ANCIENTS VOTING RESULTS:
Voters, By Period - Rome

My most recent wargame was a solitaire replay of the Battle of the Sabis (Sambre) River in 57 B.C., played with Piquet with its Archon supplement. In this replay, the Nervii successfully ambushed Caesar's legions, who were apparently too tired after their long march to organize an effective resistance. It didn't help that Caesar's allied Gallic cavalry routed right through the 7th legion! Caesar was forced to retreat into camp with the battered remnants of his five remaining legions (the 13th and 14th never showed up), his safety (and more importantly, his honor) in serious jeopardy! A real nail-biter of an Archon battle! [12 Oct 1999]

The last round of the BHGS competition in Leeds. Due to a lot of bad luck and some poor play I was in last place going into the last round. I was using a Hindu Indian army designed to beat the kinght armies that I expected to be there. Up till this point I had not me a knight army, this tine I did and the Feudal Spanish had no chance and what little they had was not helped by a late arriving flank march. The Hindu Indiand won 10-0 with the loss of 2 and a half elements [25 Sep 1999]

DBA: EIR vs. Galacians. EIR won 4-0 with a good terrain position and poor chariot play by the Galacians. [23 Sep 1999]

Camapaign game from the Antiquity Campaign I run at the Humberside Wargames Society. I take the part of independent provinces when invaded by players. Yesterday I was Rhoxolani Sarmatians against the player controlled Sarmatians. I lost.... [19 Sep 1999]

DBM Ch'in vs Indians at 400pts, Ch'in spear centre rolled over the Indian centre of Bows and Elephants into the Indian camp whilst Chariots and cavalry of both sides skirmished indecisively. [17 Sep 1999]

Phalanx & Legion. Club rules of the Bundaberg Wargames Society. Byzantines vs Arab Conquest. 15mm. Played on a 5' x 9' table. No terrain in the centre, but hills and some woods on both flanks. The armies are divided into 4 wings each, each moving when its card is pulled (like OTR). The terrain helped the Byzantines, since they had fewer, if heavier, units initially. By mid game, the Arabs had worked themselves around the Byz. left, allowing them to get behind that flank, which quickly collapsed. The Byzantine centre was unable to crush the arab centre before it also was engulfed, and the battle over. [15 Sep 1999]

I played a game of Legion & Empire against James Manto(rules designer) that involved a force of Sassanid Persians against a Late Roman army. Since I usually play the Sassanid persians, I decided to switch and try the Roman army for a change. The Romans were unlitmately victorious as the Sassanids over exteneded themselves after a successful carge against my line, they were surrounded and hacked down! Glory for Rome! [08 Sep 1999]

Played DBM Late Roman Eastern (me) against Horse Barbarians - I got slaughtered! He used heavy cavalry to punch a hole in my battle line splitting my right flank off from the rest of my army. My knights were on my left flank and they could not really catch his light cav - largely useless. My right flank consisted of cav - he killed these first! and aux supported by psiloi (later died fast); my general was the last to die of cav, whereupon the whole command became demoralized. He sent 5 elements into my rear and they killed by baggages, by which time I had lost one third of my command. I felt quite despondent!

I could use some advice on how to play with a Roman army! [7 Sep 1999]

Aug. 20, 1999, Camillan Romans vs Early Seleucids, with 3 friends, using Might of Arms. It was a large game using units 2 stands wide. It was a classic setup with infantry in the center and cavalry on each wing. Each player took half the infantry on his side and the cavalry on one flank. The Seleucids weighted their cavalry on their right flank and swept away the opposing Roman cavalry after a few turns. The Seleucids also had two units of elephants mixed in with infantry to their right center. The Roman had terrible die rolls against them and they swept all before them--unusual for elephants. I was the Roman player on the right flank. The Roman and Seleucid cavalry on this flank neutralized each other. The infantry finally engaged in the center, but the Romans had lost too much on their left flank, so were outnumbered in the center. Most of the Romans routed, so we conceded the game. A twist for this game is that the Seluecids were stronger in Romans at the outset in points. The idea was that a Gallic flanking force would arrive and alter the balance. The Gauls appeared on the table but were too far away to get to the battle in time to help. [04 Sep 1999]

Last ancients game was a 25mm meeting between Carthago and Rome, and it was glorious. There were stampeding elephants, skirmishers doing "rude" things in the scrub, and legionaires who (led by their commander) stood in the line until the last man died of blood loss!! By the way, the rules used were Might of Arms, which I highly recommend as a very fun rule set.

