War For The Union - Part Seven

Four months of fighting, mainly in the west.

Grant is now at the gates of Memphis, 

but not after a horrible battle that saw Sherman killed and Lyons wounded.

The Army of the Ohio is fighting for Nashville 

and McPherson has broken through headed for Decatur.

Further naval activity had gone badly for the Confederates 

with two of their ironclads sent to the bottom of the Mississippi mud.

Down south it is a bit of cat and mouse.

The Union can't quiet get the numbers to keep the Rebs down.

There has been limited fight over East with the Potomac creating a natural border

Middle Parthian versus Marian Roman

This was the first time my newly purchased Parthians would grace the table top, up against my recently purchased Romans, ably commanded by Stephen.  An historical match between two very different armies.  It was going to be interesting and it didn't disappoint!

The Romans have the advantage of the terrain, with both flanks secured by difficult going.

The Parthians have their cataphracts in reserve 

and hope to wear the Romans down with their skirmishers.

The Parthians try and sneak round the very edge of the battlefield.

The Roman cavalry catch the right flank incursion and destroy it.

The Romans hope to do the same on the other flank,

but it will be tricky.

Mutual destruction on the left flank,

meanwhile the Parthians are putting pressure on the Roman auxiliary troops.

But the Romans are advancing.

The situation on the left looks like a stand off

while on the right the fighting is tense.

The Roman cavalry after their initial success are taking a while to come back.

The Parthians unleash the cataphracts.

The Roman general and his legion is obliterated.

The second unit of cataphracts defeats its opponents

giving victory to to the Parthians.

A Superb Pike Block

These came as part of my Parthian purchase.  They are exquisite!

Don't Mention The War - Part 11

In what is becoming standard fare, the July/August 1941 turn ended abruptly (20% chance).  It was a good thing no invasion of USSR was underway, but it certainly stuffed up redeployments by the Axis powers.

However the U-boats sailed, or rather sunk, damaged and aborted their way to their new home at Bordeaux.  For the record two U-boats were sunk and one damaged.

Wouldn't want to be a submariner.

In a brighter note at least the British have ceased their occupation of French territory after making a hurried exit from Bayonne.

Production

With the extra partners now in the European Economic Community production has increased, even though the USSR has withdrawn some of its resources, surely a hostile act?  What is not shown is that Germany sent 3 Oil and 1 Resource to Italy.

September/October 1941

The Allies easily win the initiative, but surprisingly the weather is fine.  The USSR is sending massive forces to confront the Japanese.  The Commonwealth continues to rule the waves although the US is claiming the Pacific, having relocated its fleet to Pearl Harbour. This might be to protect Japan from Soviet aggression.

Germany and Italy launch a special economic mission to get Greece to join the new European Community.  For some unknown reason this horrifies the US Senate (they get two rolls at just 30% and pass both - the US will soon be in the war, hopefully on the side of the Europeans).

German trade mission reviewing a Greek building previously looted by the British

The Commonwealth capture Tobruk and have their eyes set on invading Greece.  Will the Europeans get there in time?  The race is on for Athens.

Imperial looters and their newly created ruins in Libya

which they are attempting to add to their Empire

Germany and Italy deploy superior airpower to the Eastern Mediterranean and surprise the British navy.  However it all goes pear shaped and the Axis fighters are shot down and the antiaircraft fire drives off the Italian torpedo bombers. Germany and Italy each lost a fighter and its pilot but at least removed a carrier based fighter and its pilot. 

Italian naval bombers heading for home vowing that they will do better next time

War For The Union - Part Six

It is amazing for a game in which not much is happening that it took Richard and I around four hours to complete about four turns, poor weather turns at that.  Yes there is some administrative fiddlyness, but most of the time it is indecision about knowing what to do.

The West.

Thomas has rebuilt the Army of the Ohio and is trying to threaten Nashville.

Grant, under that Level 3 fatigue marker,

is doing his best to defeat Bragg.

The East is very quiet except for the sound of the rebels digging in.

Note the casualty pile top left hand corner.

That is from the fighting out West.

The Texas campaign has been a bit of a fiasco.

