Matthew
2010-02-03, 07:50 PM
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Field of Glory (http://www.fieldofglory.com/catalogue/4.html)
Authors: Richard Bodley Scott, Simon Hall, and Terry Shaw.
Contents: 176 section sewn full colour pages; 4 title pages, 2 pages of contents, 116 pages of game rules, 46 pages of appendices, 2 pages of publisher information, 2 pages of indices, 4 quick reference pages.
Publisher: Osprey Publishing.
Product Code: 978-1-84603-313-1.
Retail Price: £25.00 or $34.95.
Overview
This is a recently developed set of ancient and medieval war game rules published by Osprey in association with Slitherine Software, a computer version having lately been released by the latter. It is comprehensive, complex, and in the two or three years it has been available has seemingly achieved a very strong following, being well supported with more than a dozen army supplements to date. As I understand it, the system is some sort of outgrowth of De Bellis Antiquitatis and De Bellis Multitudinis, but I am not entirely clear on exactly how they are related. Regardless, Field of Glory provides a first rate framework for fighting large scale historical battles; it feels authentic and is a tremendously entertaining game. The book is extremely well illustrated, most of the artwork being taken from various suitable Osprey military history volumes, and there are plenty of photographs and full colour diagrams illustrating how units can move and what happens under various conditions. It is not exactly a cheap book for its size, but not too expensive either, and the binding seems to be holding up well. However, my copy suffers from some sort of printing error where the print may react to the skin and leave a finger mark, which is annoying. I have not yet been able to ascertain whether this is a widespread problem or limited to one print run.
The blurb on the cover of the rulebook suggests that it includes "four starter army lists", but this is only technically true. In fact, it provides four lists describing four starter armies, which is to say four prescribed armies are described and ready for play. Somewhat misleading, but the appendices do provide a full point system and methodology that allows players to create their own customised forces within whatever limits they think reasonable. The various supplements, of course, are where the real army lists are found, providing the minima and maxima unit strengths and numbers for hundreds of historical armies along with a short description of each. So, if for instance a player is interested in recreating the battles fought in the near east during the time of the crusades, he would be well served in obtaining a copy of Swords and Scimitars, especially if he expects to be able to participate in or organise a tournament with an army described therein. The supplements are perfect bound softbacks that retail for around half the price of the rulebook and usually run to around sixty-four pages, each being well illustrated and researched. They do not describe campaigns or scenarios, however, rather they are purely devoted to the nuts and bolts of creating armies. The particulars of a game are thus left up to the participants, though such periodicals as War Games Illustrated also fill this niche.
Unfortunately, the organisation of the Field of Glory rulebook leaves something to be desired. The developers have clearly worked hard to try and make it easy to learn and reference, but the rules are very detailed and an initial overview is sorely lacking. The combat mechanism is not described until page 89, when it gets its own chapter, which means that the reader is in the dark for half of the book, and the results of combat are not detailed until page 112. Understanding the system will certainly take more than one read through the text, even though most of the rules are codifications of common sense approaches to war gaming. The basic aim of the game is achieve an enemy army rout by, which occurs when a certain number of points are scored for various outcomes, mainly routing individual elements. This is largely done by shooting at or engaging enemy battle groups (abstract battalion sized units of around 1,000-2,000 men usually) in close combat and forcing them to fail three cohesion tests (morale tests, more or less); a cohesion test is rolled on 2d6 with 7+ needed for success after modifiers. A battle group moves from "steady" to "disrupted", to "fragmented", and finally to "broken". Each stage of deterioration affects the fighting ability of the battle group, making it less effective and more vulnerable to further collapse. The only way to restore the cohesion of a battle group is for a commander to join it and "bolster" it, which requires passing another cohesion test that gets more difficult at each stage of deterioration.
There are two primary ways to force a cohesion test; the first is to score one shooting hit per three bases on a battle group (each is made up of 2-12 bases); the second is to inflict more hits on it in close combat than it returns. The number of six-sided dice rolled to score a hit depends on the number of bases brought to bear and the score needed depends on the relative strengths of the battle groups engaged and their tactical position, with flanking and rear charges being particularly effective. In close combat, one die is usually rolled per base in contact with the enemy or directly behind a base in contact, the exceptions being knights, who roll two dice per base in contact, but no dice for the second rank, and skirmishers (light foot or horse), which roll one die per two bases, except when facing like troops or in certain other circumstances. At range, second rank bases provide only one die per full two bases, except skirmishers who again provide only one die per two bases. So, a battle group formed of eight bases of medium foot crossbowmen in two ranks would roll six dice, whilst in one rank it would roll eight dice, but a unit formed of eight bases of light foot crossbowmen would roll four dice regardless of whether arrayed in one rank or two ranks. The advantages of deploying skirmishers are that they are fast, have a wide array of movement options, can evade enemy charges, and are able to move through friendly troops within certain limits.
It is also possible to destroy enemy battle groups by means of forcing death rolls. This is done by inflicting three or more shooting hits or one or more close combat hits. The mechanism is simple; a six-sided die is rolled and the player tries to roll above the number of hits received in order to "save" the battle group from losing a base. A +2 bonus to the roll is added if the battle group did not lose combat or if the death roll was caused by shooting hits. A broken battle group also loses one base per enemy group in contact with it at the end of each turn, which can be devastating. Depending on its quality, once a battle group has lost two-fifths to three fifths of its strength it is considered destroyed and removed, though if reduced to one base it is destroyed regardless. A battle group that has lost a quarter of its strength is also more vulnerable to cohesion tests, suffering a −1 penalty to the roll. The rulebook is clear that the purpose of shooting hits is to make the enemy more vulnerable to charges by forcing cohesion tests, and that death rolls are very much secondary. This is certainly the case in the game, and thought to be historically authentic, so that ranged troops usually precede the main fighting arm of an army. It is particularly applicable with light foot, who can be deployed in front of the main battle line troops and then withdraw through them with no adverse effects when the enemy closes. Regardless, shock troops will burst through friendly troops if they fail a cohesion test when the enemy comes close enough to charge, causing such unfortunates to immediately drop a cohesion level.
During each alternate turn of Field of Glory, one player is active and moves his forces, whilst the other player responds to his movements in various limited ways (evades, counter charges, routs and pursuits). There are five phases played in consecutive order during a turn; these are "charge", "manoeuvre", "shooting" (both players shoot in this phase), "melee" (both players fight), and "joint action" (both players may move commanders, bolster deteriorating battle groups, and resolve pursuits and routs). Movement is strictly regulated. As yet I have been unable to find any way for troops to withdraw without turning around (and exposing their flanks and rear to attack), evading enemy charges (only light foot and horse, or medium horse deployed in one rank), routing from the field (very bad), or in the case of horse that end a turn in close combat with steady foot (these immediately break off and withdraw their full movement to prepare for a second charge). There are hints in the text that there might once have been a "retire" move (fragmented battle groups can only make a "simple move to retire away from all enemy"), but it is undescribed. This often means that an army has no choice but to advance if it wants to redeploy in some way, especially as voluntary moves can only be completed every other turn . Nonetheless, this only seems to add to the pleasure of the game, forcing chess like forethought, careful timing, and intelligent deployment, to make best use of troops and commanders in order to gain every possible advantage.
