Valentinus and Mongo

I switched to some different models for a quick Munera Sine Missione test game this evening - the retiarius Valentinus and the myrmillo Mongo. I had planned to use the half an hour I had to run through a couple of games, but the one bout filled most of it, and the two fighters danced from one end of the arena to the other. Valentinus tired more quickly; he was able to keep at a range and make constant net and trident attacks, whilst Mongo couldn't close fast enough to get in a good strike with his sword. He was netted once, but struggled free and, when netted again, sliced the net to pieces, rendering it useless. Valentinus managed to get around his unshielded side and cause a nasty wound, but neither gladiator could finish the other off. In the end I had to create a rule on the fly for the referee ending the bout if both gladiators are exhausted, which I will look at developing further to cover exhausted gladiators accruing more fatigue knowing that there will be no additional penalties.

Gladiatrices

Thanks to some prompting from Victor, I got out my gladiators this evening, for the first time in well over a year. It was a reminder that, as always, there's still more tinkering to be done with 'Munera Sine Missione'; in this case it was to try out some thoughts Victor has on how weapons with a long reach work.

My usual test with any changes is to run through a few bouts between a Retiarius and a Secutor type; if the matchup gives a 50/50 split of wins then it's probably all good.

So here are Medusa the Retiarius and Achillia the Myrmillo. I ran though four bouts this evening. I would have done more, but we binged a pile of Gotham episodes, I had to print off a copy of the rules and, I admit, I played slowly because I'd forgotten how the game worked. Still, it's like riding a bike. Or I assume it is; I never really got the hang of bike-riding.

Strangely after even four bouts I'm beginning to think Victor's change has merit. However poor Medusa didn't do too well; in two bouts she was knocked down and had to appeal to the crowd (who failed to spare her) and in one bout she was simply killed outright. This was mostly due to utterly appaling rolls for Action Points on her part, combined with good ones on the part of Achillia. That, and the fact that if Medusa did manage an attack, she promptly tripped over doing it. The fourth bout saw her badly wounded but putting up an incredible fight, netting Achillia and running rings around her. But Achillia rolled armour saves like a woman possessed, and Medusa couldn't manage to finish her before exhaustion set in. Achillia had trouble cutting free of the net, and eventually her wounds saw her exhausted as well, so the referee called it a draw.

I'll try a few more games tomorrow evening if I get chance.

Maipo Again

I played another refight of Maipo this afternoon. With next door deciding to pressure-wash their driveway and the house over the road trying to offset the noise with some 'tunes' I wouldn't say my concentration was at its best, but I gave it a good go.

Here's the armies set up. I went for an ahistorical deployment, sticking the Chilean infantry on the Patriot right and the Argentinians on the left. The far left of the Patriot army was covered by the Horse Grenadiers. The Royalists were in a standard deployment; some infantry and artillery on the isolated hill, their cavalry covering their right flank and the elite infantry in the centre.

The Patriot plan of attack was to lead with the Horse Grenadiers, advance the Argentinians against the centre and hold back the more vulnerable Chileans, simply using them to cover against any advance by the Royalist left

It was a plan which relied on the Horse Grenadiers sweeping all before them. The aim was to inflict all of the casualties required to win on the Royalist right by setting up flank attacks. But first the Royalist cavalry had to be eliminated.

The Royalist cavalry held, and some of their infantry swung around to aid them.

The Horse Grenadiers fought their way out of the sticky situation initially, eliminating some Royalist cavalry ...

... but losing some Horse Grenadiers to the flanking infantry.

The Argentinian infantry was now in position and engaging the Royalists with musketry. However without the decisive cavalry attack coming in from the flank the Royalists held firm.

San Martin ordered an advance by the bulk of the Chilean infantry. Their columns drove back the Royalist left.

However the attack on the Royalist right was still stalled, the centre was basically unopposed and now the Royalists on the extreme left were advancing on the exposed Chilean flank.

San Martin ordered a bayonet attack down the line. This broke some Royalists, but the rest rallied and held.

The Royalist left counterattacked, and the Chileans were shattered, falling back.

Meanwhile the Royalist right held firm. The Patriots actually only had to destroy two more elements to win the battle, but couldn't quite finish them off.

The Royalist line reformed, looking as strong as ever.

One last Patriot attack failed to break them, and the loss of another element of infantry took them over their breakpoint, giving the Royalists the victory.

The Patriot plan was a bold one, relying on the cavalry winning quickly, and that didn't happen. Holding back the Chileans isn't a bad idea, as they are vulnerable to unlucky combat rolls. This is something I need to think about with these rules; militia can be very fragile and possibly too fragile. But changing it won't be as simple as I'd hoped.

Black Powder 3-2-1

Caesar got two games on Thursday evening. As well as the Maipo refight, he played Black Powder with Ralph, whilst I watched and took pictures.

This was a Black Powder 3-2-1 game, where both players have six units with fairly generic Napoleonic capabilities - three infantry, two cavalry and one artillery (hence 3-2-1) - on a small table with a simple objective. In this case it was to hold the walled enclosure in the centre of the table at the end of six turns. The enclosure could only be entered by infantry.

Here, Ralph explains to Caesar that, because he's using French, he will win very easily, n'est pas?

So, anyway, I flitted around taking pictures. I've just done a basic photography course, so I'm now trying to use my camera with all of the settings on manual. Please excuse any dubious pictures that resulted because of this.

