Anyways, today I met up again with Tim to game. Our buddy Gus also showed up and I appreciate having an audience and someone watching who also gets into the game, for commentary, for helping figure out the rules, and for interpretation and ideas, so a special thanks to him for showing up while we gamed!
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We tried out Men of Bronze, one of this years newest classical warfare games. The game is meant for hoplite warfare but neither of us have any Greek hoplites done up, so we decided to battle it out using our punic war miniatures. I was my Romans, Tim was his Carthaginians.
After a brief explanation, Tim and I began gaming. It wasn't a particularly quick game as neither of us had ever played before and I only had a copy of the rulebook, but we slugged through it and I think we both had satisfying results.
We fielded 50 points a side. Since we base most things on 40mm bases we decided that 8 men a unit made the most sense. My cavalry only had 6 men, but it worked regardless.
Romans:
1.)Elite Hoplite Infantry (Triarii) - 12 This unit had the Strategos2.)Elite Infantry (Principes) - 10
3.) Drilled Infantry x 2 (Hastati) - 8x2 = 16
4.)Cavalry (Celtic Mercenaries) - 8
5.) Peltasts (Velites) - 4
=50 points
1.) Elite Hoplite Infantry ( Libyan Veterans ) - 12 This unit had the Strategos.
2.) Drilled Hoplites x 3 (Libyan Spearmen) - 30 One unit was Tim's Veterans for Hail Caesar, but there was no obviously leader model, so we made him the same as the rest of the Libyans,
3.) Peltasts (Libyan Skirmishers) - 4
4.) Slingers (Numidians) - 4
= 50
I really appreciated how fast set up was for this game. The book recommends 38 point warbands, or at least makes heavy use of them, but I think 38 points would make for a really fast game once the rules are down. Also, it suggests playing on 2x2 feet boards , but we used the whole 6 x 4 feet.
We just chose sides, and set up our guys in ways we thought appropriate. Neither of us bid for initiative off the first turn, so we dice-rolled for it. I forget who went first, but the first turns were just movement anyways. Movement took a moment for us to get used to. Men of Bronze is somewhat tricky if you're used to playing in inches. The game uses "base widths" for movements and all of our men are based for Hail Caesar, mostly on 40x40 mm bases! We're so used to using inches when we game.. so we decided that "2 CM" base movements were appropriate, assuming that every single soldier was on its on 20x20mm base. The second tricky part was that the different troop types have different movement values, so in the beginning there was a lot of referring to movement distance. It's not like other games where all types of infantry move at X amount - Archers / Slingers for example moved really fast, even faster than Peltasts, and could move farther than other infantry types.
Anyways, our game rolled out and looked something like this:
It's weird to see my Romans in "Open Order". Open order here doesn't mean its a formation for skirmishing or evading.. it's just the formation units take when they're not in "Phalanx". We made sure to keep every unit 1 base width apart for Zone of Control.
Probably the second turn by now.
Tim's Slingers take to the hill, and things start to slowly happen.
Meanwhile, I have my cavalry sneak round the farm, and the Velites roam in the gap between the round houses. I tried to Move and Shoot, but ended up being short! There's no pre measuring in this game!
Tim responded by also trying to get in and move and shoot, but even his move didn't quite reach it, haha! Oops!
Tim's slingers get some courage removed from the Hastati.
Ouch. That hurts.
And all our forces edge in closer.
Tim won initiative the next go round, had this time his move and shoot scored some wounds against the velites. He moved his main line up slightly, but did not yet engage.
In my next turn, I had my Hastati and Principes move up and shift over a bit, while my Velites and Cavalry both charged his Libyan Skirmish Peltast things.
Cavalry absolutely suck for charging in this game. I assume Heavy cavalry must be better, because these Cavalry ended up hardly doing any damage, and were wavered !
It was my Velites that had to come in and force the push back. Charging gives you extra attack dice, and I had support and flank attacks thanks to the Cavalry. But even the Cavalry flank charge initially was very ineffective. Best to use them to throw javelins I think!
I had my Hastati on the left hill there charge his slingers, but Tim used an Arete point to evade, moving his slingers out of range. I have my Elite Hoplites form Phalanx with a point and move forwards towards the foe.
Tim Charges in with both his Drilled Hoplite units, his Libyan spearmen. I believe I counter charged both units. They fought my Hastati (drilled infantry on the left) and my Principes (elite infantry on the right). He had many Arete points so he was able to form Phalanx AND Charge, for a cost of 4 Arete points between both units. Hoplite type troops certainly have the edge in this game... it's like the game was built to field them or something! ;)
I'm not sure if this was the start of a new turn or not. To be honest, I don't really remember every point of who had initiative or who stole it when, but I do remember I was able to catch his Slingers this go round because Tim had no arete to give them an Evade. My Elite's also Charge his Libyan unit that he left in Open Order, which gave me the advantage.
Lots of parties involved in combat now.
Interestingly, this unit routing happened behind all of Tim's lines , so nobody was affected by this unit breaking. Units take discipline checks if they see friends route and they risk becoming wavered units.
Tim's Drilled Hoplites were doing a staunch defence against my Elite Infantry. The hoplites had the attack and armor advantage, which put them 1 attack dice above and 1 armor above the Elites! My Velites were able to get in on a rear attack however! Little good it did them though - the Hoplites just fought them off, and since they were already rather low on courage from the previous fighting, they ended up routing.
Drilled Infantry stand little chance on a front assault of Drilled Hoplites are in Phalanx. It certainly creates for a very deadly assault and Tim was pressing it on the Hastati to ther ight.
The rest of the game was units basically fighting each other and trying to get the upper hand. The Drilled Hoplite Libyans push my Hastati back into rough terrain. It didn't affect them much as they were in open order.
My Elites end up routing some drilled hoplites, but nobody was in line of sight to see it... haha
My Cavalry also try to rear attack The hoplites that my Principes were fighting... honestly, Cavalry charges suck. Even from the Rear! They didn't do much to this unit in Phalanx and the celts were beaten off, and also routed!
I should mention, while we were gaming, that at one point Tim lost 25% of his point value, and had to test for Collapse.. this forced his Slingers to flee!
As you can see, it freed up my Hastati on the hill, and they came in to flank charge the Elite Veteran Carthaginians...
And the lone Hastati after the routed Strategos and elites from both sides.
By this point, Our armies had both lost significant amounts of units. Tim had now lost 60% of his point costs, and I had lost 64%... Which meant we both had to check for collapsing units. We had lost 50% + so our Target number was now 5+, but we also both lost our Strategos, so our Target number to beat on discipline checks was 6+ !
Liekwise, my Hastati also ran away!
The last length of the fight was now between The wounded Elite Hoplites , who were not wavered and had 1 measly Courage left, versus the weakened Libyan spearmen, who were down to 2 courage, and in open ground! Should I also mention that they were wavered from the last fight's damage?
It was entertaining since on our last turn, we were both only generating 1 Arete point a piece. Neither of us bid and I won the dice off, so I used it to rear charge Tim's men.
But the Dice Gods were on Tim's side - despite being Wavered, my Elite's only wounded Tim's Libyans for 1 ! They would have been forced into a double discipline check for reaching that 1 threshold, but Tim was able to score hits back and take off that final courage point.. Thus routing my Principes!
So a VERY bloody and deadly game! And it came right down to the wire.
My thoughts:
It was entertaining and exciting to play. The rules are quite simple and easy to understand and one can get the hang of it rather quickly I feel. They're also not so simple that the game becomes a simple go forth and hack and slash - you really have to conserve Arete points especially when you start losing. The strategy and gameplay really comes to how you plan to use Arete points and how you plan to use them in response to your enemy. There were many points in the game I had wished I used points for re-rolls, or didn't counter charge. It takes some calculation and the right timing on when to use Arete points and it was very apparent when we started losing units on how important they were!
