Break out from the camp!

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A Hail Cæsar battle between two republican roman armies interspersed with supporting troops from different nations. Mainly allied italians, a few freed slaves and a few carthaginians. The republican roman armies represent Vilmirian and rebel forces in our civil war campaign.

In our rpg campaign, a Vilmiran army heading for the city of Hrolmar was approached by the Hrolmarian rebels. The Vilmirians built a fortress and awaited the assault of the superior rebel army. Instead of assaulting the fortress, the cunning rebels started a siege. The Vilmiran force was now under the threat of starvation and had to act quickly. Luckily for the Vilmiran force, 3000 of the rebel legionaries had to return back to Hrolmar to guard the city from attack by the victorious rebel fleet that dominated the Hrolmar bay. There was no time to loose and the Vilmiran generals decided to break out of their camp. By the cover of night they prepared, and by dawn the signal was given to storm out of the north gate. The rebels was not aware of the move and had their forces spread thin around the camp, some on alert, but others constructing the circumvallating fortifications.

The scenario allowed the trapped Vilmirans to deploy first. The rebels had to deploy half the army on one side of the fortress and the other half on the opposite side. The rebels elected to deploy their strongest divisions on the unfortified side of the enemy. Milita was deployed on the far end, easiest to defend and fast cavalry in the middle, to reach forth to crucial situations. The Vilmirans deployed en masse at one of the gates with just one division of medium infantry trying to climb out of the fortifications, the others was to use the gate. The escaping forces was to make their way to the table edge an exit. They would not loose extra casualties due to pursuit and we decided the fleeing troops was allowed to ignore the proximity rule somewhat.

To make the certain commands easier to complete we decided to have command points available to add to the command rolls. This would make some orders more predictable and was ment to illustrate the commanders pre planning. 1 point for each commander in the force and 2 for the general.

 

We consider the battle a draw and count casualties. Both armies was allows tactical withdrawals. The rebels was about to loose and could not take the loss of another division. The Vilmirans on the other hand did not have this problem. The Vilmiran player was glad to have made it out in such a good shape, as casualties was expected to be much higher. If the army had not broken out, it would have been a disaster. It would then be circumvallated and trapped, hungry and desperate for relief.

Things, as usual could have been different, but not knowing how the Vilmirians would be deployed was challenging. The divisions was then mixed with medium and heavy infantry, some of them easy to beat for legionaries. This made the divisions a little vulnerable to breaking. But, the rebels gave the escapists a hard beating against the walls and nothing was certain.

The scenario was homebrewed and worked rather well.

 

Epic Armageddon

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A battle on the agricultural planet of latifunda. Imperial Guard VS Tyranids. 

Again we try out the very nice rules for Epic Armageddon. Tyranids are spawning from the painting table and my imperial guardsmen need target practice on the planet of Latifunda.

Reports of an alien cult developing in a farming community on the frontier border, led to the massive bombardement of the village. The imperial guard was sent to clear out remnants in the ruins. They where surprised to meet a strong alien force advancing from the hilly country to the south.

Deployment in diagonal with most objectives in place.
The battlefield.
Imperial guard artillery have almost leveled the farming community to eradicate the alien cult.
Genestealers are hiding in the ruins.
The tyranids adcanve from the south.
The guard move in to secure the ruins.
Tyranids speed toward the ruins for cover.
Le Man Russ tanks capture objectives on the far side of town.
marauders bombard the advancing aliens.
Alien artillery bombard the guard transport and super tanks.
Fighters chase after lurking aliens.
The Russ take control of the fields.
Guardsmen in shock as the baneblade explodes.
Termagaunts hold the ruins.
Unhappy survining farmers file complaints to the governor for economic compensation for the loss of crops.
Guardsmen assault the aliens in the ruins.
Holding the southern city border.
The guardsmen win the assault.
A few lictors pop up in the ruins, but are shot down by the fighters.
The guard consolidate their gains.
Retreating aliens are bombarded by the marauders.
The battle is won by the guard as the aliens push desperately for an objective to no avail.