[i]First Play Test
Having found the rulebook heavy going and being better at learning by doing, I was keen to get a game of Field of Glory going shortly after I obtained a copy. Finding a willing participant in my good friend Jamie we set to it one Saturday evening, armed with cardboard counters to represent our troops and several bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra to provide forbearance. Having none of the supplements at this stage (to the best of my recollection), and being too lazy to build our own armies anyway, we decided to use the starter armies in the book. As we were unwilling to have our own shortcomings excused by inferior armies and implied unfair advantages, we agreed to both field two legions of Polybius era Roman troops with Italian allies:
{table=head]Number|Type|Class|Move|Quality|Discipline|Armour|M issile|Melee|Bases|Points
−|
Sempronius Longus|
Field Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
50|
−|
Gaius Fulvius|
Troop Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
35|
−|
Lucius Lucretius|
Troop Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
35|
1,200|
Equites|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Light Spear, Swordsmen|
4|
48|
1,200|
Equites|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Light Spear, Swordsmen|
4|
48|
600|
Triarii|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Elite|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Offensive Spearmen|
2|
32|
600|
Triarii|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Elite|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Offensive Spearmen|
2|
32|
1,200|
Principes|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
1,200|
Principes|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
1,200|
Hastati|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
1,200|
Hastati|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
2,400|
Italian Allies|
Medium Foot|
4|
Average|
Drilled|
Protected|
−|
Light Spear, Swordsmen|
8|
56|
1,200|
Velites|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Drilled|
Protected|
Javelin|
Light Spear|
4|
20|
1,200|
Velites|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Drilled|
Protected|
Javelin|
Light Spear|
4|
20|
|||||||||
Total|
600[/table]
We elected to use imperial measurements (1 Move Unit = 1"), rather than metric (1 Move Unit = 25mm) and took a few liberties with the base sizes (1" deep x 2" wide for foot and 1½" deep x 2" wide for horse, rather than 30mm x 60mm and 60mm x 40mm, or 20mm x 40mm and 30mm x 40mm), more for convenience than anything and set about deploying our forces. Knowing a little bit about the Roman army we ended up setting up as almost a mirror image of one another. The velites formed a line of skirmishers at the front, hastati and principes comprised the main battle line, with equites on each flank and triarii providing a tactical reserve; troop commanders were deployed with the horse and the field commander with the reserve. The Italian foot we both left at the rear, near to our camps, as we haughtily saw them as potential weaknesses in the battle line. The only real difference between our deployments was that I had decided to be "clever" and deploy my hastati and principes in chequerboard fashion, thinking that once the first line was engaged the second line could charge in through the gaps and break the enemy; this would turn out to be a really bad idea and a practical lesson in how Field of Glory works as a game system. No time limit was imposed, the aim of the scenario was to break the enemy army, which would require scoring twelve points; each enemy battle group routed was worth two points, each enemy battle group fragmented was worth one point, and sacking the enemy camp was worth two points.
We started the game by advancing towards one another, and by turn two our skirmishers were engaged at 2" distance (around 100-200 feet, I think). We were soon scratching our heads when we realised that two battle groups of light foot deployed as four bases each only rolled two dice against the opposing enemy, meaning no chance of a death roll and two hits being required to force a cohesion test, at 4+ to score a hit we had a 1 in 4 chance. This went on for a couple of turns, until I finally got lucky and actually managed to drop one of the enemy velite battle groups to disrupted... to no visible effect. At that point, feeling that little was being accomplished, we decided to put an end to the foreplay and, by mutual consent, withdrew our skirmishers behind our main battle lines. Afterwards we calculated the odds for if the velites had been deployed in one battle group of eight bases, which seemed better as it meant a death roll was possible and only three failed cohesion rolls were required to rout the lot, rather than two sets of three failed tests. In retrospect it might have been interesting to play out bursting through the skirmishers or forcing an evade by charging with heavy foot, but with it being our first game we were predisposed to keeping things relatively simple and clear cut.
On the flanks we were both playing cautiously with our horse, worrying that any attempt to flank would result in being flanked ourselves, and fearful of gambling on the outcome of an even cavalry engagement. In the event, my heavy foot advanced relatively unsupported, though they could have claimed rear support for morale from the triarii, had we noticed the rule (referenced in the cohesion test explanation, but only explained in the appendices). It was probably turn five or six by this point, and I was about to discover the mathematical mistake in my plan. Being the active player, my hastati hurled their javelins, drew their swords, and surged forward into the enemy battle line. It went badly in the impact phase, and worse in the close combat phase, where my front line was suffering from being overlapped (partially surrounded on account of adjacent enemy bases in corner to corner contact), and one battle group having been disrupted in the impact phase (reduced combat dice from 4 to 3), meaning they were facing 8 dice to 4 dice and 6 dice to 3 dice, respectively, with 4+ to hit and re-rolling 1s on account of quality. Worse was to come when I realised Jamie was the active player in the following turn, and that he did not have to engage my second line. By passing two cohesion tests to prevent his two unengaged battle groups from charging he succeeded in fighting yet another round of close combat with overlaps. This was all too much for one of my battle groups, which routed.
Seeing that things were looking grim, I charged in with my second line of heavy foot, moved my triarii forward in support, and decided to take the cavalry gamble on the flanks, throwing my troop commanders into the melee in the hope of turning the tide of battle through sheer good luck. Alas, fortuna was not with me, and the cavalry attacks proved indecisive to bad. My other hastati battle group routed in the close combat phase, right through my triarii, who dropped a cohesion level. Happily, they stood fast against the pursuers, even as their less experienced fellows fled the field. In the following turns things continued to deteriorate in the center. It was hard fought, but as Jamie's own reserves began moving up towards the flanks, my principes began to waver along with the triarii and equites on my right flank. By the end of the next turn it was all over; my center had utterly collapsed and my right flank had followed suit, though on the left things were stalemated. With six battle groups broken and the enemy army still mainly intact there was nothing for it but to concede defeat. Sempronius Longus fell on his sword, cursing the vagaries of the fickle goddess of fortune, the brutal indifference of Mars, and the elusive face of Victoria. A triumvirate of traitorous deities. I, on the other hand, mainly wondered what had possessed me to deploy my main battle line against all good sense in piecemeal fashion as well as initiate the combat whilst the active player. Ah well, gloria victis.
In the aftermath, we agreed that the system played impressively. Unlike a typical miniatures war game, victory looked like victory, instead of a bloody stalemate where the winner is distinguished from the loser by a handful of remaining troops, or perhaps a character model or two, as seems so often the case in War Hammer. Our main gripes were with the constraints of the movement rules, and the decisiveness of the initial melee combats. It seemed to us that there had been no real way back for my forces, barring an incredible stroke of good fortune, once my hastati had lost the impact phase, but perhaps it just appeared that way in hindsight. Whatever the case, my rolls had been poor, whilst Jamie had enjoyed some excellent results, unusual for him, it was noted. It is better to be lucky than skilled, as they say, and I was neither in this instance. Next time, I vowed!
