report from. . .
HARRYPALOOZA III!


It's all about Wargaming and Carnivorism...

Every year select gentlemen of the South Bay Game Club get together for some 24-30 hours of camaraderie, wargaming, and overeating.  I'm not sure how I made it onto the guest list for this event, but I'm thankful I am because this is the finest gaming event I have ever attended, and I hope it continues for many years to come.

The main event this year was a HUGE Warhammer Ancient Battles game featuring that classical-head-to-head match-up, Celts vs. Imperial Romans.  I was planning on writing up a battle report, but since Gary Price did such a sterling job I will use his narrative, in full and without his permission (so there, nyah), justified on the grounds that, as a result of his retelling, I will forever be henceforth known as 2" Rod.  The photo captions are my work (all in italics), and any errors in their content (grammatical or factual) are mine and mine alone.


THE BATTLE, AS TOLD BY GARY PRICE
Harrypalooza III was great. The featured game was the long-awaited clash between Terry's Imperial Romans and an eclectic force of Gauls and Britons. Each army was about 7500 points. Stan Kubiak provided 400+ barbarian infantry and Harry another 250, while the cavalry and chariots were provided by Harry and Gary. The table was a 30-foot scenic masterpiece. (Terry and Harry finally got the chance to actually use all of their trees in one game.) The table was U-shaped, with (I'm guessing here) a sixteen foot base and two 6- or 8-foot arms. A Roman camp was at one end of the U, with a Gallic village around the bend at the other end. In between, and dominating two-thirds of the base of the U, were two Roman fortified towers.
 

One of the Roman watch towers.
 

The Roman Legions (slowly) march onto the battlefield.
 

The Roman Commander, Doublius Chinus.
 
In the heavy terrain, it was difficult to form anything like a battle line. The largest open space on the table would allow a frontage of only three warbands. For this reason, deployment for both armies was rather loose, with troops of either side potentially arriving from any direction. The Romans, with their smaller cohorts, could have formed a battle line, but this might have left them vulnerable to attack from the rear. They chose, instead, to hold with  dispersed groups of auxiliaries while the legionaries attempted to march to their support from off-table.
 

The Celtic commanders' greatest fear, Roman bolt throwers - lots of them.
 

Part of the initially deployed Celtic horde.
 

The Celts commanded by Roderix of Chicox.  Signs by Signco, a division of Baseco.
 
Dispersal of forces favors faster armies, so the setup worked to the barbarians' advantage. The Romans couldn't deploy in a single frontage with mutually supporting cohorts and troops which could have been screening the cohorts were fighting their own battles against formidable odds. Large battlefields also favor faster armies. Romans in heavy armor can march only 6 inches per turn, which makes them veritable slugs compared to a barbarian march move of 10 inches.
 

The cavalry of Roderix overruns the first Roman bolt thrower position.  These guys rode from one end of the battlefield to the other, running down Roman's and their lackies everywhere they went.  Everywhere, that is, until they ran into the Roman bolt thrower crews with the magic armor...
 

Hot ancients action on the Roman right flank.  The poor auxilia didn't stand a chance, although ultimately the guys in the tower held out for most of the battle.
 
The barbarians pinned their hopes on a three-pronged attack. Large warbands (60 men each) poured through the valley to swarm the watch towers and sweep away the auxiliaries. A large force of cavalry rode through the off-table woods to enter the battlefield from the opposite side. Finally, a force or mountain tribesmen, led by the reckless Black Shaman, swarmed down the hills to threaten from a third direction.
 

Those Celts and their crazy marketing schemes!  These guys are pushing the Signco signs.  Although the picture came out blurry (I was trying to not spill my beer, crush trees with my belly, and snap this photo at the same time), it is nothing less than a crass plug for Signco.  Kudos to Mr. Empey for his sterling work!
 

Some skirmishing Celts send the auxilia cavalry packing.  It was not the best day to be a Roman flunky...
 
In the end, it was a battle of auxiliaries and skirmishers. The barbarians took sometimes heavy casualties but did not lose a warband, except for one band of sixteen warriors supporting a larger unit. The Romans did not lose a single Legionary cohort, although at one point, the First Cohort (reduced by half and with the general attached) actually broke from melee. The victorious warband, no doubt distraught over the death of their beloved Shaman, pursued a mere two inches. Two inches! So it goes. I told Rod I wouldn't tell anyone who was dicing for that particular warband, so it's up to you to guess. At no time, however, did the main warbands ever come into contact with the Legionary cohorts.
 

