Heraclea replay with Gordian Knot

Background
I am hoping to replay the battle of Heraclea using many rules.  I used 10 rules for replaying the battle of Callinicum, a mostly cavalry action. Gordian Knot is the first ruleset I am going to use for Heraclea. I did an overview of Gordian Knot.  The deployment and background to the Battle of Heraclea may be found here - Heraclea deployment.   As per previous replays, I will have a reasonable amount of detail on how the rules work early on, including occasionally calculating the die roll.  There is so little (i.e. none) information on Gordian Knot on the internet, this will give readers a basis on the rules and its mechanisms.

Changes for a 2'x2' board
The rules are geared for a 6'x4' table, playing with 4"x2" units and measurements in inches.  So, my cunning plan: divide all by 2.5, we get 4cmx2cm units, distances in centimetres and a game eminently playable on a 2'x2' board with units being a standard WRG element (although mounted will be a bit deeper but not that important in the rules).

Troops
Each unit for Heraclea conveniently breaks down into a unit in Gordian Knot.

Romans

4 Leves: Skirmisher infantry, javelin

4 Hastati/Principes: Trained Infantry, heavy infantry, pilum, good melee troops, shield

2 Triarii: Trained Infantry, heavy infantry, spear, good melee troops, good morale,shield

1 Light Infantry: Skirmisher Infantry, good melee troops, javelin, shield

2 Heavy Cavalry: Trained Cavalry, heavy cavalry, spear, good melee troops, shield

1 Light Cavalry: Skirmish cavalry, spear, javelin, shield

1 General, no special characteristics
 

Epirot

1 Hypaspist: Trained infantry, heavy infantry, pike, good melee troops, good morale, shield

3 Pikemen: Trained infantry, heavy infantry, pike, good melee troops, shield

1 Hoplite:Trained infantry, heavy infantry, spear, good melee troops, shield

1 Light Infantry: Skirmisher Infantry, good melee troops, javelin, shield
1 Skirmisher:Skirmisher infantry, bow, shield

1 Slingers: skirmisher infantry, sling

1 Agema: Trained Cavalry, armoured cavalry, spear, good melee troops, good morale,shield

1 Light cavalry: Skirmish cavalry, spear, javelin, shield

1 elephant: Elephant.
1 General with the characteristic Popularity Inspirational (+1 to recovery/rally within 12)

Note: Light Infantry I have represented as Skirmish infantry but being good melee troops.  This gives them the same move flexibility as Skirmishers, similar evade capability and are just a bit better in melee than skirmishers.  All the other infantry troops types made no sense (untrained are slow and inflexible moves, and tribal is really for warband-type infantry)
 
Deployment
I deployed as per my Heraclea deployment.  Pyrrhus is adjacent to the Agema; Publius Laevinus is behind the Triarii.
 

Deployment.  Romans to the bottom.

I did not replace some of the units with dummies as is possible in the rules.

Missions: The army mission for each side is Battle to Win which basically means be the only one left with units on the table.

Romans will go first to reward them for getting over the river, but then it will be as per the rules - roll for it at the start.

Lastly, markers for unit status:
one green bush behind a unit = disordered
two green bushes = wavering
one brown bush = fleeing

Tactics
The Romans will try and destroy the centre.  The pilum has a 50% chance of disordering the enemy unit on contact, and this will mean the pikes will be fighting at -3 (-1 for disorder and -1 for Romans now being superior infantry to the pikes and -1 for being unshielded as pikes have been shot with pilum).  And the Leves may be able to get in a few disorders which will help.  On the Roman right, the forces are equal, and on the left the Cavalry is facing the Agema and the Elephants, so will delay engaging the flanks.

The Epirots will be focusing on the their right flank - it is where they can get a local superiority and hopefully carry this into the flanks of the Roman heavy infantry. 

Turn 1
Roman
Romans move the Leves up and move the Hastati/Principes to the flanks slightly and ahead (oblique movement is possible to Trained infantry without becoming disordered, most others are disordered).  Haven't moved the Triarii as they have to be far enough behind so that if a Hastati/Principes flees, they do not get caught up in it.
 
Epirot
Epirots move up their flanks.  Archer unit shoots at a Leves (turn sequence is IGO-UGO and each player turn is move, shoot, combat). Leves are unshielded, need a 4+ - hit - Leves is disordered. Note: disordered is a -1 in combat (as if the Leves cares) and is removed by halting and not shooting or meleeing for a turn. But a disordered unit hit again wavers, which requires a rally roll.  A hit while wavering is a flee.  Slingers move up to within range (8) and achieve a hit on a different Leves unit.

Turn 2
Pyrrhus wins the initiative.
 
Epirot
Continue to move up the right flank - Agema now in charge range of the Roman heavy cavalry.  Shooting misses.

Roman
Moved up the centre units.  Two Leves charge the Slingers, who gets a free shot as the defender and miss.  The two Leves fire - one hit and the Slingers are disordered.  Now to combat (skirmishers are immediately disordered when entering combat) and modifiers for both sides are same.  For multiple units attacking an enemy, you roll a die for each attacking unit, and use the highest die. The end result of the skirmish combat is a tie. All units are disordered in a tie, but this has no effect as they are disordered on entering combat!  Note, the Slingers could have evaded (on a 2+) but would have gone behind the pike line and had no impact on the battle - better to see if it can take some Leves with it!

Shot from the Romans side of the left flank and centre.  Disorder is marked by a green bush behind the unit.

Turn 3
Pyrrhus wins initiative again.

Epirot
Agema charges the Roman Heavy Cavalry.  Agema is +1 cavalry, +1 superior armour, +1 good melee troops, +1 superior morale grade; Romans are +1 cavalry, +1 good melee troops, +1 flank support.  A difference of +1 for the Epirots.  The opposed dice roll sees the Romans lose and they flee. Combat is fast in Gordian Knot - you lose, you run.  Fleeing units can be rallied but then are wavering, rallying wavering troops makes them disordered, rallying disordered makes then ok.  So a flee is bad.
Note that melee is done later, but makes sense to report it here.


Light infantry move to the flank of the Leves to charge next turn.  A unit charged in the flank automatically flees.
Missile fire sees the disordered Leves waver (next level of disorder).
The slingers versus two Leves ends in a Leves fleeing.
 
Roman
The fleeing heavy cavalry fail their rally roll (a 4+ required) and so disintegrate.  The remaining heavy cavalry can charge the Agema in the flank (it is actually behind the flank line and cavalry can wheel once during a charge).  This would cause the Agema to automatically flee, which is good.  But the Agema have a good chance to rally, and the Elephants would charge the heavy cavalry in the flank and cause them to flee, leaving the Roman left flank wide open.  There are no movement restrictions in Gordian Knot about moving in front of enemy units.    Let's charge them in, an elephant on the flank is slower than heavy cavalry - maybe the battle will be over by then....

