Sword & Spear Game: Mt Gilboa 1100 BC

[zippyfusenet]

Nearly two years ago, Phil Portway introduced me to Mark Lewis' Sword & Spear rules. These days I usually GM at informal basement clubs or (in better times) at conventions, where my goal is for all comers to have fun. I'm always on the lookout for wargame rules that work in that environment. The multi-player version of Sword & Spear has proved a success, and I now regularly use S&S to operate my collection of 15mm Ancient Near East chariot era armies.

I owe y'all, Phil in particular, an update. Last night I GMed a game in Smethurst's Basement, so here's a short photo essay.

Our host Rich Smethurst is known here in Cincinnati and beyond for his past involvement as a pricipal of Ral Partha Enterprises and Cincycon, for his enthusiasm and support for the hobby, and for hosting Wednesday night games for many years in his well-appointed basement. Last night's game attracted some regulars, and some who came from as far as Dayton and Moscow, Ohio to play. It's proverbial that in the US, 100 miles isn't a long distance, but actually, 60 miles and back again is a long way to drive for a game on a work night. I was glad to see them all. Here's a pic of the gang at play, seven in all besides me. I managed to get everyone in ths photo except for Tim and Bud:



Last night's scenario was based on the battle of Mt Gilboa, c. 1100 BC. (Shmaybe...1000 BC? 972 BC at 8:30 in the morning? Some say it never happened. I dunno...)  According to Samuel I and a couple of other Biblical citations, King Saul of Israel fought the Tyrant Achish of Gath and his Philistines, lost, and got smote with most of his sons. The Bible gives little detail and there are no other primary references, so I just went with the story and used my imagination.

Since most of my players were new to S&S I kept things simple. Mt Gilboa, the Philistine camp and the Kishon River were just to make the borders of the table prettier. The battle was fought on an empty plain, except for a couple of farmhouses that blocked movement and LOS.  I engineered the game for up to nine players. Each army was organized into divisions of three units and a commander, four divisions for the Philistines, five for the Israelites. I set the armies up in line. I invited the players to change their deployments, but no one did. Two players failed to show up (of course) so I told two of the guys to take two commands each. After a 40 minute harangue on the rules, we started rolling dice.

Here's the Philistine army, laid out at start:



Here's a close-up of Tyrant Achish and his command:



Here is the Israelite host:



And here's a close-up of King Saul and his retinue:



Those with sharp eyes may notice that there are more command dice in these photos than there are units. The only change I've made to the S&S rules is to give each division one extra command dice, for the commander, four dice for three units. They lose the extra dice if the commander is killed. I started doing this when I noticed that a player rolling only three command dice was likely to roll up three useless numbers, sometimes two turns in a row. The victims disliked the effect. To lessen the likelihood of my players rolling handfulls of shyte, I added the extra command dice. I find that this juices the game up with more action. I like it and my players like it. It's good in a wargame when Stuff Happens.

The armies were about even on points. The Israelites had more units, 15 Izzies to 12 Philistine units, but the Philistine units overall had better armor and discipline. The Israelites were mainly hairy, sweaty tribal warriors: medium spearmen and light infantry archers and slingers, with a couple elite units of Giborim mighty warriors and Benjaminite medium archers. The Philistines had four units of fearsome armored chariots, supported by light javelins and slingers, some medium spearmen and one unit of armored heavy spearmen with impressive big shields.

I instructed the Israelite players that the burden of attack was on them, that they had to break and drive off the Philistine invaders, so that a draw would be a win for the Philistines. I expected the Philistine chariots to run over lots of Israelite tribal militia, but that did not happen. Instead, what done transpired was:

All of the players lacked experience. The Philistine players advanced their chariots and lights too fast, too far ahead of the supporting medium and heavy infantry. The Israelites overwhelmed them with numbers:



Arrows, rocks and javelins flew, and stuck in some of the naked guys in diapers, but mostly bounced off the armored charioteers. Instead of standing off and shooting, the Philistine chariots charged into a mass of medium spears. Both armies turned their opponents right flanks. On the Israelite right, the Philistines traded two light units for a light and a Giborim (!). They were in position to roll that flank up:



But meanwhile, the aggressive Israelite left had killed off a light, a medium spearman and a commander (!) on the Philistine right, and trapped a chariot in a losing multi-turn melee:



We completed six game turns in about two hours of play before I called the game a clear Israelite victory. All my players had fun. I plan to stage another session this coming Wednesday night, and they all want seats. I asked my players what changes they would like me to make, and no one wanted to change anything. I'm very happy with that result. I think I'll add some more complicated terrain to next week's game, and make my players deploy.

Thanks to Phil Portway for pointing me to Sword & Spear, and to Mark Lewis for writing these excellent rules.

[Norm]

Thanks for posting, It’s nice to see some Sword & Spear play getting exposure.

[Polkovnik]

Great looking game. Good to hear you are enjoying Sword & Spear.

[zippyfusenet]

'Zat you, Mark? Over the past year and a half I've GMed five big club games of S&S for about 20 different players, and they all love the rules. They pick up the mechanics quick, and by turn three they start figuring how best to apply their command and combat dice, and maneuver their troops to gain advantage. Several players have ordered copies of S&S, I think you sold a couple more copies Wednesday night. Once we can all mingle again, I hope to take S&S on the local game convention circuit.

[Easy E]

I enjoyed this. 

I always enjoy a battle that is not well documented.  It gives us much more scope as gamers to play "what we want".

[WuZhuiQiu]

Nicely done!