A long and bitter Optio battle

[Justin Swanton]

This one lasted nearly 4 hours, compared to the Optio average of two. Enjoy!

[Imperial Dave]

Dice required to speed it up 

[Erpingham]

Long and hard fought, with advantage swinging back and forth.  Good stuff, Justin.

[CarlL]

Great battle report, Justin, offering good insight into your rules, and as ever beautifully illustrated and described.

It seems like your rules give a lot of leeway to out of command units, to continue to manoeuvre, even though in woods and out of sight of all (it appeared) and with no general to guide them.

CarlL

[Justin Swanton]

Great battle report, Justin, offering good insight into your rules, and as ever beautifully illustrated and described.

It seems like your rules give a lot of leeway to out of command units, to continue to manoeuvre, even though in woods and out of sight of all (it appeared) and with no general to guide them.

CarlL

Basically the only limitation to OOC units is that their speed is slowed by half (infantry) or one third (mounted). It works partly on the assumption that the captains of the units still had limited personal initiative when no longer under the command of their superiors. Their slow speed reflects their lack of overall battlefield awareness: they don't try any grand tactical manoeuvres but will head towards something nearby that they (= the player wearing the captain's hat) deem worthwhile.

It also reflects my desire to give the players as much control as possible, within reasonable historical limits.

[Keraunos]

A great battle report.  I really must give Optio a trial when I can extricate myself from the mess mass of Tercios I am committed to painting for a club campaign this autumn.

[Justin Swanton]

A great battle report.  I really must give Optio a trial when I can extricate myself from the mess mass of Tercios I am committed to painting for a club campaign this autumn.

Any photos?

[Justin Swanton]

Dice required to speed it up 

[Imperial Dave]

 

[Keraunos]

A great battle report.  I really must give Optio a trial when I can extricate myself from the mess mass of Tercios I am committed to painting for a club campaign this autumn.

Any photos?

Photographs of Tercios?

[Erpingham]

Photographs of Tercios?

Which sort of reminds me - what happened to your blog? I used to like the photos of your figures on that.

[Justin Swanton]

A great battle report.  I really must give Optio a trial when I can extricate myself from the mess mass of Tercios I am committed to painting for a club campaign this autumn.

Any photos?

Photographs of Tercios?

Sure.

[Keraunos]

A great battle report.  I really must give Optio a trial when I can extricate myself from the mess mass of Tercios I am committed to painting for a club campaign this autumn.

Any photos?

Photographs of Tercios?

Sure.

Rather than polute the limpid pool of the SoA website with pictures of out of period Tercios I attach some links to blog posts on painting and gaming with the 10mm Tercios and related troops that I have been working on. 

https://d6ornod6.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-different-scale-different-era.html

https://d6ornod6.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-spanish-are-coming.html

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Hi67A8Vmy/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1H9VTFEBPd/

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19CNWt61yf/

[Keraunos]

Photographs of Tercios?

Which sort of reminds me - what happened to your blog? I used to like the photos of your figures on that.

I ran into technical problems with the blog. The server stopped accepting photographs and I got fed up with trying to work out what the cause of the problem was.  Plus lots of life started happening and I have not yet got back into a placid stream where a spot of blogging would add to the enjoyment of leisure.