Looking great, Simon. We're going to use twelve elephants, at a relatively poor morale rating to reflect their performance during the battle. The casualty figures you made will come in really hand.
Hi Paul, we've had trouble balancing the performance of the elephants. In a play test last night, they made a considerable (and rather un-historical) mess of the Roman lines; we'll need to downgrade their impact in the next game.
Hi Simon, that's interesting. I think we'll definitely need to test the game around the time of the battle day before we take it to some of the Scottish shows. Was your problem a result of the relative unpredictability of the game system, or more to do with the "weight" of the units?
We doubled the number of elephant units from 5 to 10, whilst decreasing their combat effectiveness. Despite this decrease I found that, by concentrating the charge on one point of the Roman line, I was overwhelm the velites and a couple of elephants broke through and inflicted more casualties on the hastati and principes than I'd like to have seen.
I imagine we will either revert to the original 5 units, or increase the fighting value of the velites. Other than that the game went very well.
Hi Allen, I'm afraid I didn't take to FoG; found it a bit slow and slightly serious. Beer'n'pretzels, for me! ;-)
Are you using any special rules for the jumbos, BRB? I have one or two tweaks that we used for a Zama scenario somewhere and could look them out if you'd like a gander. Your models, as always, look magnificent. Cheers
More or less as C&C (which handles routing elephants quite well), except additionally:-
"Raw Carthaginian elephants- when activated, or able to conduct a momentum advance, they must advance as far as possible. If they end their movement adjacent to enemy Light Infantry, they must battle these in preference to other troop types."
We hope to be able to channel some of them down the lanes we have left within the Roman Legions.
Hi Ex, I guess they were a bit of an unguided missile!
12 March 2010 at 08:05
[Image]I realised today that I haven't posted a picture of the elephants that will stand (possibly all too briefly!) before the Carthaginian front line in the Zama game. Here are 6 of the 10; a mix of Essex, Gripping Beast and (converted) Renegade. The other 4 are in the collection of Dr. Simon.
15 Comments
Close this window Jump to comment formSuper stuff!
Good luck with these - hope they don't wreck your army
10 March 2010 at 10:14
Looking great, Simon. We're going to use twelve elephants, at a relatively poor morale rating to reflect their performance during the battle. The casualty figures you made will come in really hand.
Cheers
Paul
10 March 2010 at 10:19
Hi Paul, we've had trouble balancing the performance of the elephants. In a play test last night, they made a considerable (and rather un-historical) mess of the Roman lines; we'll need to downgrade their impact in the next game.
10 March 2010 at 11:15
Hi Simon, that's interesting. I think we'll definitely need to test the game around the time of the battle day before we take it to some of the Scottish shows. Was your problem a result of the relative unpredictability of the game system, or more to do with the "weight" of the units?
Maybe we can learn from your experience!
Cheers again
Paul
10 March 2010 at 11:18
Very nice. I like the mix of figures which gives them a much more 'real' look.
As for balancing them out, fry Field of Glory rules. They seem to treat elephants in a way that works well.
10 March 2010 at 13:27
Hi Paul,
We doubled the number of elephant units from 5 to 10, whilst decreasing their combat effectiveness. Despite this decrease I found that, by concentrating the charge on one point of the Roman line, I was overwhelm the velites and a couple of elephants broke through and inflicted more casualties on the hastati and principes than I'd like to have seen.
I imagine we will either revert to the original 5 units, or increase the fighting value of the velites. Other than that the game went very well.
Hi Allen, I'm afraid I didn't take to FoG; found it a bit slow and slightly serious. Beer'n'pretzels, for me! ;-)
10 March 2010 at 14:34
Excellent work on these guys. Though I really hope they die in the game. The amazing dead elephants deserve their place in the table as well!
Cheers!
10 March 2010 at 14:56
Thanks Dogui. Last night some were still alive 90 mins into the game, which felt like too long to me!
10 March 2010 at 15:01
I couldn´t stand more than 10 minutes in front of those elephants...
Fantastic work, BTW ;)
10 March 2010 at 17:02
firstly great work on the Elephonts, quick question, Why is one dude holding like a mallet and chisel/ nail thingo ??? whats with that ? cheers.
10 March 2010 at 22:15
Thanks Hetairoi!
Hi Extraordinarii, it is the emergency braking system. In case of panic, sever the elephant's spinal cord using the mallet/chisel provided.
10 March 2010 at 22:27
Are you using any special rules for the jumbos, BRB? I have one or two tweaks that we used for a Zama scenario somewhere and could look them out if you'd like a gander. Your models, as always, look magnificent. Cheers
11 March 2010 at 02:37
Hi Prufrock,
More or less as C&C (which handles routing elephants quite well), except additionally:-
"Raw Carthaginian elephants- when activated, or able to conduct a momentum advance, they must advance as far as possible. If they end their movement adjacent to enemy Light Infantry, they must battle these in preference to other troop types."
We hope to be able to channel some of them down the lanes we have left within the Roman Legions.
11 March 2010 at 08:03
Nasty, I new I should not have asked the question, I had a feeling... lol
12 March 2010 at 05:57
Hi Ex, I guess they were a bit of an unguided missile!
12 March 2010 at 08:05