Defense in Depth - Testing L'Art de la Guerre

       So, how effective was Roman deployment in multiple lines anyway? Or, more specifically, how well does deploying in depth work using the L'Art de la Guerre rules?

Both armies are deployed! The Romans have a very narrow front, depending on their cavalry to protect the flanks.

       During the Roman republic it was quite a common for Roman armies to deploy in multiple lines - in this case three.

• The first line was made up of the less well armored hastati.
• The second line was made up of legionaries with a tad better armored - chain shirts in this case, called principe.
• The third and final line was made up of not only the best armored troops, but the most veteran - the triari.

One might also count the velites - light skirmish infantry - as a separate line as well, being well positioned ahead of the army ready to pitch their javelins at the advancing enemy.

The Gauls were a good mix of warriors on foot and on horseback.

       Curious as I am, I wanted to see how well my favorite ancient rules hold up using a deployment such as this. I saw right away I would have to make some adjustments to the rules, although minor. For one, I would not be using the standard rules for deploying armies in left, right, and center corps. I would still divide the army in to three corps, just not being so strict as to where each was deployed. In addition, since I would be using only two legions, I decided that each legion would be a separate corps. The third and final corps would be the armies general, consisting of only the two units of triari. These would be positioned in the third line and in the center. Each of the remaining two legions would deploy on the right and left and would both be deployed in two separate lines, representing the first/hastate line, and the second/principe line Each of these two legions also included some non-legionare troops in the form of cavalry - both Roman and Numidian. Each legion also had a couple of units of velites. These were deployed ahead of the hastate/first line. In addition, to avoid front units routing and causing cohesion hits on rear friendlies, I left gaps between each line of just over 1UD each.

       The Gaul army had a nice mix of med. and hvy. infantry which were impetuous. They also have a good number of cavalry on both flanks - more than enough to handle the meager Roman cavalry.

As the attacker in this scenario, the Gaul army surges forward on all fronts, quickly engaging the flanks of the Romans

       Right from the beginning I knew that I would have issues protecting the Roman flanks, preventing an envelopment of the legions - thoughts of Zama spring to mind here. However, I decided to carry on with the battle.

As the Roman flanks are engaged, the initial wave of Gaul warriors crashes in to the Roman defenders. This first wave was made of the med. infantry. Also note the intense and close run cavalry fight on the Roman left. The Numidians went toe-to-toe with the Gaul cavalry here for some time during the battle.

Although the Roman right flank was defeated in detail, the first Roman line remained intact after losing a unit and receiving heavy losses. I knew at this point that I would have to commit some rear line troops to defend that right flank. Not exactly what I wanted to do.

It was obvious to me that the flanks would play a huge role in the battle's outcome. Of course, this is not unlike what occurred historically in many battles.

The Gaul left penetrates deep on the flank of the Romans, pushing back the velites, forcing a unit of triari to commit. Also note the first line of Romans has weathered the initial assault and

At this point, with no on-board camp to worry about, I considered going on the offensive with the legions in order to hasten the fight in the center. However, since this was more of a test to see the value of the defense in depth, I chose to stay back and see how effective the rear ranks would be in defending against flank attacks.

As the main Gaul infantry approach, the rear ranks become more and more engaged as the Gaul cavalry defeat the Roman left wing as well! Both triari have been committed, as well as the second line. Not what I expected.

At this point in the battle the fighting was all over the place. The first Roman line, although battered initially, still was intact. The rear lines were all but fully engaged and committed to the fight on the wings.

The battle was pretty much over at this point, with the Gauls withdrawing from exhaustion. The Roman first line is once again assaulted - this time by the more worthy heavy Gaul infantry.

The Romans are engaged on all fronts! There is no doubt that the Romans at this point were in trouble. However, being less resilient than their opponents, the Gaul forces initial impetuousness was spent. It was only a matter of time before they would fatigue and withdraw from the fight.

       The battle was over. It should be noted that I kept playing the fight longer than I should have. The Gaul army was defeated a tad earlier, but I kept the game up regardless. Even so, it was a close fight for both sides.