The Roman heavy cavalry charges the flank of the Agema while the Elephant waits it turn. 

 
Meanwhile, the fleeing Leves continue to flee - once they are further away than 12 from an enemy, they have a chance of recovery (1 in 6), at the moment they have none.  Skirmishers rally on a 6+, in this case this is modified by -1 for enemy in 12, +1 for friendly in 12, -1 for friendly routing within 12; effectively a 7+ o a 6 sided die.  By moving/fleeing more than 12 away, the 7+ is reduced to a 6+.
The one Leves that is not disordered, wavering or fleeing moves up to within Javelin range (2) of the Skirmisher bow and disorders them.
The Triarii turn and head for the Elephant (trained infantry can turn around for the cost of 1/2 move).  The rest of the army move forwards.
 

The battle so far - disorder is one green bush, wavering is two, fleeing is a brown bush.
 

Turn 4
Pyrrhus moves first again.

Epirot
Try to rally Agema with a 3+ (4+, -1 enemy in 12, +1 good morale, +1 inspirational general within 12) - pass.  Agema is wavering and turns around to face the enemy if they pursue or charge.  Moved Pyrrhus to be with the Agema to give it a bonus to rally from wavering next turn.  Generals give no combat bonus, but do give a rally bonus if adjacent.
Elephant charges the Roman heavy cavalry, which flees.
The Slingers rally from pursuit (which means they do not have to pursue).  Units pursue fleeing or disintegrated units until they pass a successful pursuit rally, which is not the same as the rally roll used to recover from disorder, wavering or fleeing.  They then shoot at the heavy infantry (require a 5+) who shrug off the stones.
Skirmisher with bow misses the Leves.
 
Romans
Fleeing Heavy Cavalry disintegrates.  Needed a 5+, rolled a 4.  The Triarii are 12.3cm away.  If they were within 12, the Heavy Cavalry rally roll would have been a 4+ instead and it would have survived and be wavering.
One fleeing Leves disintegrates, the other passes the recovery roll and is wavering.
Triarii manoeuvre closer to the Elephant; hopefully this will possibly slow down the Agema as well.
The right 2 units of heavy infantry charge the Slingers who stand to fight, get a shot in and disorder a heavy infantry unit.  Slingers flee.
The left 2 units of heavy infantry move up behind the Leves (to be protected from the bow and also the Roman line is outnumbered 4 units to 5 units and so will echelon to delay flanking.  The right 2 units will go in, and the left ones will hold their position.

End of turn 4

Turn 5
Pyrrhus wins the initiative for the 4th time in a row.

Epirot
Agema rallies, as does the Elephant - the Epirot right flank is back in business; and there is no Roman left flank opposing them - just the Triarii blocking a rear run on the main battle line.  Shooting sees the wavering Leves flee.
Elephant turns to face the Triarii (Elephants take all there movement allowance to turn) and Agema moves towards the battleline, and also out of the fleeing line of the Elephants, just in case they do so.

Post game note: The Agema and the Elephant should have halted for an entire turn to be able to rally from wavering or disorder.  They moved last turn so should not have recovered this turn.  I did this correctly later one, not sure why I missed it here - i did play the game over three weeks (time poor at the moment) so forgetting is understandable.
  
Roman

The general moves to the rightmost heavy infantry, who then charge the pikes (I want to see what happens!).  Pila throw - both hit! Pikes are disordered and also unshielded.
Romans: +1 flank support, +1 good melee troops, +1 superior infantry (disordered pikes are inferior to trained infantry), +1 enemy disordered, +1 enemy unshielded = +5
End Pike: +1 flank, +1 good melee troops, (note that undisordered pikes would normally get a +1 for superior armour) = +2
Other Pike: +2 flank, +1 good melee troops,  +1 enemy disordered = + 4
Epirots lose both combats and flee.  The Roman heavy infantry is disordered.
If the pikes were not disordered by pila, the modifiers would have been Romans +2, Pikes +4/+6. Likely a very different outcome.

The fleeing pikes

A Triarii will charge the Elephants to see how this works. The other Triarii moves to lend flank support (rules are not clear if flank support occurs if the flankers are not in front corner to corner contact, but I'll allow it.) (the other Triarii cannot charge as trained infantry can only straight charge.  Also note that infantry cannot charge facing cavalry/chariots, but can do elephants).
Triarii pila throw causes the Elephant to be disordered (considering a pila needs 5+ to hit, the only 3 pila throws so far have all struck home.  Wow.)
Triarii: +1 flank support, +1 good melee troops, +1 superior morale grade, +1 enemy are disordered, (elephants never count as unshielded so the +1 unshielded does not apply) = +4
Elephant: Would have got a +1 for being an elephant, except it does not count against undisordered trained infantry with spears...ah well, +1 superior armour = +1
Elephant flees (no surprise).  There is no movement rate for fleeing elephants given but I assume it is the same as the equivalent infantry move.

The triumphant Triarii

Turn 6
Romans win initiative, the first time since being given it on turn 1.

Romans
Winners of melee must pursue and can only be stopped, starting before the first pursuit, by a pursuit rally roll.  Triarii  fail this (needed a 3+) and must pursue the Elephants.  They use the bonus 2 of movement for infantry charging and hit the Elephants in the rear, who continue to flee. Note, using the bonus makes you disordered if not already, but the Triarii are.

Post game note: There is nothing in the body of the rules specifically about what happens if you contact a fleeing unit in the flank or rear.  Contacting a unit on flank or rear causes it to flee, so I assumed the enemy will continue to flee.  But after the game I re-read the game report that is at the back of the rules and there is one bit where a fleeing unit is contacted in the rear and it is destroyed.  This makes more sense.  So the Elephant would have been destroyed rather than fleeing.  I did this error a couple of times later.  It did not have any effect in that the unit contacted that fled again rather than destroyed was usually destroyed the next turn.
 
The heavy infantry will only pursue if they roll a 1.  They roll a 1.  The other heavy infantry does not pursue but decides to move forwards anyway in line with the other heavy infantry. They contact a fleeing slinger, who flees.
The left heavy infantry block move sideways slightly (trained infantry can do this and not be disordered).  They do this so they can cover all three opposing pike units if they charge.  Currently the Hoplite unit would not be contacted, and would be free to flank a heavy infantry. Units in contact do not have to line up in corner to corner. Well there is nothing in the rules that says they do, so I assume they don't.
 

The Heavy Infantry after moving sideways to charge all three enemy units

Shooting - The wavering bowman flees after taking another hit (from a Leves).

