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Ilipa takes to the field aonce again. This time, the battle is a rematch with four of the five previous players coming back for more.
The battle opened in a similar fashion to the first game. That is, the two lines slowly closed the distance while skirmishers deployed ahead of the main battle line harassed their opposition. Roman Velites on both wings were very effective in driving off Carthaginian elephants from each wing. To stabilize the Carthaginian Left, Spanish cavalry attack. They too are driven off.
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Seeing these early reverses, Hasdrubal presses on by launching an attack with a warband against Scipio's Legion. The legionaries stand firm and the warband is repulsed. Still, the warband provides time for Hasdrubal to bring his heavily armored spearmen up to the front. Hasdrubal follows-up by sending Spanish infantry in against the Roman Center. His Spanish hesitate and fail to close with the enemy.
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Seeing Spanish Scutarii caught in No Man's Land between the main battle lines, Marcius strikes! The force of the legion bearing down upon the light infantry is too much. They turn and flee. Marcius (David B) orders his legion to pursue. They oblige. The legionaries plow into the adjacent warband. They, too, are overpowered and retire. Bloodlusted by their success, David's Romans press on, catching the retiring warband. The warband turns and flees. Still the Romans advance. Is there no stopping them? Not yet! Next victim is a hapless unit of skirmishers. They are easily overpowered and scatter. With the Carthaginian Center hollowing out, David's Ever Victorious Legionaries turn to strike the elephant from the rear. With escape route blocked, the rampaging elephant is dispatched.
Witnessing all of this destruction to its front and its own chance for glory slipping away, the other half of Marcius' (David's) legion moves into action. They attack the Spanish light infantry that were supporting the elephant. In all of the chaos, the Spanish turn with their back to the enemy and flee. The Carthaginian Right is no more!
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Having witnessed his right and center ripped to shreds, Hasdrubal attempts to salvage the dire situation by sending his heavy infantry in against Scipio's legion. They are repulsed! Sensing complete victory is only one charge away, the Romans in the center throw volleys of javelins into the remaining Spanish Scutarii in the center. With the Spanish in disorder, a warband charges in to deliver the coup de grace. Unfortunately for the warband, the Spanish are made of sterner stuff. The warband's attack is repulsed.
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With his right completely in shambles and his flank turned, Hasdrubal orders his army to retire.
Victory to the Romans! A convincing victory it was too.
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Full battle report with many captioned game photos illustrating the action can be found on Palouse Wargaming Journal at Ilipa Again, Again (https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/2023/09/ilipa-again-again.html).
And once again,very good it is too Jon
Thanks, Dave! You may be the only one reading these...
[/quote]
Quote from: Jon Freitag on September 18, 2023, 10:47:41 PMThanks, Dave! You may be the only one reading these...
...oh no, he isn't.....🙂
Good!
QuoteQuote from: Jon Freitag on September 18, 2023, 10:47:41 PMThanks, Dave! You may be the only one reading these...
...oh no, he isn't.....🙂
I could go on but it's not panto season yet
Spoilsport :P
Having reread the blog posts, one thing that strikes me is how well documented the battles are. Lovely pics, AND a very clear recollection of what units did what and when. Admirably done 👍🏼👍🏼.
(Personally, my own reports are scant on detail, as after the event it can be hard to recall just what happened...the Duke's 'history of a ball' springs to mind).
I agree Martin (the bit about Jon, not your own self flagellations)
Quote from: Martin Smith on September 20, 2023, 09:29:25 AMHaving reread the blog posts, one thing that strikes me is how well documented the battles are. Lovely pics, AND a very clear recollection of what units did what and when. Admirably done 👍🏼👍🏼.
Very kind, Martin! For me, battle reporting is hard work, made easier with comments like yours. I often wonder if the reports are actually worth the effort.
Quote from: Jon Freitag on September 18, 2023, 10:47:41 PMThanks, Dave! You may be the only one reading these...
I think reading statistics are kept somewhere, they certainly appear when you click on pictures as links. But one problem is that many folks read an article and that's that.
I recently posted about Asian hornets on our 'neighbourhood' forum thingy and had about a dozen replies/requests for more info and 19 reaction emojies(?) when after about 48 hours the site emailed me to say it was one of the highest recent 'trending'(whatever that is supposed to mean) posts with 2600 hits. My first reaction was total disbelief of the figure but my wife was out yesterday across town and was told by several people quite unconnected with beekeeping that they had seen my post. I may still write to 'More or Less' and ask them to check.
QuoteI often wonder if the reports are actually worth the effort.
Well, I always make a bee-line (that's for you Ian :) ) for you new posts Jon. I will confess, while I recognise the economy in your repeat playings with different audiences, I'm not usually tempted to read the repeats. But others clearly are. Given your achievements in creating an international gaming network for remote games, I do sometimes worry you may have burdened yourself with having to ensure everyones "go" at the scenario is fully reported and so your reports are harder work. But maybe that ain't so?
Quote from: Erpingham on September 20, 2023, 04:53:17 PMQuoteI often wonder if the reports are actually worth the effort.
Well, I always make a bee-line (that's for you Ian :) ) for you new posts Jon. I will confess, while I recognise the economy in your repeat playings with different audiences, I'm not usually tempted to read the repeats. But others clearly are. Given your achievements in creating an international gaming network for remote games, I do sometimes worry you may have burdened yourself with having to ensure everyones "go" at the scenario is fully reported and so your reports are harder work. But maybe that ain't so?
