover fatigue.. so the hoplites break into open order and charge..
CLASH is a skirmish games so all troops can go into open order if needed… they just cannot take advantage of some of their martial traits… but.. fresh troops are always good against tired troops !
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the gaesatae try to push a herd towards the gallic side, but it is too little too late
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the hoplites are now killing the archers, who are not very proficient in melee…
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the gallic chieftain rushes forward and jumps from his chariot to help the archers..
he manages to delay the hoplites a bit and saves the last four archers, but at the end of the turn the gauls fail their force break test..
in the words of private Hudson… game over man…
CLASH of Spears is an upcoming set of rules for raids and small actions in ancient times… link
paints some fast cats.
