It's been a while since I set up a Clash of Spears game and before my next attempt, I thought I would take a couple of enemy units and run through a melee combat between them to get the Clash of Spears combat system clearer in my head. If you've seen my last couple of battle reports, you will know that I am still very much at the novice end of Clash of Spears gaming and there is a lot to remember (especially at my age) as you go through a melee.
Units in Clash of Spears often have a number of traits which can impact upon the outcome of a melee, which means that learning how the combat system works is only the first level of mastering the game, you then have get your troops into the right configuration at the right time to obtain the optimum advantage from their specialist skills.
In the situation above, the Roman Hastati are in loose formation so that they can unleash their pila into the hoplites. Unfortunately for the Romans, the hail of missiles caused no damage whatsoever, so the hoplites have the opportunity to react and charge into the Hastati. However, the hoplites are also in loose formation, so if they do charge, they will lose their Offensive Spear trait, which negates an advantage they would have had if the Hastati had chosen Counter-Attack as their combat response. So, do the hoplites use their reaction, assuming they pass their Reaction Test, to Attack or form Close Order and see what the Hastati do next?
As this was just a bit of a drill to get the Melee system into my head, I tried both options. Sadly, I can't draw much of a conclusion from what happened, because the dice rolled very much in the hoplite's favour when they attacked in loose order and they quickly scattered the Romans but, when I got them organised into close order, they slowly and steadily pushed the Hastati back and eventually routed them off the field. The latter felt more realistic and their list of traits certainly seem to favour their deployment in close order.
The more you play Clash of Spears, the more you realise just how many layers there are, particularly in the close combat mechanics. It's never just as case of charging one unit into another, there are always multiple factors that need to be taken into consideration and rarely do you get the opportunity to create a perfect situation for your troops. The opportunity to react to your opponent's moves is one of the things I really like about Clash of Spears but, even that can very easily go pear shaped, as I discovered in this little encounter; you can come up with a really brilliant response to your opponent's schemes only to fail to pass the Reaction Test and find yourself with one Command Point less to play with and your troops sitting there having to take whatever your opponent throws at them.
Next time I set up the games table, I'm pitting 500 points of Romans against a slightly larger Syracusan force and it will be interesting to see how much of today's learning I remember in the heat and confusion of an actual encounter... I've not achieved very much with shooting in previous games and my handling of psiloi and peltasts hasn't been particularly brilliant either but, in Clash of Spears, the real challenge is trying to remember all those little things, like stalling after taking two fatigue points in melee, adding the fatigue points when you are supposed to and applying all those traits at the right time, that add up to have a big impact on the outcome of a game.
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