FoG in Birmingham – UK Games Expo 2008

I have to admit that although the UK Games Expo is clearly a big gaming show, I had never heard of it before James “Hammy” Hamilton announced that he was organising a Field of Glory (FoG hereafter) competition on the Saturday of the event. Being a one day competition Hammy wanted there to be more than the usual 2 games in a day and so decided on a three game format but with smaller than usual armies, 650 points instead of the usual 800 points, and a smaller gaming area of 5’ x 3’, which reduced each dimension by 12 inches. Due to the smaller gaming area he also ruled that the number of non-compulsory terrain pieces allowed to each player would be reduced by one to a maximum of three. Games time was to be 2.5 hours per round. Army choice would be “open” from any of the lists published before the event, which in practice meant from any of the first four books [1].

As I managed to leave my choice of army late, just one week before the deadline, I decided that I’d better use something I had used before and not try and be clever with a new army. I also wanted to use an army that looked OK – although I’m no great painter this was a public event and so I wanted the army to look respectable – and would be able to put up a reasonable fight against a range of opponents. As a variety of troop types also always appeals to me I picked the Pontic army of Mithridates the Great. This has a good range of troops to choose from and as I’d used it before I also knew it could be competitive – if I used it well of course.

The major decision when choosing a Pontic army from the FoG list, and it is the same in lists for most other rule sets, is whether to go with the early version with a Makedonian style phalanx, or a later army relying more on imitation legionarii. I went with the earlier version, partly because I think the pikemen are more effective than the imitation boys, but mainly because I don’t have enough suitable figures for the latter. As time was limited I took the “starter army” [2] from the “Rise of Rome” list book, tweaked it slightly to match my figures and added a few more troops to bring it from the sample c. 600 point list to the 650 points for the competition. Very useful feature these starter armies in my view, even for experienced gamers.

My army ended up comprising of:

3 generals – FC and 2 x TC

BG of 4 bases of Cavalry, Superior, Undrilled, Armoured, Light Spear, Swordsmen

BG of 6 bases of Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Javelins, Light Spear

BG of 4 bases of Cavalry, Superior, Undrilled, Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen

BG of 4 bases of Cavalry, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, Swordsmen

3 BGs of 8 bases of Heavy Foot, Average, Drilled, Protected, Pikemen

BG of 8 bases of Medium Foot, Average, Drilled, Protected, Offensive Spearmen

BG of 8 bases of Medium Foot, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Heavy Weapon

BG of 6 bases of Light Foot, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Javelins, Light Spear

BG of 6 bases of Light Foot, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow

Or here for a PDF.

An early start on Saturday morning found me driving along motorways from Essex to Birmingham. Fortunately the directions on the Games Expo web site proved clear and I found the venue with no problems, arriving nearly an hour before we were due to start. Hammy and other players turned up soon after and despite finding we had arrived before the convention had set up its attendee registration desk we soon found the rooms put aside for our use. At this stage Hammy was still uncertain just how many competitors we would have and whether or not he would have to play to make up numbers. As it turned out there were fifteen players and so Hammy also got to play. We all easily fitted into a single room at the venue which helped the atmosphere – it is never quite the same if you are split between rooms in my view.

As the entrants were a mixture of relatively experienced FoG players and relative new players Hammy made a random draw for the first round but also made sure that newer players were matched against more experienced players so they could be taken through those parts of the game they were less sure about. I am glad to say that nobody saw this as an opportunity to take advantage of a less experienced player and rack up an easy win – once again showing that some of the perceptions of competition players are far from the truth.

