Woolgathering with the Warring States

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Eisenhower Hotel (Ok, on the property.  But you can see the hotel, step out the back door, stand on one leg, squint...)
Event: Cold Wars, 2025
Theme: Classic Age, 6 mounted units maximum, Round 3
Players: Phil Gardocki, running German, 100BC
              Carl Stefanelli, running Warring States, Chinese
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.
Font: Georgian, not Paul...

The Forces
The Germans, list 91, are commanded by Asterix, the Competent, Obilix, the Competent, and Bastardix, the Ordinary, and somewhat Unreliable.
12 Chatti, "Brave", Warriors, Heavy Swordsmen, Impetuous, 4 are Elite
4 Cherusci, Medium Swordsmen, Impetuous
6 Light Infantry with sharp, pointy sticks
4 Horsemen, Medium Cavalry, 2 are Elite
2 Tencteri Light Cavalry, Javelin
Breakpoint...28

This list is best guess on the Warring states.  Probably a Brilliant and 2 Competent commanders.
3 Heavy Chariots, Impact, Elite
5 Heavy Swordsmen, Support, Impact, Elite
6 Medium Swordsmen, Support
5 Light Infantry, Various
1 Bowmen
3 Light Horse, Various
Breakpoint of 23

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "哎哟!", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen. I tend not to point out the Lights, as they clutter the pictures for no real value.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Any vagueness or inaccuracies in the descriptions is to be considered is to be considered Fog of War, and is to be considered as part of the fun.

The Venue:

Having not hosted HMGS for a while, the hotel was moderately unprepared for us.  I'm sure the litany of complaints are on the boards somewhere else.  So I won't go there.

The bathrooms in the off board area, the "Allstar Expo Complex", were not up to the volume of people there.  But they are going to be totally renovated and expanded.  Starting the Monday after we left.

The buffet breakfast area was lackluster, but clean.  It did have constant 2 or 3 attendants during breakfast.

The dinner offerings in town were outstanding.  I had dinner at the Appalachian Brewing Company which has the best root beer I have ever had.  And at the Irish Pub, the best meat loaf in many a decade.

The Board:

The Chinese win the initiative and elect to receive the Germans in the plains.

The main reason to play Germans over Gauls is they only defend in the woods.  Which most players would avoid if possible.

The Chinese deploy their Heavy Chariots on the their right.

Their two large corps of foot take the center and left.

Asterix takes the center.

Obilix takes the right.

Bastardix's command is unseen.  But there are multiple ambush markers in the plantation to the left.

Turn 1:

Ah!!!, there he is...

With Bastardix's reliability assured, the rest of the Germans advance

Tac tip.  Always roll your unseen and/or unreliable commands first.

Obilix diverts his Chatti to the field where curious noises are heard.

Lets deal with the inaccuracy of the German list.  I did not realize that mixing the different tribes, Chatti, Cherusi, Tencteri would each require an allied General.  And I cannot mix Chatti and Cherusi in the same command.  I didn't even realize that the Tencteri was even a tribe.  I thought it was just the name of the troop type.

My bad.  I never read the explanation that was on the other side of the fold in the book!

The Chinese chariots swerve towards the German Cavalry.

Their main bodies of foot advance just a couple of steps

*loosely translated as "Fuck this for a game of soldiers!"

Bastardix bravely moves forward, running off the Chinese lights.

The rest of the German tribes advance.

Obilix advances his lights into the field, revealing the last Chinese ambush.  Which also has the effect of reducing the Chinese light horse to one move.

The view from the Chinese side.

Taking a walk down the other tables.  Best guess is this is Dan Hazelwood's Seleucid vs Al Kaplan's Gallic.

Best guess here is Tom Hazlett's Thracians vs Jay Stone's Warring States.

Guessing Jeff Wiltrout's Carthaginians vs Steve Ropers Libyans.

I don't know who this is.  My first question was where is the rest of the army?  Then I zoomed in and realized they are already in contact. 

 But two of the terrain pieces are mine, so they were borrowed.

Nicolas Begue's Selecid vs Jim Bisiganani's Ancient Spanish

Richard Woolford's Carthaginians vs Dennis Shorthouse's Oman and Gulf States.

And back to the game.  It is the bottom of the second.

The Chinese chariots boldly charge!

But their main body of swordsmen still hold their ground.

Sending their mediums forward to clear the fields.

 

We are both playing the flank game before committing the center.  On my left,  I am hoping to defeat the chariots with numbers.  On his left, he is using his superior number of mediums to clear the fields and turn my center.

Turn 3:

Tencteri get in the face of the chariots hoping for a lucky shot.

The same with Asterix's small boys

The Germans don't have a lot of missile power, but the Chinese have nothing to answer the skirmishers with.

Chinese chariots hold their ground. 

Again, so too their main line of battle

But their medium sword continue to push through the chaff.

Turn 4:

German medium horse run of the Chinese skirmishers.  The Tencteri continue to harass the chariots.

A lucky shot by German light foot.

The Cherusci charge, supported by two units of light foot.  Fortune, however, favored the Chinese in 3 of battles.

Chinese shooters finally come on line

A quick rally negates the missile hit.

Ignore the movement lines.  That was from the previous turn.

Turn 5:

Bastardix pushes his medium horse forward.  Asterix orders his foot to advance to support.

Nothing new in the center, moving along...

The battle in the field continues.

One troop of horse down.

The Chinese bring up fresh troops in the field battle.  Their only light is routed.

Turn 6:

Charges on the left, but the chariots continue to win the day

Nothing new in the center...

The one Chinese foot hanging out of the field prompts a massive charge by Obilix.  His heavies fail on contact, but the Cherusci win through!

One chariot is disordered, but the others continue to attack

You don't see this every day.  Heavy foot running down lights.

 The six points is a killer here.

The field fight turns in the Germans favor

The German score is 17 of 28

To just 8 for the Chinese

A Chinese foot bow is down, and a disordered chariot's flank is exposed

Asterix's battle line advances.  Obilix's battle line charges uncontrolled.

Obilix's forces clear the field and have already turned the flank of the Chinese line.

The Germans are at 19 of 28

The Chinese are at 12 of 23

The left flank battle continues to rage.

Again the Chinese line holds

Their left just adjusts a scoch

Off panel, below, the German camp is sacked.

Taking the score for the Germans to 25. 

 

 Turn 7

At this point I surrendered.  Carl only needed 3 points to win.  And Asterix was going to charge 6 units into the missile supported swordsmen.  The Germans were going to pick up some points, a destroyed chariot for one, but the Chinese had the flank of one unit as well, may be a kill.  And was likely to kill a medium sword as well.  If I was extremely lucky, I could score 8 more points.  Which is enough to get to 20.