WAB weekend (La
barrière de clichy)
Hannibal's War (31 September/1 October 2006)
Dennis, Don and I entered the French campaign weekend "La barrière de clichy club de jeu d'histoire - 12ème Triomphe de L'ile de France" in Clichy.
There were three WAB campaigns that weekend, besides DBM and other games. I think I saw more than 100 players playing various games.
The WAB
campaigns
There was a campaign situated in the ancient Orient and India called "Eastern Warlords". One in 69 AD, the year 4 emperors fought each others in a bloody civil war. Dennis joined this campaign. All four players wanted to become the sole emperor, and the Praetorian Guard and Senate was involved in decisions too in the game between the battles. The last campaign, Don and I joined, was placed around the crossing of the alps by Hannibal.
The ancient campaigns
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Hannibal |
Hannibal's Campaign
It was a very interesting campaign to play. Every battle we played was a snapshot of some of the events that occurred, when Hannibal left Spain until he fought his first major battle against the Romans in Italy.
Crossing
the Alps
A Roman army under the command of Scipio, landing near the mouth of the river Rhone, were confronted by Gauls that wanted to push the Romans back into the sea in one of the battles. The Carthaginians under the command of Hannibal were attacked by Gauls also, when trying to cross the river Rhone. The first battle at the river Ticinus between the Romans and the Carthaginians was played, and the last day, the battle at the River Trebia was fought as a double.
Rome
against the Gauls of Cisalpine
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Charge of the light chariot brigade |
A battle with chariots! The Romans had just won a skirmish against the barbarians, and were pursuing a cavalry unit, when they were attacked by a large enemy force. So we played the ambush scenario. The drilled Roman units were able to change their facing quick enough to confront the Gauls. After a long and challenging battle the Romans won, but only just.
The
first encounter with the Carthaginians
The Carthaginians managed to cross the Alps, but it had been a difficult route. Now the Romans sent their first army to stop Hannibal. They crossed the river. Scipio was wounded in this scenario, so he had to play with only one wound, and any Roman unit that would be driven back into the river would be destroyed and course panic within 12". The Romans decided to play a refused flank tactic. This made it possible for them to attack strongly against the African spearmen. The cavalry was sent to the other flank to try to hold up the Carthaginians there as long as possible. With incredible luck they held for 4 rounds against Oscan infantry and Gallic cavalry!
The
Final battle
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The final battle was at the river Trebia. 4000 points on each side. Romans joined with Cisalpine Gauls to face the Carthaginians that were strengthened with Celts. The skirmish battle went in favour of the Carthaginian force, but the counterattack by the Cisalpine Gauls was a disaster for the Celts. Their general got killed! And the Celts were always known for their lack of endurance: Now they turned and fled too. This was a very lucky thing, because Hannibal had ordered a part of his army to flank attack. This ambush force was just about to hit the Roman flank, that needed almost all of its troops to confront the Carthaginian battle line. Severely outnumbered when the Celts fled, Hannibal had to give up too. Rome was victorious! |
It had been a great campaign, and all of the players agreed that it was fun playing it.
A Revenge
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Phalanx |
In a sidestep Jérôme Grebet and I played another successor test battle of Seleucids against a Pergamese army. This time it was Jérôme's time for revenge. And revenging his earlier defeat a few months earlier in Paris he did! On the Seleucid left, a joined attack by a cavalry wedge formation and Allied Roman units on the Seleucid Cataphracts was too much for this ancient version of the tank. On the Seleucid right, however, the hypaspists sneaked between the Pergamese line through difficult terrain. Only to be noticed by the army battle standard bearer, that quickly moved out of the way. And then they attacked the hoplite units in the flank. That proofed to be too much stress for the Pergamese army. They were at that moment already fighting the Seleucid phalanx and barely holding on. The pergamese fled into the safety of their city.
It is good to see a player using his elite light infantry in a perfect way (even if they outsmart you).
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There were some pretty nicely painted armies that weekend. Don won the price for nicest person to play against.
Many thanks to the organisers Jérôme Grebet and Matthieu Batiste, and all others that attended and organised this fantastic game weekend!
Merci beaucoup pour l'hospitalité
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