Field of Glory Wargaming at Faenza 2010
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After another late night watching 100km runners stagger into faenza as we sat back and watched them with beer and ice cream, I survived breakfast to find my Romans were facing another Greekey army army - Alexandrian Macedonian for the list
Pictures of Greeks from my Ancients Photo Directory
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The terrain fell almost all in the Greek half, but there was hardly any of it anyway so the Greeks were fairly free to set up with a Pike center, protected on one flank by a load of Thracians holding some RGO (or a hill), and a strong left wing of groovy cavalry. Oddly enough, the Romans deployed in a thin line ready to consolidate as they contracted and moved forwards. I was playing in a "proper" Roman way and intended for force the Pikemen into a decisive showdown against my fabulous legions, whilst throwing auxilia into the Thracians to roll up that flank. My plan to deal with the enemy cavalry was a bit more nebulous.
before starting Caesar gave a legendary speech to his men
The game started by the Roman auxilia racing away from in front of the Greek cavalry, as the Roman LH bought time and space for the rapid redeployment to happen.
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Cleopatra:
[to Hengist who is dressed as Caesar] You do not look
like your bust. |
The two light horse screens exchanged shots, leaving the Greeks worse off - this was a rare opportunity to sieze the initiative from the off!
The Auxilia were advancing steadily on the left, and there were considerable weight of numbers advantages emerging as the Romans moved away from the Greek cavalry wing.
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I've cleaned up this city. Have you forgotten my slogan? 'Nihil expectore in omnibus' - no spitting on the public transport. |
Out on the Roman right, the Roman LH gave ground, allowing them to shoot with impunity against the Greek light lancers and javelinmen ...
On the Roman left a massive force bee-lined for the Thracians, shoving back their skirmish screen with disdain.
With the Geek light horse in disarray, they charged - and rolled long at the same time as the Roman LH rolled short, meaning they were caught!
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Mark
Antony:
All right, look here Marcus... |
As the Romans fought valiantly, the Greeks piled on the pressure, committing generals to a risky combat - which swung decisively their way!
The Roman LH broke - and fled straight through their own proper cavalry in their rout! It was turning into a disaster of epic proportions !
The Extraordinarii also stumbled and tripped in a rabbit hole under a meagre shower of arrows and slings of outrageous fortune... that seriously blunted the Romans attack on the Thracians!
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Bilius:
Hail, Mark Antony! |
In the center, the pikes were waiting patiently as the Roman legions scrambled towards them - but with the attack on the Thracians faltering, maybe a mano-a-mano engagement would need to be engineered.
On the right however was a problem - several units of Greek lancers were spoiling the Legion on Pike Phalanx scenario by zerio in in on the brave boys in Red. But with two legions, the opportunity for a "you have to break off one" scenario looked positive.. .
Back to the world of pain that was my extreme right flank, as the by-now once-shot and of course fragmented Roman cavalry were steeling themselves for a charge from crappy light horse...
Somehow the Romans had conspired to lose an entire to one unit of LH !
The two Legions stood firm (ish) as the Greek Companions and Agema charged in. One went disrupted, the other bounced the Greek horsemen. Time for some fun. Click here to hear Kenneth Williams
The Greek light horse swept onwards, destroying the Roman cavalry in an instant (well, a charge, and two pursuits here they ended in contact). The only saving grace was that they were now themselves maybe due some payback time ....
The Roman Auxilia and Extraordinarii were making heavy going of charging off the remaining Greek skirmishers, as the Thracians stood bemused at the slow incompetence of their potential foes...
The two legions were now working in tandem - as one bolstered itself and forced the Agema to break off again, the other (on the left) moved up to pursue the breaking-off Companions and placed the legendary "Sandal of Thou Cans't Not Recoil" behind the Agema, preventing any possible break off - the Agema were doomed to drop a cohesion level every turn as long as the legion facing them stayed steady!
Back to the back edge of the board , and the extraordinary Greek LH were confidently facing off against yet another Roman unit sent to try and stop their amazing chain of conquest and destruction
The Roman general harrumpfed in exasperation as an auxiliary unit went fragmented under a pitter-patter of Greek slingshot stones...
The Legion/Agema battle was swinging wildly, with both sides now looking set to lose one - or in the Greeks case - maybe two units!
