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Sunday, October 25, 2020

Pummelling Pompey, Pharsalus 48BCE

Pompeian troops stand at the ready
As alluded to in the previous post, I refought the Battle of Pharsalus as a solo exercise using Commands & Colors: Ancients (CCA) and my 6mm ancients.  In an earlier, F2F battle, Pompey pulled out an upset victory with a 7-6 win.  This time, it will be ego in ego.  The Julian Legions Rule is in effect for both armies as is the Julius Caesar Rule.  The Julius Caesar Rule is especially powerful since it allows a unit led by Caesar to move two hexes and still battle and battles with one additional die.  For solo play, I play the two hands of cards with an unbiased and optimal card selection.  When I draw a card from the deck for each player, I never look at the new card until it is that player's turn.  Cards that can be played to interrupt the opposing player are removed from the hand and turned face up as a reminder that these cards can be played at the optimal time.

For this replay, I try something different.  Rather than having dialog of the play-by-play separate from the relevant game photo, dialog has been embedded within the photo, itself.  For this situation, embedded description seems a good idea since one can sequence through the photos and read the dialog without referring back to the separate text.  I am curious to read opinions on this technique rather than my normal battle report format.  White arrows denote moves, yellow arrows denote retreats, and red arrows denote combats.  Anyway, on to battle.






















This was a convincing win for Caesar.  I figured Pompey's early massive cavalry attack, under the leadership of Labienus, upon the Caesarian right would be a successful gambit.  If successful, the attack would open up the game before Caesar's preponderance of heavy infantry could close with the Pompeian battle line.  With Caesar's light troops evading and Caesar, himself, repulsing an attack, Labienus was stopped short of his objective.  Caesar then turned the tables and launched a series of attacks against Labienus.  After a few turns, the Pompeian left was in tatters.  It was Pompey's flank that had been compromised, not Caesar’s!  Great fun and an eye-opener to the power of Caesar when leading troops into battle.

Perhaps, I ought to give Pompey another chance?

56 comments:

  1. The 6mm look really nice on this board and the ‘X’ tile markers are not at all intrusive on this coloured board in the way that say brightly coloured dice are.

    I like the pictorial AAR, one of the real benefits of blogger is that once a picture is clicked on and enlarged, you can then easily run through them as a slide show and I think the visual / text combination leaves the reader in no doubt as to what is going on.

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    1. Glad you like the look of the game board, Norm! Doubly pleased to see you approve of the presentation with the embedded play-by-play. Running through the photos as a slide show is exactly what I expected.

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  2. That is the best AAR of Commands and Colors that I have ever seen. The to and fro of the cardplay always seemed to hard to blog but you have shown me how to do it.
    The soldiers look brilliant too, I like your subtle colour code on the bases.

    Thanks for this post Jonathan it is very inspiring.
    Regards,
    Paul.

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    1. Paul! You are very kind and offer me much encouragement. Thank you for stopping in and leaving a comment!

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  3. Great looking game, I really like your approach with 6mm for C&C I could almost see myself gaming like that. 👍 I might have to think about this ?

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    1. Thanks, Matt! You can "almost" see yourself doing something similar? For me, C&C is a worthwhile solo companion. Give it a try!

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    2. Might just be thinking this would make a nice Christmas present from my wife ? Is really like the way you use the 6 mm figures something to think about ?

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    3. CCA would make an EXCELLENT Christmas gift!

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  4. The 6mm figures are perfect for C & C! Although the cards do play a major part in C&C battles it would be interesting to see if Caesar could pull it off again so yes, Pompey should be given another go, Cheers Greg

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    1. I agree that CCA and 6mm are a perfect fit. Well, for me at least! I ought to give Pompey a chance to even the score. Thank you!

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  5. I agree with Norm, those 6 mm figures look great on the board. I like the way that you 'disguised' them in the earlier photos so that we go 'wow', when what looked like counters had figures on them!
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks, James! I appreciate your encouragement and support. I may present CCA BatReps more regularly.

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  6. Bravo, Jonathan! Splendid battle report and the pictures are very effective.

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  7. Once I figured out how to scroll through the pictures, this format worked well for me; it is especially well suited to both the gridded board and the very discrete actions of C&C.
    Great job, Jon, and yes... Pompey should have a rematch!

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    1. Thank you, Peter! Good to see that the slideshow scrolling worked for you. I agree; Pompey should get a rematch.

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  8. Very cool, Jonathan, and your approach shows very well how the CCA system works.

    Cheers,
    Aaron

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  9. Looks great, I do like the annotated images for battle reports.

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    1. Thanks, Paul! Very good to see the embedded annotations are acceptable.

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  10. An excellent AAR Jonathan and the annotated pictures make it really easy to follow the action. Maybe I should try and learn how to do this for my games!

