Wednesday 28 September 2016

The Battle of Cibalae - To The Strongest

The Auxilia look keen to make the pretender from the east pay a heavy price.
Last night provided we very keen TTS gamers another opportunity to try a few new things with our favourite ancients ruleset - Simon Millers "To The Strongest". 


Following on from last weeks games we decided to play an historical battle on Guido's urging.  The game chose was the Battle of Cibalae fought in 314AD between the two Roman Emperors at the time: Constantine and Licinius.



The excellent Command and Colours map of the battle


Peter (Guido) has tried for many years to get the lads to take up playing Command and Colours at the club however simply replacing the blocks for actual wargames figures.  We can say that his endeavours have had limited success.  However he has always espoused the wonderful resource for battles that the C & C provides.  Since Late Romans were in abundance at the club we decided to have a two a side battle to see how we all fared.


The set-up was pretty much as the map indicated.  In the absence of correctly sized impassable terrain for
the table we simply turned over some old club river sections.  Apologies for the aesthetic look
but it did serve the purpose until we get our terrain organised a bit better to fit the 150mm grids.


Guidos command looks at an extended line of Light Cavalry and Auxilia


We were a bit short of Roman LC so Steven's Huns had to stand in!


The Romans in the centre look reasonably well deployed and confident






Love this unit of Steve's - Wargames Foundry with a couple of Gripping Beast thrown in as well.


Martin's lovely Gripping Beast Romans which have lain dormant for years.  Now out twice in a fortnight!

Need to finish the bases of my Roman light infantry with bow

Some intricate and fortunate manoeuvring finds my cavalry well positioned early in the piece

Some excellent evading and counter-charging sees Constantine's cavalry in a superior position on the right as
indeed they were in the original battle.

The legio in the foreground is part of a small reserve that has seen an opportunity to exploit the centre

Huns lay on the flank but drawing 1's on your chits will do that to you!

Some unfortunately positioned light cavalry get enveloped

The only thing better than activating on two successive 10's...

...is doing it to follow up combat whilst on the lank of a weak enemy.  Sorry lads.

The Roman lance armed Equites now dispatch the enemy legio and see the camp undefended.

The centre of Constantine's forces press forward to attempt to hammer home the advantage

We had several queries on evades.  The poor old legio on this occasion had the Equites evade to the rear and then
activate to flank them on the next turn.  In my opinion an example of mounted out-manoeuvring foot.. We have
asked young Simon for a clarification to make sure we are doing it correctly.

A view from the lines Licinius

Three Victory Medals are only a grid away

Guido refuses the flank beautifully on Constantine's left to help anchor the battle lines.


Once again we had a wonderful time and enjoyed the battle, the game and each others company tremendously.


Another game next week where the Sassanids may get a nice outing against the Romans this time.



17 comments:

  1. Looks like a great game and good fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Thank you Paul. The games are playing well, real swings and roundabouts in momentum and that us what makes a wargame so much fun. We are very much enjoying these rules.

      Delete
  2. That is a great looking game! Well run BatRep too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jonathon - the scenario was excellent and the game was played in great spirit!

      Delete
  3. Nice to see the Late Romans getting an extended busy time over there in Perth. Perhaps Western Australia is about to become a Roman protectorate? All hail Carlo Augustus!! Just watch your back ... and front ... ... ... and both sides. 8O))

    Salute
    von Peter himself

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Peter - yes the WESTERN empire find very well last night as they did historically. Great to see the Romans on the field as much as we have managed in recent weeks as they are fun to wargame. Probably taking out my Sassanids this week for a change.

      Delete
  4. Awesome display of figures/units and game! Thanks for sharing!

    cheers,

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great stuff - another good-looking game

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers C and really pleased you enjoyed the report.

      Delete
  6. Thanks for the use of your wonderful figures Carlo, it was a great game. Plenty of laughs which is what it is all about, helped that we had great opponents in Steve and Martin. Looking forward to the next game.
    Guido.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Absolutely mate - Steve and. Marty were great fun.

      Delete
  7. Fine looking game, and of course I share your enthusiasm for To the Strongest!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Peter - as you know from your wonderful games it plays well, a few small anomalies which Simon helps sort out straight away, and is aesthetically unsurpassed in terms of units and the mini-dioramas the basing lends itself to. We di need to get cracking on some decent properly sized terrain pieces though so I might need to get cracking this weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Carlo,
    Looks great, I really need to push myself into having some more games with these rules.
    Graham

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Graham and great to see you pop by mate. They are very enjoyable rules which are eminently "realistic" in their play and look. You have an excuse though for not playing to many TTS games mate - wargaming with the hobbies royalty as you have been :-)

      Delete