       Although the test didn't go the direction I wanted - testing out the defense in depth against a frontal assault, it did show how effective the deployment was at protecting against flank attacks. The Romans were able to shift forces relatively quickly against the less able Gaul cavalry, dealing with them quite effectively.

       Realistically, having a much smaller frontage, the Romans would often deploy rear ranks to extend the front. Optionally, the flanks could have had more troops as well.

       Overall, it was a fun battle. Exciting throughout - as the L'Art de la Guerre rules tend to be, I enjoyed every bit of the fight. Although not having been able to test out the durability of the three lines against heavy frontal assaults - at least in the manner I planned, I did learn a lot about the effectiveness of the system to adapt as needed. I also learned the vulnerability of the flanks! Again, I kept thinking Zama as the flanks each crumbled.

      
       I hope you enjoyed the article. I hope to have another like this soon. In fact, I am already planning some scenario type battles for use with L'Art. More on these in the coming months.

Until next time...

~K

Rome v. Gaul: L'Art Action Online!

       Last week I saw myself fully engaged in running a fantastic game of L'Art de la Guerre for some of the members of the TtC community. This was basically a two player game, although several different players took command as the battle raged. I myself also took command of one side to fill in for a missing player. Was a really enjoyable battle that really brought out the best in the L'Art rules.

The rushof the Gauls on the Roman battle line.

       This was a 200 point battle featuring the Republican Romans against the army of Gaul. The battle lasted a total of nine turns and saw the Roman army under the command of David Nickols pull off a close contested win - Gaul exceeded their break point by four points.

The Gaul army quickly defeated the Roman elephant and gained control of the Roman right wing.

       I really enjoy the L'Art rules system. It seems a perfect blend of some other well known and popular sets of rules, such as DBx, FoG, and Impetvs. Not only that, it allows for small armies for the beginner, as well as larger battles on a typical 6' x 4' table, or larger. These rules have really caught my attention and I am pretty sure they have now become my "go-to" rules for ancients gaming, along side DBA and Impetvs. I still need to try the Hail Caesar rules, however.

Some things I really enjoy about the L'Art rules:

• foot elements - called 'units' in L'Art - look more impressive, being 2-3 bases deep;
• allows for small DBA-like armies, as well as bigger armies;
• lots and lots of army list included in the rules;
• analytical rules without being overly complex;
• similar feel to both DBx and Impetvs;
• feels like an ancients battle!

These Numidians would be soon driven from the field.

       Of course, the rules are not perfect. I always liked unit reactions to combat, such as push-backs, recoils and retreats. L'Art has none of that - it does allow some limited disengaging from melee, however. The rules themselves could have been better organized and written in some respects. It can be a chore remembering some of the more fiddly things. All minor complaints really.

We used these markers spread between the various commands as a visual aide for players.

Late in the fight. You can see the Romans have completely defeated the Gaul right, and Gaul has all but broken through the Roamn right!

The Romans cleaning up the Gaul right flank.

Very early on the Gauls were very aggressive and launched head-long into the Roman lines.

A close up of the Gaul troops breaking through the Roman right. All that remains is a lone Creten unit.

Last turn of the fight! Rome wins!

        With the battle over, I have now moved on to another scenario - a SOLO affair. Perhaps I will post this one later. I will be pitting my Republican Romans against the horde of Gaul once again, this time using some historical deployments to see how the Romans fair. Stay tuned.

Until next time...

~K

A Naval Project?

Hi everyone. Been a long while since I did an update here on the Wall of Shields. For one thing I had to shut the blog down for a while as I was attempting to re-organize all my blogs in to one. Didn't work out too well. So, here we are once again :) This time I will be keeping the blog separate from all my other blogs as I know a lot of people have more interest in ancients wargaming as opposed to my other interests, such as WW II.

Anyway, just ordered the newest Battle Mat from Cigar Box, Caribbean Waters, and it looks FANTASTIC! This of course is for a new project of mine - ancient naval! Always wanted to do this, so I am pretty stoked to get an awesome mat to go with the project. Way better than just a solid blue piece of felt!

