The (Unofficial) Great Battles of History
The Reconquest of the Roman Empire
GBoH skips the Roman Empire completely and moves on to the reconquests of Syria, Africa, and Italy under Justinian in the sixth century AD. The included battles are:
There is also a full campaign game, Justinian, included in the box. A quick glance shows no rules provided for using the GBoH system to resolve combats, but resourceful gamers will surely come up with something. (If you do, send me a copy and I'll get it on-line.)
The battles are mostly small affairs (half map, few counters), which is where my preference lies these days anyway. As with Conquest of Gaul, the battles look to be varied and the historical notes even claim that some of the battles are balanced. I hope to find the time to examine them in more detail.
You do need War Galley to play the naval scenario, and Conquest of Gaul, War Galley, and Samurai(!) to play the Berserker scenario.
The rules look like pretty standard GBoH, the major additions being composite bows (see analysis), undisciplined armies, and personal combat. See below for a (I think) exhaustive list of rules changes from SPQR.
What's this on the otherwise-dull hit marker countersheet -- Peloponnesian War leaders? Interesting. No rules or scenarios for their use, of course, but maybe C3i will fill the gap.
All in all, this appears to be a good addition to the GBoH line.
Until now, missile fire has been pretty straightforward to analyze. But Cataphract introduces two mechanics related to composite bows which make things slightly more complicated. On a modified dieroll '0' or '1' they inflict two hits instead of one, and if the firing unit hasn't moved from its starting hex it gets two shots instead of one. Here's a quick analysis of what you can expect from taking two shots at various ranges, assuming a +0 drm:
| Range | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Result | 1 | 2 | 3,4 | 5 |
| 4 hits | 4% | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| 3 hits | 12% | 16% | 24% | 12% |
| 2 hits | 29% | 32% | 44% | 29% |
| 1 hit | 30% | 32% | 24% | 30% |
| 0 hits | 25% | 16% | 4% | 25% |
| Missile Low | 9% | |||
| Missile No | 10% | |||
Balance: 80% Byzantines
Attraction: The biggest battle in the box
Byzantine Advantages: Leadership, TQ, Composite Bows, Hidden LN, Terrain, Wind
Persian Advantages: Numbers (just barely), Dara gate
See the Dara Interactive Replay for a sample playthrough of this scenario.
The scenario notes claim that Dara "can be quite balanced". Uh-huh. Let's examine the Byzantine advantages in more detail:
Leadership: The Persians leaders have initiatives of 4, 5, and 5, while the Byzantine main leaders are 6, 5, and 5, will get EIO, and have three lesser commanders for greater flexibility. Because of first turn special rules and EIO, Belisarius can get two consecutive activations before the Persians can do anything. When rallying, the Persians have Charisma 3, 4, and 5 while the Byzantines are 4, 5, and 7.
Units: Byzantine TQ 8 and 7 cavalry is facing Persian TQ 7 and 6 cavalry. In the north, the Byzantines will be attack superior because of HC vs LN.
Terrain: When the Persians go up the middle, they hit the ditch. Try to flank the Byzantines and they run into slopes, the map edge, and/or Pharas with his hidden lancers.
Missiles: The Byzantines cavalry have composite bows; the Persian HC and LN have no missiles. The Saracen LC do have bows, but they will mostly be firing into the wind at a +1 drm.
So the Persians are indeed facing an uphill battle. If the scenario is an accurate rendition of the historical battle, you've got to wonder what the Persians were thinking. At least wait for the wind to die down, fellas.
Besides hot dice, I think that the key to Persian victory are the Saracen cavalry. Their bows have sufficient range that they can do the ol' hit-and-run until their arrows run out. It's not unreasonable to expect that they could rout a few units, and some ensuing rally attempts will fail, resulting in permanent losses. The Persians begin with a slight RP advantage; throw in a few eliminated units and suddenly a general attack, with its more even attrition, starts looking good.
Of course, the quickest way to rack up RPs is to get inside the Dara gate. Barring freak dierolls, this should never happen in competitive play, but it never hurts to keep on the lookout.
