Mini MeG 1 - Part 2

Greetings!

In the second game of MiniMeG 1 event I had a great pleasure to play against Leigh and his Early Merovingian Frank (481AD). It was quite interesting to have a game between armies so far apart in history. However, it is something that has to happen at the events unless one organizes a tournament where all participants bring forces from the same period. I must say that would be great too but for the small event for beginners it was perfectly fine to bring whatever players had at this moment.

I am sure it is also a challenge for designers of the game to come up with ideas that reflect how the armies of particular faction fought in their time and still allow for good games between armies that never faced each other in history.

Both Leigh and I played our very second game in MeG so the priority was to implement lessons from game 1 and learn as much as possible in game 2. For me, personally, my main objective was to maneuver in a way that would allow me to get into some combats to test the mechanics of the game in that phase. And to see what the Phalanx can do! 

Game 2 - Early Merovingian Frank

Apart from the fact that Leigh's army was from different historical period, it also had quite a few interesting differences, mainly in the type of units he brought. Here are the details:

Commanders

Army Commander - Competent Instinctive

Subordinate General 1- Mediocre Instinctive

Camp

Camp - Poor, Protected

TuG's

4 Noble Cavalry - Cavalry, Formed Loose, Superior, Protected, Short Spear, Melee Expert

4 Noble Cavalry - Cavalry, Formed Loose, Superior, Protected, Short Spear, Melee Expert

4 Cavalry - Cavalry, Formed Loose, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Melee Expert

4 Cavalry - Cavalry, Formed Loose, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Melee Expert

6 Warriors - Infantry, Tribal Close, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Devastating Charger

6 Warriors - Infantry, Tribal Close, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Devastating Charger

6 Warriors - Infantry, Tribal Close, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Devastating Charger

6 Warriors - Infantry, Tribal Close, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Devastating Charger

6 Warriors - Infantry, Tribal Close, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Devastating Charger

6 Warriors - Infantry, Tribal Close, Average, Protected, Short Spear, Devastating Charger

SuG's

4 Light Cavalry - Cavalry, Skirmisher, Average, Unprotected, Javelin, Experienced, Cantabrian

6 Archers - Infantry, Skirmisher, Average, Unprotected, Bow, Experienced

6 Javelinmen - Infantry, Skirmisher, Average, Unprotected, Short Spear, javelin, Experienced

First thing I noticed is that my army was outnumbered in therms of total number of Unit Groups. I had 6 TuG's and 3 SuG's while Leigh had 10 TuG's and 3 SuG's.  As a result he not only had an advantage in number of units but his break point was higher. He had to lose 5 TuG's to get broken while my army could only lose 3 before that happened.

My impression was then that Leigh would probably look for the change to engage fast and that I may be outflanked. Especially, that in addition to the fact I had fewer units, my Phalangites would prefer to fight in deep formation too.

However, Leigh brought fewer commanders and they were both Instinctive. It meant that he would have fewer cards to use and the range in which the commanders would be able to give orders was shorter. What is more, instinctive army commanders cannot pass their cards to sub-commanders so that further limits the flexibility of the army.

Next, I tried to look at the units and anticipate what they can do in battle. It was quite a challenge because with very limited knowledge I did not yet have a proper understanding of the interaction between various special abilities. However, I noted that the Warriors are Tribal Close. Thanks to the previous game I already knew that Tribal type of a training means the unit will be harder to maneuver. Such units require color cards to perform more complicated maneuvers than just simple advance. Perhaps that would allow me to get my units into a fight quicker and against only one element of the enemy army. If that happened then I would be able to use local superiority to overwhelm the foe before other units would arrive to help.

That was, of course, just the plan but I was glad I started to consider certain abilities of my own army and that of my opponent and formulate ideas around them.

Here are the details of the army I brought, just for the reminder and easy reference.

Seleucids - Army List

Commanders

Army Commander - Competent Professional

Subordinate General 1 - Competent Professional

Subordinate General 2 - Mediocre Professional

Camp

Camp - Average, Protected

TuGs

8 Argyraspides - Infantry, Drilled Close, Superior, Protected, Pike, Shove

8 Phalangites - Infantry, Drilled Close, Average, Protected, Pike, Shove

8 Phalangites - Infantry, Drilled Close, Average, Protected, Pike, Shove

6 Thracians - Infantry, Formed Loose, Average, Protected, Devastating Charger, Melee Expert

4 Line Cavalry - Cavalry, Drilled Loose, Average, Protected, Charging Lancer, Melee Expert

4 Line Cavalry - Cavalry, Drilled Loose, Average, Protected, Charging Lancer, Melee Expert  

SuG's

6 Javelinmen - Infantry, Skirmisher, Poor, Unprotected, Javelin, Experienced, Combat Shy

6 Javelinmen - Infantry, Skirmisher, Poor, Unprotected, Javelin, Experienced, Combat Shy

6 Tarentine Cavalry - Cavalry, Skirmisher, Average, Protected, Javelin, Experienced, Cantabrian 

Pre-battle

The fact that Leigh's army had instinctive commanders affected the number of cards he got for pre-battle phase. I had 6 versus his 4 and it meant I had a bit better control where we would fight in the end. 

I was the Defender again and this time I wanted open ground to be able to get to the enemy fast and not be slowed down by the terrain. Leigh was even more happy to play on almost empty battle field and we ended up playing on Plains without secure flank and with a single hill as a terrain piece. 

I saved one card for Scouting and this time I out-scouted my opponent by 20%. The consequence of that was that Leigh had to deploy first, despite being an attacker, and then deploy 20% of the number of his units first. In this case it was still minimum of 3 Unit groups. 

