Game 2 in Milano
This saw me facing off against a Late Imperial Roman Army - a DBM stalwart
Again I defended, and again selected my first list.
Terrain felly badly for my "refuse a flank" strategy, with none of my "break him up" orchards making any impact on the game. There was a huge patch of rough going in the middle of the table which looked like auxilia territory, and so I went essentially for exactly the same tactic as before - a strong right hook and refuse by the Nile.
The Romans had a large number of supported auxilia and blades on table, forming a solid line across their centre. The Roman left - as is traditional - had some fast knights and its line extended to the table edge by light horse. Who were cool - but also no real match for my two powerful chariot commands.
The attack soon became full-on, as I committed practically all my mounted forces to assault the roman lines, and redeployed bowmen to intimidate the (regular) fast knights. If I could force them back, the flanks of the roman legion would - I hoped - become exposed.
This in turn meant that I also had a flank to protect - in the middle.
This forced me into a rather dicey Bd(F) and Bw (O) vs Ax (S) bunfight in the central dustbowl - the aim being toslowly lose rather than attempt to win!
The Roman Clibanarii had no real answer to the onslaught, and retreated to save their skins, only an element off breaking - soon only a bolt shooter stood between the legion and a Flank of (not quite so bad as it used to be) Disaster.
Chariotry and axmen continued to assault the embattled Legion - surely it was only a matter of time before they fell ?
Well, that time was 5 bounds to be precise, as this lone legionary hung on like grim death, before finally succumbing.
With their left flank in tatters, and the Clibanarii and their supporting light horse being chased from the field, the day was drawing close for the noble Romans, but on their right they continued to press forwards, moving through the rough ground. The Egyptians, smelling blood, raced forwards to the edge of the rough going, and in a bitter blade-on-blade struggle, caused the few casualties needed to take the Romans over the edge.
Egypt had taken damage - and probably stood up better than it should have done in the middle. - but the game was over, 10-0 again !
Final positions - Romans in Red, Egypt in Yellow:
Match Summary: Concentration of my forces, and laying down enough terrain to give the Romans an obvious deployment had again paid dividends. There was only one place on the table for the Roman mounted command to go, and what is normally a perfectly sensible "default" strategy of extending out (a line of knights) to the table edge with light horse had come unstuck as I had deployed Cv (S) against them, and Bw against the knights, making the Roman left flank untenable almost from the off. The loss of the Ps (O) support as an "aggressive" factor meant my Egyptian Cv (S) were able to go head on into the Roman legions, pinning them frontally whilst we pushed back the Roman Clibanarii to their left, exposing the infantry's flank. I had somewhat rode my luck in the middle in the rough going against the Roman auxilia, but this was always a defensive fight for me, and the Auxilia's ability to push any advantage they achieved was severely constrained by the need to maintain a solid line with the legionaries in the open to their left.