 

I love the rules. Very fun with air forces. My Tyranid opponent lacked air support witch made it into a field day and crab stick pick nick  for my airplanes. I hope he has a few flyers ready for the next battle.

Ta ta.

2mm Rome vs Carthage

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A Hail Cæsar battle

A battle we had a while ago, between arch rivals in 2mm. I try to show the potential for the 2mm scale range and hope to see some of my fellow players join in, as all the models are mine. The plan is to have some battles in our campaign in 1:1 ratio.

Roman battle plan. Superior cavalry take the flank while legionaries take center. Triarii hold flank against heavy african troops.
Carthage plan is exactly the opposite. Brake the cavalry flank and crush the center with a flank maneuver
Romans. Cavalry with gauls on the flank. Hastati and principes in center.
Triari and velites on the flank.
Carthaginian lines. Cavalry with numidians and celtiberian warbands in center.
Phalanx in center with heavy libyans and veterans on flank.
Celtiberians advance.
Romans advance.
Phalanx advance with a screen of medium spanish scutarii infantry.
Libyans advance.
Carthaginian cavalry advance but pull back to draw away the roman cavalry.
Roman cavalry led by brave gauls aim for the pass to get behind enemy lines.
Skirmish battle.
The missile troops prove quite effective in reducing units, but it does not help the celtiberians.
The large picture. Hastati has engaged the spanish scutarii…
…winning the combat. The Phalanx is sadly stuck in support of their inferior allies.
The celtiberians get stuck in on the left flank.
Meanwhile, the light troops fight it out in brushy terrain and orchards while the heavy infantry tries to maintain order.
The libyans march confidently forward and brush away any attempt by the velites to stop them. The Velites fail miserable in their orders to flank the libyans.
Its come to the Triarii to stop the libyans on the flank, but the phalanx of veterans is almost unstoppable.
The Triarii divison is broken an retires. The Libyans quickly turn back to help the center and left.
The cavalry form in line abreast.
The roman cavalry win against the Carthaginians and the backdoor to the celtiberians is open.
The phalanx and scutarii hold and push the romans back.
And the romans push the phalanx.
Soon the celtiberian front collapse and legionaries pour in against the remaining heavy infantry.
Numidians flee…
…from the superior romans and gauls.
As the battle lines collapse, the troops take their toll.
One phalanx hold fast.
But the division is broken.
The victorious roman and gallic cavalry
Hastati and Principes mop up the enemy.

 

Hope you enjoyed the images. The Carthaginians lost due to a failing flank and not being able to deploy their heavy infantry in the right places. They won the flank against the Triarii, but it was too far to the other front to make any difference.

 

The battle for Hrolmar Bay

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A Naumachiae battle report.

The rebel fleet lost the battle on the Mariol coast and fled with the Vilmirian fleet in pursuit. Being forced to keep speed, the rebels where unable to embark the heavy infantry marines that Kalvan had placed to guard his city, Kletch. Thus the rebels was without high quality marines. The rebels sailed in haste down to The Isle Of The Purple Towns to meet up with the Argimiliari reserve fleet and the transports holding a large force og some 7000 mercenaries from the south. The Vilmiran fleet then guarded the shore along Vilmir to prevent the reinforcements to land. The rebels and Argimiliarites then chose to sail into open seas to avoid the Vilmir fleet and to be able to disembark the mercenary force. The result was several days in open seas. Though crew exhausted and thirsty, the transports did manage to disembark the mercenaries, but at a high cost. The fleet had to screen the landing and thus a naval battle in unfavorable conditions commenced.

The rebel movement.
The Vilmiran movement

The Vilmir fleet portrayed by Romans and the Argimiliarites and rebels by Carthaginians.

The rebels had inexperienced marines and the crew was exhausted with few rations left after four days at sea. The ships where waterlogged as well, but they where in greater numbers and had faster triremes.

The Vilmirians had good marines and rested crews with hulls kept out of sea at night.

The battle could still be won by the rebels if they could amass their numbers and prevent speed in the Vilmiran fleet.

