Normandy, 44 BC

A Headless Body Production

Location: The Factory Floor of Place2Play.toys
Event: Just Visiting
Players: Phil Gardocki playing the Early German
Jeff Billings playing the Ancient Spanish

Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, about 200 points per side.

The Narrative:

Jeff and I go way back. He introduced me to ancient miniatures in the mid 80's with WRG Rev 6. One of his many projects is the online game store, a Place2Play.toys. They produce geomorphic tile sets for battle field building. Land, Sea and Space. The current crop is mostly 60mm hexes, but they are now also producing 180mm pieces to help fill in the big fields. We laid out a battle field for our L'Art de la Guerre game.

The most gorgeous board I have ever played on.

The Forces:
Early German, List 90
Larryious (Strategist), Darrylinius and Darrylinius both Ordinary
12 Tribesmen, Heavy Swordsmen, Impetuous, Elite
6 Horsemen, Medium Cavalry, Elite
4 Light Infantry Javelin
Breakpoint of 22

Ancient Spanish, List 89
Sertorius (Strategist), and two Competent commanders
14 Scutarii, Medium swordsmen impetuous
4 Scutarii, Medium swordsmen Impact
8 Caetrati, Light infantry, Javelin
6 Light Cavalry Javelin
Breakpoint 32

Scenario: The Sugambri tribe of Germans have taken advantage of the demise of Gaul at the hands of Caesar and have invaded Celtica in force. The Lusitanian Spanish also is expanding to fill the void left behind, and on a quiet coastline in Neustria, they meet.

The Board:

For this game we are modifying the rules a bit. Each hex is a UD. A unit is assumed to fill it's hex, so adjacent hexes are considered support.

Deployment:

The impetuous Spanish form up near an inlet

The center command is an interesting combination of Light Horse and Regular Impact Foot

The Spanish left is more impetuous foot.

The more densely populated Germans deploy on the left and center. They have a bit of terrain to work through.

Larryious takes the center command.

Darrylinius takes the right, but hidden behind a village.

The view from the edge.

More notes on the board. Despite being larger than the normal LADG board, there are only 25 hexes, so technically, it is smaller proportionally. In the end, this works to the advantage of the smaller army.

Also, this is not a normal terrain layout for LADG. Difficults and more roughs than normal. But this fight was more about showcasing the terrain tiles and proving the efficacy of hex movement.

Turn 1:

Darrylinius's Germans surge forward

Larryious matches his brother

Their other brother Darrylinius trots around the village.

Vercingetorix's view

The Spanish similarly surge.

The regular Scutarii occupy the field

On the left, the Scutarii extend their lines and advance. Two of their light horse taunt the German cavalry.

Tha am bàs air a thilgeadh!

One thing I liked about the hex system is no need for measuring sticks.

Turn 2:
 

The Germans continue to advance, sliding right to avoid the inlet.

Larryious advances on the field, dominating the center of the board

Darrylinius horse forms two blocks, and extends both of them.

With a savageness not seen again until the Hibernian vs Glasgow game of 06, the Scutarii charge. But are rebuffed down the line

The Scutarii in the center charge. Their training serves them better than their impetuous peers, winning half their contacts

On the left, the Scutarii advance, hugging the brush on the edge

Turn 3:

The initial impact went poorly for the Scutarii, even in the difficult areas, and the situation did not improve.

The center Scutarii are beginning to be overwhelmed by numbers

5 of the German horse charge, with mixed results

The Spanish center is bolstered with reinforcements on both sides.

A Scutarii is destroyed on the edge. 1-6 die rolls can do that.

The dice are not rolling well for the Spanish. 1's dominate their rolls

Turn 4:

The right command of Scutarii is reduced to two effectives

The Germans ignore the terrain mods and enter the fields.

One German horse is dispersed.

The Spanish still hold the inlet

Since neither side has a ZOC in the field, the Spanish lights sneak around the tribesmen, to provide support to their beleaguered Scutarii.

Another horsemen is destroyed, the remainder are surrounded.

The score is 16, out of 22 for the Germans (there are a lot of disordered units on the table)

To 24 out of 32 for the Spanish.

Turn 5:

A German Tribesmen is destroyed in the marsh

The field is taken, but now what?

Darrylinius orders a general "flee" of his horse

 

But there were many smaller battles in the mix hitting final resolution, and the count was not favorable to the Spanish as they rapidly hit their break point of 32 to the Germans 18

So what went wrong? Two things. Jeff's dice, despite using a dice tower, refused to perform. 1's dominating. I took it away from him to prevent it's evil from spreading.

But the Spanish were playing short. They should have ad 18 Scutarii, but the pictures showed only 16. With two more, they could have had two more overlaps, for 2 wins and a probable 3rd. That would have taken the Germans to 21-24 range for a loss.

Also, as I mentioned, the board was only 25 UD's wide, which was in the Germans favor.