TWATS TINY TACTICA TOURNAMENT

 Now regular readers will know that the Tantobie Warfare and Tactical society are not a competition orientated group. Quite the reverse in fact. Therefor it may  come as a bit of a surprise to see the title of this post.
 Yes we decided to do a "competition" - of sorts
 Saturday 

Gauls vs Greeks Shaun and Steve  punching it out !

Saturday saw 5 members gather at our usual pub. Present were your Gentle Author, Andrew the Tekkie, Theatrical Steve, Mechanical Shaun and Flaoting Jeff
 We set up 2 small tables each around 5feet by 4feet  troops were 15mm provided by Shaun and Jeff  4 armies were used Gauls, Hoplite Greek, Roman Republican and Later Carthaginian.. I organised each army as Tactica "Half Armies- halving the number of units rather than their size. This hopefully meant that there would be time for 2 games per player
 As Umpire my task was to adjudicate any disputes and impose fines for taking things too seriously!- Though this latter task was not required and  the phrase "Fine, 1 pint" was not uttered ! (Though the  similar phrase "Yo!Minezapint!"  certainly was)

Jeff and Steve grind away !!! (all double entendres entirely intended ! ) This of course was Roman Republicans and Gauls

 The first pair of games saw Andrew (Carthaginian)  taking on Jeff  Roman Republic while Shaun used his own Greeks against his own Gauls- which were commanded by Steve.
 In tactica the main skillsa player needs are in the area of deployment- a good deployment can increase your chances of Victory whilst a poor deployment may seal your fate in short order- especially if you throw bum dice.. The basic system is simple withoput being simplistic- the mechanisms are straightforward but with enough intrest to keep you on your toes
 As these were half size armies the no of battleine units that had to break was as follows
 Gauls2 48 figure units
 Carthage 2 24 figure units
Rome 4
Greeks 2 (32 figure units)
The Roman units were of course only 12 figures strong- thy had 4 each of Hastati Priceps and 2 Triarii. This made the a tough propoition.
 The Galic masses were big- but unweildy and  having little armour in theory died faster .
 So off we go
Andrew's Carthaginian Elephants died in a hail of D6. As always Jeff's dice rolling was almost legendary- 6 dice needing 6s to kill  and the bugger gets 5  in one lot... It would be wrong to say the Romans had a total walkover but for the Carthaginians it all went downhill from there. Andrew- well out of his comfort zone dealing with swords and spears instead of 120mm guns and ATGW was heard to tommuter darkly about bloody primitives ! The Roman and Carthaginian heavy cavalry induldged in a bit of MAD each laying about them manfully then both failing the restultant morale test and routing.
 Then the Roman mincing machine got going the Pila went in followed by a sword charge  and it was curtains for the Carthies....
 On the other Table Steve squared off against Shaun for a much closer punch up ! Gallic tactics were simple consisting of one word - Charge!  Though Steve held back one Infantry Warband in reserve- letting his archers -a single 12 figure unit have a shoot at the unit of Hoplites which slightly outwinged him. The Greeks advanced in a nice solid line covered by some  skirmishers- which the Gallic Javelin skirmishers charged and sorted out - despite Steve's muttering about dice! . As the Battle lines clashed it was nip and tuck for a while but the reserve warband smashed the archery weakened Hoplite unit and when the second  unit- of 4 broke it was all over for the Greeks- their army decamping faster than their Economy !

 All Change
We set up the second set of games  with Jeff's Romans now taking on Steve's Celt's and Shaun having a bash at the Carthaginians.
 At this point as it by magic Beef Butties and chips appeared
 Break for Lunch was the unanimous cry !

Second Round.

Second round- Shauns Greeks get deep

The second round of battles was to be a bit tougher. The Gauls and the Romans squared off  for a major bloodbath. Neither side used any subtlety at all  and pretty soon is was a simple grinding match - with the Romans having an advantage in manoureability- offset up to a point by the sheer size of the Gallic units.
 On the other table Shauns Greeks had formed up deeper than previously and on a shorter front. Andrew Elephant charge started well and his Spaniards destroyed the Greek Peltasts. On his other Flank the Greek cavalry were put to the Sword and it all looked really good. The Greek flanks were in serious trouble.
 Then the Elephants died....

Just before it all went Pear shaped for the Carthaginians.

The Spanish - in too long a line took and age to wheeel into the Greek flank...
The Carthaginian cavalry on the opposite flank  charge a Hoplite unit in flank - 24 dice needing 5 or 6  for kills- 4 kills ...Oh  Bugger!  may have been uttered- not enough to cause a rout.  It took another move .
 In the centre the 3 deeper hoplite units ground through the Citizens and Africans 3 units against two smaller but thinner ones could only end one way. The Carthaginian centre broke and it was all over.
 Has the Carthaginian centre mangaged to hold for that one more move the Victory would have been theirs.
Back on table one the  bloodbath continued eash side claiming THEIR dice were crap when they were actually evenly matched..
 Then a Miracle occoured!  I've played Tactica off and on since it first appeared in 1989(though in my memeory it seems longer !) and I've never seen it happen before- BOTH armies suffered their own breaking points inthe same turn . Therefore Both armies lost- and won .... So the Umpire declared a draw.

For us this  set of games was deliberately lightweight fare. Something different from out usual stuff and was none the worse for that.
 Maybe next year we'll run another TWATS TINY TACTICA TOURNAMENT.