Second Play Test
After a brief flirtation with War Master (Jamie's Roman legions utterly destroyed my Gallic host, which attacked piecemeal as a result of the command and control rules for that system, at least that is my story), I was eager to play another game of Field of Glory. The over liberal movement rules of War Master had given us a new appreciation for the constraints we had earlier disdained, as Jamie remarked "it may be a pain in the arse, but at least it provides some semblance of order", or words to that effect. Having a keen interest in the crusades, both as inspiration for the imagination and, more mundanely, as a matter of academic interest and seemingly endless labour, the first supplement I obtained for Field of Glory was the evocatively titled Swords & Scimitars:
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Swords and Scimitars (http://www.fieldofglory.com/catalogue/13.html)
Author: Richard Bodley Scott, Nik Gaukroger, James Hamilton, and Paul Robinson.
Contents: 64 perfect bound full colour pages; 2 title pages, 1 contents page, 55 pages of army lists, 4 pages of appendices, 2 pages of indices.
Publisher: Osprey Publishing.
Product Code: 978-1-84603-347-6
Retail Price: £12.99 or $19.95
It was not quite what I had expected. Full colour, plenty of information, and well furnished with Osprey illustrations and miniature photographs, but no campaigns or scenarios to play? One would think the Battle of Jaffa or the Horns of Hattin would be included, at least, but sadly such was not the case. Maps of sieges and the occasional battle diagram culled from an Osprey book seemed oddly placed and out of context. It took me a little while to realise that this was essentially advertising for their military history books, from which no doubt an enthusiastic player could find all sorts of details to design interesting scenarios! Well, not to worry, I am well enough versed in the period and can always fill in the blanks, if required. As it turned out, though, I discovered that I could forgo even that effort for the princely sum of £4.00 when I noticed a copy of War Games Illustrated in WHSmith whilst doing my traditional Christmas Eve shopping:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i226/Plle200/War%20Game%20Reviews/Issue267.jpg?t=1265134544
War Games Illustrated #267 (http://www.wargamesillustrated.net/)
Editor: Daniel Faulconbridge
Contents: 112 perfect bound full colour pages; 1 contents page (another on the inside front cover), 27 pages of advertising, 84 pages of articles and reviews.
Publisher: Warners Public Limited Company
Product Code: 0957-6444
Retail Price: £4.00 or $8.00
Interesting magazine; of the 84 pages of content, only 34 were devoted to the crusades, and only two of the five articles actually presented scenarios to play, but I suppose if I play one scenario per month I would count myself lucky, and the other content was entertaining (I particularly enjoyed the Morris Men Partisans depicted in the fictional 1938 British Civil War report). All those photographs of lovingly painted miniatures almost made me wish that we were using more than the backs of cereal packets, but then I remembered how much time, space, effort, money, and skill is involved in collecting miniatures and was once again content with my mighty imagination doing the heavy lifting (but still...). Of the two scenarios available, the most appropriate was self evidently the Battle of Dorylaeum, as related and described by Paul Leach. The scenario involved an attack by the Seljuk Turkish army of Kilij Arslan on the Frankish vanguard near the old Byzantine camp of Dorylaeum. Bohemond of Taranto and Robert of Normandy were to lead the crusader defence until reinforced by Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Saint Gilles. Later in the magazine, Leach surmised that De Bellis Antiquitatis and De Bellis Multitudinis, Field of Glory, War Hammer Historical, and War Master, were all potentially good rule sets for war gaming the crusades, so we figured we were well set to re-fight Dorylaeum.
During my second read through the Field of Glory rules, I had given a lot of thought to how one might use a crusader army as provided for in Swords and Scimitars, but had not really managed to come up with much of a strategy. The total lack of light foot options made it difficult to use spearmen and crossbowmen together, whilst the limited charge movement of knights and special rules governing their melee capability suggested that it would be tactically challenging to effectively use all three elements together against a mobile hit and run army like the Seljuk Turks. I was not too worried, though, as Jamie had been clear in our initial conversation that he wanted to play the crusaders. Unfortunately, in the event, he had a change of heart and suggested that we dice for it, so I ended up playing the Franks after all. Looking at the scenario rules, it was quickly apparent that my options were going to be limited. I had to have at least four battle groups of knights, half of which would be deployed in turns 9 and 11 (or 12), and four battle groups of medium or light horse, yet my cavalry was not to be more than sixty percent of the whole army. Since Swords and Scimitars allows for only one battle group of Byzantine turcopoles for the early crusaders, which is the only medium or light horse available in the list, we compromised and allowed for two battle groups of 1,000 Byzantine horse, based on the battle description, which indicated maybe 2,000 such troops were present, and the allowances of the scenario:
{table=head]Number|Type|Class|Move|Quality|Discipline|Armour|M issile|Melee|Bases|Points|
−|
Bohemond of Taranto|
Inspired Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
80|
−|
Robert of Normandy|
Field Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
50|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Turcopoles|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
4|
44|
1,000|
Turcopoles|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
4|
44|
2,000|
Spearmen|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Defensive Spearmen|
8|
48|
2,000|
Spearmen|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Defensive Spearmen|
8|
48|
2,000|
Spearmen|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Defensive Spearmen|
8|
48|
2,000|
Crossbowmen|
Medium Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Crossbow|
−|
8|
48|
2,000|
Crossbowmen|
Medium Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Crossbow|
−|
8|
48|
2,000|
Bowmen|
Medium Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
−|
8|
40|
|||||||||
Total|
818[/table]
The Seljuk Turk army list is mainly cavalry, though there are quite a large number of foot archers available, the other optional infantry troops would make for a ramshackle force. The scenario supported this interpretation, specifying that if any foot were taken they were not to leave the Turkish deployment zone (12" from the Turkish table edge). Jamie complained bitterly about this, but spent some points on them anyway, figuring perhaps that they could at least provide rear support for his lesser cavalry or a defensive screen to reorganise behind, if forced back far enough. He was even less happy that his heavy horse could not exceed twenty-five percent of the army (maybe this was the actual reason for the infantry), but did not seem bothered about only having one commander, Kilij Arslan himself. In addition, he had to think about a flanking force of light horse that was scheduled to arrive in turn 3 or 4 to harass the crusader camp, and which was similarly restricted to being no more than twenty-five percent of the whole army. Ghilman would make up his heavy horse, the most expensive troops on the list, whilst the remainder was comprised of medium and light Turcoman horse, a smattering of light foot and an optional Bedouin Lancer battle group, the only shock troops he bothered with:
{table=head]Number|Type|Class|Move|Quality|Discipline|Armour|M issile|Melee|Bases|Points
−|
Kilij Arslan|
Inspired Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
80|
1,500|
Ghilman|
Heavy Horse|
5|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
114|
1,500|
Ghilman|
Heavy Horse|
5|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
114|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
66|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
66|
1,500|
Bedouin|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
6|
54|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Bowmen|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
−|
6|
30|
1,500|
Bowmen|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
−|
6|
30|
1,500|
Javelinmen|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Javelin|
Light Spear|
6|
24
||||||||||
Total|
818[/td][/tr][/table]
Quite the convenient point totals, we thought. The victory conditions were relatively simple; the Turks would win if they were able to sack the crusader camp or rout the army (twelve points), and the crusaders would win if the Turks did not. Unfortunately, the scenario specified that the Frankish cavalry start the game in two equal wings in front of the infantry. This struck me as an immediate problem, because I wanted them behind my foot troops ready for a decisive charge through a gap. My "solution" (if it can be called that) was to deploy one battle group of spearmen and one of crossbowmen to either side and march them forward until they were in front of the knights, whilst the remaining spearmen and bowmen would act as a tactical reserve. Jamie wisely deployed all of his horse at the edge of his deployment zone. The center was formed of heavy horse arrayed one rank deep with light horse and medium horse to either side, his left flank containing the Bedouins. Behind these forces he arrayed his light foot. What I did not realise at this stage was that he was holding one battle group of medium horse and two of light horse back as his flanking force, forgetting that it was light horse only. This would turn out to be of significance for the course of the battle, if not decisive. We also foolishly, in retrospect, interpreted the sixteen turn time limit on the game to be thirty-two Field of Glory turns, which was too long.