    The 6mm figures look superb and I can see 3mm and 2mm figure blocks working just as well. Not to everyone's taste for sure, but the figure blocks really do give the feel of a big battle.

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    1. Thank you, Steve! Glad to see that the embedded annotations made the action easy to follow.

      I really enjoy playing CCA with miniatures. I use my 6mm figures on the board while my buddy uses his 28mm collections. Both look great, I think.

      Give it a try!

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  11. Very successful way of presenting your AAR Jon. Gripping game. As a died-in-the-wool 6mm gamer I like the look of the units.

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  12. Nice format and the 6mm troops look good, go on give Pompey another chance to get beat by Caesar!
    Best Iain

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the battle report and format, Iain! Your vote makes three "Ayes" to give Pompey another chance. Peer pressure mounts.

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  13. I would totally concur with the view that this is a superior reporting format Jonathan! I also like the look of 6mm troops for this type of game - we have played C&C occasionally with both 15mm and 28mm but the hexes always look too "busy" with these scales - the 6mm are much more appropriate. The result 7-2 does not seem to reflect the look of the battlefield - one of the down sides of systems like this and TtS I guess, where one side can go all out to get the required number of points without having to worry about what happens next! The Pompeian forces still appear to be reasonably potent in the images, despite losing their left wing cavalry. However, the positive side is that you always get a winner and a loser!

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    1. I appreciate your feedback on the battle report format, Keith! I think it does make the action easier to follow with out having to toggle between test and photo.

      The gameboard may not look like Pompey is yet on the ropes but he was. His left was gone and much of his center was spent as well. Caesar was firmly in control and Pompey's troops on his right could not have gone toe-to-toe with Caesar's heavy infantry opposite. Perhaps, Pompey can do better next time. With six cards to four, Caesar had better hands to play and and attacked the Pompeian left effectively.

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  14. Very nice AAR. I think you’ve hit upon a very nice format for reporting these types of games; gridded and on a smaller board. It was easy to follow along.
    Everyone loves seeing C&C with miniatures. Me too. 😀

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    1. Thank you, Stew. I may stick with this format for other grid-based battle reports having discrete turn sequence.

      C&C Ancients is a great game in miniature. Well, IMHO!

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  15. I agree with the above comments; your 6mm figures look great and the C&C board looks quite large at that scale. Lovely 6mm figures too Jonathan. The detail you have brought out on them is terrific.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! I am glad you approve of the game presentation and the figures.

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  16. Superb batrep, figures and the pictorial guides are top notch.

    C&C is a great game and I often find that defeat is often less obvious than it seems.

    Great stuff Jonathan.

    Cheers, Ross

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    1. Thanks so much, Ross! With CCA, I find the battle is never lost until that final banner is taken. Pompey could have done a little better in the match but perhaps not much. We will see if he can improve in the next contest.

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  17. Excellent refight of Pharsalus Jonathan, 6mm works so well for CCA, using the board game hexes is a bonus. We have 6mm Punic Wars CCA game lined up for tomorrow afternoon.

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    1. Thank you, Mike! 6mm works very well for CCA especially since I can use the original game board. I will be looking for your battle report from your upcoming CCA game.

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  18. Fun looking game, Jonathan. The scale looks good too.

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  19. I really enjoyed the AAR and the embedded explanation while one scrolls thru the pics works great. Definitely the way to go in the future IMHO.

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  20. A good looking game the 6mm scale works well.

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    1. Thank you, Peter. CCA and 6mm are a good combination.

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  21. I've always found card-driven mechanics particularly appealing - it's a nice way to leave players meaningful choices, but still introduce real "friction" and limits to players. Solid batrep here, even if poor old Pompey lost.

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    1. One benefit of card draw and hand management is that scenario replay ability is high. Glad you enjoyed the BatRep. Maybe Pinot will get ‘em next time?

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  22. Great looking game, and the in-picture captions are brilliant - most impressed. My break from blogging has meant that New Blogger has evolved a bit, so I haven't yet worked out how captions work now - this technique is an interesting option. Nicely done.

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    1. Thank you, Tony! Good to see you approve of the embedded captioning.

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  23. What a great looking 6mm game, lovely armies and picutres!

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  24. Nice work Jonathan, I always harbour hope my cavalry will actually win this time.

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  25. Pompey deserves his second chance, no doubt. As to the narration method I think it is very handy and definitely the way to go. If the camera is in a fixed position throughout, you would even have a timelapse effect of the whole battle scrolling through successive pics. Nice going Jonathan!

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    1. Thanks, Mike! Yes, I will give Pompey a second chance. My camera is handheld so no chance of me exactly duplicating the position with every photo.

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