Game - Sword & Spear - 6mm Pontic vs. Early Imperial Romans

 Last Sunday I played a game of Sword & Spear against Torben with our 6mm ancients armies.

I fielded a Pontic once again, and almost exactly the same as last time we played.

Pontic army:

1 General and 2 Captains - 105 pts.

2 Phalanx, heavy foot(L) - 84 pts.

2 Thureophoroi, medium foot - 36 pts.

1 Slingers, light foot - 9 pts.

2 Javelinmen, light foot - 18 pts.

1 Javelinmen, medium foot - 15 pts.

4 Imitation Legionaries, heavy foot(D5) - 72 pts.

2 Archers, medium foot - 24 pts.

2 Heavy Cavalry, armoured - 64 pts.

1 Light Cavalry - 15 pts.

1 Scythian Horse Archers - 18 pts.

1 Sarmatian Cavalry - 40 pts.

1 Camp - 0 pts.

I alt 500 pts., 68 army value (23/34)

 

Torben's army had the following in his army. I can't remember his breaking points but they were smaller than mine:

1 General and 1 Captain

4 Legionaries

2 Veteran Legionaries

2 Auxiliary infantry 

2 light Archers

1 Slingers

2 Heavy Cavalry

2 Bolt shooters

1 Camp - 0 pts.

 

That meant 20 die for me, and 16 for the Romans. When we placed terrain, Torben tried to stack a lot of terrain on my left flank to force me to advance on a more limited front. Unfortunately for him it didn't quite work. He did, however, get a nice hill in the center of his deployment zone, which were ideal for his bolt shooters.

Deployment:

Pontic army from right to left: Light cavalry and horse archers behind them, 2 heavy cavalry, the Sarmatian cavalry (cataphracts), 1 Thureophoroi with slingers behind them, 2 Phalanx with light javelins behind them, 1 Thureophoroi, with light javelins behind them, 4 imitation legionaries with one of them behind the other 3, and behind the woods were 2 medium foot archers and 1 medium foot javelinmen.

Roman army from left to right: Heavy cavalry with slingers in front, 1 Auxiliary infantry and 2 legionaries with light archers in front, and again 1 Auxiliary infantry and 2 legionaries with light archers in front, 1 heavy cavalry and the 2 veteran legionaries out on the Roman left flank. And the 2 bolt shooters on the hill.

The Pontic army started the battle with a cavalry advance on their left flank, as this seemed like the weakest point in the Roman line.

On the Pontic right flank the medium foot archers and javelinmen took positions in the woods in case the Romans decided to advance here. The Roman cavalry on this flank began to make a move around the woods to hit the Pontic army in the rear.

Combat erupted on Pontic left flank as their Sarmatian cavalry charged into some legionaries and 2 heavy cavalry units faced off as well. While the Romans began to shift their central legionaries towards this flank, the Pontic light skirmishers moved in to harass their advance.

The Pontic cavalry was locked in combat with the Roman infantry, and then the Sarmatian cavalry was hit in the flank. The Pontic phalanxes move up to support, but the heavy foot is too slow to rescue the cataphracts. They do, however, catch one of the legionary units in the flank.

On the Pontic left flank the Roman cavalry is continuing its advance around the woods. The Pontic archers move to shoot at the cavalry but unable to stop them.

The fight on the flank has created a nice line. Despite some heavy losses in some of their units, the Romans are beginning to get the tactical advantage. Then disaster happens as the Roman general tries to rally the heavy cavalry but ends up getting killed in stead. Suddenly the battle turns in favour of the Pontics instead.

Since the Pontic units in the center remain still, partly due to not wanting to advance in front of the bolt shooters, more Roman legionaries are sent to help on the flank.

The Roman cavalry that tried to advance behind the Pontic lines are caught by archers and killed.

The Romans manage to form a new line on their right flank, but it is too late, as the Pontic Thureophoroi infantry loots the Roman camp, which finally breaks the Roman army and they retreat.

A very interesting and fun battle that shifted back and forwards. The key moment, however, was when the Roman general was killed. This meant that the majority of the Romans on that flank was out of command and thus harder to activate and maneuver. 

I really do love the command & control and activation aspects of this ruleset. It does stand above everything else. The rules would be even better if they were more tightly written and edited, but of course it doesn't help that we only play a couple of times a year, so often forget things in between.

