Roman & Classical in Patras 2019
Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Republican Roman
Game 1 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Middle Imperial Roman
Game 2 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Republican Roman
Game 3 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Classical Indian
Game 4 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Middle Imperial Roman
Game 5 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Han Chinese
The second game hove into view like a Greek bearing gifts - but instead it was a Frenchman bearing a Republican Roman army that faced me across the table.
The lists for the Assyrian Empire and Sargonid and Republican Roman from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Patras can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
The Republican Romans are a tough, tough legionary-led army. If you can get the Principes, Hastatii and Triarii into the fight you should do well, but they are not the fastest or most nimble of troops so actually forcing the enemy to fight them is somewhat of a challenge. The end result is that terrain (narrowing the field of battle) or a defensive-seeming deployment (with enough gaps to tempt the enemy to actually have a go at them) is usually key to giving the opposition little choice but to try and pick apart the Roman wall.
Wanting to avoid being pinned down into a frontal fight against the Roman legions, the Assyrians had sought to bring the Romans to battle on as close to an open plain as they could manage
One small Roman field and a plantation were joined by a couple of Roman agricultural sites, with the Romans tucked up mostly in the defensible corner daring the Assyrians to take them on.
Presumably seeking to draw away some of the Assyrians focus the Roman cavalry choirs were stationed far away from their infantry - seeing a tempting target the Assyrians willingly took the bait with alacrity and raced forward with their chariotry and cavalry to try and trap the Romans in the open before they could rush back behind their protective screen of infantry.
The Roman Hastatii
The Roman cavalry were well schooled at the art of making a very quick exit at the first sign of trouble - and the Assyrian mounted wing was trouble, but written in large bold capitals and partly delivered on wheels.
As the Roman horse skedaddled, the lone skirmishing unit that they had left behind to screen their withdrawal suddenly realised that his task (to hold up half the Assyrian firepower) may be somewhat beyond his admittedly meagre abilities.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Romans have deployed tightly in a corner - a more defensive array than even the Assyrians had anticipated, which in turn has left the Assyrian army rather strung out across the table facing only a token screening force. Past experience shows that the Roman Cavalry will in all likelihood get away, but the Assyrians cannot simply ignore them and so are forced to pile forwards to try and catch as many of them as they can.
Whilst this is going on the Romans can tidy up their battle line ready for the coming frontal assault. Persuading the Assyrians to attack them head on is in their battle plan - the question is whether the Assyrians have the self control to wait until they are ready before being drawn into a fight.
The rest of the Assyrian army was composed mainly of Medium Foot, who stood little serious chance against Rome's legions in the open
Bearing in mind their desire not to repeat the carnage of the first game the Assyrian general commanding this wing directed his men to move up into the terrain instead of straight at the actual proper Roman troops, seeing if there was an opportunity to use the Terrain Motorway to perhaps outflank the Legions.
This seemed a great plan until the Romans unveiled an ambushing elephant and accompanying Death Star infantry from behind a hill.
Look! Over There ! Elephants! In a Death Star!
Yeah - Roman Elephants and a Star-Wars style Death Star, the engaging of which would suck in the Assyrian infantry to a protracted fight, and in so doing allow the Roman Legions to focus their attentions on defending against the other wing of the Assyrian force.
Maybe that whole 'sail through the terrain and outflank the close packed pedestrians" was not such a viable plan any more?
The Assyrians, remembering that Attack was not the only word in their vocabulary, beat a hasty and tactical temporary retreat.
Flipping Feta! The Roman horsemen had - by the skin of their teeth, or possibly be excellent planning and pre-game practice - managed to sneak away from the Assyrian mounted wing with relatively little shooting damage and were even now squirting through a gap which had opened up in the Roman line to let them pass.
The Assyrians looked on impotently as the door shut on their ambitions to ratchet up some easy hit points before they were - inevitably - forced to take on at least some Legionaries.
The Roman Principes
In scenes the like of which Greece had not witnessed since the time Lord Eligin pinched their marbles, the Romans were now starting to shake out into a proper solid defensive line arrayed diagonally across their deployment corner - a plan one suspects they had worked on in the parade ground. The Assyrians meanwhile were coming to terms with the reality that an assault on the Legions was going to be the only real way to win (or lose) this battle.
The folly of chasing the Roman cavalry around the park had left the Assyrians in some disarray, with their two-command-spanning Elite Chariot force now split into two very discrete formations
Attacking piecemeal was clearly not the way to take on an army as well organised as these Romans.
As this fact started to slowly dawn on the out-thought Assyrians, the Romans stepped forward in a neat line, seeking to force the first wave of Chariotry to commit to battle long before the second wave could arrive alongside them.
The Assyrians were pretty much now committed to a Chariot Charge at - and hopefully over - the Principes and Hastatii of the Republicans
Yes, a terrible plan, and one made even worse by the distance between the Chariot units
As the first wave geared up to assault the line of pilum-throwing swordsmen the second wave realised they had no space to move up together as a block.
Splitting in two units the second wave Chariotry sought to line up either side of their colleagues in the Senior Service, creating command and control problems galore for their vexed and frustrated general
What's Going on Here Then?