Epirot
Elephant fails to rally and is destroyed (would have fled off the board this turn never to return, so it was worth trying for the '6' that was required to rally).
One of the fleeing pike units fails to rally, the other is successful.  As per elephants, they would have fled off the board if I did not attempt a rally.  The successful pike unit turns around.
The two fleeing skirmishers also fail to rally and are destroyed.
The Agema move towards the main battleline.  The Hoplite and two pike units move directly backwards 2.  Trained infantry can do this without being disordered.  This puts them 7 away from the facing Roman heavy infantry - with a move of 6, the will have to charge (and become disordered) if they want to do combat next turn.  It is a delaying tactic, that either forces the Roman's to charge and be at a disadvantage in combat, or wait another turn, which gives the Agema another turn to move up on the flank (the Agema is two moves away).

State if play at the end of turn 6

 
Turn 7
Romans win the initiative.
 
Romans
No successful rallies. Triarii stops pursuing the Elephant (needed to pass a pursue rally roll) turn and start moving towards the battleline. 

Tough choice (see above) on whether to charge into the pikes and fight disordered, or gamble that Initiative is won again, and the Agema hit the flank after the charge.  Romans charge in.  The other block of heavy infantry (on the right) charge in the wavering pikes. The general is moved to be adjacent to the leftmost charging heavy infantry.
The charging infantry melee (3 Epirot units against 2 Roman).  When a unit is in contact with two or more units, you work out the score for each contacted unit, and use the highest score.
Pila throws disorder the middle pike unit.

Left Roman unit rolls a 3, Facing Hoplite rolls a 1, as does the disordered pike (who is also counted as unshielded).  Roman modified score is a 5, Hoplites are a 5; Pikes, being disordered, will not be that high so don't bother to work it out. It is a draw.  Result is that all are disordered.
Right Roman unit rolls a 1, undisordered pike rolls a 2.  Roman modified score is 3 (flank support, good melee troops) , Pike is 6 (flank support, good melee troops, superior armour, superior infantry).  Romans flee (and the general goes with them).  The skirmishers behind the fleeing infantry also flee.
 

The battle line after the Roman unit flees

 
The other clash sees the Romans win and the pike flees off the board.
 
Epirot
The Pikes that won pass a pursue rally check so they do not need to pursue.

The Agema can reach, by using a +4 move charge bonus, the fleeing Heavy Infantry unit.  This has a two fold effect - one is the Heavy Infantry unitwill flee towards the light infantry (I was trying to hem them in but as my note earlier, the Heavy Infantry unit should have simply been destroyed when contacted by the Agema) and secondly, the Heavy infantry in contact with the hoplite/pike, if fleeing, will be destroyed instead, as a fleeing unit must flee directly away from all known enemy.
Hoplite and Pike in combat with the Roman heavy infantry results in an Epirot win. The heavy infantry must flee, but is destroyed because the Agema is blocking the flee path.

The Agema on the left, the uncontested pike line and the fleeing Heavy Infantry unit

Turn 8
Epirot win the initiative.
 
Epirot
A pike unit that saw no combat in the last Epirot turn has its disorder removed.  The other pike and Hoplite fail pursuit rally roll and move forwards.  Units will pursue a fleeing enemy, even if it is destroyed.  The only was to stop pursuit is to pass a pursuit rally roll.
Agema fail their pursuit rally roll and pursue the  Heavy Infantry unit, who are destroyed with no valid flee path.  The general passes the potential death roll for being adjacent to a destroyed unit.

Roman
General moves to Triarii. Other than fleeing units, no other units move so that disorder can be removed.

End of turn 8

 
Turn 9
Romans win initiative.

Roman
Remove disorder from all units that are disordered and move units towards the Epirot battleline.

Epirot
Hoplite and pike still fail pursuit rally (and all they need is a 3+) and are now about 2 away from a Triarii.  Agema turn around ready to flank charge Triarii.  Move up the lonely pike away from the heavy infantry behind it.

The centre mess

Turn 10
Epirots win initiative.

Epirot
Agema charges fleeing Heavy Infantry unit in the flank and they flee.  Yay, the Hoplite and Pike stop pursuing and the third lagging pike unit moves up to form a line.

Roman
Tried to rally fleeing Triarii and they fail and are destroyed (note they should have been destroyed a turn or so ago when contacted while fleeing). The General survives. The other Triarii charges the Hoplite in the flank and the Hoplite flees.  But now the Triarii can be hit in the flank by the Agema.

With nothing able to stop the Agema running into the flank of all the Roman units, I will concede as the Romans.

End of game

Verdict
An interesting game. If I wasn't taking notes, and looking up unfamiliar parts of the rules, I would say it took about 1.5 hours to play.  So it did not meet the goal of playing under one hour.  But is was a good game.  As I said in my overview, the combat is quick and unit status is a focus of the game.  I liked it although keeping track of status and trying to remember if the unit can rally or not was a bit of a chore.  The different movement options for unit types was a little hard on my brain too.  But really, these are only minor quibbles.
 
The lack of army lists is a downside, but no different to other rules I have tried, and for historical battles it is not difficult to figure out what is what.  I would recommend giving them a go - they do produce a fun game.

Gordian Knot rules overview

Background
Gordian Knot is a set of Ancient wargame rules written by Richard D Watts, copyright 2004, and published by Agema.  It is available at Agema's website, which will not tell you much at all about the rules, other than how much: 7 pounds + shipping.
 
I haven't found anything else about them anywhere on the internet.

What you get
It is 30 A4 pages stapled together with a  thick paper colour cover.  No army lists - the author thinks you could put together anything for any army so provides a comprehensive point system. Categorising units is up to you.  What I do like is the last 7 pages are a quite descriptive, blow by blow writeup of a game, from unit selection, thru terrain and deployment to game end.  It contains good detail on how the rules work, and also provides some notes on why things the way they are.  There are no terrain rules, but there is a simple terrain selection system buried in the game replay.

Base sizes, dice and measurements
Units are all based, for 15mm to 28mm, as 4" wide by 2" deep. 6mm is 2"x1". Ranges are all in inches and the two options for 6mm and 15mm/28mm are always given.  Dice rolls are all single d6.  Table size is not given, but the replay is on 6'x'4' with 28mm, was a small game and only seemed to take up 2/3rd of the table, although there were a lot of cavalry archers on each side. 

Game sequence
Game sequence is a roll for initiative (no modifiers), winner moves, shoots, combat; then other player does the same.

Units
Units are cavalry, infantry, chariots, elephants or artillery. 

Cavalry and infantry units are classed as trained, untrained, tribal or skirmish. Each class acts very differently.  The class of the unit affects movement rate, the modifiers in combat, target class for shooting, chance of pursuit, chance of evade and chance to rally.

Unit morale is good, average or poor.  A little bit of a modifier in combat, but mainly affects the chance to rally units.

Units may also have some special abilities such as good melee troops (add 1 in combat), good shooters (+1 to shoot), pike armed (affects various combat modifiers) and special training against elephants/chariots (can let these troops pass though unit rather than engage in combat).