To be honest I hadn't planned to write a blow-by-blow account of the action. It was Black Powder. Units whizzed around all over the place (well, the cavalry did). It was a wild adventure. But, basically, Caesar got some troops into the enclosure, who held it for most of the game whilst everything else went pear-shaped around them. They were routed out by artillery fire on the penultimate turn, but he managed to get one of his surviving infantry units into the enclosure to replace them, and Ralph completely failed to mount a last turn attack to oust them

So, simply enjoy these photos of two Black Powder players at the top of their game, and some beautiful 25mm figures.

Maipo 200

Today is the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Maipo, which basically secured Chile's independence from Spain, so obviously I decided that I would have to refight it.

I have, in fact, games it a few times, most of which are covered on this blog. Here's some links to the relevant posts:

Refight (Liberated Hordes)
Refight (Liberated Hordes)
Refight (Liberated Hordes)
Refight (Rocket's Red Glare)

For those not in the know, here's a brief history.

For a start, everything I've read for the past few years has called it the Battle of Maipú. However I've called it Maipo for the past 20 years and I'm going to stick to that.

Anyway, in February 1817, José de San Martín led an army across the Andes, defeated the Spanish  and captured Santiago. This is the campaign that includes the battle of Chacabuco, which I've refought a few times before. Look it up. I'll wait.

San Martin set Bernardo O'Higgins up as the Supreme Director of Chile and, a year after Chacabuco, O'Higgins declared Chile independent. However, the Spanish viceroyalty sent an army to Santiago under General Osorio and the Patriot armies were defeated at the Battle of Cancha Rayada in March 1818. After their defeat, the Patriots regrouped, rebuilt their army in a matter of days, and eventually numbered about about 6,000 men, a mixture of Argentinians and Chilean patriots.

Meanwhile, Gen. Osorio realised that he had not defeated the Patriot army conclusively at Cancha Rayada, and moved against them. They met south of Santiago, at Maipo.

Both armies formed up on ridges, facing each other across a valley. The Patriots outnumbered the Royalists, but their army was less experienced and was still recovering from the earlier defeat at Cancha Rayada. In addition the Royalist army contained a regiment of Spanish veterans from the Peninsular campaign.

After an ineffective artillery bombardment, San Martin advanced against the Royalists on both flanks,  and drove back their left. The Royalists counterattacked, mostly in the centre where their better troops were stationed, but the Patriots held and pushed them back. The solid Spanish units held off attack after attack but eventually gave ground, and Osorio fled the field. His successor managed to rally part of the army, but it was too late and the Patriots forced them to surrender, winning a decisive victory.

As I have done many times before, I used my Liberated Hordes HOTT variant for the refight, and my 6mm figures on 25mm frontage stands. This gives a teeny-tiny game with a massed battle look.

This is the terrain. The Royalists would set up to the right and the Patriots to the left. Some of the Royalists had to set up on the smaller hill in the foreground.

The Patriot army, a mix of regular and militia infantry with a solid striking force of elite cavalry.

The Royalist army; smaller, but with a core of elite infantry veterans.

And the deployment. Caesar took the Patriots, whilst I took the Royalists. Both armies had to set up entirely on their own ridge, except that the Royalists had to deploy three elements on the isolated hill. The Royalists deployed first.

Actually I think this is one of the first times I've tried this battle with a 'free' deployment, rather than replicating the historical setup.

The rather poor Royalist cavalry deployed on the right. In the distance you can see the Patriot cavalry deployed to advance and destroy them

Caesar simply used his artillery to cover his right. I advanced my isolated infantry towards it, hoping to turn the Patriot flank.

Caesar went for a classic attack; he formed his infantry up into columns and advanced as quickly as possible. The first exchanges of musketry saw losses on both sides. The low-quality Chilean infantry suffered particularly badly. However the Patriot artillery eliminated some of the infantry advancing against them.

Poor PIPs held the Patriot cavalry back at this stage. The Royalists stayed on the safety of the hill.

Caesar used San Martin's general bonus to push as many of his troops forward as possible, and broke up the Royalist line some more.

The Patriot cavalry attacked. One element of Royalist horse ran away instantly, but the other put up more of a fight, pushing back its opponent.

At this point the Royalist PIPs dried up, and their left flank was only able to mount a half-hearted attack on the Patriot right.

With his army falling back, the coward Osorio decided to quit the field. Marvellous.

This left the Royalists even more starved for PIPs and only one element away from defeat. Caesar launched attacks on two vulnerable Royalist units: the remaining cavalry and one of the units of Spanish regulars. Both elements saw off their opponents. Now was the time for the Royalist army to pull together and inflict enough damage on the Patriots to drive them off.

They rolled another '1' for PIPs, and for the second bound in a row none of the Royalist troops moved. Their cavalry couldn't hold out forever, and its loss broke the army giving the Patriots a win.

This was a pretty straightforward game, but we both enjoyed it. Once again the shaky quality of the Patriots made their attack risky, but the quality of the elite Horse Grenadiers saw them through. The Royalists have good troops poorly commanded, and spent a lot of the game in a state of command paralysis. If the same paralysis happens to the Patriots then the Royalists can pull off a win, but that didn't happen in this game.

So, for our 200th anniversary refight a Patriot win, securing the liberation of Chile, was the right result.