Early Franks vs Early Vandals

[Chris]

Early Franks vs Early Vandals


Inspiration:
A follow up to my last blog post about Warbands, though this particular scenario does push the 'reviewed' time frame forward a bit in addition to featuring two armies that were not the focus of my amateur and initial consideration. Although the following is a solo wargame as well as a fictional engagement, it appears to fall safely within the historical match up category. As evidence, I submit the 'Wargame Possibilities' section of Simon MacDowall's first-rate article, "Wargaming With Vandals" [July/August 2017 issue of Slingshot].

Rules: To The Strongest! (Version 1.1) - supplemented by Even Stronger V10

Table Size:
Long-sides = 18 squares; depth = 8 squares, so 144 squares in terms of total area.
At 4 inches per side, this meant a playing surface of 72 inches by 32 inches.

Terrain:
Rather open and flat, having just 5 pieces of 'randomly' placed terrain. There were two gentle or low hills, occupying 7 total squares of the tabletop. There were three pieces of rough terrain: two woods taking up a total of 3 squares, and a patch of scrub, which because of its orientation, affected 4 squares. Another decorative piece was positioned on the Frankish starting line. Its purpose was to break up the monochromatic appearance of the plain where this contest was to be fought.   

Opposing Armies:
A force of Early Franks, with a few units of Thuringian allies, was drafted from the 'Early Franks 250 CE - 600 CE list, provided in the 'LATE ANTIQUITY' catalog. They mustered 6 divisions containing 24 units. The majority of these were tribal infantry (i.e., warriors - deep, shock missile). As to points value and VMs, the Early Franks had 276 and 76, which gave them a morale tipping point of 25 VMs lost to the enemy.

A decent-size army of Early Vandals was selected from this same 2017 catalog. They were assisted by a small group of Ostrogoths. They also deployed 24 units in 5 divisions. Like their counterparts, most of these formations were warbands (i.e., warriors - deep), but they also had three-times as many cavalry units. With regard to game-play strengths, the Early Vandals had 245 points and 71 VMs, so a morale tipping point of 23.6, rounded up to 24.

Deployments:
The Vandals deployed on the near side of the tabletop and in a more or less conventional manner. Their Nobles were stationed on the right flank/wing, while the smattering of Alan light cavalry were placed on the far left. An impressive line of warbands filled the space between, with the Ostrogoths being on the left, near the Alans. A supporting 'division' of Vandals was positioned behind the Alans and Ostrogoths.

The Franks countered by placing their Nobles on their left. Their 16 units of infantry were arranged in the center, where there was an overlap in the approximate center of the line so that four units of warriors were reinforced by another four units. The Thuringians were assigned to the far right, so these foot units would have to negotiate one of the hills as well as deal with the Alans, Ostrogoths, and supporting Vandals.

Summary:
A fairly straightforward struggle if also sometimes a bit of a slog, as the centers of each army engaged in a battle of attrition. First blood of the day was scored in the cavalry contest on the Vandal right. First VMs of the day were won by some Frankish skirmishers who destroyed an enemy unit of skirmishers. The cavalry  battle on the Vandal right continued for most of the engagement. The Vandals were not able to complete a flanking attack due to poor chip draws (in one instance, three Aces were drawn in succession!) and the Franks having other ideas. On the Frankish right, the Thuringian command pressured the Alan light cavalry back some ways until interrupted by some Vandals and Ostrogoths. There was heavy fighting, again, all across the field by this time. On rare occasion, a hole was made in the opposing line, but no great advantage resulted. The Vandal cavalry had been effectively countered, so a shift was made to the other flank. Here, the Thuringians were hard pressed by a group of Vandals, even though their commander had been lost in one of the hard-fought melees. A succession of flank attacks finally bore fruit, witnessing the destruction of a heavily damaged unit of Thuringians, which led to the rout of an equally weakened neighboring unit. This local disaster removed the 6 VMs left in the Frankish account. The Vandals still had 10 VMs in their 'vault.'

Evaluation:
As expected, this was an attritional battle. Although the mechanics are different from other sets (both popular and those being more niche), it seems safe to remark that any contest between deep foot units will take some time to resolve. On that point, this solo wargame took 9 turns, which were played over the course of three days. As to total time, approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes was spent drawing chips, moving units, conducting attacks and striking back, adjusting VM accounts, and then typing brief notes about what happened during a turn or turns.

On immediate reflection and review, terrain did not feature prominently in the contest. The Frankish ability to throw 'shock missiles' did not play a great role either, as most of these offensive or defensive volleys missed the mark. Embedded heroes were only successful on a few occasions. As intimated in the summary, this was a rather straightforward and I would suggest fairly historical battle. There were no 'fanciful moves or strategies' employed. As both sides consisted mostly of large infantry formations, these units would do and did do most of the fighting. It was ironic that the Vandal 'plan' to turn the Frankish left with cavalry was undone, and replaced by success against the Thuringians on the Frankish right.

Even though an attritional and simple contest, there was plenty of opportunity for tactical decision making. For example, when foot units had been disordered twice, there was an obvious risk in continuing to attack, as defenders might be able to score that last hit. However, both sides were often hamstrung by good activation draws and then failed to draw the 8s, 9s, or 10s needed to inflict damage by disordered units. It was also interesting and entertaining to see plans falter in one area or sector, and then have the 'winds of Fortune' shift in another part of the tabletop. When attention was concentrated there, those same 'winds' would blow across another part of the model field. Anyway.

Other Notes that may or may not be of Interest:
> Did not use regular-size or smaller playing cards. Did not employe 10-sided dice. Instead, drew from two containers, each having 100 small poker chips of a dedicated color. There were 10 Aces, 10 "2s," 10 "3s," 10 "4s," etc.

> No stratagems were employed.

> Did not have any camps on the tabletop. My focus and interest is on the battle. By way of explanation, I figured the respective camps were about 1 to 1.5 miles behind the lines.

> Decided not to adhere strictly to the 'free zone' rule regarding the short-edges of the model battlefield. For example, the Vandals deployed in 17 of the available 18 squares. The Franks did the same, arranging units all the way to 'earth's end' on their right.

> Referencing the introduction to the army lists catalog, "The lists are designed to produce armies in the 100-160 point range." Decided, as explained above, to field forces with a strength of 245 and 276, respectively. This unusual or atypical size did not appear to significantly increase the time required or to detract from play.

> The scenario could be favorably compared to the small picture on bottom right of page 6, showing "improvised armies" and a few pieces of simple, representative terrain. It could also be severely contrasted to this more acceptable and admired work of hobby art: https://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2015/06/to-strongest-proper-game.html




 

[CarlL]

Interesting to hear how others play out TtS games, historical or fictional.

CarlL