Pharsalus at Pacificon

[willb]

Pharsalus was refought at the Pacificon Game Expo this past Labor Day Weekend.   Battle report and photos at
http://18clovehamhock.blogspot.com/2016/09/pharsalus-at-pacificon.html

[Patrick Waterson]

Poor old Caesar!  This could be a clue as to why historically he tended to lead from the rear, but then again so did most Roman generals.

Still, it looks as if the battle was going more or less historically for all the right reasons when he unexpectedly bit the gladius.  Was this a Scutarii game, Bill, and if so how did the players feel about the rules?

[Chris]

I think the coming issue of Slingshot includes a report on Pharsalus by Mr. Butler. The one in Number 307 is with Scutarii rules. From the looks of this one (10-sided dice and formation cards, etc.), I think this was fought with Scutarii.

"Tended" drew my attention there, Patrick. I believe the great man did, on occasion, pick up a weapon, a join in the fray. I don't have the sources at hand to cite, unfortunately, but he was a soldiers' general; he was familiar with what it was like to be in actual combat, continuous or interrupted.

Thanks for posting notice and link, William. Saw it over at TMP. Well done!

Chris

[willb]

Thanks for the compliment Chris.   To answer Patrick's questions.   Yes it was Scutarii.   The players did like it with some having participated in previous games that I have run at Pacificon.   While Caesar's army is outnumbered almost 5:4 in units and Pompey's army has a higher point value  the better morale quality of Caesar's army tends to offset Pompey's advantages.  The losses that  most of the units that were now in the back rank of Pompey's army made reduced their morale to the point where they were unfit for further combat while Caesar's army only had a few units that were depleted.

[Patrick Waterson]

Thanks, Bill.

Sounds as if it was pretty much like the real thing, with player input (Julius going up front once too often) making sufficient impact to avoid a repeat of the historical result which the reasonably accurate recreation of the historical forces would have otherwise made likely.  In brief, a system with promise.

[willb]

Thanks, Patrick.  From what I observed during the three times that I have run the battle, if the players running Caesar's army had kept their cavalry further back or once engaged had pulled their cavalry back they would have been able to duplicate Caesar's flank attack against Pompey's cavalry followed by flanking Pompey's infantry line.  Instead, Caesar's cavalry held its ground and the arriving cohorts engaged Pompey's cavalry frontally.  This resulted in one draw with both armies exhausted and two losses for Caesar.