Wednesday 13 May 2020

Death of a Queen/Death of a Legion.

I have been having quite a few small, and large, solo games recently-here is one of Romans vs Boudicca's rebelious British tribes,around 61AD.


These two photo's show the two opposing armies-I wanted to try and emulate the role of Chariots,to see just how effective,or not, they would have been!

On the Roman left flank the Iceni tribe,led by Boudicca herself,attack(very successfully as it happens! the Roman line.

The chariots trundle forward,hurling javelins at the Roman line-but not very effectively it has to be said!!-surely a well aimed volley of pila would have hit a few horses and rendered the chariots useless!!-well they did in my rules!!(note clock-wise movement,keeping shielded side to the enemy)

The centre and right of the Roman line is now fighting,and some diabolical dice throws from the Roman commander(me!!) saw most of the cohorts being pushed back!!!
Then,something extraordinary happened..........................

The Queen,leading the attack,got too close to the action and was killed-hurrah! This led to the whole army testing its morale,and all but the Iceni  decided that they had done enough,and went home!!!-however the Legion had been badly mauled(lost 6 cohorts!!) so couldn't follow up-there will be questions asked in the Senate about this battle!

There they go,with hardly a cohort to chase them!
This was,again, a very worthwhile exercise in tactics and weapon capabilities-I enjoyed it,and that is all that matters.

My next "foray" into solo games was a Colonial game,Zulus against British.The scenario was as follows:-

A Bridge Too Far?-The Limpopo,like every other river deserves a good bridge over it!
A detachment of infantry and engineers is sent to repair/reinforce the only existing bridge over the river.
The officer in charge has taken all precautions by building defences around the camp,posting a heliograph team as look-outs,and patrolling the surrounding area,just in case he is attacked(as if!!)
On this beautiful sunny day,with a light breeze blowing,birds singing and everyone going about their duties,what could possibly go wrong?
"ZULUS-THOUSANDS OF 'EM" came a message from the look-outs-Stand to came the order!!-day ruined!



Top photo  shows the camp,set in a most idylic position,bottom shows the Heliograph team look-outs,on the alert-we must all be on alert these days!!-after they sounded the alarm,do you think they got back to the camp????

Er,NO!!!
I will continue this blog later on this week................





























































































3 comments:

  1. Nice 'clash' game. Clearly you've got solo gaming sussed. The use and usefulness of Celtic chariots is a tricky teaser to figure out. Difficult to imagine them bring anything other than vulnerable when they skirmish with the enemy. Cheers, Chris

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    Replies
    1. Chris,apparently,at Mons Graupius,the auxiliaries laughed at the antics of the charioteers,especially when the "scythes" hit a boulder or a mound,and tipped the things over!!!
      johnc

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  2. It does seem a laughable thing for the enemy to do. Even before they tip over :-p

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