Optio Army Lists

 At present Optio has well over a thousand army lists, and counting. I reckon to have something like 2000 armies to choose from when I'm done.

Well, I cheat.

Players put a lot of time and money into acquiring the armies they need for the rules they play, so I thought, why not just let them use those armies? The generic troop types are pretty much the same for each ruleset - a pike is a pike whether in DBA, l'Art de la Guerre or Triumph.

So I drew up a huge master table of Optio troop types (34 and counting) to which other rules' lists could be adapted. Optio troop types are as of writing:

SHOCK HEAVY CAVALRY

BARDED HEAVY CAVALRY

THESSALIAN CAVALRY

MEDIUM CAVALRY

ARCHER LIGHT HORSE

JAVELIN LIGHT HORSE

CATAPHRACT

KNIGHT

CAMEL

LIGHT CAMEL

SCYTHED CHARIOT

HEAVY CHARIOT

LIGHT CHARIOT

INDIAN ELEPHANT

AFRICAN ELEPHANT

PIKE

HOPLITE

HEAVY INFANTRY

CLUBMEN

ARCHER

PAVISE SPEARMAN

SPEARMAN

LEVY

SOLDURII

GAESATI

HEAVY WARBAND

LIGHT WARBAND

AUXILIA

PELTAST

SLINGER

INFANTRY SKIRMISHER

WAR WAGON

HEAVY ARTILLERY

LIGHT ARTILLERY

That covers pretty much everything in DBA, Triumph, ADLG and DBM(M) - with a bit extra. As I work through other lists I'll see if anything needs to be added.

No need to mention of course that the players will have to already possess those army lists. All I supply is conversion tables for the troop types. Deciding on points, army sizes, composition, etc. will depend entirely on the provisions of those rulesets. So you assemble a DBM army, put it on the gaming table, and play an Optio game with it. Simple as that.

Here is the DBA conversion table as an example (click on it to get a clearer image). Conversion tables will be offered for free and input from players will be invaluable. Nothing is written in stone.

Battle of Potidiana - second battle of the Optio campaign

Here’s the second battle from the Hoplite Greek campaign game between Peter and myself. After his defeat at the Battle of the Pass, General Ophonahos with his army retires into Doris in the direction of Cynus. Instead of pursuing him, General Attalos lays siege to Potidiana. If he can destroy it Ophonahos will have one element less of Cavalry and Psiloi for his army. This is not to be borne!

Battle report here.

Incidentally, I notice that images in a blog post display at a pretty low resolution. You have to click on them to get the full glory.

Optio Campaign system

At present my playtester chum Peter and I are trying out Optio's campaign system. But first let's talk about Optio's terrain pre-game. In My Hardened Opinion the mechanisms in all major rulesets for setting up terrain for a battle are utterly broken. You divide up the battlefield in segments and throw dice to put a hill here and a forest there - I can just imagine generals in Antiquity invoking the gods whilst hills and forests fall out the sky onto the ground. 

Finding the right battlefield was just as important in the real world as fighting the battle itself, and Optio has a quick 5-minute game to allow players to do that. Players have an operational map, divided into a square grid of which each square is a miniature of the battlefield, showing the terrain to be put there. 

Each player has 4 blocks: one the army, one a scout and two dummies. The blocks reveal to the player but hide from his opponent what they are, a bit like the blocks of Columbia Games. When the game starts each player moves his blocks, one block per move, on the battlefield. 

Blocks are moved alternately one at a time like chess or draughts. Only one block of the same player can occupy one square but one block can move into a square occupied by a block of one's opponent. Blocks move from square to square but not diagonally. They can move two squares if entirely by road but never through a square occupied by an opponent's block. A block must stop when it enters a square occupied by an enemy block. 

When in that square a block can scout an opponent's block by being placed just above it. Using an arrangement of magnets a scout will detect an army without being detected itself (by repulsion) whilst an army will detect another army but will be detected itself (attraction - snap!). Dummies do nothing but keep the whereabouts of one's own army unclear for a while. 

When two armies occupy the same square that square is used to set up the battlefield, the orientation depending on which side the second army entered the square. The system's fog of war allows one army to ambush another, getting the battlefield it wants. A game is rarely more than a quarter of an hour and usually much less than that. 

Now for the campaign. 

The campaign is an extension of the terrain pre-game. The map has two states each with a number of towns. Towns supply troops for the army and require prestige points, or kudos, to control. Each player starts the campaign with enough kudos to control all his towns plus a small reserve. Kudos are won or lost in battle. A narrow victory means the victor gains one kudo and the loser loses one; an average victory and the victor gains three kudos whilst the loser loses three; a decisive victory and it's five kudos that are won or lost. 

A defeated army must retreat from that battlefield square. 

Once a player's reserve of kudos is used up by defeat(s) the loss of more kudos means he loses control of one or more of his towns. If the other player has enough excess kudos he can take control of those towns, but they don't supply troops: they just sullenly accept his suzerainty.

As a players loses towns his army become smaller. He has one resource left: he can hand in the kudos necessary to control a town and double its supply of troops, though never more than will make up for the troops he lost. He will have that army at his disposal until the next battle, after which he loses towns he cannot control. It's a last desperate effort to change his fortunes. He must win the next battle. If he loses it he will probably have lost the entire campaign. 

Players can besiege each other's towns: one's army simply occupies the map square in which a town is for 12 turns. If his opponent doesn't give battle and drive it off, the town is destroyed on the 12th turn and henceforward doesn't supply troops for anyone. It's a pile of smoking ruins.

A campaign is over if a player's capital city is destroyed or if the player decides he can't win and puts his hands up.

This campaign takes place between the Greek city states of Doris and Malis. The prestigious general Attalos, foremost strategos of Malis, plans to subjugate Doris to the south then Greece then the entire globe for the glory of Malis. Only problem is that the illustrious general Ophonahos, prime strategos of Doris, has exactly the same idea - starting with the subjugation of Malis.

My playtester Peter took Doris whilst I controlled Malis. 

You can see the first battle of the campaign here. 

The two armies meet in hilly borderlands. A quick battle lasting about 1½ hours. The campaign pre-game lasted 5 minutes. Optio delivers for speed.

Eternal enemies

Another Rome vs Carthage game with my playtester Peter. A Carthaginian expeditionary force lands in Italy and starts sowing murder and mayhem all about it. A Consular army of four scratch legions is raised to wipe the Carthaginian menace from the map. About the closest Optio game I've ever played.

I took the photos for this game using a tripod for my camera, so the images will all be from the same POV. I also formatted the battle report to be more cellphone-friendly: portrait orientation with larger text. Enjoy!

Click here for battle report.

Back again!

After a long hiatus partly due to a pretty severe scooter accident - me being on the scooter - I'm back to the blog with plenty to talk about. Optio makes progress and now incorporates campaign rules which are currently being playtested.

I play Optio about once a week with my playtester chum Peter. It's a mutual back scratch: he plays Optio at my place on Friday afternoon (I knock off work at 1.30pm) and I play Memoir 44 at his place on Saturday evening. It's worked out well so far. I'll do a post on how the campaign rules work and then follow up with several posts on the campaign we're running. Spoiler: it's in classical Greece.

Here's a Rome vs Carthage battle report in the meantime. Carthage (Peter) got a battlefield with good terrain in the preliminary operational game but I was able to pull a fast one on him and win the battle. Enjoy!

Battle report here.