Battle Of The Comet's Crack - Desert Fight Between Fezia And Patra, Battle 3 Hex 173
Although our mini campaign is not directly linked to our major campaign I have used it to decide on terrain for particular hexes on the map; for each battle the terrain was randomly generated. I am also working on characters that arise from the battle.
As a good part of Patra is desert the terrain was so set up. With this large table there has to be a gap in the middle to enable the reaching of all parts of the table. Mat and I customarily roll a die to decide on its nature. In this case it was a crack in the Earth. In addition I used a Warhammer battlefield generation to come up with a ruined temple, hills etc.
As the back story from Patra includes a comet coming close to the planet I incorporated this in the explanation for the ruined temple and the 'bottomless' crevice. Fifteen hundred years previously a came perilously close. Although the stories say the comet hit actually only some of the tail entered the atmosphere.The firrey balls hit an invasion army from ancient Rome. Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, with a joint Roman and Egyptian-Greek army was saved when the bulk of the firey death hit theit enemy. It also temppled the large temple/monument of Laup. (A warped cheap post from Bunnings was cut into blocks. The fallen statues were 3D printings bought at an op shop glued to a CD with stnes and itty litter added).
The scenario was loosely based on a Warhammer one with distances doubled. although the previous battle was from ends of the table, this time we went from the sides with deployment zones 48 inches from each other.
The two sides were randomy generated by dice rolls.
Fezia: 2 units of light archers
2 units of matchlock men
3 cannons
4 units of hose archers
2 light cavalry units
2 light infantry units (one being fanatics)
1 unit of spearmen in full chain mail
1 plate armoured halberd armed infantry
General and two bodyguards mounted and with plate armour.
Patra: 3 units of hoplites, one with spears
4 units of Romans
2 units of mounted Romans
2 units of mounted Greeks
3 Catapults, including one heavy
3 Egyptian light infantry
3 Light archer units
1 Greek Fire flame thrower
General and four body guards, mounted with heavy armour of breast plates, helmets and shin guards.
Infantry units were 24 figures, cavalry 12, mounted archers 14, artillery crews 4.
Hoplites and Roman infantry are heavy infantry with breast plates helmets etc. Plate armoured is equivalent to knights but not, in this case knights.
The view from the Fezian side. The artillery stopped any Patrn advance in that area but the Patran catapults also deterred any movement of my troops in that vicinity. (Later my mounted archers paid for their advance n the Romans flank and retreated)
View from my right Western front.
Fezian fire power proved deadly on the eastern front (my left) but the archers and forward matchlock men paid dearly for the defence.
Archers take position in rocks on the Western front. The Patrans had to cross the river, classed as difficult terrain as it was, despite its colour, classed as dried up.
+
The Patrans prepare to charge on the Eastern front.
The First Patran cavalry (with blue plumes) repeatedly failed to follow orders to charge! The
Fezian archers took advantage!
Other Patran units move up.
The Patrans look very strong on the Eastern flank.
On the Western flank the Patrans start to cross the river bed.
Fezians move upto meet them.
The Second Patran cavalry charges the matchlock me on the base of the hill. The hill defnders are able to negate the charge bonus.
The matchlock men are saved by the plate armoured halberd men who dispatch the cavalry but are then brought into melee with the heavy Roman infantry. they get the better of them but then risk being attacked by other units as they push the Romans back.
Meanwhile Fezian gunners poor shells into the enemy archers by the ruin. the archers and the flame thrower flee off the board.
Then a cannon overheats and bows up taking four gunners with it!
The Patran general orders the catapult crews to
target the enemy horse archers and drives them off from the centre.
Patran archers flee through another archer unit, this stalling that unit's actions.
The temple ruins
Patran attack on the Eastern front. Things look dire for the Fezians.
On the Western front the Patran heavy infantry crosses the river bed.
The Patran Romano-Ptolemic pharaoh awaits the news of the battle.
Massed attack!
It looks like the Fezians left flank is going to fall.
meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield the yellow Fanatic, aided by a plate armoured hero push back the Roman Patrans. However his one shot use of the magic mace of Darkness only succeeds in killing one of his own unit.
The Patran Western advance is severely depleted by archery
.
On the Eastern front the Fezian archers are virtually destoyed by Roman cavalry.
The Fezian halberd men are overwhelmed by enemy numbers and nearly wiped out.
On the Western front the Roman heavy infantry are pushed back. (Winning a round of melee causes the losing side to be pushed back 20 cm unless. To NOT push back after them the winning side must succeed in a leadership test).
These two Greeks are all that remain of their regiment. They just defeated and destr
oyed a light cavalry unit only to be mown down by horse archers.
Fezian chainmailed spearmen save the day on the Eastern front. they pushback and defeat the Patran Romans.
An intact unit of matchlock men still holds Pancake Hill.
Fezian horse archers pursue retreating patrans on the Western front (Fezia's right flank).
Some excited Fezian light infantry also pursue.
VICTORY FOR FEZIA
Victory conditions points:
Unit types were assigned points. If a unit was destroyed or driven off the board it was worth points to the enemy. Units retreating from defeat in melee were not assigned points - they had to be destroyed or completely vanquished. (Other games we often remove units that fail leadership tests after defeat in melee but we decided that any units not completely wiped out could come back as complete units in our next game as opposed to what happens in our big campaigns when only a portion is topped up).