Armies purchased and deployment over, the Guinness Foreign Extra was opened and the battle begun. My intent was clear from the first; I marched my foot forward and had the Byzantine turcopoles on the left charge the enemy light horse, knowing that they would evade, the plan being to drive them back and delay until my slow moving foot could arrive in support. Being no slouch, Jamie immediately responded in his active turn by advancing both wings of light and medium horse to capture as much ground as possible. His heavy horse advanced and began shooting upon my knights. An ill stroke of fortune resulted in one lot of Normans being disrupted, whilst the other failed a death roll on a 1 and lost a base! Very bad, and with six dice needing 4+ to hit it was a strong start. In the second turn I tried another feint with the turcopoles, but the Turcoman light horse elected to receive the attack (we did not realise a cohesion test was required for skirmishers to receive a charge from non-skirmishers at this point, but they probably would have passed anyway). That went severely wrong when the turcopoles failed to do anything to the light horse, and the Turcoman medium horse joined the attack, quickly routing and destroying the unfortunate Byzantines. On the crusader right flank the advance went better, forcing the enemy horse to give ground.
In turn three the Turkish flanking force arrived, which turned out to be one battle group of medium horse (Jamie forgot he had two battle groups of light horse to deploy in addition). What neither of us had quite fathomed was that they deployed not on my left table edge, but within twelve inches of my left corner table edge, putting them right behind my left flank spearmen. This proved utterly disastrous, as they charged into the rear of these in the turn they were deployed, supported by the other group of medium horse, which ended the matter, routing and destroying 2,000 spearmen with nary a casualty between them. In the center the Norman knights were suffering shooting hits, and with the left flank now under serious threat, they charged forwards and drive the Ghilman back, who easily evaded away. The crusader reserve spearmen wheeled to support the now vulnerable crossbowmen on the left flank, whilst the Byzantine turcopoles on the right sought to aid in turning the Turkish left flank. In turn four, the Bedouin lancers decided to show their metal and launch an attack on the opposing crossbowmen, but support shooting from the rear rank made it nine dice to six, and lucky rolls in the melee kept the crossbowmen steady, fragmenting the Bedouin, who withdrew in the joint action phase, only to be routed by crossbow bolts in the following turn of shooting; the crossbowmen advanced bravely on.
On the crusader left flank it was a different story. The crossbowmen were isolated and subjected to a withering hail of arrows from three enemy battle groups, then subject to a charge and flank attack that utterly destroyed them before the reserve spearmen could arrive in support. In the center right, the Norman knights under Robert were routed by arrows and suffered the loss of a stand; I was quite upbeat about this because we were under the impression that commanders could not bolster their troops if within six inches of the enemy. In fact, the rule was they could not rally broken battle groups within six inches of the enemy, a misunderstanding of a distinction that had severe repercussions. Feeling that the situation was growing increasingly desperate, Bohemond led his own disrupted knights in another charge, which the Ghilman surrounding Kilij Arslan accepted. Meanwhile, the Byzantine turcopoles and right flank crossbowmen engaged the other battle group of Turkish heavy horse, and gave a good accounting. The bowmen also came into play at this juncture, advancing in support of Bohemond and his knights, shooting at the extended line of Ghilman. Bohemond and Kilij both personally entered the fray, each hoping to tip the balance in his favour.
Unfortunately, the importance of mobility and a decimated flank proved too much for the Franks. One battle group of medium horse started heading for the camp, whilst the other prevented the reserve spearmen from intercepting a flanking charge on Bohemond by a battle group of light horse. Another rule misunderstood at this juncture was that flank attacks by skirmishers on non-skirmishers do not cause the flanked battle group to immediately drop a cohesion level, as they normally would. Being already fragmented, Bohemond's knights broke (they probably would have anyway, but still...); the knights and their brave leader were all slain in the rout, and the pursuers then contacted the bowmen whose eventual break was a forgone conclusion. On the other hand, the medium horse that had charged the reserve spearmen were happily fragmented and driven back. As turn eight (or sixteen) loomed the crusaders had five broken or destroyed battle groups, but this was reduced when Robert's knights, who had routed nearly as far back as the crusader encampment, finally rallied and turned to intercept the medium horse heading for the camp. For a moment it looked like defeat might be averted, but alas, too late, the camp was contacted and sacked by Turcoman medium horse, whilst the bowmen routed, bringing the point total to twelve at the same time as achieving the primary victory condition. Deus vult.
Godfrey and his knights arrived on the right flank in time to witness Robert failing to prevent the sack of the encampment; a scene of bloody carnage, no doubt, and a crushing defeat for the warrior pilgrims. Nonetheless, defeated for the third time in a row, I could only admit that I had really enjoyed the game. For all our mistakes and errors, at the midpoint it seemed things could still go either way, even after the destruction of the left flank spearmen. With the mix of different battle group types, the strategic and tactical elements of the game were brought to the fore in a way they were not in our earlier Roman versus Roman game. It felt very much like a game of chess, and judging the moment to commit to the attack and be able to support it was clearly pivotal. Afterwards Jamie said he thought he could have won it as the crusaders, and in all honesty I think that we both learned enough from the battle that if we played it again it would have been a different story all told. There was no feeling that one side was inherently superior, or that the dice had been overly favourable to one of us over the other. We definitely need to put together some "cheat sheets", though, as the rules are involved enough that reminders on the key points would be helpful to reference. The rules are actually intuitive, and by the end of the game things we were running things quite smoothly, but they are also very comprehensive, and there are many seemingly unusual situations that can arise, meaning that multiple games are required to really get a handle on the system.
Conclusion
If you are looking for an authentic feeling and comprehensive ancient and medieval war game that requires plenty of strategic and tactical thought, but does not neglect the vagaries of fortune, I definitely recommend this system. It is a lot of fun to play and well balanced, so that there does not appear to be a "sure-bet" army. For the more fantasy inclined, I think that at the level of abstraction it assumes it would not be too difficult to introduce monstrous units or magic to some degree, though such things are not officially supported. It is complex, with plenty of exceptions to take account of, which may not be to everybody's taste, but it is also logical and internally consistent enough that it is not hard to guess what rule would be suitable for a given unusual situation. Unlike many adventure and war games, I do not feel the urge to change or "correct" particular aspects of it, as it already yields the sorts of results I would expect. Perhaps that point of view will change over time, but for the moment Field of Glory is definitely at the top of my list of war games.
Field of Glory (http://www.fieldofglory.com/catalogue/4.html)
Authors: Richard Bodley Scott, Simon Hall, and Terry Shaw.
Contents: 176 section sewn full colour pages; 4 title pages, 2 pages of contents, 116 pages of game rules, 46 pages of appendices, 2 pages of publisher information, 2 pages of indices, 4 quick reference pages.