In other news, I am trying to get back in to finishing up my last DBA campaign - Rome and the Gauls! It's been a while and I really want to get back to working on my campaign rules. Should be interesting after all this time has gone by.

Anyway, glad to get back to posting something on here and plan on doing more.

Till next time,

~K

Some Plans for the NEW Year

Well, after some adventures with my Napoleonics (which I am quite happy with at the moment) I am itching to get going with some plans for my ancients hobby. First up I have quite a ways to go expanding my Gaul and Polybian Roman armies. I try and add a new unit for both every week or so, and so far so good. The painting continues.





Some of my completed ancient armies.

Hosting some LIVE plays over on the Tabletop Commanders has been a blast. Recently I did some Blucher games and learned a lot about how to improve the quality of the videos. For those not in the know, a LIVE play is a game session played LIVE over Google+ Hangouts. For more on this check out the Tabletop Commanders link here on my blog. Anyway, I will be planning a Basic Impetvs battle next month for everyone. Been a while since I last played this awesome system. Although L'Art de la Guerre  is my rules of choice for ancients wargaming, Impetvs will always have a place on my bookshelf. Regardless, stay tuned for that as I will have more information on the details of the event - and results - later.
Another thing I want to finish is my last DBA campaign between the Gauls and the Romans. If you check my past posts here on the blog you will notice I never got around to finishing that last campaign - I think we did two battles so far? Anyway, I definitely want to pick that up soon as well. That campaign, by the way, is a playtest of our two-player campaign rules we have been working on. You can find the latest version of that in the files section here on the blog.

As far as what NEW projects I want to get to this year, I am not so sure. My options are plentiful, that's for sure. I still want to build some NEW armies for the early dark ages, as well as some early Greek stuff. However, first up will be the period that has my attention the most, which is the early republican Roman ear. I already have a start on Later Seleucids and Numidians, two armies which I will be expanding soon. Carthaginians and more Successors (Ptolemaics and/or Macedonians?) will eventually be in the works as well. But again, my hands are full with my current plans, so I will not get ahead of myself yet. Oh, and there is of course my massive re-basing of my Feudal English armies as well! As many of you might know, all these miniatures were mounted for Impetvs. However, I have since lost faith with that mounting system - the bases are just too big and clumsy for me as I like lots of terrain on the table. SO now I am re-basing everything over to the DBx standard. This will take some time.

King Henry III of England: mounted and ready for battle!

Some of my Impetvs based feudal English in need of re-basing.

So there it is; plans for the year - or at least the coming few months. I hope you all stay tuned as I get more and more done and add some awesome content to the blog.

My Wargaming Life, Ancients!

If you haven't heard of the *NEW* My Wargaming Life website - started and run by wargamers - then you must have a look. This site is fantastic, allowing those who sign up to the site to upload pics, leave comments, and join the forums. Full of like-minded wargamers of all genres. What is nice about the group is that it is divided up in to separate sub-groups for different periods or genres of miniatures wargaming. Two such groups I have listed below along with the links to get there: the Ancients  and the DBA Gamers groups - both of which I currently admin.

Defffinately worth signing up and getting involved directly with supporting the ancients wargaming community. Of course, there are plenty of other groups to join as well on the site - such as Flames of War, WW II, Napoleonics, 10mm, 6mm, the Black Powder Challenge '15, and more.




My Wargaming Life (Ancients)

My Wargaming Life (DBA Gamers)

DBA & L'Art de la Guerre with the Tabletop Commanders!

Had an enjoyable day a couple weeks back with the online wargaming group, The Tabletop Commanders. We managed to get in a couple battles featuring the Gauls and Polybian Romans (my favorites). We had three player's in all - not including myself. I managed to pull off a win with my ancient Gauls. Pretty fun battle really. I was able to break through the left flank of the Roman battle line with a powerful (and lucky) charge.

