Battle of Amphissa, Part 2 - Aaaargh!

The time has come. After a long siege the Dorian capital Amphissa is on the verge of surrender, its citizens half-starved and desperate. But hope is rekindled: the illustrious general Ophonahos finally arrives with his relief army and deploys for battle, ready to crush that impudent upstart Attalos once and for all....

The two armies ready for battle, Ophonahos (Peter) on the right and Attalos (Yours Truly) on the left.

Turn 1. Malis. Turn 1. Doris

Attalos' command rating was inferior to Ophonahos' which means I started deployment and hence should start moving, but I decide to forego my move and see what Peter is up to. Peter decides to advance his hoplites and peltasts, holding the rest of his army back - possibly to see what I was up to (we really don't trust each other 😟).

Turn 2. Malis

I start executing my plan conceived during deployment: move my psiloi up in front of my hoplites from where they can shoot and weaken Peter's hoplites, whilst my cavalry moved up on my right to engage Peter's psiloi and hopefully distract his cavalry.

Turn 2. Doris

Peter now makes his big move, essentially moving everything towards my infantry on the left. His psiloi form column and double-march into the protection of the forest, whilst his cavalry move up to support his hoplites poised to attack my infantry line. His peltasts move onto the ploughed field and trade javelins with my psiloi. I have to admit this move gave me serious pause for thought.

Turn 3. Malis

Only one thing to do: carry on with the original plan. I needed to close the gap between my hoplites and the city walls so moved the entire infantry battleline to the right, which not only stopped any attempt by Peter's peltasts to infiltrate into my rear, but also stopped his cavalry from sneaking around me - a solid wall of ZOCs now blocking them. They would have to go the long way round his hoplites, and with my cavalry moving up towards his left I doubted he would have time for that.

Notice my psiloi getting out the way as the hoplites occupy their square. Psiloi must evade friendly as well as enemy non-lights. The psiloi did manage to shoot the peltasts before they moved (who naturally shot back at them).

Turn 3. Doris

Peter decided a frontal assault was the way to go, moving his hoplites diagonally left to support his peltasts. His cavalry formed line to face the threat of my cavalry on the far side of the town, and his psiloi formed line to add to the welcoming committee.

Turn 4. Malis

Time to drive on Peter's army from the front and flank. Here I inadvertently broke a rule - my hoplites charged the enemy before them, but since my peltasts were part of the same battleline they should have charged as well, which they didn't do. This would have made a big difference as peltasts are easily outfought by hoplites and the loss of that unit would have exposed my hoplites to outflanking. There ya go Peter, you should really have won this battle.

Peter showed extraordinary bad luck in his dice throwing: a first six for his hoplite commander was followed by a second, killing the commander. This isn't the first time it would happen in this game....

Peter's peltasts evade the charge which is exactly what I was hoping for. They are now in the path of my advancing cavalry.

Turn 4. Melee

Here I got turn order mixed up. I move first, followed by Peter, so melee should have come after Peter's move. Oh well. The hoplites wear each other down but nobody routs just yet.

Turn 5. Doris

Peter charges my peltasts who evade, and reforms his own evaded peltasts. But nothing else for this turn. Mistake.

Turn 5. Malis

Chaaarge! In go my light horse who catch Peter's peltasts on the flank. With their own LH in the way they can't evade and have to take it on the chin. Peter elects to let his other LH accept the charge and not evade. My general's combat factor however is better than his, so I win the first round of charge combat (mounted vs mounted combat is resolved twice with generals/commanders affecting one round of combat). Peter's LH drops a morale interval.

Turn 5. Melee

In the subsequent melee combat Peter's LH drops an additional two morale intervals and routs. I realise I forgot to resolve the melee combat between my LH and Peter's peltasts. Damn.

My LH occupy the square vacated by Peter's routed LH.

Turn 6. Doris. Turn 6. Malis.

Peter didn't move this turn. I turn my hoplites - possible since they have enemy on their flank - to face Peter's hoplites and prepare for a flank charge next turn. Meanwhile my psiloi form column and march up as far as possible.

Turn 6. Melee

Peter's peltasts finally turn to face my LH and, having been disordered by the flank charge, do badly in the melee but aren't routed just yet. Both our commanders however are wounded.

Ouch!

Turn 7. Doris

Peter pulls a fast one, slipping his LH between my LH and his peltasts to the rear of my other LH unit engaging them. I sure didn't see that coming. His psiloi advance from the woods to get back into the battle. Meanwhile his hoplites charge my peltasts driving them back and - hopefully - eventually off the battlefield.

Turn 7. Malis

My psiloi battle column forms line, then one of the units advances up to shoot at Peter's hoplites (the other can't move so stays where it is). My hoplites charge Peter's hoplites in the flank, disordering them. Meanwhile my general's LH moves at top speed to engage Peter's LH, about to make a burger patty of my engaged LH.

Turn 7. Melee

Peter's hoplites finally break and run whilst his disordered peltasts are ground down but not yet routed.

Turn 8. Doris

Peter's psiloi enter the fray again, shooting up my hoplites. More importantly, his LH charge my LH in the rear, disordering them and inflicting ruinous morale loss in the charge combat, though not quite enough to rout them. Meanwhile my peltasts and psiloi throw everything they have at Peter's hoplites....

.... who charge the peltasts. But this time they stand their ground. The hoplites are shaken, so the charge combat is a draw and nothing happens.

Turn 8. Malis

One of my hoplite units charge Peter's psiloi, who evade. The other turns to face the other psiloi unit who continues to give a generous donation of javelins. But my hoplites are armoured so it's not too bad. My LH gets to the rear of Peter's engaged LH and prepares to repeat the hamburger patty trick next turn.