Unit status
Unit status goes from good, to disorder (-1 combat modifier) to wavering (cannot advance into combat and not good in combat) to fleeing (running away) to rout.  A unit recovers from disorder by not doing anything for a turn while not in combat.  Units routed are lost.  Units fleeing may attempt to rally (based on morale) - pass and are wavering, fail and they rout - interesting.  Wavering units can go to disordered by doing nothing for a turn and passing a rally test.
 
These unit status's are a core component of the game.  A disordered unit suffers a -1 in combat, but also depending on the troop type, can be even worse e.g. ordered pikes are superior to any other infantry troop type, but if disorders are inferior to any other infantry troop type, and so suffer another -1 in combat.  Ordered pikes also are classed as having superior armour, so if disordered, they lose out on the +1 superior armour bonus.

Wavering troops cannot advance, and need to rally before they can do so.  A rally check is a 3+ for trained infantry, and a 6+ for a skirmisher. So wavering troops sometimes waver for a few turns.

Fleeing is worse.  A unit that loses combat flees, so combat is fairly decisive.  A fleeing unit that fails a rally check is destroyed. There is no other way to stop a unit fleeing except by passing a rally check.  A fleeing unit contacted by an enemy is destroyed.  A unit that flees is in a bad state. 

Movement
Fairly standard movement rates e.g. infantry 6", cavalry 10". There are a number of spefici rules on turning, oblique movement, stepping back etc that is specific to unit types e.g. trained infantry can go sideways without being disordered, but other units are disordered when doing so, except skirmishers, that cannot move sideways (this is probably the one with the most exceptions).  I found this actually the hardest part of the rules - who can do movement other that straight ahead and what type of movement and are they disordered or not.

Shooting
Shooting is fairly standard -  look up range and type of weapon and roll greater than a number on a d6 to hit.  If you do, enemy goes down a status for each hit.  Charged units can fire.  There is a table with 4 groups of missile types and 10 different troops types. Cross referencing gives you a score on a d6 required to hit (and also the score for an unshielded target).

Combat
Units do not have to line up corner to corner when meleeing.  When a unit charges into combat, the enemy can evade.  There is an evade roll - if you fail, you are assumed to have failed combat and flee.  Skirmishers have a evade roll of 2+, others are worse.  Charging in the flank/rear causes enemy to flee (bit strange as a skirmisher could flank charge heavy infantry and the latter would flee.  The only really weird omission I have seen by just looking at the rules).

Combat is an opposed roll.  If you lose, you flee. If it is a tie, both are disordered is not already.  So combat is harsh!  But good troops have a good chances to rally.

Units don't have specific combat factors but there is a list of about 20 combat modifiers - better armour, better morale, if cavalry, elephants Vs cavalry, enemy disordered etc.  The two modifiers that stand out as different are +1 for superior cavalry and +1 for superior infantry.  There is a list of cavalry units/status in order of superiority so lancers moving into 1st turn combat are superior to spear armed trained that are superior to spear armed tribal etc.  Disordered/wavering troops are low down the list.  For infantry, Pike 2 deep are superior, followed by pike 1 deep, but pikes disordered/wavering are lowest in the superior list.  Most units also get +1 for each friendly unit on its flank.

A unit that caused an enemy to flee must pursue.  The only way to stop pursuit is to pass a pursuit rally check (not the same as a rally check). 

Missions
Each side has one of 20 missions that are all fairly different and determine deployment and victory conditions.  Examples are destroy half of enemy, occupy with half your units the other side of the table, start game with half troops deployed and move on one unit per turn. etc.  Each side knows what the other mission is.  An interesting variation of a straight battle.

Visibility
The other difference from many other rules is visibility - units have a visibility of 24" (36" on hills).  Decoys can be placed instead of units further than this from the enemy. At deployment, you may place additional decoys (up to 1 per real unit). You may choose to place the real units at anytime (or reveal decoys), but are only forced to when they become visible.  All decoys move at 2d6" per turn - so random movement is the downside to decoys and it is impossible to maintain a battleline of decoys.

Generals
Each army has one general who, if killed, drastically reduces the number of units that can be moved.  Also, general have random characteristics that give them good/bad abilities (e.g. cannot move as far, there own visibility is enhanced/reduced).  Generals do not affect combat rolls, but do have a +1 to all rally rolls.



Verdict
A good solid set of ancient rules.  They are not simple but neither overly complex. Each ruleset has a focus, and this one is on unit status - disorder, wavering and fleeing troops rule what a unit can do.  Combat is bloody - you lose, you flee.  I like that.

Heraclea deployment and background for replay

This is a place to put the background and default deployment for the Battle of Heraclea as I start replaying it with multiple rules, aiming for less than 1 hour on a 2'x2' board.  It saves having to repeat this information with each battle.

Internet Sources
There are the internet sources I found quite easily to help on replaying the battle.

• English translation of Plutarch's Life of Pyrrhus
• The Wikipedia entry
• DBA Scenario 
• Lost Battles replay
• WAB deployment and discussion
• WAB replay
• GBoH replay
• CC Ancients scenario
• CC Ancients alternative scenario

Scaling the troops

Armed with the potential numbers of the different types of troops present at Heraclea, I could start to convert this into possible units for the replays.  The less the better!  Going by the actual numbers, and trying scale it down to manageable unit sizes, I used a first cut scale of 1200 soldiers equals 1 figure.
 

Romans

4 Legions each with:

1200 Leves

1600 Hastati

1600 Principes

800 Triarii

gives:

4800 Leves = 4 figures

6400 Hastati = 5 figures

6400 Principes = 5 figures

2400 Triarii = 2 figures

The 4 figure Leves would translate to 2 Skirmishers bases

The 12 heavy infantry would really be 3 bases but could simply make it 1 base per legion.  But in the spirt of trying to have a small number of units or the game wil take longer, I will go with 3 bases in total: 2 bases of Heavy Infantry + 1 unit of Triarii.  I can always change it back if all goes bad.

The 4 allied legions I will treat identical to the roman legions - 2 Leves, 2 HI, 1 Triarii.

Bruttians etc Allied infantry 2400 = 2 figures or 1 Light Infantry base

Roman Cavalry 1200 + 3600 Legion Cavalry = 4800 = 4 figures or 2 bases (could be one but 1 seems too little for the role they played)

Light cavalry 1200 = 1 figure or 1 Light Cavalry base.
 

Epirot

Hypaspists 3000 = about 3 figures or 1 Hypaspist base

Pike Phalanx/Peltasts 20000  = 16 figures or 3 bases Pikes and 1 base Peltasts

Heavy Cavalry 3000 = 3 figures or 1 heavy Cavalry (Agema) base - I thought about adding a second heavy vavalry base but really the Romans had 60% more cavalry, so 1 it is.
Foot Archers and Rhodian slingers 2500 = 2 figures or 1 base of skirmishers

Elephants 20 which will be 1 elephant base

Tarantine Levy Hoplites 6000 = 4-5 figures = 1 Hoplite base

Tarantine Light Cavalry 1000 = 1 figure or 1 Light Cavalry Base.

