Onus - first play - Carthage versus Roman

Steedo came around for a first play of the kickstarter of Onus we bought into. I had read the rules and watched a you tube video (Steedo had read half the rules and watch some of the video). I set up two 1000 point armies with a standard general each for Rome and Carthage - the Romans had a couple of Equites, Hastai, Princeps, Velites, Archers and one unit of Triari. The Carthaginians had 2 Cavalry, 2 Lybian spearman, 2 Skirmishers, 2 Punic Phalanx, 1 Punic Archers and 1 armed civilians. We added some terrain from the expansion - some extra rules for us to deal with (just wood and hills).

Steedo picked the Romans and set up first. We both managed to set up our cavalry opposite each other - obviously both planning a sweeping flank attack.

Below the initial deployments and the first few turns - where Steedo attacked on my left. He had unfortunately underestimated my skirmishers, who managed to put some damage on the first unit of Roman cavalry - but they were overwhelmed in the end - however the skirmishers demise allowed the Punic cavalry to force the Romans from the field. Then Steedo decided to charge a Punic Phalanx - this was not a good idea. 

Over on my right flank my other unit of skirmishers were doing a great job of holding up a unit of Hastai in the woods … for most of the game, before they were forced to flee. 

The later turns below saw the main bodies of heavy infantry move into combat - my left flank was secure, but both the cavalry units were significantly damaged - the right was in a stalemate, although my archers had charged and destroyed a unit of Velites, but were now being pressured by some more Hastai. 

The centre was where the game would be decided - I charged my Phalanxes and Spearmen forward into Steedo’s Princeps - who promptly played a card which stopped my general’s phalanx actually fighting that turn … which was annoying. However the other phalanx was able to weaken the Princeps on the other side. A push of pikes then when on for a couple of turns as we tried to manoeuvre units into position. Steedo made a couple of mistakes around this time as he allowed his archers to be isolated, then surrounded and destroyed and he was also unable to get the Triarii with his General into position to do anything. So eventually one Princeps unit was forced to flee and the other destroyed, giving me enough points for a victory - we had decided on 50% casualties… final scores on the doors Carthage 510 points, Roman 50 (sort of makes up for the pastings I’ve been on the receiving end of in Kill Team recently).

So what did we think of Onus? We liked it. The order cards remind me of Maurice (and the Airfix game), and are a challenge to use correctly or have enough of … hand management is tough. If you activate units you can only pick up 1 card at the end of your turn, if you don’t activate any units you can pick up 3 cards, but you are effectively passing and giving the initiative to the other player. 

We also kept forgetting to turn over an event card before every ranged attack or melee … some of the cards can be devastating. You can then add cards to your hand to support your attack - but sometimes you just don’t have enough cards. 

We got a bit stuck on the Javelin rules - so we need to read up on them. Also I might have to institute a “house” rule that if a unit becomes broken it loses any special formation it was in - Steedo had Wall of Shields on 2 units which became broken, but the rules read that they would only lose the formation if the fled. 

A good learning game - we plan to get another in then start a Campaign - between us there are 11 campaigns (with about 70 battles), along with all the other stuff.

Morts