Friday, 18 October 2024

Consistency

 The second battle of my Hare & Hounds mini-campaign has been fought.

The overall position before the battle

Legion III of the Vard and the Coronithi tribe face each other, generally, across a battlefield with a wooded area in its centre. 


As I'm only allowing Archers to enter woodland, both generals place their archers opposite the wooded area, hoping to get their missile units under cover.


Army composition has been randomly determined prior to the start of the campaign.

Legion III has 4 Infantry units and 2 units of Archers. The Coronithi have 3 Infantry, 1 Cavalry and 2 Archer units.


The luck of the initiative die sees the Coronithi take possession of the woods and a fire fight ensues - both sides locate their c-in-c with the Archer units to obtain a bonus. The Vard infantry advance on both sides of the field.


 
 The damage from arrow fire is fairly equal, despite the Coronithi being in cover. The rest of the forces engage in hand to hand combat. The Coronithi general keeps one eye on the melees as he is understandably concerned with so many enemy forces being to his rear.


As the day wears on, the Coronithi decide that discretion really is the better part of valour and begin to withdraw.


At the first opportunity then the Coronithi have disengaged and left the battlefield to the Vard.

The situation at the beginning of Turn 3

During Turns 3 and 4, Legions II and III and the Coronithi tribe recuperate; the walking wounded are treated and those who have become detached from their units return (sometimes under pressure). In other words, the Army strengths are returned to their starting positions. To do this they must remain in the squares that they were in at the end of battle. The Brocolii tribe, having not yet entered the fray, are free to move and do so, approaching the now re-established Legion II.

The situation at the end of Turn 4

Before moving on to Turn 5, one slight change to my original Campaign Rules has been made. At the end of Turn 4 both sides roll a D6. The number scored is added to 4 and the total equals the Turn Number on which a fourth Army is mobilized; originally this was going to automatically appear on Turn 10 but I thought an element of randomness might be more fun.

The mobilized army will be made of retired veterans and raw recruits so will consist of mainly poor quality units.

The Vard have so far proven to be consistent in their fighting ability; will the Brocolii turn the tide?


10 comments:

  1. Another great campaign battle … and I like the random reinforcement generation/ mobilisation mechanism. Very simple and easy to use.

    I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. Thanks Bob. I thought it might be more interesting with a random mobilization; I've already cast the dice and the warriors on one side have shown themselves to be a lot less keen to sign up...

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  2. Your campaign is moving along very nicely.

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  3. Good to see the campaign progress, MJT. Are the extra force units one SP short if the full shilling, so to speak. Or do you use some other way of handicapping them?

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    1. Cheers Martin. The poor quality units will be full strength but have less chance of retreating once hit - the small town garrison forces (that we haven't met yet) are the same; this was something Bob suggested in his original H&H outline.

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  4. I enjoy your games a great deal, and your minimal armies. I'm copying that idea myself for my new ancient armies with two figure units, but in 1/72 scale. Looking forward to the next installment.

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    1. Cheers Mark. Your small army in 1/72nd sounds good - I originally made very small armies for cost reasons, however as I'm so slow at painting it also allows me to get a force finished!

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  5. The campaign progresses… ⚔️⚔️
    Perhaps you could give the Brocolii an advantage if they have to fight in the woods (when she was young we always used to tell our daughter that broccoli was “little trees” 😉).
    Cheers,
    Geoff

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    1. Thanks Geoff. Yes my daughter called broccoli little trees too!

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