Exploits of this and other battles can be seen at http://www.netcolony.com/members/odms under "After Action Reports". [03 Sep 1999]

Roman Civil war with 3 legions per side (25mm) legions being about 150 figures strong in a fairly rough terrain with key objectives set for each side to obtain by set moves. A very hard fought battle over about 6 hours one Saturday. Result I acheived my objectives but suffered very heavy casualties so really a pyrric victory in that sense. My opponents failed to hit their objectives and also suffered heavy casualties (we only had about 2% difference). Using Athena ancient rules [19 May 1999]

Might of Arms - a great game between carthagians and seleucids. The battle appeared to be a rout at one time. The game then swung back to the other side before eventually returning to the seleucids. As always, lots of fun. [17 Apr 99]

Most recently was a game of DBA. A close game, played nicely and was quick enough not to take up the whole day. [6 Apr 99]

Currently, my Late Imperial Army is fighting a pitched battle against a horde of Alammani in 15mm to play-test my own rules "Legion & Empire."

My left wing, containing the bulk of my cavalry is sweeping in on the Alammanic skirmishers. In the center the first line of Auxilia and allied feoderati are advancing on a hill.

My right wing which is rather weak (only 4 vexilationes of cav and some Lanciari) are facing all of the barbarian cav and are very worried. They'll probably get squished next weekend (sigh).

Last weekend I played a terrific "Classical Hack" game with Phil Viverito at a convention. I ran a few cohorts of Auxilia in a border outpost getting overrun by the Dacians while waiting for the Legions to come to my rescue. Ended up as some pagan sacrifice in a Dacian sacred grove, but it was fun....! [3 Apr 99]

last campaign using avalon hill's 'hannibal' with armati rules and 4-5 players. generated 6-8 games [2 Apr 99]

Two days ago. I took my 6mm travelling DBA set (everything in a small toolbox) to visit a sick wargaming friend in the hospital. I'm sure the docs must have thought we were insane. Anyway, we laid it out on two hospital patient tables side by side and had a couple of rounds of Romans (Middle Imperials, but masquerading as Eastern Later Imperials) against the Sassanids, since I haven't had much of a chance to use the little elephants. I'm afraid that I couldn't manage to lose, though, even for a sick friend. [1 Apr 99]

Hittites vs Egyptians, 15mm Tactica rules (home-brew Hittite list). I altered the existing Egyptian list to a more New Kingdom style: no cavalry, added one unit of Shardana Guard HI (24 figs, FV 5-6, +2 morale, swords). Hittites attacked on left and Egyptians withdrew slowly. The Pharaoh tried to counterattack too late on his own left, while the Hittite numbers overwhelmed the Egyptian right wing. [31 Mar 99]

We use set-up points and not historical armies, usually. 80 set-up points this time. It's larger than the 12-stand DBA variant but just about as quick. Terrain played a factor since a river of unknowable depth passed through three quadrants. Using an 8-sided die to see how many units could move/turn was appropriate for 80 set-up points, but don't think that it necessarily allows anything like an Ancients "blitzkrieg." In fact, the side that lost had difficulty in the mid-game moving more than two of his five units in any given turn. The "good guys" (i.e. me) won, killing off some heavy chariots (classified as knights) and taking the camp. Light horse on both sides did an impressive job. [31 Mar 99]

Subject:Wodenstag Ritter and Band of Brothers

Wodenstag Ritter met last Wednesday night at Jim Cocran’s new DBM center. Boy, Jim nice wargaming room, but just wait until your wife finds out that you remodeled your basement for DBM. I’ll keep silent for some more figures.