There are not enough skirmishers at this scale but the Rhodian slingers, even though only 500, get converted to base of Skirmishers, for a total of 2 Epirot Skirmishers.
 

Troop Definitions

General troop definitions to assist with converting to the various rules.
 

Romans

4 Leves: Skirmishers, open order, javelins, no armour, no shield

4 Hastati/Principes: Heavy Infantry, close order, partial armour, pila, sword, shield.

2 Triarii: Heavy Infantry, close order, partial armour, spear, shield, veteran.

1 Light Infantry: Light Infantry, loose order, no armour, javelin, shield

2 Heavy Cavalry: Heavy Cavalry, loose order, partially armoured, spear, shield

1 Light Cavalry: Light cavalry, open order, unarmoured, spear, shield
 

Epirot

1 Hypaspist: Heavy infantry, Pikes, partially armoured, phalanx, veteran/elite, shield

3 Pikemen: Heavy infantry, Pikes, partially armoured, phalanx, shield

1 Hoplite: Heavy infantry, long spear, half-armoured, hoplite, phalanx, shield

1 Light Infantry: Light Infantry, loose order, no armour, javelin, shield
1 Skirmisher: Skirmishers, open order, javelins, no armour, no shield

1 Slingers: skirmisher infantry, open order, sling, unarmoured

1 Agema: heavy cavalry, partial armour, spear, shield; better than the roman heavy cavalry.

1 Light cavalry: Light cavalry, open order, unarmoured, spear, shield

1 elephant: elephant, tower.
 

Deployment

I shall start the battle after Pyrrhus drew back the skirmisher line and the Romans had crossed the river.  It bascially means the fight is in the open with no terrain.  Also, there is no defined deployment of the troops so I have gone with a cross of the WAB replay, a bit of Richard Sides (from Ancient Historical Battles 1479BC - 378AD) a little bit of Bill Bank's Ancients and what feels ok.

Proposed deployment for Battle for Heraclea on 2'x2'.  Romans at the bottom.

Zama refight with Mighty Armies Ancients

This is likely to be my last Zama replay.  Zama, or at least my configuration of it, does not give a game under one hour, even with fast play rules!  There are lots of elements, and high quality troops so what was I thinking!  Anyway, Mighty Armies: Ancients proved to be the fastest rules of them all compared to the others I used for the Callinicum playoff. It will be interesting to see if MA:A produces a Zama game under an hour.

Troops
MA:A is not the best ruleset for differentiating Skirmishers and there were a number of proposed rule changes proposed to better reflect how Skirmishers operated.  While I agree it may not be perfect in Skirmish representation, it does a fine job in the confines of the existing mechanisms.  Skirmishers are not supposed to last long and giving them javelins on the off chance they can do a bit of damage before retiring (routing) is fine by me.  So I won't be implementing any rule changes for Skirmishers.
 
The other major discussion on troop types are support values for each troop type is the same, regardless of its morale.  So a common heavy infantry has a support value of 3, as does a veteran heavy infantry.  Yet the Vets are +2 cost for points (note that Vets do have +2 to fighting value).  As I haven't played enough games of MAA, I will not be playing around with support combat factors either (again, some rule changes proposed for this are on the forum).

Carthaginian
2 Skirmishers, Common Light Infantry, Speed: 4, Fight: 2, Support: 2, Scout, Mobile, Slave, Javelin
2 Elephants, Speed: 4, Fight: 5, Support: 1, Behemoth

4 First Line Infantry,Common Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 3, Support: 3
4 Second Line Infantry, Common Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 3, Support: 3
4 Third Line, Seasoned Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 4, Support: 3, Disciplined
3 Veterans, Veteran Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 5, Support: 3, Disciplined
1 General (Veteran), Heavy Infantry, Speed: 4, Fight: 6, Support: 3, Disciplined
2 Numidian Light Cavalry, Common Light Cavalry, Speed: 7, Fight: 2, Support: 2,  Javelin, Scouts
1 Heavy Cavalry, Seasoned Heavy Cavalry, Speed: 6, Fight: 4, Support: 3

Roman
4 Velites, Seasoned Light Infantry, Speed: 4, Fight: 3, Support: 2, Scout, Mobile, Slave, Javelin
4 Hastati, Seasoned Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 4, Support: 3, Disciplined, Javelin
4 Principes, Seasoned Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 4, Support: 3, Disciplined, Javelin
1 Triarii, Veteran Heavy Infantry, Speed: 3, Fight: 5, Support: 3, Disciplined
1 General (Triarii), Heavy Infantry, Speed: 4, Fight: 6, Support: 3, Disciplined
4 Numidian Light Cavalry, Seasoned Light Cavalry, Speed: 7, Fight: 3, Support: 2,  Javelin, Scouts
1 Heavy Cavalry, Veteran Heavy Cavalry, Speed: 6, Fight: 5, Support: 3
4 Numidian Light Infantry, Common Light Infantry, Speed: 4, Fight: 2, Support: 2, Slave, Javelin

Combat between groups is harsh as the loser always loses at least one unit.  Add up front fighting values, add up support, roll 1d6 and compare.  Winner wins the combat.  So a +3 difference before rolling the d6 is almost a clear win (1/12 chance of losing the combat). A +1 has a 10/36 chance of losing.  So the values above and the deployment of the groups did take some thinking.

Rules changes
As per my last replay I will implement the change, as discussed on the forum, to group combat where the total combat factor is the sum of all the front fighting values and rear support values (rather than lead fighter FS and all the rest as support).
I will also not use the Strike fear command.  I will be using only those commands that effect the friendly side, not the enemy.
Game will be over when the General is destroyed (and the side with the most AP losses will be the loser). This is similar of one of the two ways to win in MAA -the other is to destroy 1/2 the enemy units.  As the Generals are at the back, this will mean each side will have to fight through the lines.

Deployment
Deployment differs from the standard deployment I worked out due to group limitations.

The largest group in MAA is 6 elements, and that incurs 2MP  to command, while groups of 4 or less are only 1MP.  Groups can also be a maximum of 3 wide, so there goes a simple 4 single unit wide group for the lines.  There are advantages in combat to having support units behind you in a group.  So I did the following:
 
Carthaginian has 2 groups each of one skirmisher and Elephant side by side.  The first line has the second line behind it and they are in two groups (each with 2 first line in front, and 2 second line behind).  Same with the Third line and Veterans (although the vets are in front of each group).

Roman Velites are in two groups of 2 Velites;  Hastati and Principes are in 2 groups of 4 each - Hastati to the front, Principes in support.  Triarii is one single group of 2.
This picture shows deployment:

Overview of the game at deployment.  Romans at the right.