Painted - 6mm Pontic Thureophoroi

 As part of my January painting challenge I have been painting some 6mm Pontic Thureophoroi, which is medium infantry. Most days I have been painting more than the 15 minutes a day I am required to. It was, however, very nice to have some days where I just painted the minimum 15 minutes, and still felt I made some progress.

I paint 8 strips at a time which corresponded to 2 bases. Normally I would do such a batch on an evening.

They are painted with GWs contrast paints apart from some small metal paint on the spear tips and on the shields. Although I look for inspiration various places I just try different colours and hope it looks good. I finished a total of 8 bases which is 4 units in Sword & Spear. Afterwards I actually realized that on the Spanish and Roman medium infantry bases I only had 12 figures on, so I made a small mistake putting 16 figures on these bases, but it doesn't matter that much.

Next on the painting cue is some Pontic skirmishers.

Game – 6mm Sword & Spear – Pontic vs Early Imperial Romans

 

This Sunday I got to play a game of Sword & Spear against Torben, one of my regular opponents. This was our 4th game this year. My 6mm collection consists of Ancient Spanish, Early Imperial Romans and Pontic, which I believe can easily be mixed to form various armies. We played 500 pts., and I made a Pontic army and Torben made an Early Imperial Roman.

 

My army:

1 General and 2 Captains - 105 pts.

2 Phalanx, heavy foot(L) - 84 pts.

2 Thureophoroi, medium foot - 36 pts.

1 Slingers, light foot - 9 pts.

3 Javelinmen, light foot - 27 pts.

4 Imitation Legionaries, heavy foot(D5) - 72 pts.

2 Archers, medium foot - 24 pts.

2 Heavy Cavalry, armoured - 64 pts.

1 Light Cavalry - 15 pts.

1 Scythian Horse Archers - 18 pts.

1 Sarmatian Cavalry - 40 pts.

1 Camp - 0 pts.

I alt 494 pts., 67 army value (23/34)

Torben’s army (from my memory):

1 General and 2 Captains

1 Veteran Legionaries

3 Legionaries

3 Auxilia, medium foot

2 Cavalry (D3)

2 Allied Archers

1 Slingers

2 Light Cavalry

1 Allied Horse Archers

1 Bolt Shooters

1 Camp

In Sword & Spear there is a terrain system where the players try to place the terrain most advantageous. There is, however, some randomness involved, so it will always be different. This time we ended up with a very open battlefield with only a little rough ground on the Roman right flank. That resulted in a very classic deployment in on long line with the heavy foot in the center and cavalry on both flanks.

I decided to try and attack on my left flank and get through to the Roman camp using my Sarmatian Cavalry. I was hesitant to advance in the center because of the Bolt Shooters Torben had deployed there. On my right flank I ended up advancing forward to keep the Roman cavalry away. Torben took a rather defensive position, so I ended doing most of the attacking.

My idea was that my Sarmatian cavalry would punch through on the left flank, but due to some poor deployment and advancing, it was one of my other cavalry units that did most of the fighting. However, they performed excellently and managed to kill off a unit of Roman Cavalry, light cavalry and auxiliary medium foot, and almost also caught the unguarded camp.

I was outnumbered on my right flank, but my 2 mounted units and a unit of Thureophoroi medium foot managed to hold out long enough for me to secure the victory elsewhere.

 

My to large formations of Pike phalanxes started advancing mid-through the battle, after my archers killed of the Roman Bolt Shooters. They tried to attack the Roman legionaries, who wisely decided to withdraw as they had no immediately support. The battle ended before my pikemen could engage the Romans.

End of the game. My right flank has disintegrated, but they held out long enough and took a few units down so that combined with my victorious left flank attack I won the day.

It was another great game between Torben and I. Sword & Spear is one of my favourite games, and all of our games are close and fun. The rules are rather straight forward, but since we often play with months in between, we do use extra time to look up rules. Our relatively inexperience also impact our tactics, which could be better, but I feel we are improving. We do feel that sometimes actions and movements that seem tactical sound, does not pay off as well as expected. Perhaps that will change with further games and understanding of the rules and tactics of the period.

 

I have several other ancients rulesets but for now Sword & Spear remains my preferred. However, we may try some of the others at some point, so we better can compare them.