The fleets deployed, but due to cultural differences and conflict in the command structure, the rebels made their plan before taking a view of the enemy positions…

Vilmiran battle plan. Concentrate in mass against a flank and delaying the other flank. Deploy in depth to overwhelm.
Rebel battle plan. Deploying in echelon, like a scythe, to envelope the enemy. Alas, the rebels camoe out of position.
Deployment of rebel fleet.
Battle lines seen from Vilmirs fleet.
Vilmiran deployment in line abrest.
After a few turns of movement, the lines meet.
With poor marines the rebels would be hard pressed in boarding actions.
So, the rebels deployed their commanders in a second line behind the wedge to accommodate.
Many of the Vilmiran Triremes had reinforced bows, that made it hard to do a bow ram test.
As the lines clash on the right flank, the scythe formation with Kalvans treacherous pirates are late for the engagement.
The center receives hard fighting.
But heavy threes from Vilmir break apart the far right flank.
As the pirates turn toward the enemy flank, opening their secret orders dictated from a far distant Kalvan,…..
The poor morale start to break apart the rebel fleet.
The center and right is a mess of smashed ships.
The far right flank is torn to pieces and the Argimiliarite admiral is killed and one captured.
The triumphant Dux Bellorum Elgar Esholta takes no prisoners and very few prices. The enemy is almost completely destroyed.
Wrecks of a dramatic battle and a hard turn of events for the rebels.
The treacherous rebel pirates under Klavan loyal, Admiral Andronicus, escape without seeing combat, once again!
The bitter remnants of the Argimiliarite fleet flee south to meet up with the rebel transport fleet.

The battle was a disaster for the rebel cause. Without a functioning fleet, sorely needed reinforcements will be impossible to transport safely. The Argimiliarites will have to rebuild their fleet and put on a defensive strategy with their land forces to survive. A crucial mistake for the rebel plan was to have a definitive plan before deployment. Not willing to sacrifice the small light ships as a breaking screen was also making it hard for the Argimiliarite fleet to cope with the strong mass of Vilmirian ships. But, Kalvan kept his pirate fleet and still holds his little kingdom of Kletch, kept safe by Argimiliarite heavy marines. The fickle nature of politics i guess.

The rebels also had a very hard time with poor marines and tired crew. We will make some adjustments to the morale range effect, as it still is a bit too destructive on the game.

Next up from our rpg campaign is the land battle that takes place at the same time as the naval battle. A Vilmiran army will try to break its way through the half finished siege lines of a rebel leader outside the rebel stronghold of Hrolmar. The battle will have some similarities with one of Mithridates the Great`s breakout from a campsite in Armenia (if my memory is correct.)

The battle of the Mariol coast.

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At the same time as the battle of Mariol, on the 11 of Arkenan, the rebel fleet with their Argimiliarite backers, returned to the war zone. To avoid an attack through the unprotected harbor by Vilmirans marines, the rebels decided to attack the Vilmiran fleet led by the war master Duke Elgar Esholta.

Elgar Esholta, sailed the fleet to an apropriate spot for defence as his fleet was outnumbered. The rebels had earlier in the campaign disembarked their marines for the land campaign in Kletch and had now embarked new ones, though unexperienced. With their superior numbers the rebels, under Admiral Lupus Barka, would be able to swarm the Vilmiran fleet with smaller ships and then send in their heavy vessels. But, this was to prove otherwise.

We played the battle with Langton models. The Vilmirians are represented by the Republican Romans, and the rebels as pirates and Carthaginians.

The rebel fleet have more and faster ships with incendiary ammunition on many ships. They have inferior marines.

The Vilmrians have heavier ships with better Marines.

We have made a lot of adjustments to the Naumachiae game to make it faster, better and less mind boggling. The game has good core mechanincs but needs speed.

The battle was very satisfying for the Vilmirian player as the tactics proved to work. The rebel chief admiral Lupus Barka was taken captive and the prisoners prepared for the slave market. The rebels could have been luckier as the number of ships gave them a good advantage. They could have made multiple rams on many ships as this would be very important in winning a combat, but alas the formations did not hold and they rebels rushed into combat. Great glory and victory to the Vilmirans and Admiral Esholta.