Numidian Light Infantry cannot move until a Carthaginian unit moves within 6".
 
The Roman Light Cavalry is going to annihilate the Carthaginian opposing light cavalry under these rules.  Need to ensure they stay out of the line battle for a while, so I will have a rules they will pursue for 3 turns before having to come back on the board.  We will see if it works. It is my game, may be longer.

Turn 1
Carthaginians will go first.  They move up the Elephant/Skirmisher line and the following combined 1st and 2nd line.
Romans Numidian Light Cavalry is 8" from opposing Carthaginian Light Cavalry (out of range with a move of 7) and use a force march command to move the extra inch into close combat.  The javelin exchange has no effect.   Carthaginians lose a unit and are driven back. (Carthaginian are FV 4 + d6 of 5 = 9.  Romans are FV 10 + d6 of 5 = 15).

Velites charge the Elephants and Skirmishers.   The javelin exchange causes one Carthaginian unit to be destroyed.  Combat sees an Elephant and skirmisher destroyed (other elephant drive back).

The first clash of troops.

Turn 2
Carthaginians turn around the elephant and light cavalry.  Their right infantry flank units move up (elephant is in the way on the left). Tempted to move some of the 1st/2nd line up to support the elephant but by itself, the elephant has a 1/3 chance of not being destroyed if it loses the combat (the ability of a Behemoth). And it does have a heavy infantry in support for an additional +3  to the combat FV.

Romans move the Numidians are far as they can in pursuit of the opposition. The two Velite groups charge straight ahead - one into the 1st/2nd line, the other into an elephant.  Both groups will receive the Inspire command (+1FV).

Javelin exchange causes a 1st line unit to be destroyed.

Velites charge into combat

Velites on the Roman left lose combat, one is destroyed, other is driven back and this is converted into a destroyed (the Slave ability causes this; Slave ability seems like a good fit for skirmishers).
Velites on the Roman right lose combat - same result as the left, both are gone.
No bad for the Velites - killed 1 elephant, 2 skirmishers and a heavy infantry. 

...and Velites gone, but caused significant losses along the way.

Turn 3
Carthaginians move the elephant over to the group that lost the heavy infantry.  This will make it a large group and require 2MP to move.

Romans roll a 1 and decide to charge with the left Hastati/Principes into the Elephant large group.  The FV of the groups is equal (14) except the Romans will get +1 for charging. Carthaginians lose, the Behemoth was the primary fighter, does not make its save and is destroyed; the rest are driven back.
 

The centre left, with the elephant missing from the group running away.

Turn 4
Carthaginians turn around the driven back infantry and move up some Veterans to bolster the group.

The elephant gap is filled by Veterans from the last line.

Romans get a 6 for MP.  Numidians charge the lone remaining Carthaginian Light Cavalry.  Javelin exchange sees the Carthaginians destroy a Roman.  There is no more contact so there is not a combat...

Hastati/Principes group charge the large group of Vets and 1st/2nd line and are also allocated an inspire command (+1 to combat).  Carthaginians win and Romans see one destroyed and driven back (but do not about face as they are disciplined).

The right side Hastati/Principes group are given an extra 1" move and charge the opposing 1st/2nd line.  Romans are at +2FV but lose.  One gone and driven back (without turning).  Not looking so good for the Romans.

The centre after the two Romans groups lose their close combats.

Turn 5
Carthaginians followup their advantage and charge in to the two opposing groups.  And allocate +1FV via an inspire command.
The Roman left suffers a defeat and driven back, the right is a draw.

Romans move back the defeated and depleted group 1" which brings then to within 1" of the Triarii.  So next turn can bring the Triarii into the group and into the front (with cost 2MP of the die to do so - one for each Triarii unit to join the group).
 
The other Roman unit in combat continues to melee with a +1FV courtesy of an inspire command.  Even though they are still one less FV than the Carthaginian group, they win and the Carthaginians driven back.

Overview of the main battle lines.

...and another Numdian clash sees the last Carthaginian light cavalry destroyed.

Turn 6
Carthaginians don't do much after rolling 1MP...and the Romans do too!

Turn 7
Carthaginian right group charges into the opposing Hastati/Principes.  Equal FV.  Carthaginians driven back.   Romans roll another 1 MP and bring the other Triarii into the group on the Roman left.
  

The driven back 2nd line in the centre.  The veterans I hope to move up can be seen at the rear.

Turn 8
Now, the trick with MAA is to ensure you have an advantage in FV for your group on the enemy.  If you have less than the opponent, you are likely to lose, and suffer a unit loss, which just makes your groups FV even lower.  So I should really get the driven back second line out the way and let the Vets of the third line take on the Hastati/Principes.  The trouble is trying to get them out the way!  MAA, while it has a lot of latitude for in group movement, has (reasonable for a fast game) decent movement restrictions for group movement.  it will take two turns to get them out the way.

The Romans roll high for MP and charge the turning 2nd line, which they Massacre.  Ah well, at least they are out of the way now.

The victorious Romans now have to face the blurry (maybe it is dusty?) Veterans.

The other group (on the left) move up to about 3 1/2" from the opposing group.  They have greater FV, but also, if you use a command to move 4" with heavy infantry, you cannot also then add another command to gain a +1 to FV.  So if the Carthaginians want to make contact, they can't gt a +1 FV via command.  Of course, the Triarii group have a large FV so could charge in with a +1" to the move next turn, they don't really need the +1 command...

Turn 9
Doing the numbers, the Carthaginian 5 unit group actually has quite a good FV - 17 - and would get an extra +1 for charging.  This would be vs the triarri group of 16 with the general re-rolling a die.  So they charge in and win, so the Triarii are driven back.
The Roman side is not looking good...except this is the turn the Numidians come back.  And as things are dire, the Roman heavy cavalry charge their opposing Carthaginian cavalry.  There is a +2 advantage to the romans - +1 for the better morale, and +1 for charging...
 

Heavy cavalry clash

Romans win and Carthaginian heavy cavalry destroyed.

Turn 10
The 2 heavy infantry groups charge the depleted opposing Romans groups (Triarii on their right, and Hastati/Principes on their left).

Elements of 1st, 2nd and 3rd line engage the Roman Triarii backed by Principes.

Third line attacking Hastati/Principes

Both units lose a unit and are driven back.

Note: in the rules a general unit can re-roll if primary fighter but the odds have been too great to make this warranted - it would still lose.  The general unit may ignore a drive back result but this may only be useful if attacked in the rear (a rear attacked group when driven back is destroyed).  So a lot of the time driven back units subsequently pursued are destroyed.  But if disciplined, driven back units do not about face, so combat is a slow grind.

Turn 11
Carthaginians roll 1MP and elect to charge the Hastati as they have a chance of doubling and destroying the whole group (it will be 16FV +1 charging versus 8). Only outscored so one more unit lost and the other driven back.