The Games

My first round opponent was Mike Shepherd, and I think this was going to be his first ever game of FoG. He was using a Classical Indian army of the Mauyra period. I have played against this army once before in FoG and I was utterly defeated in rather short order, so could I do better this time? The terrain ended up as a few fields, open and enclosed, on the left hand side of the table as I looked at it, and a couple of gentle hills on the right in Mike’s half of the table. I decided that I would push hard on my left with the Thyreophoroi and Thracians through the fields with the phalanx to their right whilst delaying with my heavy cavalry and Skythians on the right. I also chose to send the Pontic light cavalry on a sweep on my left to see if they could get around the Indian right. Mike’s army was mainly archers and elephants that covered at least two thirds of the table width, and a unit of light spearmen and a unit of weak Indian cavalry on the right. He obviously aimed to push hard at my right in the same way I was going to push at his right wing – who would win the race? Usefully this meant we would have a relatively straight forward game so that Mike could get the basics under his belt early on.

For both armies their plans went pretty much as hoped to begin with, advancing as quickly as they could on their left wings where they felt they had the advantage. However, I gained the first significant advantage when my Pontic light horse and the archers ganged up on the Indian cavalry with their shooting and soon the Indians were in flight having failed a number of cohesion tests (morale checks if you like) despite the presence of a general trying to steady them. This then opened up the Indian light spearmen to attack from a larger number of Pontic Thyreophoroi. This fight would probably determine the outcome of my left and due to the importance both sides committed a general to fight in the front line. Unfortunately for Mike my general was obviously more inspiring and his troops disintegrated rapidly not helped by the loss of his general in the fighting. To make matters worse my victorious Thyreophoroi pursued straight into a unit of Indian archers thus removing any chance that they would cause problems with their shooting.

However, on my right things were not looking so good. My Skythians were having to run like the clappers to avoid being over run by archers and elephants and my heavy cavalry were caught whilst trying to evade from charging elephants – I’m sure you can imagine just how messy that was and they were promptly routed off the field. With this my right flank, and my camp, were looking rather vulnerable. Needing to win quickly now, Mithridates led the phalanx straight at the Indian centre and thanks to his presence aiding morale the pikemen weathered significant Indian archery and crashed into Mike’s battle line. Here I again got lucky and destroyed a unit of elephants on my right just before Mike would have been able to turn my flank; the pursuing phalanx got out of range of trouble. With the rest of the phalanx ploughing through the archers and the Thyreophoroi finishing off their opponents Mike’s army broke and ran.

The second round matched me against Steve Clarke (“Spike”) who had brought along a Classical Greek army, Thessalian flavoured so it would not just be hoplites but would have mounted troops as well. We ended up with one of the most cluttered FoG tables I have ever seen with the right hand third (from my point of view) covered with steep hills and brush, and the left constrained by a gully and marsh. We had only a narrow clear area in the centre in which heavy infantry would want to fight. However, I did feel this was to my advantage as a more open field would allow Steve to bring his larger numbers of heavies to bear on my army. I deployed to push on my left with heavy and light cavalry, the phalanx facing the open area, Thracians and Thyreophoroi through the brush and skirmishers on the right to delay. Steve placed light horse on his left with his hoplites opposite my phalanx screened by javelinmen, but in multiple lines as they wouldn’t all fit into the open area, a small number of Thracians in the brush and javelinmen in ambush in the terrain on his left.

The game that followed was a real bloodbath and also something of a roller-coaster ride with advantage swinging this way and that – just the sort of game that is really enjoyable in my opinion. My push on the left drove off his skirmishing horse but as a unit of hoplites intervened to bolster his line I was unable to make any headway and by the end of the game the hoplites were in a position to drive my heavy cavalry from the field. We also had the unusual sight of two units of light horse fighting each other from the second move of the game until the end with neither breaking – although mine was at one point on the brink of breaking but the intervention of a general and lucky dice recovered their morale so they kept on. On my right I rather foolishly allowed my skirmishing infantry to fight some of Steve’s – it wasn’t necessary but I went for a fleeting advantage – and I quickly lost 2 units unnecessarily. Fortunately my Skythians were in the area and prevented Steve launching a raid on my camp.

