Conquerors & Kings - Warring States China

Loy, an old friend I have known for four decades joined us for a mid-week afternoon game of Conquerors & Kings. The two armies, wahj's Qin and my Zhao, were painted 17 years ago by the now-defunct DJD Miniatures, so this game was a long long time in making.

C&K does not have lists for Warring States Chinese armies, so I created two lists based on the Han Chinese list from the Army Book, and in any case the lists were limited by the figures we owned.

We set up the terrain using the rules from the book, and went at it. The Zhao had an advantage in cavalry, but the Qin had better and more infantry. Terrain placement went in the favour of the defender, and the Zhao sat pretty on a ridge, with rough hills guarding one of the flanks, while their cavalry deployed on the other, open flank.

wahj decided to settle the issue quickly by pushing his chariots up to meet teh Zhao cavalry, but they were defeated. He then tried to break the Zhao centre with his superior infantry before the Zhao cavalry could roll up his flank, while sending the fierce convinct swordsmen down the other, weaker flank, which was guarded by two units of archers and a unit of levy spears.

The plan almost worked: all along the line there was savage fighting, and a gap appeared in the Zhao centre. But Loy was prepared for this - using the Advance Tactic, he moved his Veteran foot he had held in reserve to plug the gap, and his cavalry was able to charge into the Qin flank.

While we were all impressed by the deployment of the Zhao reserve, we had only scorn for the Qin convict swordsmen, who failed their movement roll to exit the rough hills to attack the Zhao flank - I had given them Shock and the Erratic Tactic, so we were all looking forward to see how they would perform. Alas! we will have to wait for another day.

I apologise for the lack of photos and close-up of the figures - I was busy with running the game and making rounds of Chinese tea. This was the first time Loy had played these rules, and it is a testament of the system that he was able to grasp them quickly and secure a victory on his first outing.

There were still a couple of things I missed in the combat resolution, and I think I might make some widgets to help me remember them. The next C&K game I am planning will be a scenario game, but we will be playing something else next month.

Have a good year-end holiday!

Second Battle of Beneventum, 214BC

The Carthaginian lines

Carthaginian cavalry try to turn the Roman flank

I apologise in advance for the jumbled-up photos, but the technology is quite beyond me...

For our December game we had a new player Rafael join our group. I planned on running a Punic War scenario using a scenario from Across the Alps, the scenario book with Little Wars TV. I initially wanted to run the Battle of Metaurus, which had a more interesting terrain, but when I learned that Rafael had a large Spartacus' Revolt army, I switched to Beneventum instead. Now I understand that the Roman slaves and convicts probably wore Roman uniforms for the battle, but I wasn't about to let the opportunity for a guest's army to grace my tabletop go to waste.

The battlefield

Rafael and I played the Romans. Having had some experience with the rules, I decided to consciously stack the odds in my favour for combat. Playing conservatively, I deployed my half of the army deep, both to protect my flank from the Numidian light horse, and to support the units in the front rank. After some skirmishing, where both sides attrited their skirmisher units, the Romans charged up the slopes. My front units managed to gain a toe-hold, but immediately faced Carthaginian counter-attack on three sides. The dice rolled in my favour, and the Romans managed to fend off all attacks. This was enough to allow a second wave of attack to push the whole Roman line onto the high ground. The Carthaginians rolled poorly to rally, and after flanking attack by the cavalry was repelled, the game was up for them.

Rafael's Slave Revolt army

This was the first game we played using a scenario instead of the random terrain set-up we had used previously. I was also more deliberate in the army lists generation, choosing a mix of units that would allow each side to capitalise on their Battle Tactics.

I think both sides played well, and a large part of why the Carthaginians lost was due to them failing their General movement and Battle Tactics activation rolls at critical points in the battle.

I am now planning for another game of C&K this month, to hopefully let wahj and I finally put our Warring States China armies onto a table. Stay tuned.

Critical point of the battle, when the Roman attack, surrounded on three sides, manage to fend off the attacks and secure victory

Battle of Klyastitsy

View of the table from the Russian end

Last weekend we had a new player, Eugene, join the group with his Russian army. I chose the battle of Klyastitsy for our game.

This was an unusual set-up, with the game played across the length of the table. The French were deployed in three areas, while the Russians are entered the table from a narrow front.

The French army strung out along the road

The Russians originally planned a feint to their left and then a thrust on their right once the French had shifted their forces to their right. However, the attack in the left flank went better than expected, and the Russians managed to gain a foothold on the ridge forming the French first line.

At one point the Russian momentum faltered as their advance meant their generals could not keep all their troops within their command span. The French were able to exploit this by bringing up their other divisions, but fell victim to the same problem soon afterwards.

We called the game before the game clock ran down when a unit of Russian cavalry managed to capture the village of Klyastitsy (and we assume Oudinot's carriage, as they did historicall), and it became clear that the French could not hold their first line of defence; at the same time, there was not enough time for the Russians to get organised to press their advantage before sunset, so we decided that the French would abandon their guns and escape across the river under the cover of darkness.

Closer view of the cardboard buildings

One again the rules took some getting used to by the new player, and we encountered situations which necessitated some revision to the rules, but all in all I feel they suit our purpose.

The scenario required quite a lot of trees, and so wahj and I bought some, while FG completed his Woodland Scenics ones. I also bought a pdf of Russian houses and built several cardboard buildings, which will probably see us ready for future games in the 1812 campaign,