The Assyrians probing attacks to see if they could catch the Romans cold before they had finished their redeployment have backfired, and now the Assyrians will struggle to construct a coordinated assault as one by one their blocks of troops are drawn too close to the Romans to be able to either fall back or risk waiting for the rest of the army to join them.
The appearance of a deployment-zone elephant-led ambush has also shut the door on the original Assyrian tactic of outflanking the Legionaries through the terrain, and now the battle is swinging towards being a line-up-fight on a diagonal frontage across the depth of the table.
Sizzling Spanokipitas! All Assyrian attention was now focused on the main line of Roman infantry and cavalry stretching diagonally across the board.
This however had left the Roman Elephant Death Star and their second-string infantry with a relatively uncontested flank to advance into, which they promptly proceeded to do.
All across the town kebabs were turning slowly on spits, sizzling hot fat onto the coals below in preparation for the lunchtime rush as the Assyrians realised that they too now risked themselves being outflanked, and only a fully successful and quickly resolved attack would avoid the embarrassment of having their left flank turned by slow moving infantry and an elephant which had started practically on the enemy baseline.
With the roll-up strategy of the Romans clear to both sides, battle was joined in the center of the table with a staggering crash of men, horses and machinery.
Holy Halloumi! A thundering charge of Chariotry spanked into the Roman line, which visibly bowed (but did not break) at the impact of so much wood, steel and meat.
The Roman Triarii
This was not going according to plan at all for Assyria.
Their Elite cavalry wing had finally forced the Roman horsemen into a position where they needed to stand and fight rather than run away again, but here the combination of Triarii spearmen and a Roman cavalry general leading from the front (for a change) had more than stemmed the tide of Assyrian charges,
The Roman leader and his close bodyguard fought like heroes (especially for Average Cavalry), punching a huge hole in what was supposed to be a solid line of in-the-bank Elite winners for the army of the Winged Lion.
The Assyrian Chariots were also not doing too well - although an unsupported, double-flanked charge against formed steady Heavy Foot is probably not exactly a situation where 'doing well' has to have an entirely positive flavour to be fair.
At least it was a good chance to deploy some of the bespoke Assyrian casualty markers which the army had brought with it using 15mm shields from Magister Militum on (a bit too small) 18mm round MDF bases.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Assyrians have attacked piecemeal against the solid line of Romans, and it is only good dice and the innate high quality and armour of the Elite Chariotry force which is keeping the battle even relatively level pegging so far. The Roman's weak point should be the cavalry wing who now make up the end of their line, but even this is standing up surprisingly well too, frustrating the Assyrian plan to use their cavalry to turn the Roman flank.
The Assyrians are frantically looking to save their baggage from the Roman elephant corps, and also - overstretching the resources of what is still quite a small army - taking what advantage they can find against the second string Roman troops who form the ends of the Roman line.
Almost inevitably, the first Chariot collapsed into matchwood and was removed from play, leaving an embarrassing looking gap in the middle of the Assyrian attack.
Things were however going a little better elsewhere along the line of scrimmage, as the Guardsmen (in green uniforms) in the foreground were beating up the Roman infantry.
The Romans may have been tough, but their line was thin and in their haste to match the Assyrians they had already committed all of their reserves to buy extra width - so any breakthrough by the fast-moving and nimble Assyrian infantry or cavalry could rapidly escalate into a catastrophe for Rome.
Time for a pause for breath.
The Assyrian Chariots all broke off from combat in unison, regrouping and gathering their thoughts at a safe distance from the equally relieved Roman line.
Focus moved now to the flanks of the battle, where things were much more delicately poised
"Delicately poised" is not however an epithet that can often be used to describe a rampaging elephant - which in this case was now in prime position to start that well-signalled assault on the left hand end of an Assyrian army that was by now pretty much fully committed to battle to its front.
The only small saving grace was that the men of Winged Lions had left themselves so astonishingly exposed on this flank that the Elephant commander had to choose between sacking the Assyrian baggage train and assaulting the gaping open and practically undefended flank of the enemy army.
This was a problem the Assyrans could now do very little to actually fix.
Unfortunately for the Assyrians the Roman commander appeared to have enough troops and enough command and control to undertake both missions at the same time.
As Assyrian infantry, acutely now conscious of the small break point of their force, fell back to relative safety the Romans split their Death Star and sent parts of it slamming into the rear of the Assyrian attack, and ordered the elephants and their screening infantry over to look the Assyrian army baggage train simultaneously.
Interview with a Roman Soldier
As the two sides traded close quarters blows things were starting to break apart rapidly - and nowhere more materially than at the point where the two lines of cavalry had been swirling for much of the last hour.
The Roman commander was still holding out and had inflicted a terrible toll on the supposedly better Assyrian horsemen - but the rest of the Roman Cavalry Choir had been utterly overrun, leaving their glorious leader dangerously exposed to a slide and flank charge from Assyris's finest mounted strike troops (apart from the Chariotry, technically).
Having restored their morale with some Commander-inspired rallying the Assyrian Chariots slowly picked up speed and lumbered back for another round of combat against the increasingly exhausted-looking Legionaries.