Without a functioning fleet, the main rebel army is now locked between two major Vilmiran forces, and the rebel cities lie open for attack. A critical time for the rebellion. And in the rebel camp, disloyalty and self interest threatens the fight for freedom.

Movement took very long this time, as the ships where positioned at odd angles and far away. For the Vilmirans this was good. But for the next battle we might double the speed rates and missile values to speed up play. This means that a lot could depend on who has the turn, so alternate squad movement might be vise to include.

The assault on the walls of Mariol.

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After a month of siege and building equipment for the storming of the walls, it was time to assault the walls. The Vilmirans are again represented by the republican Romans and the rebels are represented by the Gauls and a few other ethnic groups, skythinas among them.

Genral Brakk, “The Hammer of Aine”, was preparing to lead the assault in person. Two of the rebel Dukes was present in the city, and trapped if all went well. The rebel general Serdiar, serving as regent for the boy duke Sirrus, would lead the defence of the city. At the gates of the Vilmiran siege lines, the Mercenary, Prince Barazhatutas, prepared his dismounted horse archers and diverse cavalry nobles for an assault on the siege lines.

About 14000 Vilmirans agains 12500 rebels behind thick walls.

The rules are Hail Cæsar with adjustments and house rules for the siege equipment and wall assault. I find the Dacian supplement with siege rules a little abstract, so we did some adjustments. The time and material cost for the siege equipment has its main source in Gaius Julius Cæsars siege of Avaricum, Alexanders siege of Tyre and the Successors. The Helipolis have its source from the siege of Rhodes (if i remember correctly).

The photography was less prioritized as the battle turned challenging. The Vilmirians would eventually take the center walls and beat the rebel forces. The rebels would chase the attackers from the flanks, but alas, it was not enough to stop the attackers in the center. As the rebels gathered for a last heroic push through the wall breach, to attack the Vilmiran forces in the rear, general Serdiar died as he was pushed back. This concluded the battle and the rebels had lost their city of Mariol.

The two dukes of Mariol and Khandar retreated to the inner citadel of the city with about 1000 men for a last stand. The citadel is surrounded and negotiations for surrender will be started. About 4500 prisoners can await slavery, but the population will be spared and given new husbands from Vilmirian legionaries. The generosity of Brakk will be mentioned in songs…maybe.

 

The Grain War goes into crucial face.

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Our RPG campaign moves forward with important events in the civil war. The players, after having tried a failed sabotage attempt against the siege lines around Mariol, are faced with a difficult situation. Their main army is far from the City of Mariol wich is under siege from land and sea. Kalvan, the rebel leader, has put emphasis on his own city Kletch and the surrounding district. Much to the frustration of the other rebel commanders they are unable to reach Mariol in time to launch a rescue attempt.

The rebel army also has to manouvre around Aine, wich holds a large Vilmirian force. They manage to avoid battle due to skilled commanders and cross unhindered over the river. They now hold the bridge to the protectorates.

To aid the besieged rebels of the protectorates at Mariol, Kalvan decides to detach the whole cavalry force and force march these to the siege lines. The exhuasted cavalry under Prince Barazathutas dismount and prepare for an attack against the outer siege walls of the Vilmirian army.

At the same time, the rebel fleet has returned from the south with freshly raised marines sponsored by the wealthy traders of Argimiliar. The marines are of poor quality but the fleet is numerous. The Vilmiran fleet withdraws from the harbor blockade, but disembark marines to aid the siege before they set out to confront the rebel fleet.

The rebels have a larger fleet than the Vilmirians so the Vilmirians decide to stay on the defense. The rebel fleet attacks at the same time as the assault on the Mariol city walls begin.

Two important battles that may prove crucial for the outcome of the war.

 

A Naumachiae battle

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The following battle was between Carthage and Rome. We wanted to test out further improvements to the Naumachiae game, to speed up and streamline play. I also wanted to test out how the “flanking” fleet order would play out in the game. The fleets where roughly the same size with the carthaginians having light triremes as opposed to heavy. The fleets where also designed to reflect the type of ships in our rpg campaign.