In addition, last week saw up having a go with the L'Art de la Guerre rules as well. I again played in this one - I was the host. I managed a victory once again, although this time I won with the Seleucids v. the army of Gaul. Very fun.

Both sessions above were LIVE on Google Hangouts of course. If you want to watch the events, check out the Tabletop Commanders Playlist below. The playlist is updated soon after each event..

Tabletop Commanders LIVE

If you have yet to play on-line, I highly recommend giving it a try. All you need is Google Hangouts, a webcam -  if you want to host a game - and you are all set. If interested in joining up, contact me.

L'Art, DBA, and Soldiers of God!

Had a wonderful time this week learning the L'Art de la Guerre rules. Played a full battle using 100 pt armies and it was a blast; a very tactical and challenging game to say the least. All in all it is safe to say that L'Art is now my "go-to" set of ancients rules for my ancient battles, second only to DBA. DBA of course is what it is... a great game that can be played with small armies on a limited space, and this is where it shines best. So therefore expect plenty more content with DBA. However, for the more 'gritty' type battles, larger, and with lots of detail, at the moment that belongs to L'Art. So both rules will be my focus at the moment. However, I will be looking back into DBMM as well, especially later this year when we can get our hands on the new version of the rules and army lists! I still feel that DBMM is one of the best sets of rules (and most realistic) out there for ancients.

Another set of rules I intend to re-visit is Impetvs, a long time favorite of mine. However, I am NOT a fan of its basing system (SHUDDDDDER) because the bases are too damn big; best played on a smooth, flat surface, which I am not keen on; I like lots of random terrain in my battles. However, I am waiting till later this year for the release of the NEW Basic Impetvs rules - yes they may actually be PUBLISHED! Hopeful Baroque and Impetvs II will follow soon after (next year?!). Regardless, expect some Impetvs content as well in the future.

With all that said, I think at the moment I know where I am sitting regarding what rules I will be using for the time being: L'Art is great for a deep, detailed battle (which I love), and DBA allows for ease of play with ANY size battle. Both are tops in my book, each deserving of my serious attention. So, we shall see what happens in the coming months if my attitude changes.

One more thing I should note is that I will be trying out Warwick Kinrade's new set of rules for the Crusades - Soldiers of God! These rules look really fun and historical. I imagine they have a lot of 'feel' for the period as well. Being deck driven is another plus as well. Anyway, I should have these rules in my hands in a matter of days now (tomorrow?). After a good look I will be plotting out some playtests. Of course, I will need to get my Feuadals based up! I also have NO arabs to fight for the Muslim cause, so I am gonna have to plan out some figure buys over the coming weeks. Full details to follow.

Playing Some L'Art de la Guerre ...

Spent the last couple day's finally testing out the L'Art de la Guerre ("L'Art") ancients rules. Taking me a bit wrapping my head around some of the movement rules, which is otherwise a pretty straight forward game system.

The mechanics are pretty straight forward, a good "grainy" feel to them for those looking for more detail compared to DBA. At the same time the game flows very fast. Combats can be very quick and brutal - even considering the "cohesion" rule that keeps units on the table until they reach a certain loss in cohesion - 2-4 points in general. The movement section takes the longest to play out - at least for a newbie to the rules like myself.

All in all I am liking the rules. I have been looking for a good set which is a step up from DBA (which remains my favorite so far - at least for small and FAST games). DBMM and Impetvs still attract me as well. Which reminds me, if you like Impetvs, you may very well like these rules as well - much of Impetvs was drawn from concepts in these rules.

L'Art de la Guerre is on the Way!

Been having an itch to give L'Art de la Guerre a test run. Have been giving ancients a break the past couple months whilst I do other things. One rules set I am itching to try is L'Art de la guerre. I did a fist look video on these rules a few months back and have only recently got around to giving them a good read through. - which I am still doing at the moment. However, I am eager to set up some miniatures and run through some test runs. Perhaps I can get to that by next week, Right now my games table is covered with panzergrenadiers, Shermans and of course a robust looking TIGER!

