Wednesday 18 November 2009

A Wargame in progress

A few readers have expressed an interest in seeing how a wargame works, so here is one that I fought out over the last couple of evenings. I was testing out a newish set of rules so I played it solo, trying to hand each army in the most sensible way to create an interesting battle rather than trying to win.

Here goes.

The Romans are invading Dacia, more or less modern Romania.

The Dacian Horde.



The Roman Legions.



The Roman right flank.



The Emporer. James might recognise him...




The armies advance...






Roman skirmishers seize a hill before the Dacians can get to the top. The carnage begins - the red dice indicates damage to the unit.





The main forces on the hill clash.




"Unleash Hell!" Sorry, I had to say that!




Another view of the Roman centre as the cataphracts (guys with armoured horses) charge home.





Carnage - some units are destroyed on impact, others fall back away from their enemies





The Roman cavalry learn that it is a bad idea to charge guys who are armed with Rhomphia - the legendary "battle scythe"!



The Roman right collapses under the assault.






The cataphracts press the attack in the centre.






Things are getting very messy in the hills too, with both sides taking serious losses.





The Elite Roman Praetorian Guard arrives to save the right flank.





A close up of the battle on the hill - the Roman line is thinning dangerously...




The last unit of Romans hangs grimly on to the summit of the hill!




The cataphract attack batters itself to pieces on the Legions.



At last, the Dacians have had enough, and flee back into the forests. Rome is triumphs!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Rome had the ultimate army of its time. And conquered a lot of lands at its prime. (Yes yes yes, we learn a lot from Russel Crowe's Gladiator, ha ha).

The greatest army in the East belonged to the 1st Emperor of China (yep, the one which was depicted with thousands of clay statues, buried together in his tomb). They were most skilled with projectile weapons, mostly arrows that can go further than most. So they didn't need horses when they just can shoot armour piercing arrows from a distance.

I like it that way. The army would be intact, and the enemy just die a long way away. :)

p.s. - this Chinese army can make the so-called sophisticated Japanese samurais look like children playing with bamboo sticks. I just adore bloody history. :)

wigsf said...

Judging by the name "Romania," I think it's pretty obvious Rome was gonna win this one.

Unknown said...

.... by the way, this is the 1st time I've seen this Wargame thing. Nice set up. Does it cost you a lot to have these prepared?

Rock Chef said...

Shadowthorne - Don't forget that these guys used chariots - big slow ones, admittedly...

wigsf - Yes, Rome won, but only after several long and nasty wars.

Shadowthorne again - The figures vary in size and price - these armies were quite expensive by my standards, probably around £200. The terrain is cheap and nasty - the green cloth is an army surplus blanket, a few cheap trees, home made hills and roads make from model railway track underlay. I have made some really pretty layouts in the past but currently lack anywhere to store them, so I have to go with functional these days.

James said...

Lokks like a good game could have gone either way...Dacia was always a hard nut for Rome. Is that your Arcane warfare rules?

I still remember our great Vis Bellica game Rock Chef of Rome against the Belgae. Caesar hiding behind a hedge. I should come down to you and we should have a game soon.

Shadowthorne are you in Singapore? The Napnuts are there they are a group of wargamers.

Rock Chef said...

James - no, these are Ancients D6, a nice fun set where instead of having plus for this or minus for that you just get to roll more or less dice instead. eg Skirmishers roll 2 dice, while charging veteran legionaires with rear support roll 7 dice. Simple but effective. I think we should meet for a game some time. Will have to look at the options!

terri said...

Quite a nice set up, but... where's the shopping mall?

Rock Chef said...

Terri - Yes, the scenary is functional rather than beautiful. The mall? That shows up in our Zombie games...

Kiki said...

WOW!!! That is amazing...I had no idea that the gaming was so involved, really neat!!! I'm completely impressed!

James said...

Hi John.

I just put a mega burst of 6 posts on my blog. I hope you will come over to comment.

Claire said...

Thank you for posting this - now I can see what you have really been talking about - plus I didn't know about the dice - do all of the gamers use the same rules - like - is there a book of instructions? I am looking forward to seeing some of your Civil War figures!