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ATrminius vs. Valla
o demonstrate, let’s take an Second round is the infantry assault. example from Germania where The Romans now total 27 strength the Roman veteran leader Vala points – had they not been in a forest,
takes a force of three legions, supported by three auxiliaries (a total of 27 strength points) into the forest north- east of Locoritum. Arminius with his massive force of four auxiliaries, four barbarian heavy infantry units and four huge barbarian levies (totaling 68 SP) attacks them.
Rolling for tactical superiority, Arminius spends a military stratagem for a +1 on his roll, adding his “2” leadership gives him a five after the roll; Vala rolls a four and, adding his “1” leadership, ties Arminus, requir- ing a second roll, which Vala wins. The Romans gain the tactical advan- tage, which means any casualties they inflict will be taken before the Ger- mans fire back.
The first combat round is missiles only. The Roman auxiliaries total twelve points and roll a 5, which eliminates at least two barbarian strength points; since the smallest unit is a 3, they lose a heavy infantry unit. The Barbarian missiles total sixteen points and roll a four which does nothing to the Romans.
the heavy infantry would have been doubled and they would have hit with 42! Roll is a 1, scoring a discipline check on the barbarians: the roll is 3, meaning the German unit barbarian units (heavy infantry and levies) as well as the recruit level auxiliaries “go berserk and become disrupted, which makes Arminius’ whole force miss their assault round.
The last round is pursuit, and the Romans force another discipline check on the disrupted Germans. They fail and the whole force disintegrates. No Teutoburg forest massacre here!
Suppose Arminius had won the tacti- cal superiority: A rerun of the battle has the Roman lose a legion, but pass two discipline checks with their veterans, while the Germans lose an auxiliary and heavy infantry, fail their final dis- cipline check and retreat.
In short anything is possible in Miranda’s combat system: good lead- ers can have bad days, bad leaders can have good days. On any given battle veterans can rout or stand firm just as barbarian hordes can.
notes, “What caused most ancient armies to be defeated in battle was not so much casualties but the inability to maintain cohesion in the face of multiple shocks.” Each unit is rated for type of unit (heavy infantry, auxiliary infantry, cavalry, et al) and for discipline – from the Imperator down through Veteran, recruit, mob bar- barian. The discipline of a unit provides the key to how a unit will hold up in combat.
So what’s next for this prolific designer? As noted earlier, Miranda is work- ing free-lance,
writing and designing games on any number of topics, actually. Immediate projects are a look at the 2012–2013 campaigns in Central Africa by the French and a detailed look at the great Sepoy Mutiny in India – as he puts it, “lots of chaos and you have to sort it out to win.” After that? The most recent issue of DG’s Modern War has eleven possible Miranda designs listed for reader feedback, all suggested by his own curiosity. And just to show that he’s not just into “boring” historical games, consider the upcoming game from One Small Step – Arc of the Kaiser’s Last Raider, in which the player is
a “writer” plotting a B-movie script about a World War I naval captain searching out lost secret to change
the course of the war.
Anything goes in that fertile mind
and we as wargamers will benefit!
John D. Burtt
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