Points value for units: Light infantry unit 1 point, archers 2, hoplites 3, Romans 3, chainmail 5, plate 6, general 7, catapults, 3, cannons 4, matchlock men 2, mtd lights 2, mtd archers 3.
table quarters 6. (Another way is to count up individual figures but we did not want the bother)
RESULT Mat (Patra) still had one table quarter (even if retreating) which when added to damage to my army added up to 28 points.
Myself: 2 table quarters (and disputing one) plus damage to Patrans equalled 44 points.
We had set up at 11AM one unit at a time alternatively until all were set up. We started at 11.30 and finished at 5 PM with an hour break for lunch. The game went for 13 turns. (four and a half hours). It was quite absorbing and suspenseful. I didn't think I might definitely win until about move nine or ten. Mat definitely gave me a run for my money but my fire power made the difference, that and my spearmen and the hero with the dodgy Mace of Darkness'.
NEXT BATTLE 4
Although the Patrans suffered significantly higher casualties they did keep a number of remnants to be the basis for topped up units. We added three units of our own choice to each of the new armies giving me one more unit than mat. However, I have more fire power again and two units of plate. I have one less cannon this time and mat still hasthree catapults. We each have a wizard this time and will probably use Warhammer rules with doubling of ranges for spells. We haven't used wizards for a while so this will add another dimension (so to speak).
LAST BATTLE 5 will be 1000 points based on points value of units rather than random generation or survivors from last game..
As a good part of Patra is desert the terrain was so set up. With this large table there has to be a gap in the middle to enable the reaching of all parts of the table. Mat and I customarily roll a die to decide on its nature. In this case it was a crack in the Earth. In addition I used a Warhammer battlefield generation to come up with a ruined temple, hills etc.
As the back story from Patra includes a comet coming close to the planet I incorporated this in the explanation for the ruined temple and the 'bottomless' crevice. Fifteen hundred years previously a came perilously close. Although the stories say the comet hit actually only some of the tail entered the atmosphere.The firrey balls hit an invasion army from ancient Rome. Mark Anthony and Cleopatra, with a joint Roman and Egyptian-Greek army was saved when the bulk of the firey death hit theit enemy. It also temppled the large temple/monument of Laup. (A warped cheap post from Bunnings was cut into blocks. The fallen statues were 3D printings bought at an op shop glued to a CD with stnes and itty litter added).
The scenario was loosely based on a Warhammer one with distances doubled. although the previous battle was from ends of the table, this time we went from the sides with deployment zones 48 inches from each other.
The two sides were randomy generated by dice rolls.
Fezia: 2 units of light archers
2 units of matchlock men
3 cannons
4 units of hose archers
2 light cavalry units
2 light infantry units (one being fanatics)
1 unit of spearmen in full chain mail
1 plate armoured halberd armed infantry
General and two bodyguards mounted and with plate armour.
Patra: 3 units of hoplites, one with spears
4 units of Romans
2 units of mounted Romans
2 units of mounted Greeks
3 Catapults, including one heavy
3 Egyptian light infantry
3 Light archer units
1 Greek Fire flame thrower
General and four body guards, mounted with heavy armour of breast plates, helmets and shin guards.
Infantry units were 24 figures, cavalry 12, mounted archers 14, artillery crews 4.
Hoplites and Roman infantry are heavy infantry with breast plates helmets etc. Plate armoured is equivalent to knights but not, in this case knights.
The view from the Fezian side. The artillery stopped any Patrn advance in that area but the Patran catapults also deterred any movement of my troops in that vicinity. (Later my mounted archers paid for their advance n the Romans flank and retreated)
+
The Patrans prepare to charge on the Eastern front.
Fezian archers took advantage!
Other Patran units move up.
Then a cannon overheats and bows up taking four gunners with it!
target the enemy horse archers and drives them off from the centre.
.
oyed a light cavalry unit only to be mown down by horse archers.
VICTORY FOR FEZIA
Victory conditions points:
Unit types were assigned points. If a unit was destroyed or driven off the board it was worth points to the enemy. Units retreating from defeat in melee were not assigned points - they had to be destroyed or completely vanquished. (Other games we often remove units that fail leadership tests after defeat in melee but we decided that any units not completely wiped out could come back as complete units in our next game as opposed to what happens in our big campaigns when only a portion is topped up).
Points value for units: Light infantry unit 1 point, archers 2, hoplites 3, Romans 3, chainmail 5, plate 6, general 7, catapults, 3, cannons 4, matchlock men 2, mtd lights 2, mtd archers 3.
table quarters 6. (Another way is to count up individual figures but we did not want the bother)
RESULT Mat (Patra) still had one table quarter (even if retreating) which when added to damage to my army added up to 28 points.
Myself: 2 table quarters (and disputing one) plus damage to Patrans equalled 44 points.
We had set up at 11AM one unit at a time alternatively until all were set up. We started at 11.30 and finished at 5 PM with an hour break for lunch. The game went for 13 turns. (four and a half hours). It was quite absorbing and suspenseful. I didn't think I might definitely win until about move nine or ten. Mat definitely gave me a run for my money but my fire power made the difference, that and my spearmen and the hero with the dodgy Mace of Darkness'.
NEXT BATTLE 4
Although the Patrans suffered significantly higher casualties they did keep a number of remnants to be the basis for topped up units. We added three units of our own choice to each of the new armies giving me one more unit than mat. However, I have more fire power again and two units of plate. I have one less cannon this time and mat still hasthree catapults. We each have a wizard this time and will probably use Warhammer rules with doubling of ranges for spells. We haven't used wizards for a while so this will add another dimension (so to speak).
LAST BATTLE 5 will be 1000 points based on points value of units rather than random generation or survivors from last game..
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