Battle of Sambre solo report small table with own rules on blog

[Shaun Travers]

Hello all,

This is another game in play testing my new ancient rules by replaying historical battles. This one is the Battle of Sambre 57BC between Caesar and the Gauls.  I am play testing the rules by chronologically replaying all the Peter Sides scenarios from his Historical Battles books.   I was using my own rules – Ancient Battlelines Clash (ABC) – for the previous games but am now using some other new rules I have written called When Warriors Collide. I am stull writing the body of these rules.

 

The battle report is here:

https://shaun-wargaming-minis.blogspot.com/2021/12/battle-of-sambre-57bc-using-when.html

 

And here is a shot of the initial battleline clash:

[Andrew Beasley]

Interesting to read about the change you made in movement only vs all actions.  I’ve gone to the Bolt Action idea of pulling a dice out of a bag and moving one unit on that side (see here).

Maybe something like this would work for you

• Pull dice from bag and select unit to activate
• Check unit morale
• Move unit
• Resolve combat
• Rout move
• Repeat till all units have been activated

 

[Shaun Travers]

Hello Andrew,

I have found it too hard to go back to IGOYGO and for my next game with the rules have gone back to individual activation, similar to your suggestion.  Individual activation follows a sequence similar to what you posted.  For WW2 games I use card activation with red and black indicating a side to activate a unit (similar result to drawing dice).  For ancients, I tend to work on right the left unit activation  for all of one side as it is just easier for my brain to process as I often stop mid turn to do something else and it may be days before I come back to the game and need to know where I was up to.  Easy to just mark one unit (I put the dice I am using next to it) and know where I am up to!

[warwell]

I can’t leave dice lying around. This is what happens.

[Tony S]

Well, better dice than figures!

(And I’m sure the worst thing is that the cat rolls better than you!)

[Shaun Travers]

Lol.  Know the feeling…  Not dice but trees:

But I can leave games set up for ages (and the main reason I continue to play 2’x2′) because I use one of these.  The drawer that is open I have just cleared the Sambre game. Other drawers have other things.

[Whirlwind]

Great stuff Shaun – love the Sambre as a battle for gaming.  Your rules seem to handle it fine.

[Shaun Travers]

Thanks!  I was unsure how it would go as an early run with new rules but I could see how the historical result could occur with different dice rolls.  It covers only the main points of the battle – for example with each base being around 5000 warriors, I did not represent the Roman cavalry.

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