The Lure of Carthage - Tales from a Wargame Shed

The Lure of Carthage

2/10/2015

I have finished my fourth and last Garrison 25mm Carthaginian elephant. I am very pleased with the look of them all together. I expect to use them as two units in Sword and Spear games,. If we ever feel the need for more elephant units I'm thinking of placing one elephant per unit, flanked by 4 light infantry. This might make the elephant line look a bit thin but I doubt I'll get my hands on any more of this model and anyway, I can find more productive uses for my wargaming pennies.

Fate is really pushing me towards a new 25mm Carthaginian army. No sooner did I pick up these elephants than Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy and their sister publication, Ancient Warfare, both did special features on the First Punic War. This is an ideal way in as it lets me use lots of my existing Hoplite and light infantry units, so we can start gaming after only a little more painting. Has the time come, I wonder, to sell off my 15mm Carthaginians? Only to fund the bigger scale of course. But I'm not sure I can stand the wrench as we've been together a long time, as far back as 1982 in some cases. I probably haven't played a game with the 15s since the Millennium, though...

For light relief in the middle of the elephant project, I painted a 6mm regiment of French Napoleonic cuirassiers to add to a small collection we use for playing Lasalle. In two lines the unit base measures 60x30mm, which seems to be the new standard for playing Blucher in 6mm. I'm pleased with the look of these figures and glad that Heroics are properly back in business. They are still my favourite sculpts for this scale.

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General rules

The Map

The map has the following features:

Named towns (large dot)
Named villages (small dot)
Numbered farms (spotted dot)
Forest hexes. Each patch of forest is lettered for identification purposes.
Main roads (dark brown)
Minor roads (tan)
Rivers (blue)
Railway line (black)
Open hexes. Although ‘open’, these still represent farmland with fields and hedges, streams and ditches.

Hex rows are labelled with letters. Individual hexes are identified by counting away from the left of the row containing the letter (including part hexes). Thus, La Redoute is in hex E7; Saint Michel de Livet is in hex J3.

Assets

Each player has various assets, including fighting men and women, vehicles, technical resources and bases. As the campaign is under way at present I am not listing all of these on the website yet. But examples include

German infantry section with Opel lorry
Osttruppe section
Active Maquis cell
Sleeping Maquis cell
Arms cache
Safe house
Etc.

Issuing orders

Every turn, each player receives a briefing on events in the previous turn, along with one or more tasks for the turn ahead.

A turn is not a fixed period of time but an episode in which something happens. Each turn, the players will receive a briefing on the situation and should then issue orders to their assets to allow them to deal with the current challenge. Play is similar to a Dungeons and Dragons approach: they will not be constrained by mechanical rules although these exist in the umpire’s set. The umpire will try to carry out the players’ instructions and will report the outcome at the end of the turn.

That said, the players are given some guidelines:

Lorries can reach anywhere on the map using the road net. Their passengers can then disembark and move on foot. I will presume that lorry-borne units will return to base at the end of the turn unless a player orders them to stay in another village or town. The gas powered lorries risk breaking down but otherwise are the same as the Opel lorries.
The Steyr heavy car and kübelwagen can reach anywhere on the map, not just on the road net.
Troops on foot may walk up to 4 open hexes, either from their base or from the point where a vehicle has transported them. I will presume they will return to base at the end of the turn unless a player orders them to stay in another hex (troops on foot can bivouac in non-urban hexes).
The tank can travel up to 12 hexes in a turn and will end the turn where it has been sent (ie it won’t return to base at turn’s end). It derives no benefit from roads.
Players may issue contingency orders, for example to lie in ambush or to look out for a signal and then take another action..