However, as is appropriate with these armies, it was the foot soldiers in the centre that decided the battle. My Thyreophoroi led by a general, took on Steve’s Thracians, also led by a general, in a hard fight in the brush. Both sides took loses but once again my larger numbers and a dead opposing general decided the fight in my favour. Meanwhile my Thracians took on a smaller hoplite unit in the open and by dint of better dice broke them fairly quickly. The rout of this hoplite unit caused two of Steve’s javelinmen units nearby to fail cohesion tests and when these were subsequently charged by my Thracians both broke and ran. At the same time as these fights were going on my phalanx and two of Steve’s hoplite units came to grips when the latter disobeyed orders and charged into my line, however, as they did so in different game turns I had the advantage. Here we again had a protracted fight with both C-in-C’s thrown into the fray to try and gain advantage, with the risk that they may be killed. Although I lost one of my phalanx units and a second was on the brink my pikemen just held on long enough to break both hoplite units and with that the Greek army was finished.

The hard fought victory over the Greeks propelled me to the dizzy heights of the top table and a meeting with Ian Speed’s Skythians. The dice dictated that we met on the steppes so we had a mostly open table, but there was a patch of brush in my half which gave me some protection on my right flank cutting down Ian’s ability to surround me with his fast moving horse archers. Ian deployed some low quality infantry and his camp as far away from where he (correctly) thought I would be as he could and then placed a line of horse and foot archer units to my front. He has also sent two units on a flank march on my left. I deployed my cavalry and light horse on my left and the infantry on the right hoping to pivot on the brush and push Ian off table.

The game proceeded much as may be expected given the two armies with the Pontics advancing as boldly as they could whilst maintaining as much integrity as possible so that units did not become isolated and picked on by the horse archers. The Skythians on the other hand fell back in front of the enemy shooting at every opportunity and evading the charges of the heavier Pontic cavalry. The Pontic infantry, with no chance of catching the Skythian cavalry made a determined push diagonally across the table heading for the enemy camp and the low quality troops defending them. An important factor in this phase of the game was the non-arrival of the Skythian flank march along with the limited effect of their shooting which was countered by the Pontic generals bolstering disrupted units as needed.

Eventually the Skythians found themselves with their backs against the wall, or more accurately the table edge – it was crunch time, they had to shoot the Pontics to a stand still or flee out of the game leaving the field to Mithridates. Fortune smiled on the boys from the steppe, helped by the fact that Ian had skilfully taken one of my heavy cavalry units out of the equation with a unit of Skythian nobles, and their shooting was effective. Additionally the Pontic troops now started to fail their cohesion tests and were unable to charge and drive the horse archers literally over the edge. Soon the Pontic cavalry was in full retreat and Ian’s nobles not content with defeating one heavy cavalry unit then broke a second and so battered the Thyreophoroi that when some light cavalry joined in they too decided enough was enough and routed. Although the Pontic phalanx reached the Skythian spearmen and were nearly into the camp it was too little too late and my army broke when Ian’s flank march finally arrived and made straight for my camp and sacked it.

Conclusions

Overall, despite being pipped at the post, this was a great days gaming – everything you want a wargames competition to be: good fun, great people and very enjoyable games. I certainly couldn’t complain about winning two and losing one with an army I knocked up in about ten minutes!

The somewhat different format (different for me at least) worked extremely well and I think all the players agreed on that. For a one day FoG competition it seems ideal, and despite the short game time per round most games finished within the time limit which is always a good sign.

The rules themselves stood the test and I believe that Hammy was not called on a single time to make an umpires ruling. Considering that the rules are still pretty new and some of the players were very inexperienced I think that bodes very well for FoG as a competition rule set.

Notes

[1] These are “Rise of Rome”, republican Roman armies and their enemies; “Storm of Arrows”, western late medieval armies; “Immortal Fire”, classical Greeks, Persians and early Hellenistic armies; and “Swords and Scimitars”; crusader armies and their opponents.

[2] The majority of armies in the FoG list books have a sample army worked out for players to have a quick start with or to give newer players some idea of what a viable FoG army for that list could look like. All are drawn up to be about 600 points.