Publisher: Osprey Publishing.
Product Code: 978-1-84603-313-1.
Retail Price: £25.00 or $34.95.
Overview
This is a recently developed set of ancient and medieval war game rules published by Osprey in association with Slitherine Software, a computer version having lately been released by the latter. It is comprehensive, complex, and in the two or three years it has been available has seemingly achieved a very strong following, being well supported with more than a dozen army supplements to date. As I understand it, the system is some sort of outgrowth of De Bellis Antiquitatis and De Bellis Multitudinis, but I am not entirely clear on exactly how they are related. Regardless, Field of Glory provides a first rate framework for fighting large scale historical battles; it feels authentic and is a tremendously entertaining game. The book is extremely well illustrated, most of the artwork being taken from various suitable Osprey military history volumes, and there are plenty of photographs and full colour diagrams illustrating how units can move and what happens under various conditions. It is not exactly a cheap book for its size, but not too expensive either, and the binding seems to be holding up well. However, my copy suffers from some sort of printing error where the print may react to the skin and leave a finger mark, which is annoying. I have not yet been able to ascertain whether this is a widespread problem or limited to one print run.
The blurb on the cover of the rulebook suggests that it includes "four starter army lists", but this is only technically true. In fact, it provides four lists describing four starter armies, which is to say four prescribed armies are described and ready for play. Somewhat misleading, but the appendices do provide a full point system and methodology that allows players to create their own customised forces within whatever limits they think reasonable. The various supplements, of course, are where the real army lists are found, providing the minima and maxima unit strengths and numbers for hundreds of historical armies along with a short description of each. So, if for instance a player is interested in recreating the battles fought in the near east during the time of the crusades, he would be well served in obtaining a copy of Swords and Scimitars, especially if he expects to be able to participate in or organise a tournament with an army described therein. The supplements are perfect bound softbacks that retail for around half the price of the rulebook and usually run to around sixty-four pages, each being well illustrated and researched. They do not describe campaigns or scenarios, however, rather they are purely devoted to the nuts and bolts of creating armies. The particulars of a game are thus left up to the participants, though such periodicals as War Games Illustrated also fill this niche.
Unfortunately, the organisation of the Field of Glory rulebook leaves something to be desired. The developers have clearly worked hard to try and make it easy to learn and reference, but the rules are very detailed and an initial overview is sorely lacking. The combat mechanism is not described until page 89, when it gets its own chapter, which means that the reader is in the dark for half of the book, and the results of combat are not detailed until page 112. Understanding the system will certainly take more than one read through the text, even though most of the rules are codifications of common sense approaches to war gaming. The basic aim of the game is achieve an enemy army rout by, which occurs when a certain number of points are scored for various outcomes, mainly routing individual elements. This is largely done by shooting at or engaging enemy battle groups (abstract battalion sized units of around 1,000-2,000 men usually) in close combat and forcing them to fail three cohesion tests (morale tests, more or less); a cohesion test is rolled on 2d6 with 7+ needed for success after modifiers. A battle group moves from "steady" to "disrupted", to "fragmented", and finally to "broken". Each stage of deterioration affects the fighting ability of the battle group, making it less effective and more vulnerable to further collapse. The only way to restore the cohesion of a battle group is for a commander to join it and "bolster" it, which requires passing another cohesion test that gets more difficult at each stage of deterioration.
There are two primary ways to force a cohesion test; the first is to score one shooting hit per three bases on a battle group (each is made up of 2-12 bases); the second is to inflict more hits on it in close combat than it returns. The number of six-sided dice rolled to score a hit depends on the number of bases brought to bear and the score needed depends on the relative strengths of the battle groups engaged and their tactical position, with flanking and rear charges being particularly effective. In close combat, one die is usually rolled per base in contact with the enemy or directly behind a base in contact, the exceptions being knights, who roll two dice per base in contact, but no dice for the second rank, and skirmishers (light foot or horse), which roll one die per two bases, except when facing like troops or in certain other circumstances. At range, second rank bases provide only one die per full two bases, except skirmishers who again provide only one die per two bases. So, a battle group formed of eight bases of medium foot crossbowmen in two ranks would roll six dice, whilst in one rank it would roll eight dice, but a unit formed of eight bases of light foot crossbowmen would roll four dice regardless of whether arrayed in one rank or two ranks. The advantages of deploying skirmishers are that they are fast, have a wide array of movement options, can evade enemy charges, and are able to move through friendly troops within certain limits.
It is also possible to destroy enemy battle groups by means of forcing death rolls. This is done by inflicting three or more shooting hits or one or more close combat hits. The mechanism is simple; a six-sided die is rolled and the player tries to roll above the number of hits received in order to "save" the battle group from losing a base. A +2 bonus to the roll is added if the battle group did not lose combat or if the death roll was caused by shooting hits. A broken battle group also loses one base per enemy group in contact with it at the end of each turn, which can be devastating. Depending on its quality, once a battle group has lost two-fifths to three fifths of its strength it is considered destroyed and removed, though if reduced to one base it is destroyed regardless. A battle group that has lost a quarter of its strength is also more vulnerable to cohesion tests, suffering a −1 penalty to the roll. The rulebook is clear that the purpose of shooting hits is to make the enemy more vulnerable to charges by forcing cohesion tests, and that death rolls are very much secondary. This is certainly the case in the game, and thought to be historically authentic, so that ranged troops usually precede the main fighting arm of an army. It is particularly applicable with light foot, who can be deployed in front of the main battle line troops and then withdraw through them with no adverse effects when the enemy closes. Regardless, shock troops will burst through friendly troops if they fail a cohesion test when the enemy comes close enough to charge, causing such unfortunates to immediately drop a cohesion level.
During each alternate turn of Field of Glory, one player is active and moves his forces, whilst the other player responds to his movements in various limited ways (evades, counter charges, routs and pursuits). There are five phases played in consecutive order during a turn; these are "charge", "manoeuvre", "shooting" (both players shoot in this phase), "melee" (both players fight), and "joint action" (both players may move commanders, bolster deteriorating battle groups, and resolve pursuits and routs). Movement is strictly regulated. As yet I have been unable to find any way for troops to withdraw without turning around (and exposing their flanks and rear to attack), evading enemy charges (only light foot and horse, or medium horse deployed in one rank), routing from the field (very bad), or in the case of horse that end a turn in close combat with steady foot (these immediately break off and withdraw their full movement to prepare for a second charge). There are hints in the text that there might once have been a "retire" move (fragmented battle groups can only make a "simple move to retire away from all enemy"), but it is undescribed. This often means that an army has no choice but to advance if it wants to redeploy in some way, especially as voluntary moves can only be completed every other turn . Nonetheless, this only seems to add to the pleasure of the game, forcing chess like forethought, careful timing, and intelligent deployment, to make best use of troops and commanders in order to gain every possible advantage.
