I’ve spent part of the last week playing one of Richard Berg’s Great Battles of History games: SPQR, Great Battles of the Roman Republic. This is a game I bought early last year (IIRC, or maybe late in 2007), and I played the introductory scenario, one of the simpler scenarios, and then put it away for a bit.
Now it’s out again, and I’m having a blast!
I’ve been running through the scenarios in the Barbarian module. The ones I’ve been playing have been simpler than some of the core game scenarios and so easier for a learner like myself to play. The first two scenarios, 315 BC Lautulae and 297 BC Tifernum were half-map affairs with a limited number of units.
The scenario I’m playing at present, SENTINUM, 295, is bigger. It uses an entire map (and might be better played with map extensions), uses two Roman armies (or four legions, possibly, depending on how you count it) and has a bunch of Samnite and Gaul barbarians fighting them.
Here’s a picture of the set-up:
Lots and lots and lots of units. The Barbarians are to the bottom of the map, the Romans to the north. It actually is like two battles at the same time: each half of the map is led by a different command structure, and each army withdraws at different times.
This is one of those games that is often played solo, and that’s how I’m approaching it at present. Many of the battles are rather one-sided (cause that’s how they were historically), but the first three from Barbarian seem fairly close.
This is the map as I left it (after three turns of play) when I left for work this morning:
I won’t get back to it until the weekend – possibly Friday night, possibly Sunday – as there are a few other gaming commitments to deal with.