Twilight for Ancient Battles

[Keraunos]

A first playtest of what for the moment is being called 'Twilight of the Graeco-Roman Age' (ToGA - or ToGRA for pedants) was held this afternoon in Hong Kong as the rainstorms ahead of the typhoon expected over the weekend battered the city, a fitting accompaniment to the rain of javelins that swept across the field.

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On the left of the picture, a Macedonian army is lined up.  In the foreground they have a massive cavalry wing, supported by some Thracian peltasts who were rather unreliable and wavering in their commitment to combat.  Beyond the cavalry, hanging back at the top of a low ridge in the centre, were two pike phalanxes, each supported by a contingent of Thracian swordsmen and peltasts - these being a lot more gung-ho than their compatriots with the cavalry - and some Agrianian peltasts.  Each pike phalanx had two blocks, the first having one veteran and one seasoned contingent, the further phalanx having a seasoned and a raw contingent.

To the right are a ramshackle Roman army without its usual allied legions.  In the foreground are two commands of cavalry, one being the equites with some Greek allied light horse to support them, the other being entirely Greek allies that are a mix of shock and skirmish troops.  Even combined these two commands are outnumbered in shock cavalry by the Macedonian cavalry, so the Roman commander has assigned a couple of allied peltast units to give them a bit more lead in their pencil.  Of the two Roman legions with their assigned velites, the furthest from the camera is elite and has been formed up with half in standard depth, the other half in depth beyond the end of the Macedonian line, looking to advance against the flank of the phalanx.  The other Legion was found to be raw.  The whole of this was deployed in standard depth to extend the line which would both reduce the space for the enemy cavalry to manoeuvre and give the legion a chance to outflank the other end of the phalanx.


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This shows the position from the other side of the battlefield after the opening moves.  The Roman veterans in the foreground on the left are pushing forwards behind their screen of velites while the weaker Macedonian phalanx is trying to turn to move to prevent their being outflanked by the Romans, screened by their Thracian supports.  The difficulty of manoeuvering a phalanx has become apparent as only one of the two contingents has managed to make the left turn to allow movement along the ridge.  The Romans start dreaming of a second Cynoscephalae.  In the centre, the raw Legion is holding back while the Phalanx facing it moves forward steadily.  In the distance, light cavalry are already hurling javelins while the Macedonian and Thessalian cavalry look for a good angle to charge.

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We now jump to the closing stages of the cavalry battle.  Thanks to good use of their peltasts to pepper the flanks of the Macedonians and Thessalians as they tried to press their attacks, the Graeco-Roman cavalry have held their own.  The main body of Thessalians and the leading squadrons of Macedonians have been routed and it looks as if there will be a break through on this wing as the main body of Macedonians had charged the end of the Legionary line and can be seen retreating in their saffron yellow cloaks on the top right of the picture.  But, this does not tell the whole story.  The forlorn charge of the Companions, although failing to find an open flank had been sufficient to hold back half of the legion while the other half was assaulted by the better of the two Macedonian phalanxes.  The raw legionaries fought hard and destroyed the Thracians who had launched an attack to disrupt the Roman line before the phalanx hit, but the last photograph shows the position with one contingent of Romans already routed, leaving only a couple of cohorts on the end who were down to their last morale point.

You cannot view this attachment. Note that this was taken before the previous picture so you can still see the Companions fighting with the other wing of the raw legion.

On the next and final turn, the isolated cohorts were routed by the pikes, despite the javelins of the velites being flung into the flank of the pikemen.  Even worse, the poorer Macedonian phalanx had managed to get in position athwart the advance of the veteran legion despite their lumbering manoeuvres.  This was thanks to the Thracian peltasts getting the better of the velites for once and forcing the legionaries to take action tests to advance under a hail of javelins, which slowed them down.  The resulting frontal assault uphill into the front of a well ordered phalanx did not go well and the Romans threw in the towel.