And this would be the 1st Cohort that is the cause of all my shame.  The combat lasted something like six rounds (!!!).  Like Gary states in his text, sometime around the third round my boys (who had those stout Romans surrounded on three sides) managed to win the combat and Thomas was kind enough to roll an "11" for his break test.  When the Cohort fled a measly 6", I was practically slavering at the prospect of victory.  I had two units to pursue (the cavalry had fled already but was rallying for a return).  I rolled 4" for the first unit, and 2" for the second.  There went the only chance for a run away victory for the Celts!  Please feel free to send your jokes, insults and 2" jokes to me at wargame@stormnet.com.
 

More scenes of Celts butchering Romans.  The Romans were really hampered by their slow speed, allowing the Celts to pick their fights and basically run circles around their foe.
 

The 1st Cohort rallied and came back at me.  This time, it was the Celts who were on the end of the beating stick.  Although the Shaman managed to put up a fight for a few rounds of personal combat with the Roman general, in the end he was killed and the rest of the boys ran for their lives.  (One of the side effects of playing on such a large table was that there were lots of opportunities to rally before you ran off the edge of the earth; as a result, all my fleeing units eventually rallied and were back in the battle, threatening Roman flanks before the game was called.)
 
The battle raged for over twelve hours. I never would have thought that I could stick with a game that ran that long, but it was fun and engaging all the way through. And this is spite of the weather, which was, alas, just what you'd expect for a Sacramento summer. Fortunately, the new insulation and a couple of well-placed fans kept the gaming area tolerable.
 

The Celts on the left flank finally break through and past the Roman tower to spill out into the open plains beyond.
 

The Celtic battle line at the end of the battle.  About 10" in front of them are the surviving Romans (all legionaires, as the auxilia are all slain or fled).
 

A view at the end of the game from behind the Celtic lines.  You can see the Romans arranged in three cohorts with another in reserve (by the tower).  This final fight could have gone either way.  The Romans were heavily outnumbered and flanked, but those legion boys are tough, and can take a lot of damage before giving up the fight!  In the end, we called the game due to fatigue (as Gary said, we were at it for approximately 12 hours) and as it was midnight and Terry needed to get home.  Still, an epic battle by any measure, and one I'm very glad to have been a part of!
 
Although the weather was warm, there were cold drinks aplenty and the food was great (if I do say so myself, having helped with breakfast). Contrary to rumors, there was in fact only one lunch and one dinner, followed by only one breakfast on Sunday morning. And, no, the meals were not nonstop, bumping into each other with no break in between. As always, the Harrypalooza cuisine was fresh-made, tasty, and well-balanced. All the basic food groups were represented except for chocolate (fresh, home-made hamburger buns are vegetables, right?).

It was superb fun, and exemplifies why Harrypalooza is still the hottest wargaming ticket in Northern California.


BONUS FEATURE - THE CATS OF HARRYPALOOZA III!

One of my favorite things about going to Harry's house is getting to visit his wonderful feline friends.  Karly (my daughter) and I love cats, but cannot have one due to apartment rules, so any chance we get to spend with them is special for us.  I try to snap photos of Harry's cats - Tiny, Lucky and Sampson - during the downtimes at Harrypalooza.  I say "try" because cats are not the most cooperative photography subjects.  Anyway, here are my efforts from this year.
 

This was my first semi-successful shot of Tiny.  She was checking me out, so I took my chance.  Of course, she looked away at the last second...
 

Here's another one of my personal favorite, Tiny.  It's too bad there's nothing to visually scale here against, as "Tiny" is in fact bigger than a lot of dogs I know.  She's quite resplendent and regal in her bigness, and yet still has all the traits that make for a great house cat.
 

Sampson was a bit more cooperative than Tiny, and actually held this pose for 0.08 seconds, allowing me to get his face head-on.  Like all of Harry's cats, Sampson is quite large.
 

This is what my daughter calls, "the picture of Lucky's butt".  Lucky wouldn't make eye contact with me, and every time I grabbed the camera, he turned around and gave me this view of what may be his best side.  Lucky spends most of Harrypalooza under Harry's bed, and only comes out for quick snatch-and-grab raids.
 

This last photos is just to give some scale as to how massive Harry's cats actually are.  It seems to me that Tiny is the biggest, but in this photo Lucky appears larger.  Maybe it's just a camera perspective thing.  Harry got them all to come running when he got the treat bag out, and here they are enjoying their snack.  In spite of his concentration on the food, Lucky has still managed to face his bumm to the camera...

That's it for this year!  My sincerest thanks to everyone who made Harrypalooza possible, but most especially our gracious and generous hosts, Harry and Terry.  You guys are the best!