[i]First Play Test
Having found the rulebook heavy going and being better at learning by doing, I was keen to get a game of Field of Glory going shortly after I obtained a copy. Finding a willing participant in my good friend Jamie we set to it one Saturday evening, armed with cardboard counters to represent our troops and several bottles of Guinness Foreign Extra to provide forbearance. Having none of the supplements at this stage (to the best of my recollection), and being too lazy to build our own armies anyway, we decided to use the starter armies in the book. As we were unwilling to have our own shortcomings excused by inferior armies and implied unfair advantages, we agreed to both field two legions of Polybius era Roman troops with Italian allies:
{table=head]Number|Type|Class|Move|Quality|Discipline|Armour|M issile|Melee|Bases|Points
−|
Sempronius Longus|
Field Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
50|
−|
Gaius Fulvius|
Troop Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
35|
−|
Lucius Lucretius|
Troop Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
35|
1,200|
Equites|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Light Spear, Swordsmen|
4|
48|
1,200|
Equites|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Light Spear, Swordsmen|
4|
48|
600|
Triarii|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Elite|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Offensive Spearmen|
2|
32|
600|
Triarii|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Elite|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Offensive Spearmen|
2|
32|
1,200|
Principes|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
1,200|
Principes|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
1,200|
Hastati|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
1,200|
Hastati|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
−|
Impact Foot, Skilled Swordsmen|
4|
56|
2,400|
Italian Allies|
Medium Foot|
4|
Average|
Drilled|
Protected|
−|
Light Spear, Swordsmen|
8|
56|
1,200|
Velites|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Drilled|
Protected|
Javelin|
Light Spear|
4|
20|
1,200|
Velites|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Drilled|
Protected|
Javelin|
Light Spear|
4|
20|
|||||||||
Total|
600[/table]
We elected to use imperial measurements (1 Move Unit = 1"), rather than metric (1 Move Unit = 25mm) and took a few liberties with the base sizes (1" deep x 2" wide for foot and 1½" deep x 2" wide for horse, rather than 30mm x 60mm and 60mm x 40mm, or 20mm x 40mm and 30mm x 40mm), more for convenience than anything and set about deploying our forces. Knowing a little bit about the Roman army we ended up setting up as almost a mirror image of one another. The velites formed a line of skirmishers at the front, hastati and principes comprised the main battle line, with equites on each flank and triarii providing a tactical reserve; troop commanders were deployed with the horse and the field commander with the reserve. The Italian foot we both left at the rear, near to our camps, as we haughtily saw them as potential weaknesses in the battle line. The only real difference between our deployments was that I had decided to be "clever" and deploy my hastati and principes in chequerboard fashion, thinking that once the first line was engaged the second line could charge in through the gaps and break the enemy; this would turn out to be a really bad idea and a practical lesson in how Field of Glory works as a game system. No time limit was imposed, the aim of the scenario was to break the enemy army, which would require scoring twelve points; each enemy battle group routed was worth two points, each enemy battle group fragmented was worth one point, and sacking the enemy camp was worth two points.
We started the game by advancing towards one another, and by turn two our skirmishers were engaged at 2" distance (around 100-200 feet, I think). We were soon scratching our heads when we realised that two battle groups of light foot deployed as four bases each only rolled two dice against the opposing enemy, meaning no chance of a death roll and two hits being required to force a cohesion test, at 4+ to score a hit we had a 1 in 4 chance. This went on for a couple of turns, until I finally got lucky and actually managed to drop one of the enemy velite battle groups to disrupted... to no visible effect. At that point, feeling that little was being accomplished, we decided to put an end to the foreplay and, by mutual consent, withdrew our skirmishers behind our main battle lines. Afterwards we calculated the odds for if the velites had been deployed in one battle group of eight bases, which seemed better as it meant a death roll was possible and only three failed cohesion rolls were required to rout the lot, rather than two sets of three failed tests. In retrospect it might have been interesting to play out bursting through the skirmishers or forcing an evade by charging with heavy foot, but with it being our first game we were predisposed to keeping things relatively simple and clear cut.
On the flanks we were both playing cautiously with our horse, worrying that any attempt to flank would result in being flanked ourselves, and fearful of gambling on the outcome of an even cavalry engagement. In the event, my heavy foot advanced relatively unsupported, though they could have claimed rear support for morale from the triarii, had we noticed the rule (referenced in the cohesion test explanation, but only explained in the appendices). It was probably turn five or six by this point, and I was about to discover the mathematical mistake in my plan. Being the active player, my hastati hurled their javelins, drew their swords, and surged forward into the enemy battle line. It went badly in the impact phase, and worse in the close combat phase, where my front line was suffering from being overlapped (partially surrounded on account of adjacent enemy bases in corner to corner contact), and one battle group having been disrupted in the impact phase (reduced combat dice from 4 to 3), meaning they were facing 8 dice to 4 dice and 6 dice to 3 dice, respectively, with 4+ to hit and re-rolling 1s on account of quality. Worse was to come when I realised Jamie was the active player in the following turn, and that he did not have to engage my second line. By passing two cohesion tests to prevent his two unengaged battle groups from charging he succeeded in fighting yet another round of close combat with overlaps. This was all too much for one of my battle groups, which routed.
Seeing that things were looking grim, I charged in with my second line of heavy foot, moved my triarii forward in support, and decided to take the cavalry gamble on the flanks, throwing my troop commanders into the melee in the hope of turning the tide of battle through sheer good luck. Alas, fortuna was not with me, and the cavalry attacks proved indecisive to bad. My other hastati battle group routed in the close combat phase, right through my triarii, who dropped a cohesion level. Happily, they stood fast against the pursuers, even as their less experienced fellows fled the field. In the following turns things continued to deteriorate in the center. It was hard fought, but as Jamie's own reserves began moving up towards the flanks, my principes began to waver along with the triarii and equites on my right flank. By the end of the next turn it was all over; my center had utterly collapsed and my right flank had followed suit, though on the left things were stalemated. With six battle groups broken and the enemy army still mainly intact there was nothing for it but to concede defeat. Sempronius Longus fell on his sword, cursing the vagaries of the fickle goddess of fortune, the brutal indifference of Mars, and the elusive face of Victoria. A triumvirate of traitorous deities. I, on the other hand, mainly wondered what had possessed me to deploy my main battle line against all good sense in piecemeal fashion as well as initiate the combat whilst the active player. Ah well, gloria victis.
In the aftermath, we agreed that the system played impressively. Unlike a typical miniatures war game, victory looked like victory, instead of a bloody stalemate where the winner is distinguished from the loser by a handful of remaining troops, or perhaps a character model or two, as seems so often the case in War Hammer. Our main gripes were with the constraints of the movement rules, and the decisiveness of the initial melee combats. It seemed to us that there had been no real way back for my forces, barring an incredible stroke of good fortune, once my hastati had lost the impact phase, but perhaps it just appeared that way in hindsight. Whatever the case, my rolls had been poor, whilst Jamie had enjoyed some excellent results, unusual for him, it was noted. It is better to be lucky than skilled, as they say, and I was neither in this instance. Next time, I vowed!
Second Play Test
After a brief flirtation with War Master (Jamie's Roman legions utterly destroyed my Gallic host, which attacked piecemeal as a result of the command and control rules for that system, at least that is my story), I was eager to play another game of Field of Glory. The over liberal movement rules of War Master had given us a new appreciation for the constraints we had earlier disdained, as Jamie remarked "it may be a pain in the arse, but at least it provides some semblance of order", or words to that effect. Having a keen interest in the crusades, both as inspiration for the imagination and, more mundanely, as a matter of academic interest and seemingly endless labour, the first supplement I obtained for Field of Glory was the evocatively titled Swords & Scimitars:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i226/Plle200/War%20Game%20Reviews/Swords_and_Scimitars.jpg
Swords and Scimitars (http://www.fieldofglory.com/catalogue/13.html)
Author: Richard Bodley Scott, Nik Gaukroger, James Hamilton, and Paul Robinson.
