Pyrrhic Campaign

Hi Guys

Here is a simple campaign outline for Pyrrhus in Italy. The bulk of this comes from Andy Badger ( Thanks Andy) and I just dragged a few bits together and did the maps. We intend to play through the campiagn using Basic Impetus. We will play the first two games this tuesday, I will post a report and update the map accordingly, if Pyrrhus is still in Italy . We will swap sides as we always do, to make sure it is balanced. If the campaign runs well, we may try it again with Hannibal Vs Rome.

Phil

 

 

Pyrrhus In Italy, 280BC

10 turns, attacker must move 6 spaces in 10 games,

Tarentum Metapontum Heraclea Capua Neapolis Fregellae Praeneste Rome

Pyrrhus begins the campaign in control of Tarentum. His objective is to reach Rome within ten turns at which point the Romans will come to terms and Pyrrhus will have won the campaign.
If Pyrrhus is killed (see below) or fails to reach Rome within ten turns he will have lost the campaign.

Campaign Turns
A campaign turn consists of fighting a battle:
• If Pyrrhus wins a Major Victory he can advance two stages towards Rome.
• If Pyrrhus wins a Minor Victory he advances one stage towards Rome.
• If Rome wins a Minor Victory or if there is a draw there is no change to the map.

• If Rome wins a Major Victory , the attacker retreats 1 stage.

To claim a Major Victory a player must have break the enemy while at half or less ( rounded up) of their army break point at the end of the game.

Death of Pyrrhus
If Pyrrhus is lost in battle roll a d6 at the end of the game:
1: Pyrrhus dies of his wounds and the campaign ends in a victory for Rome.
2-6: Pyrrhus recovers from his wounds and continues his march on Rome.

Army Sizes
Armies are chosen afresh before each battle. The campaign is not concerned with losses and recovery. However, if a player loses all his elite cavalry/elephants etc. in a battle then he should not be able to field these troops in the next 2 games. Likewise if a player loses over half his phalangites/legions these troops should be restricted for the next battle.

Victory
The campaign lasts until any of the following occurs:
• Pyrrhus is killed in battle.
• Pyrrhus successfully enters Rome.
• At the end of ten turns.

 

 

If Pyrrhus is forced back from Tarentum, his is pushed to Epiros. If he is forced back from there, he is defeated.

Metapontum

Heraclea

 

Capua

 

Neapolis

 

Fregellae

 

 

Praeneste

Break on through...

Hi Guys

A while back, Ed & I played another 15mm World War II game based on the warpath rules , this time it was a break-through scenario, with the British blocking the road and the Germans needing to get through. Here are a few pictures of what happened :

The German deployment area

The British deploy across the road

The view from the British end

German (very) light tanks and a truck carried 8cm mortar.

Cards marking possible positions of the British ATG, only 1 is real. 

The Germans sluggish advance, more molasses in winter than lightning

The British move to block the road

Germans in a bottleneck

The British lay smoke

Germans still in a bottleneck

British hold a hill, just before the German 8cm mortar finds them...

The British advance to confine the Germans

The tanks finally break through.

German tank clears the smoke, and approaches a concealed anti tank gun.

The British on the left getting machine gun loving from the tanks

Infantry taking heavy fire

All the forward British units are in a very fragile state.

We had a great game and lots of fun. We declared the game a draw, the Germans probably would have broken through eventually but not quickly or cheaply. They failed too many command rolls earlier on, so moved to slowly and were worn down by British fire. We have considered giving the Germans rerolls on failed activation tests, so it would be more in keeping with their early war performance. This would balance their less than stellar equipment during the early war. The thought is that the British would be the baseline, the Germans a little better, the Russians a little worse etc to reflect C&C during the early war.

Next planned project in a simple campaign covering Pyrrhus in Italy, using the Basic Impetus rules , and a campaign outline supplied by Andy Badger.

Phil

Pyrrhus vs Carthage

Hi Guys

We had a fun game of Basic Impetus the other evening, we used the Pyrrhic list against Carthage. There is no official early Carthaginian list for BI, so we went with the later list. The models I went with for Carthage included some of the Spanish cavalry and light horse I got from Magister Militum, always good to get the curse of freshly painted lead out of the way. Here are a few pictures of the game as we went.



 



Pyrrhic heavy cav close on the Carthaginian General 

Pike stops Elephant ! Further along, Gallic warband try to do the same. Fail..

Pyrrhic heavy cav play through the Carthaginian cavalry

Spanish light horse ride down skirmishers in the open

The battle lines hold

Heavy foot about to be charged from behind

That warband unit used to be a lot bigger..

Pike surrounded by a lot of enemies.

 We had a good game, the Pyrrhic army broke, although the Carthaginians were not too far behind with both spear units a point away from breaking and taking the rest of the army with them. The elephants stood up well , given that they normally disolve on contact with the enemy. We had the perrenial problem where a unit destroys an opposing unit but cannot get back into the fight in time to contribute any more to the battle. The armies were an interesting mix of quality units and dregs, and it provided an enjoyable game.

Phil

 



Damn Colonials

Hi Guys

Ed came to the elegant abode the other evening for a game, his turn to pick our rules, so he chose Dystopian Wars. He used his Australian fleet, picking the rebels to try out the energy turret version, I used my American FSA. I have a basic boxed set fleet so we played at approx 800 points. I threw a few islands out to block line of sight and a little coral island in the centre to block movement but not line of sight or firing. We deployed a squadron at a time and started right away. We did not do a blow by blow write up, but took a few pictures as we went.

The FSA fleet deployed

The Oz fleet amid viennese whirl crumbs...

Some of the Australian heavier units

Collision alert- two Oz units come close as they move around an island.

First blood, an Australian frigate gones down

The FSA battleship with air support, 3 cruisers in the foreground.

A long shot of the board with coral island in the centre

The battleship carrying a lot of damage under attack by boarders.

My right flank struggling to land a blow

The FSA cruisers and bombers.

A failed attempt at dive bombing, as Ed gets lucky with AA

We had a good game and plenty of laughs but my luck was appalingly bad, I may as well have been rolling D4s for all the 6's I saw. I scored a few hits but sunk nothing bigger than a frigate. I conceeded the game as all my heavy units were either crippled or settling on the sea bed and my dive bombers were pretending to be submarines....

Next game should be in a week or so, Rome vs Pyrrhus. Hopefully the dice Gods will smile...