First solo game

[Moggy]

Hi Guys

Having a bash at first solo game. Decided to do something I can't recall doing before so gone biblical. Assyrian (A)vs Philistine (P).

A List                                    P List
2 Vet Shock Chariots              1 Elite Chariot
1 Vet Chariot                         2 Trd Shock Chariots
4 C/Ord Trnd Armd Sh            3 Trd Chariots
2 C/Ord Armd Bow                 6 C/Ord Sh
4 Aux Trd Sh                         4 Aux Trd Sh
2 Aux Lvy Bw                         6 Skirmishers
4 Skirmishers

I think I have that right as per the list but who knows lol

Piggy chase went well for the Philistine forces starting with +6 due to the surplus chariots. Assyrians only managed 11 in total and will defend.

Next moved to Depletions


Total losses for the Assyrians

2 Vet Shock Chariots           1/2 base/on table    No loss on table
1 Vet Chariot                       No loss/On table
4 C/Ord Trnd Armd Sh     Off table/ off 1/2 base/ 1/2 base on/ no loss on
2 C/Ord Armd Bow          1/2 base on/  1/2 base on 
4 Aux Trd Sh                 no loss on/  no loss on/ 1/2 base on/  no loss on
2 Aux Lvy Bw              1/2 base on /  1/2 base off
4 Skirmishers              no lose on/  no loss on/  1/2 base off/  no loss on

So not drastic.....MAYBE

Terrain started out as
rough                      Marsh
wood                       Building
rough hill                  ______
wood                       Rough
____                        ______
____                       Gentle hill

And ended up as





Deployment ended up as



on the left and



on the right.

Yes have tried to keep to having any skirmishers at the front and bow armed behind any "regular" troops just to make things easy on myself.  Chariots deployed on the right wing to try to hook round if any chance.

[Moggy]

Turn 1 (philistine)

All troops advanced 1 zone apart from the shock./elite chariots on the right wing how advanced 2 zones. Skirmishers next to the woods both shot but must have forgotten to pack and arrowheads.

BC down to 33.




Turn 2 (assyrian)


Troops advanced to the next row of zones.. Skirmisher in woods hit but saved.

Got both off table close order units back.

BC down to 29.

[Moggy]

Turn 3 Philistine

Notice a tactical blunder during Assyrian turn. The elite and shock chariots cant do anything on that flank,. They are hemmed in by woods and rough hills. The choice is to either hold that flank and wait for troops to come off the terrain or circle back.  Will do some of each! (This is genuine. must try to remember that about any chariot based armies I face when doing terrain)

The 2 shock chariots moved backwards and then intended to move towards the centre. 1 failed. Remainder of line advanced 1 square.

Assaulted into the woods. The skirmishers fell back saving all but 2 hits.  shooting caused 1 casualty  south of the rough ground.

BC down to 23



Turn 4 Assyrian

Thats a lot of troops coming down the centre at me!

Moved the generals into the centre 2 columns in the hope they can bolster the defence.

! fail to morale in the centre caused the skirmishers to fall back.

Moved the chariots forward intending to launch a spoiling attack on the foot/chariot zone in the rough ground. All 3 chariots failed to move sideways so no assault.

Last turns reinforcements moved forward to bolster the line.

Shooting caused 1/2 bases from skirmishers in the woods. Maybe getting the morale test will help the cause.

No arrivals.

BC down to 17

[martin goddard]

Excellent Derek
Good and thorough play testing

Thank you.
Is it going Ok for you?


martin

[Moggy]

Turn 5  (philistine)

Troops on the hill had to take morale. failed 1 out of 2. Decided not to risk the re-roll. Have to keep the momentum going. Retreated 1 skirmisher unit.

Going for it. Assaults along the line.  The Elite  and one other chariot on my right flank failed to move sideways both times.

Shooting generated a couple more casualties but nothing of note.

Col 2 (rough hill) Holding the hill so going to take it. The chariot unit can't be involved as couldn't move into the zone so should be pretty even

Going to run through the mods (if I am doing it  wrong please comment)
1 C/O 1 aux 1 skirmisher            6Dice
Target on hill                              -2
close order col 3                          +3


At 7 dice

Assryian
2 aux 1 skirmish                         5 dice
close order (col 3)                       +3

at 8 dice.

Ok not as close as I thought.

Turn 5  (philistine)

Troops on the hill had to take morale. failed 1 out of 2. Decided not to risk the re-roll. Have to keep the momentum going. Retreated 1 skirmisher unit.

Going for it. Assaults along the line.  The Elite  and one other chariot on my right flank failed to move sideways both times.

Shooting generated a couple more casualties but nothing of note.

Col 2 (rough hill) Holding the hill so going to take it. The chariot unit can't be involved as couldn't move into the zone so should be pretty even

Going to run through the mods (if I am doing it  wrong please comment)
1 C/O 1 aux 1 skirmisher            6Dice
Target on hill                              -2
close order col 3                          +3


At 7 dice   (Not a single hit with all those dice)

Assryian
2 aux 1 skirmish                         5 dice
close order (col 3)                       +3

at 8 dice.    (2 hits) (both saved)

Ok not as close as I thought. NO casualties from either side but the 2 hits from the defender has caused a failed assault. Moved back to where they started and lost 1/2 a base from each unit.

Col 4 assault (from the woods) Both Generals leading from the front.
Philistines get 18 dice.  (7 hits)
(Martin do skirmish bases count for rear support - Rues just say bases. Close order specifies close order foot but rear is just bases?)
Assyrians get 15 dice (3 hits)

Ouch!"


Assyrains didn't make any save, including on the general.
Philistines saved twice out of 3.   Good win for them.