Turn 8. Melee

Sandwiched between peltasts and LH, my engaged LH unit dies, fast. Oh well, the bards will compose a stirring ode in their memory.

Turn 9. Doris

Peter rotates his LH 180 degrees to face mine and moves up his peltasts to give support. His psiloi continue to shoot up my hoplites, slowly denting their morale. Slowly.

Turn 9. Malis

Chaaaarge! My hoplites obliged Peter's psiloi to evade and then my LH charge Peter's LH and....

O tempora, O mores! General Ophonahos is killed in hand to hand combat with Attalos! Two consecutive sixes do him in, on the spot. His loss is worth 4 victory points and that is enough to tip Peter's army over the edge in a general rout. Game over!

But hang on, the game was decided by a throw of the die. That isn't how Optio is supposed to work....

The womenfolk wail from the city walls. Our hero, our saviour, is dead! Eheu!

This was an average victory for Malis since I had lost more than a third but less than two-thirds of the stands necessary to rout my own army. Peter hence lost three kudos and I gained three. In consequence he lost control of two towns: Cynus and Potidiana. Things now look truly desperate for Doris but it isn't over yet. By taxing his three non-capital towns (a player cannot tax his capital) Peter was just able to raise an army that matched mine. Time for one last throw of the die (!). Stay tuned.

Optio's VASSAL module - Part 2

Here is a quick overview of how the units  work.

The battlefield consists of a square grid of which each square is itself divided into a 5x5 square grid of which the squares are invisible. I've made them visible for this post.

When placed on the battlefield, a unit snaps to the middle of a square.

Regardless of the size of the unit.

When dragged, units jump from square to square.

A unit must be placed so its side edges are equidistant from the sides of the battlefield square. Not like this:

Right-clicking on a unit produces a popup menu that gives all the features of the unit.

Next Piece and Previous Piece give all the sizes of the unit, i.e. a unit of one stand, two stands, or four stands, in line and column.

Increase Morale and Decrease Morale runs through all the morale scales available for units, starting with the worse and progressing to the best.

Let's give this Greek Hoplite unit a morale of 2-2 (2 firm and 2 shaken morale intervals). You just repeat Increase Morale until you get there.

Colour up and Colour down puts differently coloured borders around the morale scale. These indicate which command the unit belongs to.

Rotate CW and Rotate CCW rotates the unit left and right, in 90 degree increments.

More Disorder and Less Disorder increase or decrease the disorder of a unit. The first level of disorder looks like this:

The second looks like this:

 The third looks like this:

The fourth and last looks like this:

The black square disorder corresponds to the disorder of Unwieldy units in the tabletop game. The maroon square disorder corresponds to the disorder of Drilled units. The red square disorder corresponds to the disorder of Agile units and the orange square disorder corresponds to the last level of disorder before order is restored. It's the '1' on the order/disorder counters or cubes in the tabletop game.

For those units capable of missile file, when they have shot one indicates this with a small bow and arrow symbol which appears or disappears with the Shot command.

If a unit capable of evading has performed an evade, this is indicated with the Evade symbol using the Evade command.

Missile damage on a unit is indicated by coloured arrows appearing next to that unit. Let's use as an example a Psiloi unit shooting up a Hoplite unit.

Shooting is indicated on the Hoplite unit using Increase Missile Hit and Decrease Missile Hit. A Psiloi will normally score one missile hit on the Hoplites per attack (in other cases shooters can score two or even three missile hits per attack). The first missile hit is a green arrow.

The second missile hit is a yellow arrow.

The third missile hit is an orange arrow.

And the fourth missile hit is a red arrow. When the unit receives a fourth missile hit, its morale is moved down by one interval. The next missile hit cycles directly to the green arrow and the whole process repeats.

That covers the important traits of a unit. I'll give a couple of examples of movement and combat in a future post.

Battle of Amphissa, Part 1 - third battle of the Optio campaign

After his last battle Peter had a difficult choice to make. Having suffered two average defeats his loss of kudos meant that the town of Melion slipped from his control and fell under that of Malis. Melion had supplied one Peltast and one Psiloi stand for his army. He could now either fight the next battle two stands short or force one of his towns to supply the necessary troops - but lose more kudos in the process.

He chose the latter option and taxed Gla to the limit, doubling its production of 1 Peltast and 1 Psiloi stand. An army may never have more stands of any troop type than it originally began with.

This means that Peter must win the next battle. If he loses it his shortfall in kudos will mean that one and probably more towns will be lost to Malis and with them probably any hope of final victory.

After a battle, if one player loses a town the assumption is that both sides made a peace treaty, swearing eternal friendship, and retired their armies back to their own territories. Eternal friendship lasts just long enough to re-equip the armies and then both sides go at it again. Here is Malis and Doris on the eve of a new campaign:

Malis was able to deploy a block in Melion (lower right) since it now controlled that town. Melion doesn't supply Malis with any troops but does supply it with provisions, hence the deployment there.

In this campaign my army was the block in Melion. My plan was to march across the plain and engage Peter's army if it met it. If I didn't I would proceed straight to his capital city of Amphissa and besiege it. If I destroyed the city I would win the entire campaign game. Peter would have to come to me and I liked the terrain in that battlefield.

To Amphissa I went and after a long siege (10 moves out of a total of 12 before destruction) Peter's army arrived, in the nick of time.

The battlefield was somewhat in my favour as I had the upslopes. But the city of Amphissa was in my way (it is simply an impassible obstacle to both players). I would have to figure out how to fight around it.

A view of the battlefield. That big slope at the far end is impassible mountain.

And the armies deploy for battle. The women and children of Amphissa, pale and wan from the hunger of a long siege, look hopefully from the city walls. Will their men save them?

Peter wasn't feeling too well either so we called it a night at this point. We fight the battle later this week. Expect a battle report soon.