Battle of Cannae solo report 2'x2' table with own rules on blog

[Shaun Travers]

Hello All

This is another game in play testing my ancient rules by replaying historical battles. This one is the Battle of Cannae.  I am play testing the rules by chronologically replaying all the Peter Sides scenarios from his Historical Battles books.

I have been slow in play testing these rules for the last few years.  For November 2019 I set myself a challenge to play the 10 First and Second Punic Wars battles from the book.  This battle is game 6 in the attempt.  I actually played all 10 battles by the end of November and working my way through writing them up.

The battle report is here:

https://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com/2019/12/battle-of-cannae-216bc-using-ancients.html

And here is a shot of the main cavalry flank melee:

[Guy Farrish]

Good stuff, thanks for continuing to post these reports.

I downloaded your rules a month ago and to my shame have’t tried playing through them yet – had a very quick read through.

I hadn’t initially appreciated how fast (30 minutes) they are supposed to be. The rules look pretty comprehensive and I got a feel they might give a longer game, but you can’t tell from a quick read of most sets how long they will actually take. I am looking forward to trying them.

Was this a solo run through? If so did you use the preprogrammed enemy option at all?

I see in a reply you suggested this took c15minutes to play! Is that right? If so was this because of the number of outlier dice throws?

Did you feel okay with 15 minutes as a game? It certainly allows you time to set another game (or two!) up and play again but does it allow immersion?

Not a criticism – just a question. I hate playing three hours and having to pack up and ‘evaluate’ (guess) the outcome but 15 minutes does feel quite fast!

 

[Steve Johnson]

Nice to read another AAR and I have just downloaded the rules too. I hope to have a read through in the next day or so and maybe even a simple game.

[Shaun Travers]

Hello  Guy and Steve

The rules would take 30 minutes if you did not know them well.  I still refer to a few of the reaction tables and a lot of games are 15 minutes.  The longest would be 30 minutes.  Most are over in 20.  It is about 3-4 turns in total.  As a unit can react and then do an action (governed by the reaction tables) so it is not IGOYGO alternate turns and units tend to see a lot more action than 3-4 simple turns.

Cannae was 15 minutes, and likely due to the outlier dice rolls.  It would have taken maybe another turn and maybe up to 10 more minutes without them (Heavy infantry Vs Heavy infantry tends to be a little slower than other combats). It was solo.  I tend not to use the programmed opponent for historical battles and only for random point based battles.  I have thought about using the programmed opponent for historical battles but still enjoy simply playing both sides to the best of my ability.

I really like 15 minute games.  There are only 10-12 units and the narrative is intense for those 15 minutes – every die roll drives the narrative immensely and makes a difference.

If you do get around to reading or even playing  and you have any questions on the rules feel free to ask. They are a fairly dry read and some make not make sense in parts. Well, they make sense to me 🙂 but maybe not to anyone else!

 

 

[Just Jack]

Good stuff, Shaun, keep up the gaming momentum!

V/R,
Jack

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