Friday 16 May 2014

Battle of Metapontum


Hi guys,

As the first battle of our Pyrrhic campaign, Ed and I played The battle of Metapontum, the first stage as Pyrrhus breaks out of  Tarentum.  We used the standard Pyrrhic list and the mid republican Roman list.  It is probably more correct to use the earlier Roman list for the earlier battles of the Pyrhhic campaign, but  I wasn't getting a new army for one game. We used the normal BI rules, but with the extra rule borrowed from Impetus that skirmishers could flee from contact. The vast bulk of the campaign rules are by Andy Badger, I drew up the maps in advance, so we had them marked down in case a battlefield was fought over twice we could make it identical. Ed made the symbol maps after the event to clearly show unit movements which may not be as clearly seen on the tabletop pictures.  We set the terrain as per the map, Ed as the Romans deployed first and then I, as Pyhrrus, set up opposite.


 




 








Turn 1, Initiative Rome.  Full advance for Rome, but Cav and skirmishers on roman right flank stay put. All Pyrrhic forces advance.

 







 

Turn 2, Initiative Rome, Heavy foot in centre and cavalry on Roman right advance, Cavalry on roman left disrupt while moving on a forward left diagonal. Pyrrhic Elephan moves to match cavalry and disrupts as well. Bulk of Pyrrhic forces advance, heavy foot in centre and their supporting cavalry stay put.

 





 


Turn 3, initiative Rome. Roman right hand cavalry charge Pyrrhus, no damage caused but Pyrrhus disrupted. The Roman right hand legion charges the samnites but falls short and is disrupted. The Samnites loose a volley of javelins, scoring 1 point of damage on the legion.  Elephant reforms

 






 
 
Turn 4, Initiative Pyrrhus. Samnite volley causes 3 hits on right hand legion, Pyrrhus takes 3 damage and fall back, Romans pursue and hits tarantine light horse. No damage caused.


 






 


Turn 5 , Initiative Rome, Roman cavalry on left sideslip again, No effective combat. Heavy foot advance. Tarantine Llight horse score 2 hits on Roman right hand cavalry, they follow up, but are destroyed in second round of combat. The damaged legion are disrupted again by javelin fire

 






Turn 6. Initiative Rome. Legions charge, cause 1 pt damage on Medium cav who fall back. Velites disrupt Elephant
 





Turn 7. Initiative Rome, Foot slog to no effect. Elephant charge skirmishers who flee. Pike drives legion back, hoplites facing Roman general take 3 pts damage.

 



Turn 8, Initiative Pyrrhus. Elephant charges Roman left hand cavalry, Pike charges legion but no damage caused. Roman General kills hoplites, but takes 1 pt of damage in return. Velites cause 1pt damage on elephant with javelin volley.

 



Turn 9, Initiative Pyrrhus, Elephant charges cav and destroys them, follows up. Legion facing pike take 1 pt damage. Samnites wheel to face Roman Rh cav, javelin volley to no effect. Roman cav moves to rear, disrupts. Roman general reforms, no effective combat, Pyrrhic skirmishers move to rear of roman legion, javelin volley ineffective.

 

Turn 10, Initiative Pyrrhus, Elephant chases skirmishers off board, Samnites move to flank and disrupts, they destroy the Roman cavalry with a javelin volley. The pike destroy the legion facing them. This breaks the Roman army, who get to play out their turn, but to little effect.

 
 
The final result is a Roman defeat, and as Pyrrhus is still less that halfway towards his own break point, this counts as a major victory or Pyrrhus.So, a Pyrrhic victory, but not a pyrrhic victory ! This means Pyrrhus advances two spaces, so we skip the Heraclea stage of the campaign and Pyrrhus advances to Capua. As the Romans lost all their cavalry and half the legions, for the next battle, they will have to replace one of the cavalry units with medium foot ( Italian allies) and one of the legion units with a unit of light horse. This is a fairly poor trade for the Romans , and they will be hard pressed to stop Pyrrhus at Capua, and his attack may gain momentum. The Romans will be back to their normal army choice for whatever battle we fight after Capua, to represent troops called in from other areas after the disaster at Metapontum.
 
Phil


Saturday 10 May 2014

Pyrrhic Campaign

Hi Guys

Here is a simple campaign outline for Pyrrhus in Italy. The bulk of this comes from Andy Badger ( Thanks Andy) and I just dragged a few bits together and did the maps. We intend to play through the campiagn using Basic Impetus. We will play the first two games this tuesday, I will post a report and update the map accordingly, if Pyrrhus is still in Italy . We will swap sides as we always do, to make sure it is balanced. If the campaign runs well, we may try it again with Hannibal Vs Rome.

Phil




 

 

Pyrrhus In Italy, 280BC

10 turns, attacker must move 6 spaces in 10 games,



Tarentum Metapontum Heraclea Capua Neapolis Fregellae
Praeneste Rome

Pyrrhus begins the campaign in control of Tarentum. His objective is to reach Rome within ten turns at which point the Romans will come to terms and Pyrrhus will have won the campaign.
If Pyrrhus is killed (see below) or fails to reach Rome within ten turns he will have lost the campaign.

Campaign Turns
A campaign turn consists of fighting a battle:
• If Pyrrhus wins a Major Victory he can advance two stages towards Rome.
• If Pyrrhus wins a Minor Victory he advances one stage towards Rome.
• If Rome wins a Minor Victory or if there is a draw there is no change to the map.

• If Rome wins a Major Victory , the attacker retreats 1 stage.


To claim a Major Victory a player must have break the enemy while at half or less ( rounded up) of their army break point at the end of the game.


Death of Pyrrhus
If Pyrrhus is lost in battle roll a d6 at the end of the game:
1: Pyrrhus dies of his wounds and the campaign ends in a victory for Rome.
2-6: Pyrrhus recovers from his wounds and continues his march on Rome.

Army Sizes
Armies are chosen afresh before each battle. The campaign is not concerned with losses and recovery. However, if a player loses all his elite cavalry/elephants etc. in a battle then he should not be able to field these troops in the next 2 games. Likewise if a player loses over half his phalangites/legions these troops should be restricted for the next battle.

Victory
The campaign lasts until any of the following occurs:
• Pyrrhus is killed in battle.
• Pyrrhus successfully enters Rome.
• At the end of ten turns.

 

 

If Pyrrhus is forced back from Tarentum, his is pushed to Epiros. If he is forced back from there, he is defeated.

Metapontum





Heraclea



 
Capua
 




Neapolis



 

Fregellae



 

 

Praeneste