OHW Scenario 2 with 10mm Figures and D3 Rule Variant (Almost!)

Hi all - so far, I have managed to stick to my plan for solo Wargame Wednesdays - in other words, I got this game on the table last night! The "almost" in the title relates to a couple of things in the D3 rules I forgot about in the excitement getting the figures on the table again! The main thing I omitted was to test to pull back when units receive hits - I remembered about the halfway point but decided to carry on as I had been doing, because too much water was under the bridge by that point to suddenly start applying the morale tests!

This is scenario 2 in the One Hour Wargames book - one side starts at N and the other in the S and the aim is to control both the hill and the crossroads by the end of the game.

This was my version. As an aside, the OHW battle spaces are rather "sterile", so as I progress, I may add some extra terrain, a few trees etc - although the terrain is important to the scenario, so I can't change too much - unless, of course, I want to start designing my own scenarios! BTW, can anyone spot another mistake I made with the scenery?

I have basically taken a picture at the end of each turn - the Britons went first, Romans second. I rolled up the forces and got 4 infantry, 1 skirmisher and 1 chariot unit for the Britons and 2 Veteran Heavy Infantry, 1 standard infantry 2 archers and 1 cavalry unit for the Romans. Their initial placement was also randomly generated by dice rolls (see picture 1)

The Britons right flank occupied the hill while the three units on the left advanced as rapidly as possible towards the crossroads. The Roman advance was more measured.

The Roman general (me!) had a plan - mask the Britons on the hill, whilst concentrating force on the other flank to defeat the Britons in detail there, then move against the remaining British force with a numerical advantage.

Note the hill in the top left and compare it with the one below - it was at this point, I realized I had mistakenly put one of the unfinished, unpainted hills on the table - and changed it over!

The British chariots charged in - I gave them D3 +1 for the first round of combat, dropping back to D3 thereafter. They got a couple of hits on the Roman cavalry, who reciprocated in kind.

In the next turn, the cavalry/chariot melee continued, whilst one VHI and one AUX infantry charged the opposing Britons, scoring a few hits. 

A few close ups of the action

At the end of turn 7, the British skirmishers had advanced off the hill, and all the melees continued in full swing. It was about now I think I realized I should have been doing the morale tests, but decided just to carry on without them for this game

Sitting on 7 hits (of 9 allowed) the Roman cavalry pulled back - but the "green" archers had moved into a good supporting position to prevent the chariots following up. The Roman infantry was pulling ahead of the Britons in the hand to hand in the centre of the field. VHI get +1 on the casualties they inflict and -1 on any casualties inflicted upon them - plus, they never have to take a morale check. (even if the player remembers about them 😉)

In turn 8, the first British unit disintegrated, and the chariots saw discretion was the better part of valour and pulled back before the green archers charged them in the flank! The Roman left flank turned right to put pressure on the British centre.

Turn 9 saw the Roman cavalry in position to "hold" the crossroads whilst the British infantry and chariots had fallen back, albeit the former was pursued by both units of VHI. The "red" archers (left wing above) fell back after suffering several hits from the skirmishers.

I took a "before" (above) and "after" (below) image of turn 9 - as a second British infantry unit was destroyed by the Roman infantry.

Turn 10 - the Romans paused to consolidate, and the Britons scrambled to improvise a defence of the strategic hill.

Turn 11 and the Roman advance grinds forwards - the chariots continue to evade them, however.

At this stage, the only concern for the Romans was, the scenario is timed to run for 15 turns, and it looked like they would run out of time to deliver the killer blow.

In turn 15, the chariots charged the green archers, scoring 4 hits if I recall correctly, with the archers getting nothing in return (light infantry get D3 -1 in melee, so I assume if they roll 1 hit, the -1 results in no hit at all)

I decided to carry on until all 3 dice were on a 6 - expecting the Romans to be able to destroy the chariots, who were carrying 5 or 6 hits from their previous exertions. A unit of VHI charged into melee against the skirmishers at the foot of the hill.

In turn 16, the Roman infantry dispatched the skirmishers, but the chariots were proving very resilient, putting another 3 hits on the green archers, who again rolled only one hit so achieved diddly squat!

The penultimate turn - those bloody chariots destroyed the red archers, then, managed to survive a flank attack by a VHI unit!

The situation at the end of the last turn - technically not a Roman win, as the Britons still held the hill - but I will call it a winning draw - in my virtual campaign, the Britons are forced to withdraw, and the third round of the invasion will fall nicely on OHW scenario three, which has at least a passing resemblance to what historians believe occurred at the Battle of Medway (see below)

The Battle of Medway, AD43

Hopefully, I will get this game played next Wednesday - I might increase the size of the forces involved and see how that goes.

In the meantime, thanks as always for your visit and please let me know what you think of the AAR and game.

A Third Solo 10mm Ancients Trial Game - OHW D3 Version Rules

 A couple of nights ago, I spent a pleasant 90-120 minutes giving the D3 amended version of OHW Rules by Peter of Grid Based fame a go (see here https://gridbasedwargaming.blogspot.com/p/d3-ancient-rules.html)

I have pages of notes again - that I probably won't regurgitate in detail - and about 25 pics of the 10 game turns:

Initial dispositions (this is again scenario 1 from the OHW scenarios) with two of my newly made hills in use for the first time (see end of previous post!)

