"Toughest to Replicate? Cannae..." Topic
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Editor in Chief Bill | 09 Dec 2021 6:25 p.m. PST |
You were asked – TMP link Which battle prior to 500 A.D. do you think is the hardest to historically stage on the tabletop? 25% said "Cannae" 13% said "Jericho" 9% said "Lake Trasimene" |
rustymusket | 10 Dec 2021 5:04 a.m. PST |
I would like to hear why, just for curiosity's sake. Anyone? |
Marcus Brutus | 10 Dec 2021 6:34 a.m. PST |
The overwhelming size of the Roman forces should simply overwhelm the Carthaginians. Personally I think the size of the Roman force was exaggerated. It is hard to believe, logistically speaking, that Rome could gather two proconsular armies in one location. I support that idea of one reinforced proconsular army of 50,000 men for the Roman army. That is still a huge army and Cannae was a major defeat for Rome but not the colossal disaster that later historians made it into. |
whitejamest | 10 Dec 2021 8:49 a.m. PST |
I think Cannae is a good pick for a few reasons. For one, there is an element of surprise for the Roman force, which didn't understand Hannibal's strategy there. A Roman player in a game is going to have a good idea of what is going on. But the other factor is that most games don't really represent the dynamics that doomed the Roman forces there. Which rules punish your units for being packed in like sardines, or becoming catastrophically exhausted? Easier to do that kind of granularity in a computer than on the tabletop. |
Dagwood | 14 Dec 2021 2:45 p.m. PST |
To paraphrase, "To recreate a battle like Cannae, you not only need a genius like Hannibaal on one side, but an idiot like Varro on the other side" |
pfmodel | 14 Dec 2021 9:40 p.m. PST |
I would like to hear why, just for curiosity's sake. Anyone? In any battle the loser should have an easier time, as they know what caused their loss and would not repeat it. However for Cannae this is magnified because it was a close run thing. The Romans were probably very close to breaking through, thus the standard special rules to force the loser to do what caused him to lose may not work. You still need to force the Romans to attack the centre, but you also need to ensure the romans have a chance of winning. Its very hard to do, even in a controlled environment like a boardgame. This video is my attempt at understanding the battle. youtu.be/5EnkO2phbws HistoryMarche has done a good video on Cannae. YouTube link |
pfmodel | 19 Dec 2021 11:44 p.m. PST |
I have just completed my 2nd refight of Cannae, using a figure-game version of the old PRESTAGS rules, in this case a hex-less version of the rules. The final result was historical, a long drawn out battle with the romans losing, but the way it was achieved was not exactly historical. It is a difficult battle to reproduce. youtu.be/O4zgkGeUHeA |
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