Field of Glory Wargaming at Britcon 2009 - Sunny Manchester 2009

As dawn broke, well, I was probably still out in a bar. Ideal preparation for the Marginally Less Morally Bankrupt Dom Roms to come home to meet the actual Morally Bankrupt Dom Roms of Graham Evans!  The genuine Dominate Roman swarm list is available here 

Pictures of Romans from my Ancients Photo Directory

The usual high quality terrain littered the field - I had placed loads down, in the optimistic belief that this may slow down my more mobile opponent possibly until I had started to sober up (perhaps around 2pm ish...?). The game started as many others with me deployed in a big long line and some Roman LH swiftly moving forwards to slow me down.  

The MBDR's had almost nothing deployed in the middle of the field save for a lone legionary unit and some high quality skirmishers. 

In a desperate attempt to find a positive outcome from the rules that mean when a unit is pinned by two or more enemies it has more options to escape than if it is just one, my LH maneuvered robustly to try and cause a headache to the MBDR light horse equivalent to greater than the one I was developing for my own personal use. 

A waves of noxious alcohol-laden breath boiled out across the surface of the table from above my camp, the MLMBDR legions advanced i the face of surprisingly competent opposition from MBDR light horse. 

But the real battle was going to take place off to one side, as a mass of MBDR auxiia gathered together into an "Assault Package^tm" to face off the MLMBDR legions and auxilia opposite them. It was their greater numbers against my larger unit sizes, some impact foot capability and lack of sleep. 

The MBDR auxilia spread out into battle formation, their ragged mix of shield designs either showing a great respect for the design philosophy of the rules which states that each battle group is made up of a number of smaller independent units, or perhaps that Graham had not bothered looking at them from the front whilst deploying them. At least they weren't the "men in loincloths with sticks" that are familiar  from so many other Pinner armies ...

The battle all kicked off rather soon - the legions attempted to get into contact with as many auxilia units as possible to give them the maximum chance of inflicting a negative result at impact, but the sheer weight of MBDR auxilia was almost as frightening as my wild red staring eyes and pallid skin. 

Back t the middle and a comedy victory as MBDR slingers decided to dawdle, and were caught by a legion as they evaded! 

Oh look! In a surprise development the MBRD LH had managed to extricate themselves from the multi-directional attack and were now skipping merrily away from the slowly advancing auxilia. 

Combat was a mixed bag over on the left, as the greater numbers of MBDR auxilia ground down the MLMBDR forces, but started to teeter as well. 

Soon a huge gap opened up in the middle of the MBDR line as the legions did their job and broke and destroyed an auxilia unit! Maybe it was time to try and sober up ??

Elsewhere the MLMBDR light horse were also enjoying some measure of success, shooting their compatriots in the back as they withdrew

  

More MBDRs then took flight and the field started to open up in front of the MLMBDR army - who unfortunately had nothing left to commit to the pursuit!

 

Things generally looked pretty good at this point - although the blurred effect accurately simulates my eyesight at the time of the photo. However ominously the legions in the middle had made little progress as large amounts of fighting and shooting and the harassing effects of enemy forces had conspired to slow their advance and the progress of the game.    

As the MLMBDRs pushed onwards, another light horse unit broke and fled - surely now a famous victory was in our grasp?

But NO! in a dramatic reverse, the legion, foundation of so much of the MLMBDR attacking strategy eventually found itself whittled down to breaking point, and turned and fled the scene leaving only a couple of isolated auxilia units to end for themselves against over 200 MBDR auxilia formations all moving independently in perfect formation. 

Things soon looked bad for the isolated MLMBDR soldiery

In the middle a MLMBDR legion attempted unsuccessfully to pursue enemy light horse through the wood, but the MBDR horsemen ignored the rules and having seen the opening sequence of Gladiator realised they could charge through a forest with impunity and at high speed to escape.

At least this still looked good? 

The opportunity to capture some morally bankrupt baggage spurred my legion onwards - what depths of debauchery would they find amongst the camels and tents of a morally bankrupt army ? 

Its all good here! 

But suddenly the baggage started to seem a long long way away as the clock wound down

Things were also getting dicey in the middle of the wood, as units swarmed dominantly across the table at each others flanks. 

With stuff happening all over the table, the once impressive position of the MLMBDRs started to unravel swiftly, and to be honest the MLMBDRs were the happier team when the ref blew his whistle and called a halt to the proceedings. Another 12-8 loss.  

Post Match Summary

As Caesar, I'm rather puzzled to find that what looked so promising could go so wrong - although a 12-8 defeat is not the end of the world, it did seem for a time like we were in the ascendancy, but on reflection that may have been a combination of booze and luck.

Ultimately the MBDRs did what they do, and swiftly maneuvered a vast slab of infantry to take on a slightly smaller slab of my own almost identical troops. Unsurprisingly this ended up in a victory for the Dom Roms. The odd bit is that we seemed to do well and crack on through the moves, but we still failed abjectly to reach the enemy baggage or even to catch that many of his units as they retreated in front of us. 

The decisive element was in the end weight of numbers. It has worked for me in previous battles - even where we have been outnumbered in units, our materially greater number of combat-capable units has been telling - but here we faced 11 with 11 - and they were faster and better organised than us, as well as being less hindered by the terrain. I was also heavily outnumbered in the skirmisher game too. 

At the end of the day, both armies were a little too big, dispersed and had our different strengths in different parts of the field to generate a decisive result, and given how much I drank the night before this must still count as a reasonable result in the circumstances, which is nice. 

Hannibal's Post Match Analysis

I'm frankly astounded you managed to stand up - or even sit down - through this game after the amount you drank the night before. But you actually managed to make an encouraging start, and imagine how much better it might have been if you had been even half-way sober !

Ultimately though the decision to throw down loads of terrain was the major error. In your drink-addled mind it must have seemed like a way to force the enemy light horse into some channels that your legionaries could push them down and off the table, but in reality it just slowed down your ability to advance rapidly, and gave the enemy corners to hide behind whilst the bulk of their forces simply sailed through them unmolested. You would have been far better moving first in a game like this.

Also when you did knock some holes in the enemy, your forces were so strung out trying to cover the whole table that you had no reserves to exploit any gaps - this even allowed the enemy to rally a 4-strong unit of routing auxilia at one stage. 

In the end you did as well as you did simply because your army was so big it was almost as hard for the MBDR's to beat you as it would have been for you to beat them - and by refusing half the table they also refused the chance to take on half your army. I guess you chose the list, but in terms of sheer generalship, sheer weight of numbers is hardly something you can take pride in achieving.

Lets see how the next game goes then ? 

 

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