The Romans consisted of 2 x Veteran Heavy Infantry (VHI) 1 x Heavy Infantry (HI or AUX) and 2 x archers - I made the VHI count as 2 for army resolve but did not double the number of units - so the Roman Army resolve was 7

The Britons had a larger force - 2 each of chariots, Light Cavalry, Light Infantry Skirmishers and Warband Heavy Infantry - their army resolve was 8

Turns one and two consisted of each side advancing, the Britons as fast as they could, the Romans in a more circumspect way.

Turn 3 and the LI fired on the Aux and got 2 hits - the morale test was passed (Peter has added the morale test in, as well as the army resolve)

The Roman archers fired at the LI and got two hits - the Britons unfortunately rolled a 1 for morale, the only role that is a failure with two hits, and they had to retire.

The VHI advanced into contact with the chariots, to gain the advantage of first hits (in melee, only the "active" player scores hits, which encourages aggressive tactics) two hits were scored, with the chariots passing their test

In turn 4, the melees continued - the chariots got two hits on the VHI who passed their test, the Roman archers got 2 hits on the other chariot unit, who also passed their test, then the VHI managed to get 3 more hits on the first chariot unit, who were now on 5 (of a total allowable of 9) hits - and they passed their test again!

In turn 5, the British left wing charged the Roman line. The chariots got 3 hits on the "red" archers - who passed their test. The cavalry got only 1 hit on the "green" archers - but they rolled a 1 and failed, falling back onto the hill. Thats a point off the army resolve for a failed morale test!

In the Roman turn, the VHI put the first unit of British chariots up to 8 hits - but they still passed their test - staunch fellows! On the other flank, however, the "red" archers got 3 hits on the chariots, and they were forced to pull back, costing them an army resolve point.

In turn 6, the British cavalry pursued the "green" archers onto the hill, getting another two hits and forcing them back again!

The British infantry all advanced and the chariots put two hits on the VHI, who passed their morale test, then the VHI put 3 hits on the chariots, and they were gone - minus two army morale points to the Brits. The Aux infantry advanced into the skirmishers and the archers fired and got 3 hits on the cavalry, who passed their morale check

Turn 7 - the second, fresh British cavalry unit charged the VHI who had just defeated the chariots, inflicting a single hit, which the veterans shrugged off (passed their test). The cavalry on the hill finished off the "green" archers - minus another 2 points to the Roman army morale - the skirmishers put 2 hits on the Aux infantry and the chariots 1 on the "red" archers - both Roman units passed their test.

In return, the VHI achieved 2 hits on the cavalry, the auxiliaries 3 on the skirmishers and the archers 1 on the chariots, with all the British units passing morale checks.

Turn 8 - the British skirmishers fell back from the auxiliaries, passing through the supporting infantry warband, which them attacked the auxiliaries. The other skirmishers attacked the "red" archers in the flank and the first cavalry on the hill turned to face the flank of the VHI. In combat, the second cavalry unit got no hits on the VHI, the warband got 2 on the auxiliaries and the combined skirmishers and chariots put 4 hits on the archers - despite which, all the Roman units stood firm. In the Roman turn, the archers pulled back from the combat to join the as yet uncommitted second VHI unit, the VHI put 3 hits on the cavalry skirmishing them and the auxiliaries put 1 on the warband - who failed their check and were forced back, costing the Britons another resolve point!

Turn 9 - things came to a head. The chariots charged the archers and got 3 hits on them, taking their total past 9, and the unit was gone - the Roman army resolve was at 1! The cavalry again failed to get any hits on the VHI. The cavalry on the hill turned to face the rear of the auxiliary infantry.

In the Roman turn, the VHI got 4 hits on the cavalry in melee, eliminating them, and the British army morale now also dropped to 1 - then the other VHI unit, in their first combat of the game, put 3 hits on the chariots, and also eliminated that unit from the game, meaning the British army morale was at 0.

The "Butchers Bill" at the official end of the game - Britons to the left, Romans to the right.

I decided to play on for a bit, as in reality, the Roman force was in a pretty dicey situation, split in two with the Britons in quite reasonable shape.

Turn 10 - the cavalry on the hill charged the auxiliary infantry, getting 3 hits and eliminating them from the game and reducing the army resolve to 0 as well! The Romans now have two Veteran Heavy Infantry units, one on each flank, with a British force between them!

Turn 11 - the final turn - the Britons mainly realign their forces, but a fresh warband does attack the right flank VHI unit, getting a single hit - yet, despite being the freshest unit on the field, the veterans roll a 1 and fail the morale test - I felt this was a very clear message from the dice Gods that the game should end!

The final situation on the Roman left flank - the VHI carrying 5 hits faced cavalry, skirmishers and a relatively fresh infantry warband

And on the Roman right, the VHI had only a single hit, but also faced a fresh warband, backed up by some skirmishers.

Well, I enjoyed the game, and I think the enhancements added to the rules by Peter - morale tests and army resolve in particular, improved the feel of things, as did the ability to disengage from combat, rather than being forced to carry on to the bitter end.

It was again quite an attritional slog but in reality, that's probably a realistic recreation of warfare in this era - what do readers think?

Thanks for visiting and please do let me know your thoughts on the game and rules used - I might even give a different scenario a run through over the weekend - if the mood takes me!