Contents: 64 perfect bound full colour pages; 2 title pages, 1 contents page, 55 pages of army lists, 4 pages of appendices, 2 pages of indices.
Publisher: Osprey Publishing.
Product Code: 978-1-84603-347-6
Retail Price: £12.99 or $19.95
It was not quite what I had expected. Full colour, plenty of information, and well furnished with Osprey illustrations and miniature photographs, but no campaigns or scenarios to play? One would think the Battle of Jaffa or the Horns of Hattin would be included, at least, but sadly such was not the case. Maps of sieges and the occasional battle diagram culled from an Osprey book seemed oddly placed and out of context. It took me a little while to realise that this was essentially advertising for their military history books, from which no doubt an enthusiastic player could find all sorts of details to design interesting scenarios! Well, not to worry, I am well enough versed in the period and can always fill in the blanks, if required. As it turned out, though, I discovered that I could forgo even that effort for the princely sum of £4.00 when I noticed a copy of War Games Illustrated in WHSmith whilst doing my traditional Christmas Eve shopping:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i226/Plle200/War%20Game%20Reviews/Issue267.jpg?t=1265134544
War Games Illustrated #267 (http://www.wargamesillustrated.net/)
Editor: Daniel Faulconbridge
Contents: 112 perfect bound full colour pages; 1 contents page (another on the inside front cover), 27 pages of advertising, 84 pages of articles and reviews.
Publisher: Warners Public Limited Company
Product Code: 0957-6444
Retail Price: £4.00 or $8.00
Interesting magazine; of the 84 pages of content, only 34 were devoted to the crusades, and only two of the five articles actually presented scenarios to play, but I suppose if I play one scenario per month I would count myself lucky, and the other content was entertaining (I particularly enjoyed the Morris Men Partisans depicted in the fictional 1938 British Civil War report). All those photographs of lovingly painted miniatures almost made me wish that we were using more than the backs of cereal packets, but then I remembered how much time, space, effort, money, and skill is involved in collecting miniatures and was once again content with my mighty imagination doing the heavy lifting (but still...). Of the two scenarios available, the most appropriate was self evidently the Battle of Dorylaeum, as related and described by Paul Leach. The scenario involved an attack by the Seljuk Turkish army of Kilij Arslan on the Frankish vanguard near the old Byzantine camp of Dorylaeum. Bohemond of Taranto and Robert of Normandy were to lead the crusader defence until reinforced by Godfrey of Bouillon and Raymond of Saint Gilles. Later in the magazine, Leach surmised that De Bellis Antiquitatis and De Bellis Multitudinis, Field of Glory, War Hammer Historical, and War Master, were all potentially good rule sets for war gaming the crusades, so we figured we were well set to re-fight Dorylaeum.
During my second read through the Field of Glory rules, I had given a lot of thought to how one might use a crusader army as provided for in Swords and Scimitars, but had not really managed to come up with much of a strategy. The total lack of light foot options made it difficult to use spearmen and crossbowmen together, whilst the limited charge movement of knights and special rules governing their melee capability suggested that it would be tactically challenging to effectively use all three elements together against a mobile hit and run army like the Seljuk Turks. I was not too worried, though, as Jamie had been clear in our initial conversation that he wanted to play the crusaders. Unfortunately, in the event, he had a change of heart and suggested that we dice for it, so I ended up playing the Franks after all. Looking at the scenario rules, it was quickly apparent that my options were going to be limited. I had to have at least four battle groups of knights, half of which would be deployed in turns 9 and 11 (or 12), and four battle groups of medium or light horse, yet my cavalry was not to be more than sixty percent of the whole army. Since Swords and Scimitars allows for only one battle group of Byzantine turcopoles for the early crusaders, which is the only medium or light horse available in the list, we compromised and allowed for two battle groups of 1,000 Byzantine horse, based on the battle description, which indicated maybe 2,000 such troops were present, and the allowances of the scenario:
{table=head]Number|Type|Class|Move|Quality|Discipline|Armour|M issile|Melee|Bases|Points|
−|
Bohemond of Taranto|
Inspired Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
80|
−|
Robert of Normandy|
Field Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
50|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Knights|
Heavy Horse|
4|
Superior|
Undrilled|
Armoured|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
4|
80|
1,000|
Turcopoles|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
4|
44|
1,000|
Turcopoles|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
4|
44|
2,000|
Spearmen|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Defensive Spearmen|
8|
48|
2,000|
Spearmen|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Defensive Spearmen|
8|
48|
2,000|
Spearmen|
Heavy Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Defensive Spearmen|
8|
48|
2,000|
Crossbowmen|
Medium Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Crossbow|
−|
8|
48|
2,000|
Crossbowmen|
Medium Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Crossbow|
−|
8|
48|
2,000|
Bowmen|
Medium Foot|
3|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
−|
8|
40|
|||||||||
Total|
818[/table]
The Seljuk Turk army list is mainly cavalry, though there are quite a large number of foot archers available, the other optional infantry troops would make for a ramshackle force. The scenario supported this interpretation, specifying that if any foot were taken they were not to leave the Turkish deployment zone (12" from the Turkish table edge). Jamie complained bitterly about this, but spent some points on them anyway, figuring perhaps that they could at least provide rear support for his lesser cavalry or a defensive screen to reorganise behind, if forced back far enough. He was even less happy that his heavy horse could not exceed twenty-five percent of the army (maybe this was the actual reason for the infantry), but did not seem bothered about only having one commander, Kilij Arslan himself. In addition, he had to think about a flanking force of light horse that was scheduled to arrive in turn 3 or 4 to harass the crusader camp, and which was similarly restricted to being no more than twenty-five percent of the whole army. Ghilman would make up his heavy horse, the most expensive troops on the list, whilst the remainder was comprised of medium and light Turcoman horse, a smattering of light foot and an optional Bedouin Lancer battle group, the only shock troops he bothered with:
{table=head]Number|Type|Class|Move|Quality|Discipline|Armour|M issile|Melee|Bases|Points
−|
Kilij Arslan|
Inspired Commander|
7|
−|
−|
−|
−|
−|
1|
80|
1,500|
Ghilman|
Heavy Horse|
5|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
114|
1,500|
Ghilman|
Heavy Horse|
5|
Superior|
Drilled|
Armoured|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
114|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
66|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
66|
1,500|
Bedouin|
Medium Horse|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Protected|
−|
Lancers, Swordsmen|
6|
54|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Turcoman|
Light Horse|
7|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
Swordsmen|
6|
60|
1,500|
Bowmen|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
−|
6|
30|
1,500|
Bowmen|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Bow|
−|
6|
30|
1,500|
Javelinmen|
Light Foot|
5|
Average|
Undrilled|
Unprotected|
Javelin|
Light Spear|
6|
24
||||||||||
Total|
818[/td][/tr][/table]
Quite the convenient point totals, we thought. The victory conditions were relatively simple; the Turks would win if they were able to sack the crusader camp or rout the army (twelve points), and the crusaders would win if the Turks did not. Unfortunately, the scenario specified that the Frankish cavalry start the game in two equal wings in front of the infantry. This struck me as an immediate problem, because I wanted them behind my foot troops ready for a decisive charge through a gap. My "solution" (if it can be called that) was to deploy one battle group of spearmen and one of crossbowmen to either side and march them forward until they were in front of the knights, whilst the remaining spearmen and bowmen would act as a tactical reserve. Jamie wisely deployed all of his horse at the edge of his deployment zone. The center was formed of heavy horse arrayed one rank deep with light horse and medium horse to either side, his left flank containing the Bedouins. Behind these forces he arrayed his light foot. What I did not realise at this stage was that he was holding one battle group of medium horse and two of light horse back as his flanking force, forgetting that it was light horse only. This would turn out to be of significance for the course of the battle, if not decisive. We also foolishly, in retrospect, interpreted the sixteen turn time limit on the game to be thirty-two Field of Glory turns, which was too long.
