After the last round of playtests I had a bit of a think. I wanted to make the game a bit more 'heroic' and reduce the chance of appalling dice throws scuppering the Macedonian player. I was also very taken with Shaun Travers idea about restricting the deployment of reserves. So off we go again.
Back to Granicus. For this iteration I'm using restricted reserves for the Persians. So they deploy in a sector in the second line, but can only reinforce the same sector or an adjacent sector in the front line. The Macedonians are unrestricted - their army is smaller and they are commanded by Alexander the Great!
The first round is pretty successful for the Macedonians. The entire Persian front line is wiped out. I put the Peltasts up against the Horse Archers to avoid their horrible bonuses against melee infantry, and otherwise just relied on the Companions and Pikes to clear the Persian cavalry. The Persians have put their mercenaries up against the Pikes and pushed both their reserve archers up. Foot Archers are good against melee cavalry. Oh dear!
Another tweak I'm using is that Alexander is allowed to make one re-roll per turn, on any dice. He has to do it immediately for any given sector combat. Think of it as leading a charge or rallying the troops. So when the Persian archers rolled a '6' against the Companions, it was time for a re-roll.
The re-rolled Archers missed and were duly annihilated in melee by the Companions. The Pikes defeated the mercenaries and the Peltast/Archer skirmish was inconclusive.
The Persians committed their last infantry to the line, but with their centre broken, they fled the field. That is another tweak, the Persians are defeated if their Army is reduced to two elements or less, I found in playtesting that once a gap appears, the army has almost certainly had it anyway due to outflanking, so it is quicker to end there. The Macedonians can still hang on with one unit, as they are Macedonians and it is a very long way home.
Back to Issus. The Persians have an infantry front line for this one (Archers and Kardakes) , so Alexander also led with his infantry, cavalry in reserve.
The Macedonian Pikes and Hoplites succeed in routing their Persian opponents, forcing the Persians to commit their cavalry and mercenaries. Alexander has to rally the Peltasts though as they lose their fight with the Persian archers. I really don't want to put Macedonian cavalry up against archers again.
Things suddenly go south, despite Alexanders personal intervention, the Macedonian pike block is routed! Once again the battle of the light troops is inconclusive, but the Macedonian hoplites rout the Persian cavalry. Just goes to show that even with the tweaks, the Macedonians can come unstuck.
Alexander commits the Companions to the centre.
The next round of combat brings the Persians down to two elements as the Companions break through, and it is time for Darius to run away with Alex on his heels.
Finally Gaugamela. As before I tried to avoid putting melee infantry up against the Persian horse archers, instead the Macedonian front line is the Companions and Peltasts against the Horse Archers, and the Pike phalanx against the Scythed Chariots.
The Persian horse archers defeat the Peltasts, Alexander doesn't intervene as the Companions are more important, and the Companions and Pikes are victorious. The Thessalians go in against the Horse Archers from reserve, another tweak I've made is to rate the Thessalians as 'Ferocious'. The Persians cunningly put their reserve archers against the Companions, the Immortals take the centre against the Pikes.
Despite Alexanders personal leadership, the Companions are shot down! To add insult to injury, the Thessalinas completely fail to rout the horse archers, fortunately the latter miss with their arrow volleys.
It all rests on the Phalanx now.
Alexander is forced to rally the Thessalians from a successful Persian charge, but the Phalanx makes no error and breaks the Persian centre. Darius legs it back to Bactria.
I was pleased with that. I liked the changes to the Persians, it made them less flexible and more brittle, which is how they seemed to be irl. The great success was Alexanders re-rolls, they really added something to the narrative feel, and although it is a powerful bonus, I was pleased that on two occasions he failed as it adds some jeopardy to the experience.
The lower breakpoint for the Persians saved some play time, but I think the decisions around whether or not to use Alexander to re-roll added to it, so in the end the three battles took 15 minutes to play. I'd rather have some decisions about where to use a General than another round of combat though.
I think that is ready to try with the Tuesday regulars now.
I like your rules tweaks Martin, especially the one for a Heroic leader - if you're fielding a Hero he may as well have a bonus I think.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Ancient warfare lends itself to heroes!
DeleteGetting a historical result for Alexandrian Macedonians v Persians is difficult in most rules. IIRC, the only set I've seen that weighted things in the Macedonian favour was Shieldbearer (v3 IIRC) where the factors for Companions were sky high in comparison to Persian cavalry for example.
ReplyDeleteGetting the balance right is hard.
Neil
If the rules are just based on element counts, then yes. If they take unit and leader quality. Into account, then it should be possible to do. Both Lost Battles and Command and Colours Ancients manage it, in their very particular ways! I do like to LB concept of the "brilliant general", with a once per game amazing intervention (flipping the initiative) . Phil Barker included much the same thing in Horse, Foot and Guns.
DeleteI like your tweaks. I'm thinking the loss of A heroic leader should spell curtains for his army though. Maybe, if the unit he is leading is eliminated a 50-50 chance he is killed, captured or mortally wounded and his army breaks?
ReplyDeleteThe re roll capability is pretty high powered, but in a participation game the player needs to have a decent chance. In a more normal competitive game (or solo) I might tone it down a bit to one or two re rolls, depending on leader ability, and Introduce leader risk. Roll a 1 on your re roll and bad things may happen. Pretty standard stuff, but as noted above, I think heroic leaders have a place in Ancient warfare. You could always just borrow the 'rally' mechanism from the Pike and Shot game of course.
DeleteI'm currently playing the Dominion games with A modified version of my 3x3 general rules. At the start of a players turn they must place their General in one of the three front line sectors or in the reserve, where they remain until the players next turn. If with the reserve they may attempt to rally a lost unit, only one attempt per unit per game. If in the front line they give the unit they are with A +1 bonus in combat. If that unit is eliminated roll 1d6 on a 1 the general is lost as well, either killed, captured or badly wounded. This works well for me.
DeleteThat sounds good, I particularly like the reserve/rally suggestion. For Alexander the Brief I was tempted to make the player place him somewhere, it was something we discussed in play testing. Speed won out over more decisions.
DeleteGiven the casualty rate amongst generals who joined in the fighting, I would be tempted to increase the 1 for the general being lost to at least 1 or 2 if not even more!
ReplyDeleteOh, for mere mortals I roll for every combat, win or lose with A 1 in 6 chance of being hit, but heroes are made of sterner stuff ( or maybe favored by the gods.).😁
DeleteYes, in all my rules, leaders participating in combat isn't a risk free option. But demigods are made of sterner stuff! No-one ever made Achilles take a 'risk roll'.
DeleteHello Martin,
ReplyDeleteExcellent striping back to make the game as fast and a simple as possible but still capture the feel of ancient battles. And some good rules tweaks as well.
Thanks. I'm very grateful for your suggestion re reserves, it makes a real difference to the gameplay.
DeleteOne could probably make the case that if a general joins a unit (perhaps allow bonus to attack OR to defence) then they lose awareness and control of the overall battle so can no longer choose a Sector for combat but just roll a dice when it is their chance to choose: 1-2 Combat in Left Sector 3-4 Centre 5-6 Right Sector.
ReplyDeleteSteve