As for the Byzantines, strategy is easy: don't make mistakes. Recover hits whenever possible. Don't be afraid to cross the ditch, but remember that you can't rout over the it, so don't get caught with your back to it. If the Persian leaders stay dispersed, mass Belisarius and your minor leaders on a flank to threaten to attack. If the Persian leaders concentrate, you should be able to "outconcentrate" them using your superior leadership, EIO, and Trump ability.
Ultimately, the Persians can win, but I wouldn't bet on them.
As is not usual for GBoH, the scenario special rules seem to raise some questions:
A small suggestion which might improve balance is to force Andreas to actually fight a pair of Persians rather than the Persian Pair. In other words, the Byzantine champion fights two consecutive Champion Challenges, with no healing of hit points in between. This is ever-so-slightly more historical and gives the Persians a better chance of winning the challenge and getting an extra activation before the Byzantines can react.
Balance: 97% Byzantines
Attraction: A pure cavalry battle.
Byzantine Advantages: Moving first, high TQ, Cataphract cavalry
Vandal Advantages: Numbers, LC
There's a term in Chess, Zugzwang, meaning "whoever moves first loses, and (s)he loses only because (s)he has to move first." That's a good description of this scenario. It seems pretty straightforward: Belisarius uses elite initiative to charge with the cataphracts. The Vandal LC withdraw, taking their shots as they go. Each cataphract engages two enemy units; composite bows, Pre-Shock TQ checks, and Attack Superiority rout at least 8-10 of the mostly-LN defenders. The Vandal leaders are inept at rallying, and so one way or another the Romans get the 30 RPs necessary to win by the end of turn 1.
Given that the crucial move happens on the first activation and that there's absolutely nothing that the Vandals can do about it, this scenario is much less interesting than Casilinum, though the scenario notes lead you to believe the reverse. And I'm hard pressed to figure out how the Byzantine Infantry (randomly appearing reinforcements) or Hun Recalcitrance rules are ever going to come into play.
Did I overlook something here, or did someone at GMT forget about
Belisarius's Elite Initiative?
Balance: 90% Byzantines
Attraction: A horde of berserk, axe-throwing Franks tries to break through a thin Byzantine line before being broken by a hail of arrows and flank attacks.
Byzantine Advantages: Composite Bows, Leadership, Cavalry, Army Withdrawal Level
Frankish Advantages: Ferocity, AS when attacking in Wedge, Leadership, North map edge, low Byzantine Charisma
I've listed Leadership as an advantage for both sides. The Byzantine leg up is the conventional one of more and better leaders. The Frankish advantage is not so much in absolute terms but relative to other barbarians tribes: Buccelin is more than adequate (5 initiative), there's a spare leader (Alanorix), plus the Uncontrolled Advance rule will, in effect, give the Franks an extra activation and free the other leaders for Orders and Rallying.
The playbook notes say this scenario "is a snore". It is certainly imbalanced, but I think that there is some small chance for the Franks to win. The key is Ferocity [9.2] and Attack Superiority when shock attacking in Wedge formation [scenario rule]. Unfortunately, there's not much that you can do about keeping Ferocity (40% chance of loss whenever a Frank unit routs). You just have to hope for good dierolls.
The Franks begin by sending their entire wedge towards the Byzantine line, going only four hexes forward to deny the Byzantines any missile fire unless they move. This still creates an Uncontrolled Advance which will go first on turn two. Veer left (towards the HI) to go where the defending arrows aren't, which also gets you farther away from the extra leaders on the Byzantine left.
Next turn, hit the thin purple line. With a Ferocity, Attack Superiority, and favorable Shock TQ check and missile dierolls, you should be able to rout a fair number of enemy units. Prefer many routs to a few kills, as this forces the Byzantine to use precious orders for rallying and his leaders aren't particularly adept at it. (If he doesn't rally, you'll automatically get the Rout Points at the end of the turn when the routed units run off the nearby map edge.)
The Franks can get a favorable kill ratio....but "favorable" isn't the same as "good enough to win", which is about 3:2 in this case. And that 75 RP Withdrawal Level is what cements the Byzantine victory -- it's just too hard to kill that many units without losing 45 RPs of Franks.
As for the Byzantines, sit tight, roll average or better dice, wait for the Franks to lose Ferocity, and then mop up the routed units.
Clarifications: