Carolingian Battles

I've been on a Carolingian kick ever since I decided to make some leather armor inspired by Charlemagne's Franks.

By the way, here is an AI conception of my armor.

Battle 1 - Franks vs. Umayyads

I was too lazy to take pictures. Here is a quick synopsis instead.

• After some desultory skirmishing, the Frankish knights on both flanks charged the Umayyad javelins. It is a bloodbath - all units are wiped out.
• This leaves open to a flank attack. The Umayyad cavalry hits the archers.
• The rest of the Frankish army retreats.

Because I don't have pictures, I asked AI to create an image of a wargame between the two armies.

Battle 2 - Franks vs. Saxons

• Both sides lose their archers. The Franks also wipe out 2 Saxon warbands.
• The Saxons throw back a unit of knights, but the Frankish general rallies them. Meanwhile, another warband falls.
• The knights are defeated again. This time, they flee.
• But the remaining knights wipe out another warband.

With a single warband left, the Saxons flee.

Some more AI.

GAME NOTES

• So far, Charlie is 1-1, with more or less historical results.
• Coming up, Franks vs. Lombards and Avars.
• I've grown weary of photographing and posting pictures for the blog. I still like to blog because it serves as a wargames diary. I like to go back and read old posts. But, I am questioning whether photos are necessary. I may just give brief synopses, augmented with some AI illustrations.

Bellicosus Beats the Brits

The Twelve Foes of Rome Campaign

The next chapter of the campaign.

Emperor Bellicosus invades Britannia. The Britons mass their barbarian hordes and attack the invaders.

Note: My phone was charging so I just played the game on a virtual board.

1. Roman cavalry charges but is driven off by Briton slingers. Meanwhile, a Roman legion holds off the chariots.
2. The same legion defeats the Briton cavalry,
3. And then a warband! Meanwhile, the Briton leader rallies another warband.
4. The light infantry for both sides disperse.
5. The second legion crushes a warband.

There is one warband left. They decide to retire from the field.

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Bellicosus adds Britannia to the Empire!

And the Bellicosus family is now 7-2.

"Twelve" Foes Update

My Twelve Foes of Rome campaign is rolling along.

Here are the results so far:

1. Samnites - this turned into 2 foes - Etruscans and Samnites. Both wins
2. Pyrrhus - win
3. Carthage - win
4. Macedon - lose
5. Pontus - lose
6. Gauls - win
7. Parthia - win
8. Germans - win

Current record is 6-2. With all this success, I assume that the Bellicosus family has taken the emperorship of Rome!

Here are my plans for the rest of the year:

9. Britons - added to replace the Carthage duplicate

10. Dacians

11. Sassanids

12. Huns

Looking at this list, I think I should add Goths. Perhaps I'll do a double feature in December.

Bosworth Field

With the Halloween stuff in stores, my wife has caught the horror bug. We plan to do Frightful Friday movies.

Her first selection was not really a horror film, but it stars Vincent Price.

Basically, it's Richard III.

Anyway, that got me interested in doing a Bosworth game. I could not find a scenario specific for Dominion of the Spear, so I modified a DBA scenario that I found at Heretical Gaming.

The Battle

King Richard III (white) is camped on the hill with Henry Tudor (red) below. Lord Stanley awaits on the wings.

Richard's center charges. Melee ensues. Meanwhile, his bowmen on the left lose the archery duel. Stanley (far left) awaits developments.

Richard's center collapsed. He is unable to stem the rout. His forces have more success on the left. Stanley still waits.

Disaster for Richard. His left and center rout.

And then the archers on the right flee the battlefield.

Richard tries a last ditch charge but is killed. Henry Tudor has seized the throne. And Stanley still awaits developments.

Game Notes

• I added that last part about Richard's charge just for narrative's sake. The battle was already lost.
• Richard had a numerical superiority over Henry, but Henry had a chance to bring Stanley on as reinforcements. His units would go into Henry's reserve.
• On turn 1, Stanley would join Henry on a roll of 6
• It dropped to a roll of 4-6 on turn 2
• Then 2-6 on turn 3
• As it turns out, I rolled really poorly for Stanley and he did nothing all game.
• Henry was still able to win despite being outnumbered and despite Stanley's delay.

Dominion of the Orc Counters

Last month, I posted about the new Stephen Parker title, Dominion of the Orc. I even posted some ideas for a couple of armies. Since then, I've done nothing with DotO, primarily because I did not have counters for the new unit types. 

Today, I started work on rectifying the situation. I made some new counters.

They are (from top to bottom and left to right) scouts, flyers, mage, and assassin.

I decided to make them in generic colors rather than army specific. I did that with rare ancient troop types (chariots and elephants) and it works fine while reducing the number of counters I need. I went for a dark gray for all the units except the scouts, which are naturally green.

Now I just need to print them and stick them on the bases.

Bellicosus in the Teutoberg

The Twelve Foes of Rome Campaign

The next chapter of the campaign.

After his victories over the Gauls and Parthians, Bellicosus outmaneuvers some guy named Julius and makes himself Emperor of Rome.

Now the Germans are giving trouble. The aging Bellicosus I sends his son and heir into Germania to sort things out. The younger Bellicosus is ambushed in the Teutoberg Forest.

The Battle

The German warbands (brown) charge the Roman line, wiping out the cavalry and auxiliary archers. But the cavalry manage to decimate their enemy.

Note: The German army is 100% spears but I don't have enough brown heavy infantry. Instead, I used light infantry counters for the regular spears and heavy for ferocious spears.

The legions hold the line. On the right, a legion wipes out a Germanic warband.

The auxiliary spears are about the run, but Bellicosus steadies the line.

Another warband driven off. The German leader, Arminius, cannot stem the tide.

The legion then flanks the German center, putting them to the rout.

Another victory for Rome, and the Bellicosus family!

NOTES

• Only had time for one quick game. Dominion of really fits the bill.
• The Bellicosus family is now 6-2 in the campaign.

Blow from the Rear

The Batty Numppo Campaign

After his initial victory, Batty gets word that the British are sending a more powerful force. Batty is commanded to stop them at the river.

The British try to force two crossings. They fail at the east (left) crossing drive off some artillery at the west bridge.

Surprise! Some British forces have already crossed the river and flank Batty's position. He sends some cavalry to hold them off, but they fail. The British also make it over the east crossing.

Technically, the battle should have ended here, as the Americans only had 1 unit on the board, However, they were expecting reinforcements, so I let them come on.

I also should have tried to rally one of the units, but forgot.

American reinforcements plug the gaps.

The American right flank caves.

And then the left. Batty has no choice but to retreat.

Alas, the reinforcements make it to the British camp at Savannah.

NOTES

• This was an attempt to translate a One Hour Wargames scenario to Dominion of. I still had 3 zones, with the left being the flank.
• The specific scenario was Blow from the Rear. Both sides have reinforcements that arrive at various points in the game. With Do's speed of resolution, I had to reduce the number of turns before reinforcements arrived. 
• As I mentioned, the Americans should have lost before they received their reinforcements, I was going to hold them until turn 4 but then decided to bring them on on turn 3. Even then, they were technically a bit late as the Americans were down to 1 unit at the end of turn 2. But I rolled initiative, the Americans won, so I decided that the reinforcements arrived in the nick of time. Still did not help.
• Despite the reinforcement issue, I feel the experiment was a success and I will try more OHW scenarios.
• Batty is now 1-1 in the campaign. I'm not sure how many games I will play. Perhaps 7?