 

The rules adjustments get better as play turned out fast and with a minimum of bookkeeping.

Latifunda! Warhammer 40k 2ed / Rogue Trader inspired battles.

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Welcome to the Latifunda system.

This is a place for grand andventure and great opportunity as well as Epic battles. I made a background for our 40k 2ed and Epic Armageddon battles. The planetsystem is designed to accomodate any situation and scenario that we want to play. The main planet is inspired by the Logans World setting from rogue trader. The southern hemisphere provides a logical setting for 28mm skirmish battles with raids and a flavour of rpg. Warhammer 40k 2ed, Necromunda and Gorkamorka will be used to create small scale conflicts as the rules describe many detailed situations and scenarios. They have the same basic structure, wich is an advantage as there are a lot of systems to remember. We might try to play a few scenarios with Tomorrows War if we bother to structure the forces witht this system. The drawback with TW is that there is no effective way of creating the forces with a point system guideline, so you spend a lot of time with paperwork. This is something the designers have ignored and has led to us not using the system as much as we would have liked to. The planet images below is not of my own creation, exept a photoshop collage of the Latifunda planet. I picked them up form a forum that i dont remember the name of at present.

Since it must be about 18 years since we last played 40k 2ed we wanted to have a test run. We palyed two battles. The first was supposed to be a scenario with a vanguard of imperials protecting a village from orks, but as we spent some time with points, the idea was scrapped and a rather unbalanced setup came to be. We quit after a few turns and started a new one. The second scenario was a pitched battle, but the competitive nature of my opponent led him into placing all his squats in one corner. It was a late evening and we had some discussions regarding the line of sight and cover rules. We had opposing views regarding “true line of sight” and “abstract line of sight” wich led to the game bogging down. We agreed to have this cleared out for our next game, as its such a waste of time discussing such problems. A laser pointer, good will and a combiantion of the two principles will be the salvation of 40k 2 ed for us. Tomorrows War solves this problem with line of sight in an exellent way, but using the rules might loose some of the 40k flavour. Anyways, birth problems aside, we enjoyed finally having our models on the table.

 

We wil be back with more 40k 2 ed in the future. Hopefully with a more smooth game and interesting scenarios with objectives and story.

2mm ancients progress

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I have collected some 2mm miniatures from Irregular miniatures recently. They look better than one would think taking in account what is generally represented through the pics you would find on the web. I have based them to be used with Hails Cæsar and tried to follow what historical documentation there is with the setup and structure of the soldiers.

The legionaries follow the Polybian structure. I chose to place the frontline Hastati in a battle line, as i guess this is the way they would fight when done with manouvering about with their handy maniples. They are two maniples to a base with 80 man in each maniple.

The gauls or celtiberians are about 150 – 160 man to a base.

Hoplites are placed in 6 ranks, as this is a little more economic than the 8 ranks, and is more proportional to the other units. 240 men to a base.

The macedonian phalanx is 300 men to a base. I wanted them to be 16 deep as this was probably the standard used in ancient times. 10 blocks of pike make up one base.

Heavy infantry/light infantry is otherwise placed in 4 ranks deepth. H inf 160 men. Light inf 100.

Skirmishers are about 30-40 men.

Cavalry is between 30-50

Light cav is 15-30

I placed some selvat dust clouds behind some of the troops to make some effects. I really love the way you can pley around with formation movement and individual models as well as blocks. I will make some “in fight” bases in the future. I also used some skirmish troops as casualty markers in the same fashion as we do for our 6mm figuers.

The models accompany my langton ships quite well and the lan is to have enough soldiers to field some battles historical or fictional in 1:1 ratio without problems. As Hails Cæsar is a very versatile system, all i have to do to get a faster game is to double the base width. I hope more people start using this scale to represent model battles, because you can really do great and epic things with them. Apart from Irregular miniatures, Langton makes superb ships and buildings. Brigade models makes a great assortement of buildings. To my eye 1:900 and 1:1200 goes well with eachother.

Right now there are about 10 000 2mm soldiers. 4000 of these are in a Polybian legion.