More Fighting in the Dark - two playtests

The development of NT's "Ancient and Medieval Warfare" continues, with rule changes based upon the last playtest [CLICK]. Some are based upon my understanding of war in this period, and some are based upon my design goal:

"The most interesting, realistic tactical choices with the least amount of effort." 

Realistic in this context means that it plays like the best we know and theorize regarding large ancient battles, where a MU is about 1000 Infantry, 500 Cavalry or 250 Lights.

I already have a smaller level unit game I spun off "One-Hour Wargames". That has units of about 300 / 100 / 50 or so.

My poor battered book is still not spiral bound, and the Dark Age rule section has fallen out...it does lay flat now that its spine is broke!

Armed with many hopes for a challenging battle with the core mechanics, I also used a very simple spin on the DBA pip system [still the best C&C mechanism for the least effort, evah!], rolling a d3 each for two "generals" a side.

The table has a little less terrain - a gentle but sizable hill at top, a small woods to the bottom left, and a larger woods to the right.

This time the Britons have mobility and missiles on each flank, with the center held by Infantry that can use Shieldwall [much better save, but slow]. 

Below, the Light Cavalry is stacked on the left, followed by an Infantry and an Archer to hold the hill but also weaken the attack with missiles. To the right are two more Infantry, one up front and one as a reserve.

Four Infantry make up the center: three Average sloggers and one heavier [bigger  shields - they are "former Romans"]. All can form Shieldwall. The Elite Heavy Cavalry and Light Infantry [bow] will hold the flank and threaten or harass if needed.

Opposing them, the German left has Light Infantry [bow] who will use the woods in front of them as a secure base from which to threaten the Briton Light Cavalry. Next to them is an Archer Unit, which can easily out-shoot the Light Cavalry. The next two units are Warbands - fast and hit hard but they don't form Shieldwall. Behind them is the Elite Heavy Cavalry - they don't hit harder, but they have mobility and medium armor. 

Plan is to advance, drive off the Light Cavalry, shoot up the hill and take it with the Warbands - easy!

The German right has two tribes of allies - Franks perhaps - for five more units of Infantry. All can form Shieldwall, and the one on the right with the star flag is Elite with Medium Armor, so a better save. They will slog forward and pin the Britons down while the Warband storm the hill!

As always, it seems, the Germans roll higher and get the first turn. They advance quickly and seize the woods with their lights, while everyone moves forward as fast as possible. To the right, a unit of Infantry is planning to contest the woods against the Light Infantry [bow]. We will see how that goes...

Turn 2. The Germans continue to advance, while the Britons work their Light Cavalry aggressively, getting some good shots in against one Warband, along with the Archers on the hill. They are using their mobility to good effect, threatening, shooting, and disrupting the best German attacking units.

Turn 3. The Warband continue with their reckless advance, while their heavy cavalry and Archers keep the Light Cavalry busy. The left has become spread out due to the Archers being a "stand and shoot" type of unit, while the Warband and Heavy Cavalry are mobile attack units. Hadn't thought about the movement rates when I set this up...

Altho they've taken some hits, the Light Cavalry are easily able to handle the Heavy Cavalry thanks to their mobility - mainly the ease with which they Turn. Taking several Hits, the Heavy Cavalry lost a base but passed morale...

...and were pushed back several inches, breaking contact.

After the hot mess with the cavalry, the situation further deteriorated as the Warband rolled poorly and had little impact on any of the Briton defenders. 

After another turn I called the game - the Germans had lost most of their striking power, failed to dent the Briton defenses, and would most likely end up with their shieldwalls to the right being outflanked and encircled.

Lesson learned - deploy with movement rates in mind and keep everyone together. This means that slow shooting units like Archers need time to do their job before the faster hard-hitting units go in. Also, do not advance PAST enemy Light Cavalry, assuming your support units will handle them - they may not handle them fast enough for your plan to survive very long.

Overall, the rules played fine - I need to pay more attention to tactics!

Next morning, I quickly set up another game. This time, I removed the heavy Infantry unit from the Britons and replaced it with a second Archer unit to see how their "massed" shooting would work out. Supporting them to the right was the same Light Infantry [bow] unit. In the center were all four Infantry, with the Light Cavalry out in the center trying to make trouble. The Heavy Cavalry were in reserve, and responded to the flanking threat of the German Light Infantry [bow] to the left. The Warbands were stacked up and intending to spread out and attack the hill with missile support. But the threat of Light Cavalry had me shifting the Archers to the center, behind the Warband attack - this maneuver attempt was a bad idea.

By the time the Warbands hit the hill, the attack was spread out. Then, the Warbands rolled poorly on their attack and were pushed back.

Below, the push by the left Infantry and the threat of the heavy cavalry have driven off the Light Cavalry, which is now pulling back through their stationary Infantry.

The Archers on the right have rolled well and are beating up the Infantry in front of them, despite their forming Shieldwall. The Germans need some intervention...

The only unit that is free is the heavy cavalry reserve.

It gets plenty of hitting power against the Archers, who also have no save. However, there are two Archer units, so one flanks the unsupported heavy cavalry, who have outdistanced their slow Infantry supports. Ugh, what a mess!

Meanwhile, at the hill, the Warbands have regained some momentum, but the Briton heavy cavalry reserve easily pushed back their Light Infantry. Having plenty of indecision already, the German Archers change direction and head left to hold off the heavy cavalry - Arthur's Knights?

On the right, the Archers numbers are helping them hold their own.

By Turn 6, the Briton heavy cavalry had chased down the Light Infantry - who escape through a woods - and are now out of the German Archers shooting arc.

Soon after, the German Heavy Cavalry are destroyed, while their Infantry slowly move up to support them.

Well, this second playtest showed another poorly executed plan by the Germans. They got distracted with Briton maneuvering and failed to make their own attack. This cost them some units and why do my Warbands keep rolling badly???

With almost half the Army destroyed or about to be, I called it another win for Britain. Clearly, Artorius was fighting and God was on his side!

The command rules were fine but I want to tweak them a bit and make it both harder for units to dance around, but to also have a bit of initiative if the general isn't telling him what to do.

The rule additions and changes were mostly good, giving better feel and making units perform how they should, IMHO.

The basic AMW platform is solid, as long as you are happy with an attrition oriented concept of how ancient battles were fought. The morale mechanic could be used a bit more without a lot of pain, but the faster attrition of weaker units is fine. 

Next up - must test with an impartial victim!