Late Republican Rome vs Carthage with Optio

[Justin Swanton]

Using figures this time. The battle is ahistorical but at least it looks pretty. A Roman expeditionary force lands in North Africa and a Carthaginian army is dispatched to teach it swimming lessons in the Med. Pdf here. Enjoy!

[Erpingham]

Another good report Justin - attractive, clear, concise.  I was surprised by the amount of manouevering, especially the cavalry.

[Imperial Dave]

could be used for Slingshot!

[Justin Swanton]

Another good report Justin - attractive, clear, concise.  I was surprised by the amount of manouevering, especially the cavalry.

Thanks Anthony.    Cavalry can move from one flank to the other in about 2 turns, which is what I wanted using Cannae as a benchmark. The danger is that, practically speaking, they must do it in column, as only columns can double-move, giving the cav 6 squares' movement each turn. But if you double-move in column you can't form line in that turn, and columns fare very badly if charged, so you can move your column as close to the enemy as you like but it is really risky to do so. It is quite possible for one cavalry unit to rout another in column with a single charge, especially if the charging unit has a general/commander with it to give a combat bonus.

At the other end of the scale you have heavy infantry, the worst being the unwieldy class. These can't form column and can't turn 90 degrees (which would disorder them) unless there is enemy on their flank. All they can really do is lumber forwards, moving diagonally as necessary. Which is exactly what they did historically.

[Justin Swanton]

could be used for Slingshot!

Got the hint. Do you want to use it as is or do I need to dust it down a little, say with an intro on Optio?

[Imperial Dave]

A little intro and I can do the rest 

[dwkay57]

Yes, the Roman right flank cavalry seemed to possess very swift horses and also a degree of telepathy the way they veered about rather than follow what I assume was their initial orders.

[Justin Swanton]

Yes, the Roman right flank cavalry seemed to possess very swift horses and also a degree of telepathy the way they veered about rather than follow what I assume was their initial orders.

Yes. I'm trying to strike a balance between a rigid orders system and player flexibility. Players want C&C realism and they want to be able to do what they like with their units. It's a square circle.

Right now command and control works like this: commanders have a variable command rating marked on their figure bases. A blue counter with numbers from 1 to 8 is placed behind the commander figure. At the beginning of the game the counter is set to the number that corresponds to that commander's command rating. A bad commander has a rating of 1, a good commander 4 or so. The commander is placed with a unit he cannot leave for the duration of the game unless that unit routs. He may advance forwards or diagonally with his unit as far as he pleases. If however his unit changes direction - either turning right, left or about - the commander turns with it and loses a command number. So an original number of 3 drops to 2, 2 drops to 1 and so on.

Once the number drops to 0 the blue counter is removed and a round counter the same colour as that command (commands are colour coded) is placed in the battlefield square with the commander. Henceforward he may move normally only 2 squares from that square if he is an infantry commander and 4 squares if he is a cavalry commander. If he moves beyond the 2 or 4 square limit he may move only 1 square per turn unless his unit charges an enemy unit.

This system gives cavalry commanders a lot of flexibility. Choose commanders with a command rating of at least 2 and they can redeploy from one flank to the other without a problem - as did their historical counterparts. But they can't change direction too often or they run out of command numbers and are stuck in that area of the battlefield. The player has to have a plan for them from the outset. Seems to work OK.

[dwkay57]

Yes it is a bit of a square circle Justin.

Playing solo gives me an advantage in keeping to orders and limiting reaction to visible events or messages received.

Was that your first win against Peter?

[Justin Swanton]

Yes it is a bit of a square circle Justin.

Playing solo gives me an advantage in keeping to orders and limiting reaction to visible events or messages received.

Was that your first win against Peter?

I've won before but he is a good player. In the game after this he squeaked a narrow victory. We also play Memoir a lot - he discovered wargaming a year ago and splurged R10,000 on pretty much every Memoir set out there. Memoir is OK but it keeps reminding me why I created Optio.

[stevenneate]

We play a fair bit of Memoir. Good fun on a Friday night. The dice create uncertainty but that's war isn't it?  The trick is to co-ordinate your movements and attacks so that the dice balance in your favour. Uncoordinated or lone attacks usually end in failure and defeat, dice or not.

[Justin Swanton]

We play a fair bit of Memoir. Good fun on a Friday night. The dice create uncertainty but that's war isn't it?  The trick is to co-ordinate your movements and attacks so that the dice balance in your favour. Uncoordinated or lone attacks usually end in failure and defeat, dice or not.

Fog of war creates uncertainty and dice do not IMHO replicate it. But Memoir does have a decent skill factor.

This is my new logo BTW. Go Rocinante!

[Erpingham]

So, you identify with a tragic hero, engaged in a futile battle?  Interesting 

[Justin Swanton]

So, you identify with a tragic hero, engaged in a futile battle?  Interesting 

He made the history books (well, novels).