Deployment

Deployment - Seleucid's point of view.

Deployment of the armies.

Leigh deployed his army wide, to cover as much area as possible, with Warriors forming the main battle line. Cavalry units where deployed individually which was interesting because I somehow expected them to be in blocks to move them with fewer cards.

I deployed with a bit of a weighted flank. On the center-right I had my Line Cavalry and Tarentian Cavalry to protect that side and slow down the enemy. The phalanx was on the center-left with Thracians and Skirmishers protecting that flank and Line Cavalry behind them to maneuver to the far left soon after the beginning.

If I could get into melee on my left and prevent the enemy units on my right from entering the combat, I thought I may have a chance to break through that area thanks to deeper phalanx formation. Let's see if I managed to achieve that!

Leigh was the Attacker so he was an active player in turn 1.

Turn 1 - Franks

Turn 1 - sequence of actions.

As expected, Frank Warriors were eager to get to the enemy as fast as possible so it was no surprise that full battle line of the infantry moved forward.

Seleucids responded by moving towards the enemy was well, with a slight shift towards the left flank and Cavalry moving to protect both sides of the Phalanx. 

Both armies march towards each other.

Turn 2 - Seleucids

 

Turn 2 - sequence of actions.

Both armies continued to close the distance to each other. Seleucids kept shifting towards the left flank but Franks managed to move their heavy cavalry really fast this time. It looked like Seleucids would be in trouble on the flanks soon!

Getting closer - would anyone charge now?

Turn 3 - Franks

Turn 3 - Sequence of actions.

The units of both armies were close to each other but not yet close enough to charge. With an exception of the cavalry on the left flank that tried to chase away enemy light cavalry. Mounted skirmishers easily avoided the chargers though.

Now both armies were really close to each other and it was clear that some serious fights would erupt soon.

Units ready to fight - who is going to charge first?

Turn 4 - Seleucids

Turn 4 - sequence of actions.

Seleucids launched their attack first and charged with the cavalry on the right flank. The Phalanx soon followed to get stuck in combat with Warriors who also were eager to throw themselves at the enemy infantry.

At the same time, Noble Cavalry spurred their horses and charged Seleucid Line Cavalry before they could hit the exposed flank of the nearby units of Frank knights.

The impact of the attack was not as decisive as any side expected and all the units got entangled in vicious melee. Remaining units tried to get closer too and Franks managed to send one of their cavalries to support the fight on the right flank.

The fight continued and it seemed that while cavalry combats remained unresolved, then the Phalanx started making some cracks in the formation of the Frank infantry.

However, once again the maneuvering took considerable time for both commanders and armies had to disengage before any side could gain significant advantage.

Phalanx pushing on the left flank.

Line cavalry holds on the right - for now.

After-battle

First of all I would like to thank Leigh for a great game. I really enjoyed it as it seemed that majority of time we spent on maneuvering and fighting than on checking few rule queries. That is a good sign and I hope it means we are learning the game fast.

I also noticed that it didn't matter that much that we played with armies that were historically from very different periods. We quickly started discussing the outcomes in terms of Quality of the units and their Melee Weapon. That is also good because it looks like the game is flexible. Eventually, I would love to play with historical enemies for visual effects. But in this particular game and event it was actually great to be able to play games and focus on the maneuvers without being limited by historical inaccuracies in any way.

I was happy to achieve one of the goals, that is to get into combat. Unfortunately, we didn't have more time to play at least one more round. It would be quite interesting to see what would have happened.  Would my cavalry hold the flanks long enough? Would Phalanx finally break some Warriors? Or would the remaining units be able to get into that combat too and shift the balance into Franks' favor?

It was good to see that both of us had a better idea what we want to do in movement phase. It shows that the lessons from game one were already nicely implemented in game two. The choices for maneuvers are numerous and I definitely have not explored them yet properly. Leigh did very well with sweeping maneuvers of his Cavalry and I will try to remember that units can move at a double. It will help me to get into positions faster but also anticipate when and where the foes can move.

Another interesting aspect was that charging in itself may not necessary give significant advantage to the charger. In our understanding of the rules, it does not matter who charged in order to calculate the respective Claims in Charge Combat. In fact, I also learned that Thracians who charged enemy mounted Nobles gave them additional +1 due to infantry charging cavalry. 

In addition, I think I should not expect that the fights are going to be resolved quickly. Impact can be important, also for the purpose creating breaks in the enemy formation in the following melee phase. But I rolled quite a lot of blanks in the Charge Combat so could not claim any Shove effects that can be very helpful. It simply means one needs to plan the moves a bit more forward and anticipate not only the outcomes but also when they are going to occur.

Interestingly, other players mentioned that they too reached a similar stage of the game. The units clashed and for some time things didn't look like bringing any significant changes in the situation on the battle field. But they also said that once the damage starts accumulating, suddenly TuG's may start breaking rapidly and entire battle line may begin to crumble. 

Hence, the conclusion that I need to learn how to play faster in order to reach the stage where TuG's finally start breaking. Things would be very interesting when that happens, when one player may need to try and breach the gaps in the battle line while the other would try to exploit the local advantage.

I also noted that I didn't quite yet know how to use Skirmishers but a few Run Away moments gave me some ideas. I will try to make sure I can use them in the next game, whenever I may have the opportunity to play one.

Both games generated a few questions about how to resolve particular situations but I will describe them in Part 3 together with overall impressions after first games and event with Mortem et Gloriam.

Thanks for reading!