A further 3 hits in pursuit. This leaves a total of 5 half bases spread across 2 C/O units and 1 full base on a c/o bow unit


(YES, have noticed I have no winning the fight markers so using Ak47 bases for now  )

Col 4 fight 14 dice to attacker (3 hits-)(, 12 dice (4 hits)

Philistines saved 2 hits and soaked the other across the skirmishers.
Assyrians save 2 out of 3 taking the lose on a skirmisher unit.

(Have noticed how many casualties you can need - only did 15 and getting low)

Philistines took 1 further hit in pursuit from a skirmisher.

Col 5 fight (including chariots)
Attacker 14 dice (4 hits)(3 saved though) Defender 10 dice (3 hits)( 1 saved)

(Martin - under the destroying units section it sates Cavalry units but not chariot units. Should these be treated as cavalry for biblical armies?) For this game they do count as such.

Unit of Aux  bow lost in the retreat.

BC down to 13.

Pretty chaotic on the battlefield. Next  round may be crucial due to the number of casualty markers.

[Moggy]

Excellent Derek
Good and thorough play testing

Thank you.
Is it going Ok for you?


martin

I will let you know after. so far things seem to be going ok.

[Moggy]

Food time. taking a break. Will finish next turns after.

derek

[Moggy]

Turn 6 (Assyrian)

Moved generals to worst damaged zones. Time to cross fingers.

Doing right to left

Col 5 3 fails. Already at table edge so off they go.

Col 4 2 fails.

Col 3 2 fails


Could have been worse but that even more units off table back in reinforcement.

Moved the chariots on the right flank around. Not enough troops to achieve much so going for occupying zone with them.

Shooting got a strange result. Next to nothing from col 3 and 4 but col 2 did 6 hits and only 1 saved.

Reinforcements time

2 questions.

1st. I assume that units that have just been forced off the table can't be rolled for this turn?

Second. If a general is in a zone that is forced to retreat off table I guess he leaves the table as well. Next turn I am guessing I could bring hi8m back on the table from the reinforcment area. Is the original general classes as dead?

Damm, no reinforcements this turn.

BC down to 8

[Moggy]

Turn 7 Philistines

Morale
Col 2 - despite moving the general there had 4 fails. rerolled and got 3 fails. Ah well.

Col 3 - 3 dice (1 cas and 2 faces) 3 fails. (feels like this is going to be one of those days!
(Martin - This unit had 3 x winning the fight markers - I am guessing they lose these  as they no longer seem to want to play. Could this be added to the winning the fight markers section.

Col 4 - 3 dice 2 fails, reroll 2 fails. ho hum!

Col 5 1 fail

Not a lot I can do this turn as almost every unit failed morale.

BC down to 4

[Moggy]

Turn 8 Assyrian

Not sure what to try really. This may be the last turn. I do not have troops on table in any strength to do much so may focus on surviving!

didnt do anything in the end. Got 3 units back as reinforcements.

BC down to 0


So who won. Think that's pretty obvious but by how much.
Attacker 22  Defender 18 from the map. so 4 excess points for the attacke.

Defender - 2 better units weakened and 2 other units weakened so 4 D6 points.  19 not a bad roll)

Attacker - 2 better units destroyed, 2 others weakened, 5 better weakened 4 from map. I make that 13D6  (41)

Difference of 22 so a solid win.


Comparision of the armies. The two armies are not disimiliar. More  but less well trained chariots. Neither sides chariots got into the action. This is probably due to the way I played rather than the game. Maybe they need to be played more central as they get blocked too easily by terrain.

Other factors

Found it hard to put a solid defence up even with having less depletions than expected. You have to move forward off the baseline in turn 1 or run the risk of getting pushed off the table.

Terrain - if playing biblical armies (loads of chariots) you need to ensure you have loads of woods, rough hills and villages. I had half the table blocked off by this. Being more familiar with the rules wouldn't fall into this trap a second time if playing biblicals. I hope!.

A couple of lose points in the rules I have mentions previously in this thread. Nothing too major.

Overall a fun game. Took longer than expected as doing this from rules on PC screen rather than hard copy and first time through. Also typing this as the game goes along. I find it hard to remember what I was talking about if doing it afterwards (its my age).

Was an enjoyable game that I think would be very open to PBM(or email) if you could sort out the dice rolling element. face to facer. Yes, should be equally enjoyable and I think a game could be done in around 2 hours once the rules are familiar.

Well done Martin and thanks

Cheers

derek

[Stewart 46A]

Very clever game board Derek,
Did you or yourself win?
Don't beat your self up if you lost.

Stewart

[Moggy]

I was vested in one side though. Whenever my wife takes me somewhere cultural like an art gallery all she gets  is occasional grunts or "mmmmm" noises. When asked I always have said it isn't like that where I come from in Philistonia.

Yes I am a philistine and proud of it. especially when it comes to art.


hehehe


No, more seriously I both won and lost and am happy that I managed to get through the game without it coming to a grinding halt like has happened with other rulesets. I believe I kept to the rules and, the couple of questions I have raised for Martin, need answering for all of us. I am sure other will raise points for clarity or even to improve the rules. This will benefit us overall.

I have always thought that including the expected client base in the development process will always produce an improved product no matter what field it may be in. The client feels invested and believes in it.  Its no different for a gaming ruleset to making a car. just less carbon dioxide unless Martin has been on the beer again!.


Derek

[Moggy]

I know but can't help using the incorrect reference in a self depreciating way. I find it fun. Appologies to any Philistinians out there.

Derek

[martin goddard]

Derek , your game gives me a chance to carry out some analysis and feedback.
Vey useful.



CK is a strange beast in that it may fall into line with existing "everything is ancients" game culture. I don't like it but it is easy.

martin