Lonely Hastati facing half the Carthaginian third line

Romans move the cavalry up and move the infantry back 1" to force the Carthaginaians to spend a command to chrge the distance, rather than spend it on +1 to FV.

Turn 12
Carthaginian infantry groups charge into their opposing groups.  The Hastati is destroyed (no roll required - the difference in FV is very large).  The Romans are massacred.  General is gone (I did chose him as the primary fighter to get a re-roll, but he re-rolled to the same low number!).

Game over, according to the rules I set at the start that it is over when a general dies.  The winner is the one with the most AP (again, according to the rules I set at the start) which is the Carthaginians.   History is changed.

Overview of board at the end of the game - Romans circled in white.

Verdict
12 turns!  About one hour of actual play! Another exclamation mark! This is a long game in MAA - normally 20 minutes is enough to complete a game. High FV and the disciplined troops really extend the game.  And about 20AP (30%) more troops than a normal game.   Of course, if using the MAA victory conditions of destroying half the enemy units, the game would have been over a couple of turns earlier. I had a great time.  This is a fun ruleset.

WW2 1943 Eastern Front Take Cover report

Background
After posting a review of the Britannia Miniatures Take Cover rules  I thought i would post a small battle report using the rules before heading back into some ancients.  We used to play on a 9'x5' table, but with children etc, and the expectation it will be set up for a week or so, I am using my next size down table - 5'x'3'.  A third the area!  I've played a few 20mm games on it and so long as the forces are small, it does not end up looking like a parking lot.  This particular game was played solo.  There is a bit of description of play and the occasional die roll included to show how the rules work.

All the photos were taken at night in a room with poor light so the picture quality is variable.

Scenario
I'm using a cut down version of the first game in Perry's Heroes Kursk campaign.  The board is roughly laid out the same, but the forces are about 2/3rds.  And the scale is different (as it is designed for IABSM, and Take Cover is another level up in scale).

Rule changes

I have done some minor rules changes for this replay:

1. Passenger vehicles (P) only carry 3 figures, not 10.  In the rules, a P class vehicle tended to carry 10 figs, with 1-3 casualties if the vehicle was destroyed.   While there may be a good reason for this, it did mean that Germans, who can armour assault right on top of the enemy, could guarantee to get there with 7 figures.  It does mean there will be more half-tracks on the board (4 per company rather than 2).
 

2. Currently there are 4 armour classes - Heavy, Medium, Light and Soft-skin, with medium having the base armour modifier of +0.  To offset the greater number of passenger (light armour) vehicles, I've added a class and reclassified. Light vehicles keep the -1 modifier but these are vehicles such as the PanzerIII or Stuart.  There is now a very light (VL) armour category for half-tracks etc with an armour modifier of -2.  Softskins now have an armour modifier of -3.
 

3. Gun Type 7 at battle range can only damage a AFV, there is no score for a Kaput.  So a 7+ on the d6 damage roll will cause a Kaput.  So now Gun 7 has a chance to destroy those half-tracks and light tanks. A score greater than 6 can only be achieved by flank shots or at vehicles with lighter armour than medium. 

 
As a side note, I've never been entirely satisfied with companies being simply a number of figures (with each figure = a squad/section). Don't mind it, just need some reasoning.  I am not that familiar with how a company commander utilises his forces - does he move sections around, or leave it to the platoon commander, or both?    Anyway, it does make a difference as 3 figures can only score one casualty, with 4 figures firing have a chance of scoring 2.  And it is a nice linear casualty chart for 1, 2 and 3 figures firing but 4, 5 and 6 figures is not linear  MMG, HMGs and cannons fire with the equivalent of 4 or more figures.  After much thinking, I've gone with that a 'platoon' is 3 figures, so that fits nicely with carrying capacity (see rule mod 1 above which was influenced by this thinking) and firing units have to be within 2 so normally, the 3 figs have to stay close to each other.  But I'll allows extra figs to join in from other platoons.  Otherwise, fire is by platoon.  It will also mirror the reduction in firepower linearly as casualties are lost. 

 

Forces

Forces are roughly in line with the scenario
 

Soviets (Regular)

1 Battalion HQ: 3 figures

2 reduced companies, each:

     6 figures

     1 MMG (with 3 crew)

2 45mm ATG (3 crew), gun 7
 

Reinforcements:

1 T34/76 (Cruiser, Gun 6)
 

Reinforcements arrive on a d6 roll of 4-6 after turn 4.
 

Germans (Elite)

1 Battalion HQ: 3 figures in Sdkfz 251/10

2 companies each

     9 figures

     1 MMG (3 crew)

     4 Sdkfz 251/1

3 PanzerIIIJ (late) with skirting (Light Tank, Gun 6)
 

I'm using PanzerIIIJs as I have just acquired them so wanted to use them.  Could argue they are Medium Tanks but wanted a difference in armour types on the table.

While the Scenario calls for the Red Army to be poor, I just couldn't do it to them (equivalent would be Militia in take cover), so made them Regular but morale tests will be at 20% rather than 30% (as per pre-Stalingrad Russians).

Deployment

The board.  Note the trees have a light clay unpainted base.  I just did them the day before with my two small children.  Do you think I could get away with putting the painted ones on the board?

All building are wooden, and treated as soft cover.  Wheatfields are not cover, and provide concealment for infantry only.  However, there are low bushes etc around the wheatfields that provide soft cover.

 Russian deployment

 
Each turn, an opposed roll is made to see who has the initiative. The side with the initiative can choose who goes first in each phase.  In this game, The Russian regulars have a modifier +0, while the German Elites have +3.  As there is only a 1/12 chance of the Russians gaining the initiative each turn, and the game is not likely to last 12 turns, I defaulted the initiative to always be the Germans.  While it could be argued that the rare Russian initiative in a turn could cause the German's heartache, when playing solo I was not too concerned.   

Pre-game bombardments
Although the scenario does not call for it, I will give the Germans 1 round of 105mm pre-bombardment.  In TC, one casualty will occur in soft cover with one 105mm indirect HE impact on a 3+.  In TC, one casualty seems to occur with 50% of shooting (of course, this in just an average but it is a good thing - the game progresses).
I randomly chose a stonk target from a few valid ones.  The house next to the wheatfields was the target.  2 casualties!  Only one guy left, and the company is down to 7.  One more and it will start morale tests.

The Game
Panzers come in down the road on their right flank. Following them is the first company of Grenadiers, heading for the woods and fields.  Vehicles are more than 4" apart.  Have long played the house rule that anti-tank fire may fire at another target within 4" if it destroys its first target.  Stops the wall to wall tanks. 

