Historican't Con: BBDBA Battle of Carrhae 53 BC

Some local guys decided to have a game day since we couldn't make the trip to Historicon this year. Bill Hupp organized our game day at his Liberty Hobby Center in Wheaton, IL on Saturday July 18. Games included a "what if" Plains of Abraham SYW Battle (Black Powder), a 28mm WW2 Bocage Battle (modifed Brother vs Brother with the author), and a 15mm Bug Hunt SF game. The game I ran was Carrhae 53 BC, a BBDBA game in 28mm.

Marcus Licinius Crassus (victor over Spartacus), one of the triumvirate (along with Caesar & Pompeii), invaded Parthia and encountered a Parthian Army under Surena on a hot, desolate, featureless plain, far from any water. Unknowingly, Crassus was being advised by Ariamnes, an Osroene cheiftain in Parthian employ. Crassus formed his army into a hollow square to face the Parthians. The Parthians approached from the East, but enveloped the Romans from all sides. The Romans were defeated decisively, even though they outnumbered the Parthians 50,000 to 10,000. A full account of the battle can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae

For our game, we decided to use two 36 element armies (even though the Romans outnumbered the Parthians historically) on a 6'-7' x 4'-5' playing surface without any terrain features. The Romans would set up per DBA 3.0, and their camp would be a mobile one, able to move 2 BW. The Parthians would enter the board from any of the 3 sides opposite and right & left of the Romans, with the Parthians able to move all their troops onto the table on turn 1. The Parthians would start rolling for pips on turn 2.

Above is the Roman Army of Crassus in 3 commands. The  3 Roman commands each have Gallic cavalry and auxilia as support troops.

Above is the Parthian Army. Each command has 3 x 4Kn (based as 3Kn) and 9 x LH. The far left command has an element of cataphract camels as 4Kn (we used them because they are just too cool not to use).

Another view of the Parthian Army. All figures are 28mm Old Glory.

Above is the Roman deployment. Instead of a hollow square as Crassus used, the Romans formed sort of a "flying wedge." The rear table edge was the Roman's friend in this game.

Above shows the Parthian deployment/entry onto the table, a more conservative approach. The Parthian players were all new to DBA.

The Parthians engage the center of the Roman line with their light horse. The cataphracts (to the rear) probably would have been a better option, as they can "quick kill" blades. The "gaps" between each Roman flank and the table edge probably would have been better places for the Parthian Light Horse to assault.

The Parthian light horse in the center is mostly recoiled or flees. Note the Romans "closed the door" on some light horse that have been destroyed (casualties off to the table edge above).

Publius (Crassus' son) and some of the Gallic cavalry have come around the Roman left to attack the Parthians (top of photo). Publius is having a better experience than he had historically. The Parthians light horse are also attacking the Roman right flank.

The Parthian cataphracts (including camels) look ominous, but never got into the fight.

Above is the view when the game was called by time limit. Two of the Parthian commands were near demoralization (we used a 50% or 6 element break point), one command was halfway there. The Romans had only lost one element during the game.

The really cool looking Parthian camp made by Bob Pavlik.

More photos of "Historican't Con" are at this link:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/96128304@N03/ST7NwU

Ligny, a CLS AAR

On Saturday July 11 we traveled to Bill Garrett's home in Belvedere IL to play his modified version of Column, Line, & Square (CLS) in a scaled down representation of the Battle of Ligny for the 200th anniversary of the battle. The game is in 25mm, using Minifig Miniatures from Bill's collection. Troops are organized at a 30 to 1 scale. The players were Bill (as Marshal Blucher), Tim King, and Ken Kaergard as the Prussians. Keith Leidy was the Emperor, Bob Pavlik, Mike Zemuda, and myself were the Emperor's minions. 

Above is the Prussian deployment. 

Above shows the start of the French attack.

Above shows the battle being joined on the French left. The Prussians have sent troops across the stream to St. Amand (buildings in the center of the picture). French cavalry is massed to the right of the village. One interesting phenomena was Marshal Blucher commanding more and more of his subordinate's troops as the game progressed.