By now the Romans, having been forced to respond to the multiple threats caused by Assyrian breakthroughs on both flanks, were starting to run out of overlaps use to face off the second-wind Chariot charges.
Only bravery could now help them withstand the tank-like blitzkrieg which was heading their way. As the Chariots slammed home for a second time the battle descended into a series of desperate and brutal unit-on-unit combats from which both sides knew there would only be one set of winners.
Well, maybe two.
The second-wind chariot assault turned out to be a decidedly mixed bag, with some Chariots breaking the Roman resistance whilst the Assyrian infantry fared badly in comparison, overrun by the sheer quantity of legionaries they needed to overwhelm.
The Assyrian army was now hanging by a thread as it slipped dangerously close to defeat, with attrition against the stoic Roman infantry taking a deadly toll on their very small army - the Romans too were not in a good way, but had much further to go to themselves slip to defeat.
The elephant corps were now also within moments of capturing the baggage as Assyrian archers shot furious volleys of arrows in a vain attempt to distract the pachyderms and their protective skirmish screen.
The Assyrians basically realised they had one more turn to pull this one out of the bag before the loss of their train condemned them to a loss of their whole army.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - normal baggage counts as 4 break points. Out of an army with low 20's of break points this is usually pretty catastrophic
Needing to record some stunning against the odds wins, the Assyrians committed everything they had to as many last ditch charges as possible.
Everywhere along the line they charged, and everywhere they could their Commanders added their weight and impetus to the fray.
At this stage any losses at all would mean defeat for the Winged Lion Brigade, so putting Generals at risk in combat was a win small/lose bigger tradeoff they simply had to take.
What's Going on Here Then?
Attrition against the solid Roman infantry has left the Assyrians teetering on the brink of defeat - but as the Roman line has started to fracture, their resilience has dropped exponentially and now the Assyrians see a glimmer of hope as flank and rear attacks become possible against the reserve-free Romans.
The Roman elephant corps is moments away from the Assyrian camp, and so this is a do or die moment for the Assyrians. They will be committing all of their generals into a series of optimistic combats seeking glory. The alternative is inevitable defeat.
The dice clattered noisily across the playing surface as wave after wave of high stakes charges and combat roiled through the opposing lines.
And, miraculously, outrageously, and almost certainly deeply unfairly (should you be of a Roman persuasion) the Assyrian Empire managed to turn around a 5-unit deficit (with no losses of their own) in the very last hail-mary phase to record a spectacular, unimaginable and heroic victory!
By now it was just about time for a small smidge of buffet lunch, picking carefully from the very limited range of options included in the entry price of the event by our Greek hosts. Either that or someone had cleverly given the wrong address to a professional wedding caterer on a booking for a buffet for 50 popsh Greek people!
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Assyrian Empire and Sargonid Commander
Yes! The Gods of Ancient Ashur and Mardoc Look Down Upon Me and Think To Bring me To Their Table For Their Honour! I Am Vengeance! I Am War! And, as well as Being War! I am also very much looking forwards to lunch, as the Greek salad looks absolutely delicious, and the hot food smells divine. In fact, I've seen some of it being brought out already in those big steel dishes that are heated from underneath by sort of candle-like things that you set fire to - and even they are pretty cool in their own right.
But here, going back for a moment to the battle itself, this was beautifully set up for demonstrating the last ditch heroics of my men and their cinematic ability to snatch a win from not only the jaws of defeat. but probably the oesophagus or perhaps even somewhere in the region of the lower intestine.
I was most pleased by my self control and ability to turn tail and walk away from the much more powerful forces of the enemy on my left as well, which allowed my army not to lose too many troops too soon and so still be in the proximity of victory even at the absolute death of the game
This was about as close as a close run thing could be, but no-one remembers the Losers in a battle where once again I Was War, and I Was Victory of The Gods Bringing Down Vengeance on The Enemies of Mighty Assyria. But enough of that, I am absolutely keen to get tucked into some feta and olives.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You hopeless idiot - the only good thing to come out of that battle is that I can now go to my lunch secure in the knowledge that your rash penchant for suicidal attacking has not been lost on the way across the Greek islands and waterways between Athens and Patras.
You were suckered into a lopsided deployment, you responded badly when you worked out this was what had happened, and then you floundered like a fish out of water as you sought ineffectually to recover from what was an entirely predictable situation.
And, of course, you topped it all off with an entirely standard piecemeal attack frittering away the strike power of your best troops by committing them not to the things they could beat easily and quickly, but against the enemy's best men in a well planned and prepared position - which you assaulted in a frontal attack.
Quite how you were even in the game enough to be in with a sniff of winning at the end is beyond me - but then to actually pull a win out of the bag is even more bizzarre. What sort of shambles will you be able to enginner in the next game one may wonder?
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
Just a little of the buffet was left..
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Game 1 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Middle Imperial Roman
Game 2 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Republican Roman
Game 3 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Classical Indian
Game 4 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Middle Imperial Roman
Game 5 Assyrian Empire and Sargonid vs Han Chinese
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