Finally the Auxilia wing recovered its mojo, and suitably reinforced, tempted the Thracians off their hill and into combat to the front, whilst another auxilia unit struck the flank of the second unit of Greek mercenaries. Hugely outnumbered, and also outclassed, surely the Thracians were not long for this world?
But NO! The Thracians survived being hit in the flank and turned round in good order - and with only a fragmented unit to their front, they were now safe from any other attacks! Even those outnumbered by the Superior Extraordinarii were fighting well and giving as good as they got!
The Roman Light Horse now decided that enough was enough, and handed out a right pasting to the probably exhausted Greek unit which had slaughtered so many of their colleagues earlier in the game - 2 markers means fragmented - and look, their General has also disappeared !
With the game now separating into lots of unconnected skirmishes the two legions experienced wildly different outcomes - one broke the Agema merely by them being unable to break off three times in a row, the other crumbled against a disrupted 3-base unit and broke, to be swept away in a blink of an eye ...
Somehow the steadfast general-less Ridiculous Greek LH were fighting back ...
Now rampaging Greek Companions were ripping through the rear of the Roman lines - a lone auxilia unit who had been left behind in the rush to overwhelm the Thracians was not quick enough to get away ...
As the Legions zeroes in on the pikemen, the Thracian wing was at last starting to collapse with one unit broken and fleeing for home. But the other was still fighting astonishingly - killing half of the Extraordinarii, and fragmenting another Auxilia unit as well - would their flank last long though? And if they broke, surely the Pikemen woudl be in real trouble...
The Roman Legion, fresh from their cheesy triumph against the Agema were beset by yet more Greek cavalry !
Even as things started to look bright, a big black cloud swept across the Roman sky, with the 6-strong Thracians routing one auxilia unit and battering the Extraordinarii even as their rear was threatened by more Auxilia.... but the Greek skirmishers, returning as they so often did, surrounded the Auxilia and shot them down to disrupted!
The Roman right was even worse off.... all th eunits were suffering at the hands of the Greek cavalry
At least one Pike on Legion combat went well - as the Greeks left flank Pike phalanx imploded at contact with the first legion. Elsewhere however, the still had no answer to the Thracians....
And, mirroring what had happened with the LH earlier in the battle, the Extraordinarii broke, rolled long and burst through their own men - who were then promptly hit by the jubilant Thracians !
Look, you know what's happening here. Everyone tries to flank everyone else. No need to comment. ...
Caesar looked on in horror as, with flanks gaping everywhere, the Greeks moved first and broke the Roman army !
Post Match Summary
Oh,
my lord - what a shocker!
This time I adopted what should have been a proper, sensible strategy. Throw all my forces at the weakest part of the army - the Thracians - outflank the Pikes and then roll them up whilst avoiding the Cavalry.
It all started so well - and to find myself with such a big opening right at the start - well, disrupted non shooting LH, you just have to reach in and grab a big handful don't you?
But then to get a 6-1 evade roll, be broken instantly, rout long and see your own riders burst through by your own men - I mean, what a right carry on!
From that moment on it was really backs to the wall time - which is not something I like to be doing, especially so early in the evenings entertainment.
Had the hairy Thracians been a bit more accommodating and actually agreed to lose to twice their number of auxilia maybe it could have come back, but once that wing faltered as well I was really struggling to fashion any sort of opening - know what I mean?
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Just
goes to show, once an idiot, always an idiot. Were I au fait with this internet
malarkey I could hyperlink back to countless match reports where your
predecessors though they had a LH advantage, yet only ended up being pasted and
losing valuable attrition points as they got drawn into combats which were
little more than lotteries in which the odds had been stacked against you from
the start.
Your attempt to redeploy was pathetic, leaving units behind to be caught, and frankly I regard it more as a failure to deploy correctly rather than an attempt to redeploy to face the Thracians.
I mean, a big empty flank - where were the cavalry going to be huh? And a bit of rough going next to a blank space in the middle. Where were the peltasts and pikemen going as well? They might as well have been drawn in on the table for you.
I'll give you half a point for trying to fix your redeployment properly, and another full point for being somewhat unlucky with the LH 6-1 evade thingy. But then I'd have to take at leats 5 more away for just being rubbish in combat and in cohesion tests every time you got shot at or someone poked you with a stick. So, that's less than zero - which is still more than you deserve.
Lets see how the next game goes then ?
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