Note: For HE fire, from 36", one Panzer will score a casualty firing at a timber house about 50% of the time.  But you cannot fire against an enemy unit you have not spotted (well, you can if the target has fired or moved and you failed to spot - but there are bad firing penalties).  To spot a non-firing stationary infantry unit in a building requires you to be within 4" AND roll 5+ of a d6.  Even if they fire, it is still a 5+ at the maximum of 36".  So rarely is there much long range combat in the opening parts of the games from attackers.

Panzers and first company arrive

 

 First company deploys in the small wood

Russians infantry in fields in front of woods fail to spot the tanks...
The 1st Company Grenadiers unload into the woods.  The other Grenadier company continues to head for the far side of the road.
Next turn, some of the unloaded German infantry run into the Russians who couldn't see anything - Germans get +2 to die roll for elite and charging.  They win - Russians lose 3 (all of them), Germans 1. Morale test for the Russians who have lost 2 more than threshold: Shaken - no movement forward (fine by them!).

Russian ATG (it survives a while) and its view down the road. 

Second Grenadier company cross the road - Russians AT gun lets first one cross; second one, flank shot - Disruptive fire! (in Take Cover, used to fire at moving targets when it is not your turn). Needs a 3+ which it gets and for damage gets a kaput.  2 passenger casualties, only one left to bail.  To spot the firing gun will  require a 5+ at 8"-36".

First company Germans are line up, poised to storm the town.
 

 

Germans lined up to storm town.  unseen MMG ready to open fire.

Russian MMG in wheatfield opens fire on the Germans - anything but a 1 will cause a casualty.  Rolled a 1.
Other MMG in woods opens up at successfully spotted German infantry in the small woods (needed a 6 to spot).  1 casualty.

No German manages to spots the AT gun.
No German spots the MMG in wheatfield (even at 6" - needed a 3+)
The MMG in the woods isn't spotted either (needs a 6).

AT gun fires at PanzerIII - miss.
Wheatfield MMG fires at German infantry across the road - 2 casualties.

 MMG fires at the German platoon and KO's 2 figures.

German 2nd company half tracks move across road - another disruptive fire.  Hits but ricochets. 45mm gun is not that great a gun over 18" - the first half-track destroyed was a lucky shot.
 
The Germans that made it across the road last turn charge the MMG in the flank.

MMG crew in close quarters.  They lose.

Germans win and lose 1 figure, Russian MMG crew gone. For this Russian company, there is only the company commander left (in the building next door) who rolls a 6 for morale - which is modified -4 for losses, -1 figs lost hand to hand, +1 battalion HQ within 12" - and carries on!  The next turn the Germans enter the building and he goes down and takes one German with him (as a result of a a tie on close quarters die rolls).


Germans in centre wheatfields charge the building.

German platoon storms the building with lots of support

...and then enter the building.  The Russians in the next building open fire on them scoring one casualty.  The next turn at lot of German fire goes into that building - an MMG, the 2 rifles and a vehicle MG.  All up, 2 casualties and they are suppressed.

AT gun fires again at the PanzerIII. Hits. But only a ricochet (need a 5-6 on a d6 to do damage at that range on a light tank).
 

 View down the road from the still surviving ATG

Still no one can spot the firing AT Gun.  At this stage I remember that unspotted units that are firing can be fired at speculatively with a -2 penalty.  So the PanzerIII MG fires and luckily scores one casualty.
 

Mid game overview

Ready for the big push into the rest of the buildings.

So far, it has taken 2 hours, plus note taking.  It is about 1 hour actual playing. Setup was about 20 minutes on top of that  Also, I've needed to look up a few of the rules.

Buildings to the right of the road are all cleared by the Germans.  The anti-tank gun misses, and the tanks fail to hit any of the crew (bad rolling - a 3+ by any fire would have scored a casualty).

The MMG in the woods has a great line of sight to one of the buildings occupied by the Germans and fires.  Anything but a 1 is a casualty.  Rolls a 1.  I am seeing a pattern with the Russian MG fire.

The previously silent MMG (and Another ATG to the right)

The German PanzerIII covering the town speculatively fires on the woods MMG with its MMG and scores a casualty.

At this stage I remember a T34/76 was supposed to come on for reinforcements. Oops.  I will do so now while I remember.  I'll even allow it to fire at a panzer as it is so late coming on. It misses.

  The forgotten cavalry turns up

Continued fire at the Anti-tank gun results in one more casualty (from 2 tanks, 1 MMG and another 3 figs) - the ATG crew are going down slowly.  A Panzer misses the T34, which then fires back and destroys the PanzerIII.
 

Dead panzer

A German platoon (3 figs) storm the Anti-tank Gun and destroy the last remaining crew member, for a loss of 1 of their own.

 Storming the lone crewman of the Anti-tank gun.

The German 2nd company (the one circling around the far side of the town and has just stormed the ATG) needs to take a morale check as it has lost 50% of its figures - but being elite, even a 1 will be fine.
The Russians ATG company (a total of 2 ATGs) also need to take a morale check but is OK.

A PanzerIII circles he lower end of the town to get a flank shot on the T34.  misses.  Other PanzerIII also misses. T34 returns fire and misses.  But the other ATG that has been waiting in the woods all this time has a clear shot at the circling Panzer.  Misses.
The Germans that stormed the ATG now charge the Russian Battalion HQ in hiding behind one of the buildings.  And lose the hand to hand combat,  so are lost.  Another morale check triggered for the Germans but are still fine.

The T34 destroys another panzer.  With only one left, this triggers a morale check for the remaining PanzerIII that must pull back for a turn and cannot advance until passing a rally check (easy for the elites - 2+ on a d6).
The Germans storm across the road into the barn/stables and succeed in hand to hand combat against the 3 defenders (all gone).

  Storming barn/stables

Morale check for the remaining Russian company is pullback for 2 turns.
A Higher morale check (for the whole force in this case) is required for the Russians as one company gone and another pulling back.  a 1 is rolled (low is bad), which is modified to a -1 and results in pull back for 2 turns.  As there is no hope of holding the town after those two turns, I will call the game for the Germans. A  narrow victory though - two-thirds of the tanks destroyed and nearly two-thirds of the infantry.  But they took the town!

 End game overview

Post game review
Having been years since playing Take Cover, or 20mm WW2, it was refreshing that is is still just as fun as I remember.  I will be playing more (maybe in 6mm on a smaller board as I can hide that from the children) during the year, and hopefully some non-solo games. The motivation test for infantry under fire never came into play - the Russians did not move, and the Germans automatically passed every time it could have happened.  Having read a little bit more of battalion actions since playing this game (about 2 weeks), the rules do seem to capture the feel of a brigade/battalion commander and the decisions and information that have.  The rules could do with some streamlining - there is a table and modifiers for everything, and a lot of the modifiers are the same across tables - and I may do some of that during the year. I may also try out some simple card activation (a card per company) rather than initiative as I do like the uncertainty that card activation, in moderation, gives).  But, as it stands, without any modifications, Take Cover is still a top favourite for my WW2 gaming.