Conquerors and Kings (CK) Successors v Carthaginians

[martin]

Saturday  6th August at Southampton club.
Such a nice sunny day . None the less we got to fighting.

15mm.
300 point armies.
Successors versus Carthaginians.
Carthaginians won the pre game and decided to attack.

Must take some phots next time....

Carthaginians had  a load of close order infantry and an accompaniment of auxiliary and skirmishers. elephants too.
The successors had pikemen, some cavalry and  a big bunch of levy and other auxiliaries.

Scenery gave a couple of hills in both armies' start lines.

Out on the flank were some trees.

Start of game.
Attacking Carthaginians moved forwards in a big long line.
Defending successors suddenly sent armoured cavalry into the middle of that line.
The cavalry punched the line back in the middle, but then withdrew so as not to get surrounded. It did gain time for the defenders on the battle clock.
The Carthaginians re-closed the line and came on strong.

The successor flank started to fall apart due to Carthaginians Spaniards pressing them hard.

Suddenly some unexpected things happened.
Two pike units and support made a sally our from the successor line and smashed their Carthaginian opponents.
Having left the line they were assaulted in the flank by Carthaginian infantry.
Amazingly they beat the attack off.

This gave the successors the confidence to push forward.
The rest of the Carthaginian line also stopped in the face of skirmishing shooting.
Remarkable.

The Successors achieved a pretty big win due to the zones they controlled (worth about third of  victory points), kill D6 (amount of opponent bases killed) plus some other compensations and adjusts.

I will make the effort to get photos done next time as that would help a lot (sorry).

The game lasted about 10 turns. That gave us 5 turns each.

The fights take the form of a zone with all its contents fighting another zone with all its contents. This makes player careful about his troop combinations and stops individual units roaming about.
A best fighting zone would contain 3 good quality fighting units, a general and some skirmishers.
This can be tough to achieve with a game width of 6 zones.  The spread of units is also restricted by the need to provide zone on zone support.
Zones of mainly skirmishers can be very useful in flanking, taking zones and causing hassle.

Generals are very important in the slight extra they give to fights and morale.
Games take about 2 hours.


We enjoyed the to and fro, along with rapid game play (no measuring).
I feel the game was helped by their being two players per side.
It makes it more convivial and calming.
My purple D6 did very well.

More soon (with photos).
The rules are still being play tested and should be out for Christmas 2022.
This will be edition 2. Edition 1 = 1998.

Thanks.

martin

[Imperial Dave]

thanks Martin. I have a copy of the 1st edition rules so will be interested to see what the 2nd edition brings 

[Jim Webster]

I'm a little intrigued by pikes being about to beat off infantry who attack them in their flank. I know that with the zones it's not as simple as with DBx or similar. Indeed I could see the point of including other infantry in the zone, who were 'held back' but were available to support flanks.

[martin]

Hello Jim

By "flank" I mean that a group of units  attempted to strike the pike occupied zone from the side (flank).
It is not assumed that units stay stationary and look the wrong way whilst baddie units  charge them.
That would indeed be very strange, albeit common in rule sets.

It is assumed that units face attacks as best they can.
That is the job of captains, not the general (player).

However if there are enemy on two faces it becomes more important to face all comers as best as possible .
This compromise of facing is not a good idea and usually sorted out by falling back.
But in this case the  zone held and did beat off the attack. Which was great for them.


martin

[Jim Webster]

Hello Jim

By "flank" I mean that a group of units  attempted to strike the pike occupied zone from the side (flank).
It is not assumed that units stay stationary and look the wrong way whilst baddie units  charge them.
That would indeed be very strange, albeit common in rule sets.

It is assumed that units face attacks as best they can.
That is the job of captains, not the general (player).

However if there are enemy on two faces it becomes more important to face all comers as best as possible .
This compromise of facing is not a good idea and usually sorted out by falling back.
But in this case the  zone held and did beat off the attack. Which was great for them.


martin

I played a little of first edition so I wasn't thinking in DBx terms. I assume that the troops they'd beaten weren't in a fit state to pin them to the front?

[martin]

Yep
They assaulted and failed to do well.
A very lucky dice roll too but that what makes it a game.



martin