The game took quite a lot longer than expected.  Although both players are familiar with the Twilight mechanisms, the differences in the qualities and capabilities of the troops gave us both a lot of pause for thought as to how best to handle them.  Our conclusions were that the means of showing targets for javelins (and hence requirements for action tests and modifiers to morale tests) and expenditure of weapons - a single token on a unit shows a turn's worth of javelins or pila, when removed and placed red side up on the target it both shows the target and expends the weapons when removed at the end of the turn - worked well but needs to be more user-friendly in design given all the spear and pike points around.  The match ups between the Legionaries, Thracians and phalanxes worked well.  The Macedonians managed to prevent the Romans getting good flanking advantages so that the weight of the pike blocks was decisive.  The main area for attention seems to be the movement of light troops.  I had made this easier than under the original ruleset but this meant that we were tending towards some very 'gamey' movements towards the end, suggesting that one or two more constraints are needed. 

All in all, an enjoyable playtest that suggests these rules are on the right track (not surprising as they are cribbed so heavily from Nick Dorrell and others hard work) - even though I was the unhappy Roman commander left to explain myself to the senate 

[Ian61]

Can we say in conclusion that the Romans didn't like the long pointy things being thrust at them?

the weight of the pike blocks was decisive.

Great looking battle chaps, sounds like you had some fun as well.

[Keraunos]

It was a very good way to spend a very wet afternoon.

[Imperial Dave]

Awesome report

[Chuck the Grey]

Excellent report. I really like the mat for the table. I vote for ToGA as the title of your rules. Pendants to be exiled if they're lucky. 

Looking forward to more reports and information on the development of the rules.

[Keraunos]

Excellent report. I really like the mat for the table. I vote for ToGA as the title of your rules. Pendants to be exiled if they're lucky. 

Looking forward to more reports and information on the development of the rules.

The mat is one of two 'Sicilian' mats from cigar box battles that I have.  Unfortunately I bought them at different times and they have very different tones.  The one in use is quite sharp in colour, the other rather dusty and toned down.  My original plan was to run a larger battle requiring both mats but a couple of players couldn't make it so the game was scaled back in size. 

Next week I hope to run a larger fight that will give the Roman, reinforced by Italian allies, a chance to redeem themselves against Gallic invaders.  It will involve more varied terrain and allow me to see how the draft rules work out with a very different set of match ups between the main infantry types compared with the first game.  A report will follow - unless I again foul up and the senate sends me on gardening leave 

[Ian61]

I was scanning through one of the twilight series at Attack on Sunday and remembered this report. I like the concept. Is there any way to get a copy of the ancient version accepting it may not be a finished work?

[Keraunos]

I was scanning through one of the twilight series at Attack on Sunday and remembered this report. I like the concept. Is there any way to get a copy of the ancient version accepting it may not be a finished work?

If you take a gander over at the 'What was the last battle you fought' page you will see my latest report, including the observation that major overhaul is needed.  I have agreed with Nick Dorrell that I will do several more playtests and then let him have a draft that I feel more comfortable with.  My timetable for doing that is when I am over in the UK in September/October.  Now, it just so happens that I will be able to come to the SoA Conference at the end of September, so will bring a copy for you as well if you can wait until then? 

[Ian61]

I was scanning through one of the twilight series at Attack on Sunday and remembered this report. I like the concept. Is there any way to get a copy of the ancient version accepting it may not be a finished work?

If you take a gander over at the 'What was the last battle you fought' page you will see my latest report, including the observation that major overhaul is needed.  I have agreed with Nick Dorrell that I will do several more playtests and then let him have a draft that I feel more comfortable with.  My timetable for doing that is when I am over in the UK in September/October.  Now, it just so happens that I will be able to come to the SoA Conference at the end of September, so will bring a copy for you as well if you can wait until then? 

Thanks Kim, I have purchased a copy of the ToDR so will be able to experiment with that version.