War and peace

Romano: Alex Isabelle Carthaginian: Laura Beltrami We move to 218 BC, to the battle of the river Ticinus, the first direct confrontation between the Carthaginians and the Romans in the Second Punic War. Hannibal lost half an army in the Alps, and Publius Cornelius Scipio, father of what would later become known as Scipio the African, after keeping an eye on the Carthaginians for a while decides to try an engagement. What can these barbarians ever do on their little horses? Well, they can fuck him, to begin with. Because those ponies are Numidian horses, led by commander Maarbal, who after the mythological Alpine crossing does not really have the right disposition to be denied access to Cisalpine Gaul, and therefore intends to offer resistance. How to blame him. The indomitable Mago, in turn leading a wing of Numidian cavalry, shares his opinion. The premises. The clash between the Romans of Scipio and the Carthaginian cavalry, historically led by Hannibal, while here the scenario shows...

Syracusans: Alex Isabelle Carthaginians: Laura Beltrami 341 BC: the Syracusans still find themselves elbowing with the Carthaginians for the control of Magna Graecia. Several years have passed since the events of Agrigento, which finally saw the Carthaginian forces prevail. This time the latter are proceeding in the direction of I-do-not-know-which-city-in-Sicily, decided to take control once and for all. Having learned to disdain mercenaries for their lack of moral reliability, they have assembled an entire elite unit called the "sacred battalion", a collection of 2,500 high-blooded Carthaginian citizens, trained as god commands, hence the name. This battalion is part of the army which, led by a certain Hasdrubal ( yet another ), has worked to unify Sicily under the sign of Carthage. History here takes on interesting contours. Arriving near the Crimissos river, Hasdrubal's brain goes out. He makes his army cross the river without sending anyone on reconnaissance. If he h...

Syracusans: Laura Beltrami Carthaginians: Alex Isabelle A few weeks after the first battle of Akragas (ie: the same scenario) the same game is repeated with reversed parts, thanks to the fact that the first time we had fooled a fundamental rule that had greatly changed the game, introducing a dynamic of "fog of war" all in all functional but not foreseen by the original game. This time I am in command of the Carthaginian troops, historically plagued by this confrontation, which saw the elite troops of Magna Graecia kick the asses of the rear of the Carthaginian troops intent on besieging Akragas, today's Agrigento. The scenario is a bit asymmetrical. The Syracusans have a rather balanced front with a very solid center, made up of heavy troops who, if given the chance to do damage, are well capable of carrying out a massacre. The Carthaginians, on the other hand, have a slightly more grungy front, with a slightly more solid side and a slightly higher mobility. Both sides ...

Blue: Alex Isabelle Red: Laura Beltrami Yellow: Luca Orlandini Green: Lucia Neviani Another weekend, another game of Dungeon Lords. Again without expansion, because we had Lucia as a new player. She found herself with demolished dungeon but meh, the first game, it happens. A group consisting of an OP paladin, a cleric and two extreme level wizards preparing to invade the yellow dungeon. The hero from a few games ago, Orla, got screwed by a couple of design errors, which seriously undermined his ability to withstand the hordes of heroes. In the end, he always managed to get by, but he had several rooms conquered in the meantime. I had staked everything on the creation of a militarily organized dungeon: medium-sized, concentrated, full of rooms in which to fight with multiple monsters at a time. At one point I had earned so many "evil" points that I found myself on a path of no return. Pressing forward the accelerator on the highway of violence, for the first time the paladin e...

Vasyr's Raiders: Alex Isabelle Reds of Altair: Laura Beltrami On one side the Vasyr's Raiders, on the other the Reds of Altair. Two peoples from distant solar systems, united by one thing: the interest in making their planet the capital of a stellar empire. Although separated from the pitfalls of deep space, it was clear from the outset that only one of the two could reign over this sector of the galaxy. Peace was never going to be an option. The initial phase of the game saw a very rapid expansion by the Raiders, who quickly produced large numbers of colonizing ships, sending them around their sector to take control of the planets. The Reds, on the other hand, opted for a more cautious approach, dealing primarily with the collection of minerals, colonizing the planets more slowly, and developing military technologies early on. Two completely different approaches, which quickly came to a confrontation, even if not an open one, when the people of Vasyr, having explored a large p...

Siracusano: Alex Isabelle Cartaginese: Laura Beltrami Battle of Akragas, aka Agrigento, 406 BC. The Carthaginians have besieged the city of Magna Graecia, and have divided their troops: one part of the army holds the city, while another is somewhere else, ready to intervene if the Syracusans try to send some troops in defense of Agrigento. Which happens. The Carthaginian army is largely made up of mercenary auxiliary troops not particularly well organized. The Syracusans one are instead elite troops, which deploy a fair amount of heavy infantry right on the right side, the slightly scarcer one of the Carthaginian line, which also can count on the availability of war chariots, terrible in skirmishes. The Syracusans choose to divide the battle line in two: while the elite troops advance inexorably but slowly towards the weak side of the Carthaginians, on the left side will remain support troops. In truth, the latter turned out inferior to the Carthaginian soldiers, who put pressure on th...

Athenian: Alex Isabelle Spartan: Laura Beltrami The Archidamian War, first of the Peloponnesian wars, ends in 422 BC, after another 6 years of conflicts. This second part of the war opened with a long-prepared maneuver: Athens decided to raise taxes on the tributaries. The reaction was not long in coming: after a few seasons Cnidus, Eritre, Sesto and Cyzicus, that is all the tributary cities that during the previous three years had not been occupied by the Athenian navy, rebelled en masse, proudly proclaiming their allegiance to the cause of the Spartan rebels. Their money, however, served some purpose: Athens strengthened the army, and then sent it to occupy Thebes, which after a particularly harsh winter saw the fall of most of the troops defending it. The following spring, traitors threw open the doors of the Theban walls to the Athenian militia, a fact which did not translate into real strategic contributions, but which certainly constituted a moral support to the cause of the besi...