More to follow - including some pics  of my LarT play tests :)

Review of "Start Ancient Wargaming"

Here is a review of Sue Laflin-Barker's book, Start Ancient Wargaming. This is a 20 min. video review and worth a look. Take a look at the video below.

Making a QUICK Greek or Roman Temple

Here  a short example of how to make a quick temple for your Roman or Greek battles. Emphasis here is on "quick". However, the final product looks really good if done correctly.

(NOTE: I was in a kind of rush making the post. I intend to go back later and tighten it all up a little bit. Until then, here it is :)

I made this little gem primarily because I wanted something to represent an enclave in my DBA battles. One example the rules give is an out of the way temple. So that is the direction I chose. I can use this little temple for any battles along the Mediterranean.

What You Need

 

5-6 (or more) plastic drinking straws

Thick Card

Wood/MDF base, etc.

HO Scale Miniature for a Statue

Foam Ball

Metal Washers (different sizes)

Spackle/Filler

Flock, sand, etc.

Paint White, brown, black, red, etc.

 



STEP ONE: Get you stuff together! One thing you will need is lots a card circles. These are actually easy to make. Grab some thick card, place steel washer (any size you want) and cut around the washer using scissors. When your done you can file the card a bit to smooth the edges. You can also gather any round bases you might have that would make a great platform/base for your statue to sit on. In my case I used a thick plastic round base for this.

For the dome you will need to cut a small round foam ball in half (I didn't have one around so made my own by cutting out a chunk of foam board and shaping it with a very sharp knife and sand paper.

Step Two: Make your pillars! This is what the plastic drinking straws are for. I am making this model in 15mm so my straws are about as thick as I could find. I cut a bunch into lengths of about1 1/2 " - 2"; tall enough for my needs. Remember that 1" in 15mm is approx. 10 scale feet. My roof will be about 1'5 to 20' high.

I made a bunch of these and cut little tabs that flop over so I could adhere them to the card base and roof. Simply make two cuts on each end of your straw pillars, bend down, and cut off the rest of the straw (see pics).

At this point I glued the straws (by those little flaps I cut) onto the floor of the temple. I then assembled the flooring pieces together by stacking them. You have to be careful here to make sure the straws adhere well to the flooring pieces - pressing them all together. You want the straws to stand as evenly and erect as they can. Don't worry too much if they arc outwards a little as the roof piece will pull it all together.

STEP THREE: Assemble the roof! At this point it's time to throw that roof on-top. ( took a single round card piece and glued the dome on-top - be sure to center it up so it looks right.

Next, we glue the roof piece on top of the pillars which should be nice and dry now from previous assembling. Again, we glue the roof pice on to the straw tabs we cut in to the straws - just like we did for the floor. For some added stability I used a few small pieces of tape to hold all together while it dried. Be sure to get everything lined up and straight - you don't want any leaning pillars.

STEP FOUR:  Add the Statue! At this point I primed up my HO scale model to represent my statue. I glued this onto the top base of the floor (again, I used a plastic round base to represent this). I used a brown primer for the statue - a good color for shading an off-white color which the temple will be painted at the end.

STEP FIVE: Paint up and texture! At this point I added spackle over any gaps between floor pieces, where the statue sets on the floor, where the foam dome meets the card ceiling, and around the joins of the pillars and card. The goal here is to smooth things out. Once this is dome we can add some sand to the spackle and cover the entire model with the spackle (adding texture).

Next up we give a nice base coat to the entire piece - using brown or white paint. Brown makes a nice shade or undercoat for any off-white stone work.

The pillars deserved some special attention. I wanted to show that each pillar was made up of stacked smaller stone pillars. To do this I used a brown ink to go around each pillar about five times, thus showing deep recesses between the pieces.

At this point it was time to finish the painting. I painted a black strip at the base of the dome to provide contrast and a shade for the red that would be painted over it. Of course you can use any color really. I like red as it really stands out and "looks" Roman or Greek.

The whole piece was painted with an off-white. I use  pure white to show highlights on the dome top. Once dry I finished off the entire piece by adding flock and what- not. Perfect.