Armies purchased and deployment over, the Guinness Foreign Extra was opened and the battle begun. My intent was clear from the first; I marched my foot forward and had the Byzantine turcopoles on the left charge the enemy light horse, knowing that they would evade, the plan being to drive them back and delay until my slow moving foot could arrive in support. Being no slouch, Jamie immediately responded in his active turn by advancing both wings of light and medium horse to capture as much ground as possible. His heavy horse advanced and began shooting upon my knights. An ill stroke of fortune resulted in one lot of Normans being disrupted, whilst the other failed a death roll on a 1 and lost a base! Very bad, and with six dice needing 4+ to hit it was a strong start. In the second turn I tried another feint with the turcopoles, but the Turcoman light horse elected to receive the attack (we did not realise a cohesion test was required for skirmishers to receive a charge from non-skirmishers at this point, but they probably would have passed anyway). That went severely wrong when the turcopoles failed to do anything to the light horse, and the Turcoman medium horse joined the attack, quickly routing and destroying the unfortunate Byzantines. On the crusader right flank the advance went better, forcing the enemy horse to give ground.
In turn three the Turkish flanking force arrived, which turned out to be one battle group of medium horse (Jamie forgot he had two battle groups of light horse to deploy in addition). What neither of us had quite fathomed was that they deployed not on my left table edge, but within twelve inches of my left corner table edge, putting them right behind my left flank spearmen. This proved utterly disastrous, as they charged into the rear of these in the turn they were deployed, supported by the other group of medium horse, which ended the matter, routing and destroying 2,000 spearmen with nary a casualty between them. In the center the Norman knights were suffering shooting hits, and with the left flank now under serious threat, they charged forwards and drive the Ghilman back, who easily evaded away. The crusader reserve spearmen wheeled to support the now vulnerable crossbowmen on the left flank, whilst the Byzantine turcopoles on the right sought to aid in turning the Turkish left flank. In turn four, the Bedouin lancers decided to show their metal and launch an attack on the opposing crossbowmen, but support shooting from the rear rank made it nine dice to six, and lucky rolls in the melee kept the crossbowmen steady, fragmenting the Bedouin, who withdrew in the joint action phase, only to be routed by crossbow bolts in the following turn of shooting; the crossbowmen advanced bravely on.
On the crusader left flank it was a different story. The crossbowmen were isolated and subjected to a withering hail of arrows from three enemy battle groups, then subject to a charge and flank attack that utterly destroyed them before the reserve spearmen could arrive in support. In the center right, the Norman knights under Robert were routed by arrows and suffered the loss of a stand; I was quite upbeat about this because we were under the impression that commanders could not bolster their troops if within six inches of the enemy. In fact, the rule was they could not rally broken battle groups within six inches of the enemy, a misunderstanding of a distinction that had severe repercussions. Feeling that the situation was growing increasingly desperate, Bohemond led his own disrupted knights in another charge, which the Ghilman surrounding Kilij Arslan accepted. Meanwhile, the Byzantine turcopoles and right flank crossbowmen engaged the other battle group of Turkish heavy horse, and gave a good accounting. The bowmen also came into play at this juncture, advancing in support of Bohemond and his knights, shooting at the extended line of Ghilman. Bohemond and Kilij both personally entered the fray, each hoping to tip the balance in his favour.
Unfortunately, the importance of mobility and a decimated flank proved too much for the Franks. One battle group of medium horse started heading for the camp, whilst the other prevented the reserve spearmen from intercepting a flanking charge on Bohemond by a battle group of light horse. Another rule misunderstood at this juncture was that flank attacks by skirmishers on non-skirmishers do not cause the flanked battle group to immediately drop a cohesion level, as they normally would. Being already fragmented, Bohemond's knights broke (they probably would have anyway, but still...); the knights and their brave leader were all slain in the rout, and the pursuers then contacted the bowmen whose eventual break was a forgone conclusion. On the other hand, the medium horse that had charged the reserve spearmen were happily fragmented and driven back. As turn eight (or sixteen) loomed the crusaders had five broken or destroyed battle groups, but this was reduced when Robert's knights, who had routed nearly as far back as the crusader encampment, finally rallied and turned to intercept the medium horse heading for the camp. For a moment it looked like defeat might be averted, but alas, too late, the camp was contacted and sacked by Turcoman medium horse, whilst the bowmen routed, bringing the point total to twelve at the same time as achieving the primary victory condition. Deus vult.
Godfrey and his knights arrived on the right flank in time to witness Robert failing to prevent the sack of the encampment; a scene of bloody carnage, no doubt, and a crushing defeat for the warrior pilgrims. Nonetheless, defeated for the third time in a row, I could only admit that I had really enjoyed the game. For all our mistakes and errors, at the midpoint it seemed things could still go either way, even after the destruction of the left flank spearmen. With the mix of different battle group types, the strategic and tactical elements of the game were brought to the fore in a way they were not in our earlier Roman versus Roman game. It felt very much like a game of chess, and judging the moment to commit to the attack and be able to support it was clearly pivotal. Afterwards Jamie said he thought he could have won it as the crusaders, and in all honesty I think that we both learned enough from the battle that if we played it again it would have been a different story all told. There was no feeling that one side was inherently superior, or that the dice had been overly favourable to one of us over the other. We definitely need to put together some "cheat sheets", though, as the rules are involved enough that reminders on the key points would be helpful to reference. The rules are actually intuitive, and by the end of the game things we were running things quite smoothly, but they are also very comprehensive, and there are many seemingly unusual situations that can arise, meaning that multiple games are required to really get a handle on the system.
Conclusion
If you are looking for an authentic feeling and comprehensive ancient and medieval war game that requires plenty of strategic and tactical thought, but does not neglect the vagaries of fortune, I definitely recommend this system. It is a lot of fun to play and well balanced, so that there does not appear to be a "sure-bet" army. For the more fantasy inclined, I think that at the level of abstraction it assumes it would not be too difficult to introduce monstrous units or magic to some degree, though such things are not officially supported. It is complex, with plenty of exceptions to take account of, which may not be to everybody's taste, but it is also logical and internally consistent enough that it is not hard to guess what rule would be suitable for a given unusual situation. Unlike many adventure and war games, I do not feel the urge to change or "correct" particular aspects of it, as it already yields the sorts of results I would expect. Perhaps that point of view will change over time, but for the moment Field of Glory is definitely at the top of my list of war games.