Comitatus is Go! - First Solo Game

CRAASSSHHHH!

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, and I've always meant to have a solo game to work out the basic mechanics of the rules before inflicting it on anyone at the club. As I had the day off today I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and play a solo game and then write a battle report.

I still think I need another game under my belt and try a few different things, as I don't think I got the hand of missile fire and I know I made a few errors with movement and the early combats. The few things I learned is that mass is might (as it should be in a god rule set!) and the Romans in defence are a tough nut to crack with infantry. 

In my next game, I think the Goths will have to use their preponderance in heavy cavalry more cleverly, and to remain in cuneus when contacting the enemy, with at least one stand behind in deeper formation, rather than dissipating their strength in spreading out. Also, there was only 10 points the difference between the two sides in favour of the Romans,  but I think the Goths could do with a little more oomph for the infantry: I'll probably have to paint another couple of stands to provide the muscle.

Apologies for the lighting; there was either not enough or too much as the sun started shining directly through the front window after starting off cloudy.

Romans starting with light cavalry closest to camera (javelin and archers), foot archers and skirmishers, then heavy javelin cavalry furthest from camera. Infantry at the rear of the formation.

Goths with light javelin cavalry, skirmishers and archers, then heavy cavalry, with two infantry cuneus at the rear.

The general's view

Goths raring to go

The Goths won the initiative and moved first

The Romans moved slowly to keep cohesion 

First contact on the flank between light cavalry, with an inconclusive result.

Gothic infantry advance

The archers on both sides couldn't hit the side of a barn!

On the other flank the heavy cavalry charged each other!

Resulting in both side retiring with disorder points!

The Romans did well! I was expecting them to be an early casualty.

The light cavalry bicker away on the other flank.

Gothic skirmishers add disorder points to the Roman infantry.

Again, the Gothic archers hit nothing! I'm sure I was doing something wrong!

Time for the Roman skirmishers to earn their keep: Theheavy infantry threw missiles and the Roman skirmishers got stuck in to the nearest stand of Gothic skirmishers,

,,,while on the other side, their counterparts tried to put the Gothic archers under pressure.

Then came the moment of truth... CHARGE! One Gothic cuneus came in, The infantry threw their missile weapons and the archers shot overhead...

,,,but the Goths moved one stand forward and crashed into the line resulting in more disorder points and leaving the Roman line shaken!

The other Gothic cuneus charged in and dispersed its strength by fanning out and attacking both remaining lines..

Big mistake, as the resulting combat proved; the Goths were broken and ended up shaken.

The next Roman turn, the middle Roman infantry line turned and charged the reamining Goth cuneus in the flank, while the shaken Roman line stood fast, pinning the Goths in front.

The Goths couldn't stand the pressure and they also broke with disorder points and a shaken marker.

Time to unleash the Gothic shock cavalry again, this time with the general and his comitatus attached!

Might is right!

The Roamn cavalry couldn't stand.

The Gothic cavalry barrelled into the Roman infantry on the right of the Roman line...

...and routed them!

They then powered off in pursuit of the fleeing infantry, but with all the Gothic infantry in a bad way, this battle was chalked up as a Roman victory!

Comitatus Trials

I had a little experiment, running through the movement and combat functions of my chosen ruleset, Comitatus. I think I'll actually have to play a full game to fully get the hang of it, but I reckon that with practice, I'll get into the swing, as long as I forget about artillery and musket ranges!

Gothic Light Cavalry - The Last Lot!

Well, here they are - the last unit for my Comitatus project!

These Gothic light cavalry skirmishers bring this long drawn out process to an end and hopefully I'll get a solo game in this weekend to familiarise myself with the rules.

These are Italeri "Gothian" Cavalry figures with a couple of changes: Their spears have been shortened to resemble javelins, and the figure hurling the javelin has another added to the inside of his shield

Penultimate Units!

I just have to paint and base one more unit of Gothic light cavalry and I'll have finished my planned armies for my first game of Comitatus!

This post sees another base of Gothic shock cavalry (although they could conceivably be used as heavy javelin cavalry instead) and a unit each of Roman and Gothic archers.

The Gothic cavalry are again from the Italeri 'Gothian' Cavalry set, though I've had to modify a couple of the figures to my preference, namely the middle figure and the figure with the cape. The middle figure was the one waving a puny sword that resembled an overgrown butter knife, so I've cut that out and replaced it with a javelin from the HaT Roman Light Cavalry set. The figure with the cloak has had his spear cut down to a more managable javelin/dart size, and is bearing a shield from the Italeri Late Roman Infantry set, just for variation.

The archers' bases are slightly anemic as I was running out of figures, so instead of having the requisite 4 figures, these bases only have 3. I'm not that fussed as the base is still the same size and 3 figures is a little less crowded in the same space.

The Roman base has two figures from the Italeri Late Roman Infantry set and one from the Miniart Roman Infantry set, while the Gothic base has 3 figures from the Miniart set. Just for variation, I've added a small shield from the HaT light cavalry set to the belt of one of the Gothic archers.

The bowstrings look a little fluoro under the glare of the flash against a dark background, but in the flesh they're not nearly so bright!

Gothic Infantry and Roman Command Stands

I'm almost ready for my first game of Comitatus!

With these two stands, I have finished all the infantry and command required. I now need a couple more stands of archers for both sides and another Gothic light and heavy cavalry stand each.

The Gothic infantry are another mix of Miniart and Strelets figures which bring the total of infantry stands to six, or enough for 2 x 3 stand cunei, or attack columns.

The Roman command stand was one which I had a long hard think about. I wanted it to stand out from the rest of the Roman cavalry stands, so I used two figures from the light cavalry set coupled with one from the medium cavalry set as the general.

Both light cavalry figures were altered, one with a draco added in place of the spear and a head swap, and the other with a cross piece added to the spear and a homemade vexillum glued in place. I couldn't think of how to decorate the shields, but I knew I wanted to do something different. I considered a winged Nike holding a laurel wreath, but decided that was beyond my talents, so decided on a wreath and Chi-Rho combination ie. Christ the Victor. Then I remembered I'd seen something along those lines in a book I had read recently and found the image of Honorius holding a banner that said in translation "In the name of Christ, you are always victorious", which I thought would be an appropriate thing for my general to aspire to! I knocked up a teeny-tiny banner in Paint, coloured it in with my daughter's felt tip pens (no access to the colour printer at work while I'm leave!) and Robertus is your avanculus!

The Honorius panel in question. He really doesn't look like the sharpest tool in the box, does he? No wonder the West fell!

The caption is actually legible if you expand the picture.