Age of Hannibal - The Battle of Trimsos

My recent hobby activity has mostly involved a fair bit of research and writing for Startline, along with a welcome addition of actual wargaming thanks to the Cirencester club, who have mostly been playing Napoleonic 28mm games using Lasalle. 

However, I realised my intention of progressing further with my latest choice of ancients rules (Age of Hannibal) had been rather neglected. What better way could there be of furthering this little project than inviting round an old wargaming buddy and having a game? And so a few days ago my old friend Paul came around to see what he thought of the rules.

For a scenario, I once again turned to Donald Featherstone's classic, the Battle of Trimsos. I do have one particular issue with this scenario - dividing the battlefield diagonally with an uncrossable river does cramp things a bit, with the two bridges being rather too easy to defend. So for this game, the river became a crossable stream ('rough ground', in AoH terms), the bridges disappeared, and the famous stone wall became a cultivated area supposedly irrigated by the stream. This area would also be rough ground. And that was about it. The interesting thing about this simple terrain was that the centre of the battlefield was dominated by the three hills, which is unusual for an ancient engagement. Unusual situations are often good tests for a set of rules.

I picked two armies of about 1200-1300 points each from my fictional adversaries of Paphlagonia and Latium. We deployed using the simple procedure from the basic rules - the winner of a die roll deploys first, then the other player does the same. Both had the usual deployment zone of up to 12" from their baseline.

As you will see from the photos, I was using 28mm figures on 80mm/3" wide bases, so the moves were doubled as suggested in the rules. Missile ranges were increased by 50%, as even with 28mm figures, a javelin range (for example) of 8" seemed a bit excessive. This all worked perfectly for a 6' x 4' table. And so we set to.

The Game in Pictures

The terrain and the troops. Deployment has not yet taken place.

The game commences. I commanded the forces of Latium in the foreground.
Paul begins his first turn.

Elephants vs. chariots? I thought my left flank had it made!

 

Persian Immortals of the Paphlagonian right-centre. I have a house rule allowing overhead archery,
so the horse archers behind them are a good tactic

Cavalry melee on the eastern flank. Arch enemies the Latium Cataphracts
and the Paphlagonian Companion Cavalry are hotly engaged.

 

The crucial clash in the centre on Rat Hill. My money was on the Paphlagonian pikemen,
to be honest, but I was determined to make a fight of it.

Confused and bloody fighting took place on River Ridge.

Well I never. The Paphlagonian pikes are besieged on Rat Hill,
with the Latium hoplites refusing to be overawed.

Fierce fighting all along the line. Paul considers his options.

The Pikes of the Yellow Shields have triumphed for Paphlagonia on River Ridge (background).
But nearer the camera, the cataphracts have trounced the Paphlagonian Companions
 and turn inwards to cause more mischief.

My elephants never had the opportunity to engage. Paul wisely held back his chariots,
and by the time the right flank of the elephants was secure, it was time to call it a night.

Comments and Questions

An enjoyable evening's wargaming. Paul, being the gentleman he is, reckoned that had we had more time Latium would have triumphed. His forces had lost 9 units whilst I had lost only 5. On the other hand , his morale clock was at 7 whilst mine was down to 6. There was still a lot of life in the game - doubtless we would have made more progress if we were more familiar with the rules.

AoH is easy to learn, and seems to re-create most of the factors one would want in an ancients game. Whether it would please those gamers who are deeper into the ancients period than myself or Paul, I wouldn't like to say, but I am enjoying the playing experience. 

There are one or two puzzling features - neither of us could understand why only infantry can provide flank support in melee, for example. In addition, I thought the 'Panic' rule was an obvious one to use for elephants, but on closer inspection it means that as soon as an elephant unit receives a DMZ (basically, a single effective hit), it automatically panics and runs off in a random direction. This is surely a bit over the top - I have amended this so that 2 DMZs are needed to trigger the rule (3 DMZs = destroyed), and even then panic only ensues if a rally test is failed.

The move away from the more manoeuvre-based tactics of the WW2 and Napoleonic periods to the more close-combat based ancient period was really interesting. It took a while for me to remember that ancients games are often all about the big infantry punch-ups, and one has to focus on these in order to win.

What I need now is a game or two set in an historical period, rather than an imginary one, in order to really judge how well the rules cope. Fortunately I am not short of gaming friends who know the ancient period well and have armies for me to borrow. Lucky me!

'Til next time!