We had The ElephantSlayer Jim Cocran, Stormin Sam Salley, DeLaude Mike Barnes, Chris Cluckey as William Le’basturd, and myself play Stormin Normans vs Anglo-Saxons (Anglo-Danish list) at 400 pts. This was not Senlac hill, but nevertheless historical oppenents. Sam Salley, a friend of Mike’s, learned his name Stormin Sam by playing an excellent game. The battle terrain was largely open with a marsh on the right of the Anglo-Saxon lines, a road down the middle, a enclosed field to the left of the Normans.

Chris was the C-in-C in the center with 13 Irr-KN(F). Stormin Sam had the left flank with 6 irr-KN(F)s and the infantry (X-bow, PS, SP) with BP of 9. I had Bishop OTTO and 6 irr-KN(F)s and the Breton Ally all on the right flank. The Anglo-Saxons line covered the whole field from the left of the marsh all to the left border. The right flank of the Anglo-Saxons beyond the marsh was covered by Viking Allies mostly IRR-BD(F). Poor, Sam, was left facing Vikings and Saxon Huscarls, until Chirs covered some the blades.

The Normen plan was to charge straight with the KN, no dismounting, but if they had it would be as Irr-SP(O). The Bretons on the right were to try get around the left flank of the Saxon Fyrd. Stormin Sam charged the Vikings with his KNs, the rest of the KNs moved forward until 200P outside of the Saxon lines. The Bretons were slow in trying to turn the left, allowing the Saxons to deploy all the Fyrd across the field. Bishop (me) had lots of pips, but could not use them, due to waiting for the Bretons to get into position. Wm Lebastuar covered the center and most of the Saxon blades.

The Saxon king Harold Godswine (Jim) and Erwin (Mike) moved forward trying to close with the KNs. Sam, as the Norman subgeneral Raymond, faced the Vikings and also King Harold’s mercenary Norman KN and Huscarls mounted as Cv(I). The CV(I) and Bd(F) popped two KNs of Stormin Sam’s. On the Left the Breton ally general died to the Fyrd SP(O) just before Bishop Ottos KNs hit the Fyrd, however the Bretons rallied to stay in the battle. Bishop Otto plowed into the left Saxon Flank, but within a hour Bretons broke fled the field without slaying any of the Fyrd. Bishop Otto later became a hero and slaughtered 4 stands of Fyrd, but he died surrouned by Fyrd. At this point we had two dead generals and one demoralized command.

On our right, a cheer went up, Stomin Sam has slaying vikings and Saxon huscarls. William was slaying traitous Norman Kn and mounted Huscarls, Cv(I). Another, cheer has heard from the Normans as Willy slayed the false King Harold Godswine.

The death of the false King was too much for the Saxon center and they started to flee the field. Jim had lost a total of 8 elements and could not rally the command. Then disaster struck the Normans as the “soon to be King” William was killed by the lowly knaven Huscarls. The Normans were staring defeat and death in the face, we had only one element to go before the Norman army was defeated. The Normans need 9 elements to defeat the Saxons and we had lost three of our four generals..

A loud cheer was heard from Mike as he proclaimed his general King of England. But Stormin Sam was not done. Stormin Sam proclaimed, “ Once more my dear Friends, Once more into the beach my Band of Brothers”. He was able to destory two more Vikings units, demoralizing that command. And suddenly the battle was over with the Saxon army fleeing the Field of Honor. Sam’s general Sir Raymond was proclaimed king on the battle field and the Norman conquest of England began. Lessons learned. 1. Do not crow before all your chickens are hatched. 2. With a large C-in-C command do not lead with the C-in-C, but use him as a reserve. 3. To the victor goes the right to write the battle report. [30 Mar 99]

DBM tourney in Hattisburg, MS. Played as a alternate with Marian Romans. Two 9-1 victorys vs Teutionic and Latter Assyrians. The dice were on my side in both games as my Auxila (S) killed 5 stands of Knights (S)for the day. Unbelievable! [30 Mar 99]