The Union attempt to blast the batteries defending the mouth of the Mississippi

 has been much the same.

However a successful assault has been made at Pensacola.

War For The Union - Part Five

I didn't appreciate the time gap between sessions and as a consequence had largely forgotten what I was doing as the Union as 1862 entered its last quarter.

Once again Blogger has me mystified with its orientation of the images.

Over in the Eastern Theatre Lee has attacked Hooker

recovering the northern parts of the Shenandoah Valley.

In the West the return of Grant has meant a renewal of the fighting for Jackson.

Thomas with the Army of the Ohio has moved up to threaten Nashville.

The Southern sideshow does little to progress the war.

By the end of 1862 the southern front had actually gone backwards!

In the West Grant's offensive had ground on.

Thomas suffered a severe reverse (he's under that black Level 4 Fatigue marker)

There had also been a huge naval battle on the Mississippi 

which saw one Union and three Confederate ships sunk.

In the East there had been lots of fighting and dying,

but not much to show for it.

And then the Rebels publish this:

Richard had done some rule reading and calculating and claimed the the Confederacy had won, or rather that the Union had lost.  He then issued a recount that implies this might not be the case, but would be soon, based on progress to date.

The Battle of Zama

The idea for this game using the Large Battles option for Basic Impetus 2.0 came from this thread on the Impetus forum: https://impetus.darkbb.com/t1608-battle-of-zama

I created army lists and and overview as follows:

Publius Cornelius Scipio has successfully taken the fighting to Carthage.
The Carthaginians have recalled Hannibal from southern Italy to deal with this.
The Roman pillaging of the surrounding countryside forces Hannibal to face them.
Hannibal has 80 elephants, 36,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry.
The Carthaginian infantry comprise citizen levies, mercenaries 
and veterans from the Italian campaigns.
Scipio has 29,000 infantry and 6,100 cavalry.
Roman infantry includes remnants of the 5th and 6th Legions.
These Legions had been disgraced at the Battle of Cannae and were looking for revenge.
The Roman cavalry had been bolstered by Numidian defectors
Hannibal deployed his forces in three lines.
Elephants, skirmishers and mercenaries comprised the first
The second line was the citizen levies with cavalry on either flank.
Finally the veterans formed the third line.
Roman deployment was similar: Velites, Hastati/Princips and then Triarii

Map

Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zama

Rule changes

To break the Carthaginian army all three commands must be broken

To break the Roman army both Legions must be broken

        Roman large units with pilum can use this weapon twice at their discretion

Ace in the Hole

Hannibal has Iron Discipline

Scipio has Decisive Initiative

Narrative

With the recent purchase of Republican Romans I was ready to go and Simon encouraged me to give it a go sooner rather than later, rounding in a number of other players.  Only thing was, he had to drop out due to a Covid exposure.

This was how I set it up.

Note it is the inverse of the set up in the map

(i.e. Carthaginians are on the left, not the right)

Mark Woods as the Carthaginian commander, assisted by another Marc,

had other ideas.

The Romans were Stephen N, John and Brad.

Experience with the rules was varied.

I umpired.

The Carthaginian got off to a good start.

Their Numidians besting the Roman's Numidians

But that was as good as it got.

End of the second turn.

Hoping to repeat the success of their left wing cavalry.

the Carthaginians aggressively engaged the Romans on their right.

Note the light cavalry locked in combat top right hand corner.

They stayed that way all game.

The centre is now engaged,

the Romans had been hanging back.

The Carthaginian repositioning of their veterans in the third line,

has paid off and they are now well placed.

It could of gone better for the Carthaginians.

Their left is compromised

and 

Both the Carthaginian veterans and the left Roman legion are close to breaking.

The Carthaginian first line has routed.

The dice are there to show on a critical turn to seize initiative,

both sides threw a double six.

The Roman Numidians who had swept round the Carthaginian left keep sweeping...

It was a bloody battle.

With just the surrounded Carthaginian second line unbroken.

we ended the game.

Note the light cavalry still fighting on, top right hand corner.

This was my first attempt to refight an historical battle using Basic Impetus and I was very happy how it played out.  Will certainly do it again.