The movement took time to get used to, but I am glad we were using 2 CM base widths as it was easy to adapt. Its nice that both sides can decide on adjusting the unit sizes (Recommended is 10, we used 8), as well as any base sort of works for this game. That means you can play in any scale, and probably adjust the Base widths accordingly if one would want to.
It was also entertaining to see a game where you cannot premeasure anything. I haven't played a game like this since Mordheim, so it was an interesting twist from the past on a newer game.
The attack system was very easy, and I appreciated it being easy to remember. Rolls to hit need 4+, which is the same for shooting and discipline checks. This number is modified if you're wavered to 5+. Units in Phalanx felt tougher and the amount of hits required to meet the armor values felt appropriate for Phalanx units, as well as units in Open order. Weak peltasts and archers seemed to take damage at an appropriate rate as well. Even the Elite Hoplites weren't invincible. Some games create super heavy, powerful troops that cannot be hurt, but the attack, armor, and courage values in this game all felt very balanced and well thought out.
This game is certainly built for Greek styled hoplites and the ability to form Phalanx will always tip the battle in the Hoplites way. I feel that the most "fair" of battles would be Greek hoplites fighting other hoplites, but I also see where certain armies could have some tactical advantage against hoplites. Persians, for example, could potentially field more archers - They would be very cheap units, generate loads of Arete points if fielded on mass, and since they shoot from a decent distance away while also hitting with a shoot value of 4, they are really a threat on the field of battle. Once in combat though, they're relatively hopeless... Tim tried to respond to my Hastati attacking, and we had a good laugh since the slingers he fielded didn't even have the dice to equal my armor value in melee! Persians also hired Hoplites to fight for them, so the persian lists could include a few units of hoplites here and there instead of loads of other unit types.
Cavalry , simple Cavalry, are probably best suited as support units, or fighting weak units like slingers / archers. They struggled against even Peltasts. I'm assuming Heavy Cavalry are probably better for taking on Hoplites.
As for Elite Infantry, and Drilled Infantry - one thing certainly missed in this game was my Roman's use of the Pila. We didn't bother with any houserules for it, since it was our first game. Obviously the game was designed for Hoplite warfare, and to some extent, Persian VS Greek warfare. Units without Phalanx that are meant to get into melee will have a slight disadvantage against units that are in Phalanx Formation, which makes entire sense to me. I am glad the author included these generic Infantry types that do not have Phalanx as there wasn't just hoplite warriors fighting in the world of the Greeks!
Some weird things to me in this game... Well, one thing was the "elite hoplites" were a rather tough, buffed up unit, which made sense. But I was somewhat disappointed to see Macedonian Pikes have very little advantage or any special rules compared to the rest of the Greek Hoplites. I've read in my historical research that just because Pikemen ended up being the predominate unit type for much of the Hellenistic era after the classical era, that Hoplites, with all their armor and massive shields, were still a very difficult unit for even the pikemen to deal with. I still think they should have some advantage for the pikes they carry, but it seems they just operate as some form of Hoplite - unless there is something I missed about them.
Also, about points.. Warband units.. they seem really cheap, but really pointless to field if you are "barbarian" tribesmen or bring hillmen or something.. Why not just field Peltasts which seem so much more able and have loads of special abilities to use with Arete points? The game also recommends, or at least suggests, the use of 38 point warbands... To me this doesn't seem like a lot of points, and 50 points seemed somewhat more reasonable for the game we were playing.
The last odd thing that Gus pointed out was, weak dinky units, like weak archers and slingers cause Elite infantry to possibly waver if they seem them routed. You'd think "elites" might be trained to deal with seeing death of friends and allies, and a 4 point unit breaking to cause a 12 point super fighter unit to go into waver mode did some somewhat odd - then again, maybe they died so horribly while they were running away it gave the Elite's the shakes...
Overall, this game is great for skirmish level gameplay and doesn't take many models to use. It will be fast paced once the rules are down, and will be great to play while building up for bigger rank and file games. I will certainly be playing it again!
Thanks for reading! cheers!
Great report!
ReplyDeleteThank you :) And thanks for the FAQ.
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