The Road to Bedlam

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   On Military Matters Bookstore.  Owner Operator Dennis Shorthouse
Event:    Practice for the upcoming event, "Bedlam"
Players: Phil Gardocki running Hellenistic Greek (Acheon League)
                  Dennis Shorthouse, Carthaginian (North Africa)
                 
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Theme: Open, Roman Classical


The Forces:

The Achaean League, Commanders Critolaus (competent), Diaeus (competent and a real name!) and Diaeus (also competent and a real name).
 

     10 Pike, 4 Mediocre

       4 Hoplites, Heavy Infantry, Spear

       4 Light Infantry Bow
       2 Horsemen, Heavy Cavalry, impact
       4 Light Cavalry, Javelin

       Break point 24

    
Carthaginian.  Hannibal (strategist), 2 others, one brilliant.
     3 Elephant Mediocre
     6 or so Medium Swordsmen, some impetuous, some impact
     1 Heavy Spearmen, Elite, Armored
     6 Light Infantry Javelin
     3 Light Infantry, Sling, Elite
     5 Light Cavalry, Javelin, 1 Elite
     2 Medium Cavalry
Break point around 26

Dennis has a wonderful bookstore in Hopewell New Jersey, that he has been running for many decades.  Imagine going through a library that is nothing but military history.  If you don't think you knew him, he is a long time supporter of Historical Miniatures Gaming Society, and held the coveted #1 spot in the dealers area for over 20 years.  So if you have been to any of HMGS's events at the Lancaster Host, you probably have met Dennis at some time.

The Scenario:
Practice session for the upcoming team major event, Bedlam!


The Board:
The Carthaginians, with an initiative of 4, lost the initiative roll to the Greeks, and will defend in the plains.

Libya, 200BC, Thursday.

The Carthaginian far right is 3 Light Cavalry.

Hannibal holds the center, with his two other commanders on the left.

The Elephant battle groups clearly will be dominating the fields.

Diaeus and his Freed Slaves are on the left.  My though here was I would be facing cavalry and I would run them off the board.

Critolaus takes just left of center.

While Diaeus's Cavalry is expected to delay on the right.

Turn 1:
A note here.  Turns 1-3 are just the painful slough across the field.   Some maneuvering, and desultory shooting.  Frankly the text to describe the action is boring.  If you scroll down to turn 4 and pick up the game there I won't tell, frankly I wouldn't even know. ;)

Well, it's a bad plan, but pike are not very flexible, so we are going to follow it.

The Pikemen advance.

Diaeus can read the writing on this wall and throws his lights forward to delay, but marches is Heavies away.

The Carthaginian Light Horse bravely races across the field.

Carthaginian missile troops show their quality.  Hannibal's elephant battle group, surprisingly does not dive into the field, but boldly confronts the Greek Phalanx.

The Greek Light Horse is outnumbered, outgunned, abandoned and alone.

Also out maneuvered

Turn 2:

The train wreck continues.

The Light Horse is out of charge reach, so the Phalanx marches as fast as it can.

Shifting left to close the gap on the edge of the board, and increase the distance from the field.

Diaeus orders his Light Horse back.

The Carthaginian Lights follow suit.

Hannibal holds steady, but is sub general enters the field.

His other sub keeps on the pressure.

Turn 3:

A general advance.

On the right, the Pikemen pulls in a Taxis.

The Greek Cavalry have almost reformed up.  So you could say they have been successful in their mission.

The Numidian horsemen attempt to exploit an opportunity.

The Carthaginian slingers have been charged away.

Elephant groups continue to advance.  The rain of stones and javelins continue to disorder the Greek formations.

Turn 4:

So far the game has been just marching and shooting.  Though as see above, the Carthaginian shots have been pretty good.  On the other hand, he has 14 lights, and that is a lot of shots a turn, so this may just be average die rolls. 

The question has been asked, so lets answer it.

On a single shot, 1 light shooter at -1 vs average target at +1.  Assuming no support, no elite, the odds are 16.6% of scoring a hit.  Dennis has 14 shooters.  Assume only half get a shot on any given phase, then over turns 2 and 3 he is going to score 4 hits.  He has scored 5 on the board, which is only marginally above average, but I think he managed more shots than half, and some of his shooters were elite.  But the elite odds of scoring is only 19%. 

Spoiler alert:  In the end, I am sure that at least 6 points of my final demoralization level was directly attributable to shooting from lights.  Which Dennis paid about 72 points for.  This does not count the fact that he totally shut down my own lights, killing 4 and sacking the camp for another 12.  So you can say Dennis won on the strength of his lights, and his skill at running them.

The Freed Slaves continue to advance and shift.

Hannibal goes for a redeploy as well.

Diaeus's cavalry decide that this is a good turn to die.  They charge, and Win!  To the right, Carthaginian Cavalry prove they too can bleed.

On the far right Diaeus takes a chance and charge the lights in the field.  The odds are straight up, but if he wins, he can kill one, disorder another.  But, alas his luck was used up with his shooting and Heavy Cavalry charge.

Diaeus's Pike charge, and the Carthaginian light horse run the distance.

It looks like Hannibal's elephants have gotten away as well.

Elephants conform on Greek Cavalry, with predictable results.  Carthaginian Cavalry charge Greek lights, which successfully hold the line.

Turn 6:
Somewhere the marker for turn 5 was lost.  This might explain why units performed more than one action on turn 4 :)

The Freed Slaves continue to advance, they hope to run the lights off the board.

Critolaus completes a difficult maneuver, 2 Taxis face the field elephant battle group.

Just in time, as the Greek right is about collapsed.

The score is 15 to 4

However, the fight is not over yet.  Greek Hoplites continue to fight.

Hope fades for running this group of horse off the board though.

And for engaging Hannibal on even terms.

On the right, one Hoplite is left standing.  Carthaginian Light Horse are racing for the Greek Camp.

The score is now 17 to 4

Turn 6:

The Freed Slaves continue forward, because, frankly, they have nothing else to do.

There is a fight at the fields edge.  If they win, the pike will have a flank charge on the Gauls.

If the Hoplites hold, that flank charge could be critical.

Then again, probably not...

The last hope for catching the lights fades as they squirt out.

Hannibal reforms his lines.

The Hoplites were not able to hold their lines.  And probably just as well. 

Turn 8:

As the light horse leaves a successful parting shot. 

A pike unit charges an elephant, but is repulsed.

While off board, the Carthaginians capture the camp.  Bringing the score to 24 to 4, a decisive win.

What went wrong?  This is what you call losing the battle on deployment.Clearly I did not read the board.  Where were the elephants going to be?  In the field, not in that swath of clear in front of my pike.  The Freed slaves on the left?  A total waste of points.  They were given a mission they had no hope to complete.  On the right, the cavalry command, the same.  Both missions were an utter failure.

So one lesson is clear.  If you are running a pike army, you have to be really clear on the battle-plan.  Because of the costs of turning being 2 command points, and no move, the Phalanx is not adaptable to sudden changes.  One way I do adapt to this is by running a pair of Hoplites with the Phalanxes.  That gives me a lot to adapt to being flanked.  And they bought time, but it was time  pike were not able to use.