Interesting stuff can occur in these repeated playings not seen in the first game. I certainly see and appreciate your position that reading follow-up reports on the same battle can produce diminishing returns. For the players in these games, this does not hold since the game in which they participate is usually the most valued. Often these players read the other versions to see if they performed better or worse than either consensus or expectations.
Your last point offers up an astute observation. Perhaps it is the frequency that makes the effort burdensome? With one or two games
per month, the efforts are not compressed into such tight turn-arounds. When the games (and reports) are ticking off at one, two, or even three games
per week, well, I may run out of breath. Why do I attempt to chronicle each encounter? Besides my own enjoyment in chronicling the game, I write the reports as a token of appreciation to the players who have made the time and effort to participate and engage. For me, it is a courtesy.
Why do others write battle reports?
For me, it's a form of story telling. Like reading a book or watching a movie.
Interesting observation, Imperial Dave.
The comparison to book reading and or movie watching made me think about the various roles one might take with regard to wargame reports.
If you are reading a book, this strikes me as active and engaged. You are creating images in your mind based on the words read on the page. You are making connections (something taught in schools, especially in Language Arts classes). Watching a movie impresses as a rather more passive role. The burden is on the director and stars and extras. Sight and sound come to the front. Imagination appears to take a back seat.
Reading a book and watching a film, one can become emotionally involved with the story, and with a character or characters. I would be surprised to find that this kind of emotional involvement occurred while reading wargame reports.
I will almost end with a work-in-progress question that may or may not generate further discussion.
Would the hobby be better, worse, or the same if there were no battle reports?
I will end with a remark about the impact the book Wargame Tactics (by the Charles Grant) has had on me.
It contains history and observations along with a number of battle reports. None of these reports include full page pictures of masses of miniatures being moved about on sculpted terrain. (There are a few simple B&W maps though.) Admitting a certain degree of bias here, I should think that any of these reports stands up to and holds its own against anything one might find on a blog or in one of the recent glossy and full-color (sorry, colour) magazines.
yes, that resonates with me too.
A well written account of a battle engages me and allows me to imagine the cut and thrust. A well illustrated account allows me to admire the position and movements within the battle.
Obviously both elements are important and I would like equally good bits for me personally
Interesting thoughts, Chris. A suggestion, given your interest in digging into old Slingshots.There is a battle report in there somewhere called "How I killed the Saxon King". Early 80s I think. It represents a battle report told as a story. This was quite a favourite style in the old days and did fit with a more "character rich" style of gaming, used by Bath, Grant and Featherstone and their admirers. I remember HIKTSK as the last major one of these in Slingshot, but I could be wrong. Since then we have perhaps moved to a more clinical style, focussing on how the game worked as a simulation, or how the rules work or just how it went as a game. Now, to be clear, the Old School story style could be dire, as everyone wanted to impersonate their favourite historical authors without the talent to do so.* But done well, by people like Charles Grant, they entertained well enough. As I said in another thread on the topic of battle reports, well-written is the key in any style. Some of the more clinical style are dull, self-indulgent and fail to illustrate or analyse successfully. But well written ones, that entertain, ask and answer questions - yes, always happy to read those.
Readers can judge where my efforts at reporting lie, but I think the the influence of the Featherstone style can still be detected, even if I aim more towards the modern style these days.
*Was HIKTSK a good one? Honestly, can't remember - it's been 40 years. But I do remember it, perhaps for the line drawings as much as anything else.
I will dig it out and read with interest Anthony
Thanks for the compliment, Anthony. :-[
Yes, it appears that when not trying to deal with other matters outside of the comparatively insulated and fractious wargaming world, I have, of late, relied upon the electronic stacks of ancient Slingshots for ideas and or inspiration. (I suppose I could refer to that pile of information as a version of my "lead mountain." It's there; it's noticeable, and so forth. Then again, there's no better half to give me grief about it, and additions to its altitude are subject to the vagaries of submissions and the energy of the current editor.)
I will make an effort to look for the Saxon King article. Thanks for the suggestion.
Your analysis of the "clinical" or current style seems spot on. Again, I cannot help but think about Aaron Bell's Taxonomy of Reports and wonder if this excellent work needs to be revised and or expanded.
Interested in the shifting levels of interest in this hobby, I wonder if 10 or 15 years from now, these "clinical" reports might be replaced by something else.
To be certain, this is a visual hobby. Harkening back to the 1970s books by the Charles Grant, aside from the few B&W maps, there were no other visual aids. It was all left to the "partnership" of author and reader to paint (pun unintended) the picture of what the tabletop looked like.
The employment of miniatures (no matter the scale - but some may argue this point) helps with the suspension of disbelief, of course. One feels that they are commanding a horde of Huns if there are tactile, miniature Hunnic warriors "riding" to and fro on flocked bases on a landscaped tabletop. And it's been remarked upon in numerous blog posts as well as previous discussion threads on this larger forum that we often litter our carefully made and costly tabletops with various detritus that some believe detracts from the visual impression we are striving for.
I will end with this tangential note: Thinking about wargame reports and the readers of same and customer service in the business or "real" world. I understand that many more people will vent about poor service than good. I think the ratio may be as high as 10-1. Is there a comparable ratio with blog posts and journal articles, etc.? More often than not, I think readers will simply choose not to say/type anything. Which, in some tangential fashion, goes back to a point or two made my Jon Freitag in his post about the worthiness of battle reports.
Thanks again for the suggestion about the death of that Saxon King.