Thursday morning I played in someone else's TtS! game - Kurt Schlegel of the HAWKS ran the Battle of Paraitekene. From the program, "317 BC. Antigonos and Eumenes square off deep in Persia near Susa. And everyone has elephants!" The Wikipedia article has a useful summary of the battle and its background. GM Kurt ran the game twice, on Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon.
This game used 10 mm figures and some rules variants he termed "Epic scale'.
The three Eumenid players. The pipe cleaners denote the command boundaries.
This was my command; a lot of decent Scutarius type infantry, and not nearly enough cavalry, plus a few elephants. I brought my own QRS. Kurt stated that he was a bit intimidated by seeing me registered as a player; he had no reason to, even though I have been running and promoting TtS! at Historicon for 10 years now. Kurt nearly took a vacancy in my Nineveh game, but the player arrived right after that. 
Even in 10 mm, a mass of pikes looks awesome!
My cavalry is severely outnumbered, even if the bulk of the Eumenid cavalry on this flank was Light cavalry. A swarm of them with wide open flanks is a potential for big trouble!
Action on the Antigonad center and left flank. Talk about an invisible grid - the grid was marked with green dots - I have lots of home made TtS! gridded cloths like that. Then there was some light green flock scattered on the felt, about the same color as the grid markings - Ancient camouflage!
The Eumenid LC has eaten my HC for breakfast!
Overview from the Antigonad Left, mid battle. Kurt used D10's for activation and combat, which is why each player needed a pile of them. He didn't track ammunition, either. When shooting Lights went out of ammo on any odd die roll, while formed missile troops (archers) went out of ammunition if they rolled a 3, 6, or 9. worked OK and decreased markers on tjhe tyable. I don't think I will adopting it, however.
Flanks? What flanks?
My elephants threaten some trampling! Things aren't going so well on the Eumenid right and center; some LC is sent back towards the center to counter my Nellies!
Turnabout is fair play, I managed to get in several successful flank attacks owing top the gap that formed between the Eumenid Center and their Left. Overall, loses were probably about equal in my zone, but favored the Antigonids elsewhere. In a further heresy, Victory Medals were not tracked, but the butcher bill on each side still pretty much told the story... a modest victory for the one-eyed Antigonus. Overall a fun game - thanks to GM Kurt for running it!
Also run at 9 AM Thursday was my friend Eric's TtS! game, The Battle of the Sabis River. The Wikipedia article once again gives a decent background and account of the battle.
Caesar faces a surprise attack by a swarm of Gauls, chiefly the Belgic Nervii tribe. 
The other four guys of our group coordinating TtS! games, left to right Jim, Jeff, Milton, and Eric. I've known them all for 25+ years now, meeting at Historicons. All are part of the Piquet/Field of Battle crowd. As previously noted, the principles of TtS! track very well with those of that rules family.
Very cool Roman marching fort made by Eric; for the actual battle, the Fort was still incomplete.
Eric is using 15mm Wofun acrylic "flats"... which are looking great!
Close up of the Wofun troops and Eric's custom bases...
and of the fort! I was fighting for Antigonus during this time, so I couldn't watch the battle, but I am told it was a hard fought battle, with the Romans prevailing after a shaky start. Eric used chits for activation and combat, and his own rules variant for the Legion's combat properties.
Two cracking looking games and both stylistically very different but both look super.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWas TtS the prevalent rules system at Historicon Peter, and were there any other rules used in other games?
ReplyDeleteYou are seeing a very select subset of games, based upon my pwn participation and interest, Lawrence. Now, between the games the above and I ran, and Kurt's 2 games, that's 9 games using TtS! and there was one using the related For King and Parliament rules. That's 10 games.... out of 520 events, or roughly 2%
DeleteI tried asking AI a question for the first time, namely what were the most commonly used rules sets at Historicon 2025. It gave a pretty generic answer about commonly uised wargames rules in general, which included TtS!, it did note the Warhammer tournament at HCon.
DeleteWhen I got very specific, asking it to use the "rules" parameter of the event listing to generate the 20 most commonly used rules at the convention, it said "That would require looking at each of the events individually, and then listed even more banal generalities about wargames rules. Well duh, that's why I asked YOU to do it instead of opening 520 event listings myself. Not impressed.
Nice big battles! What is your impression of using WoFun plexiglass flats for gaming?
ReplyDeleteWell, my very first armies were pre-painted KILA flats form Aloys Ochel in Kiel back circa 1967, Wofun are sort of the opposite, instead of mostly side views, they are front and rear views. The plexiglass makes them thicker, so event viewed from the side they have substance. Eric has plenty of armies, and joined the ranks of the retired in the past year, but noted that even with all of that it allowed him to have new armies and play with them within a week. I won't be getting any, but for new gamers or new periods, the immediate gratification is no small matter. I am starting by AWI project, but it will take me at least 6 months before I have enough figures painted to play a game, and even the bare lead will cost more than corresponding Wofun armies! As you can see, the tabletop appearance was very good indeed!
DeleteA couple of great looking games there Peter - TtS seems to be very popular in your neck of the woods! I missed a game on Sunday at mate Julians place, pitting Samurai against Koreans - there is a brief report on Marks 1866 and All That blog.
ReplyDeleteSee above, you are viewing things through my lens and my friend's games. :-) Believe it or not, I have several more Historicon posts to come about other games I played in and more! :-)
DeleteGood looking pair of games,TtS! always delivers a decent game I find, I liked the invisible grid and the Roman marching camp is ace!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Agreed, and especially suitable for Convention settings and new p[layers. The fort is a beauty, isn't it?
DeleteAnother couple of great looking games, interesting to 'flats' back on tables
ReplyDeleteIndeed; see my comment above!
Delete