A close-up of St Amand and the fighting near Ligny. The French Guard has entered the board on the right. The toothpicks are casualty markers. CLS uses the old school "bean counter" technique of counting figures and multiplying the number firing by die rolls, etc. Kill percentages are quite high, as much as 60-70% or more. Some figures fire better than others, so are calculated differently. Melees consist of at least 6 rounds per turn of combat of opposed throws. The difference in pips on each throw is dead points for the loser. It is all very time consuming for a large game like this. Attacking a building in these rules is a losing proposition. Firing at buildings by bringing everything to bear is the best solution.

The French left and center are very active in battle. The French right/Prussian left were fighting defensively, just trading shots for most of the game. One of the interesting discussions during the game was how close can an enemy cavalry unit be for a friendly infantry unit to still be able to form square if charged. The CLS rules say 6." 

The view at the end of the game when time was called. We played a total of 7 turns in about 4 hours of non-stop gaming. The French seemed to have an edge in the center, but the game was still in doubt.

Bill did a lot of work to put on this game and organize the forces, and did a good job scaling the forces down. Unfortunately, the mechanics of CLS can be somewhat tedious for the limited amount of time we had to play and the size of the game. Of course, one can and should use whatever rules they want, especially if they have built their entire collection around a particular set. The way a game plays and looks (the "fun" factor") is very dependent on the rules themselves. There are still quite a few CLS players out there who enjoy the game, one very active group is in Rockford IL.

Other modifications to CLS we used included not using written orders, but instead, verbally first declaring charges & targets, then both sides making simultaneous movement. Artillery sticks were substituted by a system using yard sticks/inches and the number of gunners servicing a gun. 

FPW - New Beginnings

The last time Bob & I played a Franco-Prussian War game was 2006. Last week, Bob brought a portion of his figures over and we tried a game using home rules on my dining table.

Above shows an overview of our game, the Prussian Allies on the left, the French on the right. Each infantry stand of 8-10 figures is a battalion, 3 stands are a regiment. Light infantry battalions are based 2 figures on small bases, 4-5 stands equal to a battalion. For cavalry, each stand is a division of two squadrons, two stands are a regiment. The rules we were using emphasize the longer, more accurate Prussian/Allied breech loading rifled artillery versus French muzzle loading artillery, and the longer ranged French Chasspot rifle versus the shorter ranged Prussian Needle Gun rifle. The sides roll for initiative, make moves or formation changes, and impact enemy units. Units suffer "halts" (hits) which accumulate and increasingly impair a unit's ability to fight. Another feature of our rules is that similar to DBA, a side has a limited number of movement actions determined by a die roll. However in our game, a side doesn't know how many movement impulses they have in any given turn. Each side rolls before moving each unit, if a "1" is rolled, the side's movement phase ends for that turn. A player can move a general to a unit, which exempts the unit from rolling for movement, but exposes the general to potential harm. In the photo above, note that the Prussian Allied player (left hand units) has a division commander (2 figures to a base) and 3 brigade commanders (single figure bases) attached to units, which do not have to roll for movement.

The photo above gives a closer look to the Prussian Allied division, composed of 2 Bavarian regiments and a light infantry battalion, a Hesse-Darmstadt regiment, a Wurttemburg regiment, 4 artillery batteries, and 2 Prussian cavalry regiments (Uhlans & Dragoons). The French have their Chasseur light infantry battalion skirmishing in the woods, above right.

Above shows most of the French division of 4 Infantry regiments and 3 artillery batteries, including a Mitrailleuse battery.

We are still experimenting with these rules. In our test game, the French lost an infantry regiment to Prussian artillery bombardment, while the Prussians lost a cavalry regiment. There was no clear victor.

The figures are 15mm by Rank & File. Many of the figures in the photos above were excellently painted by our friend, the late Charlie Prosek.

I have a division (2 brigades) of 1866 Austrians in this scale that are painted, another division partially painted, which would give me an entire Corps of Austrians. I just have to get around to finish painting & mounting them.

There are other rules I am interested in trying for this period: Volley & Bayonet, HFG (Horse, Foot, & Guns), 19th Century Warfare, and 1866/1870.