800pts of Early Imperial Roman Vs Early German. 15mm
Early Imperial Roman.
Generals
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FCCavalry Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x3
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1.Legionaries Heavy foot Superior Drilled Armoured Impact foot Skilled Swordsmen x8
2.Legionaries Heavy foot Superior Drilled Armoured Impact foot Skilled Swordsmen x8
3.Auxiliaries Med foot Average Drilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
Combined archers Med foot Average Drilled Unportected Bow x4
4.Auxiliaries Med foot Average Drilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
Combined archers Med foot Average Drilled Unprotected Bow x4
5.Auxiliaries Med foot Average Drilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
Combined archers Med foot Average Drilled Unprotected Bow x4
6.Auxiliaries Med foot Average Drilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
Combined archers Med foot Average Drilled Unnprotected Bow x4
7.Auxiliary Cav Cavalry Superior Drilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
8.Moors Light Horse Average Undrilled Unprotected Light Spear Swordsmen x4
9.Javelinmen light foot Average Undrilled Unprotected Javelins Light Spear x5
9 Units
order of march (8,9,3) - (4,5) - (6,7) - (1,2)
Early German
Generals
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FCCavalry Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x2
TCCavalry Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x1
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1.Cavalry Cavalry Superior Undrilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
2.Cavalry Cavalry Superior Undrilled Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x4
3.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x12
4.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x12
5.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x12
6.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x8
7.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x8
8.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x8
9.Warriors Heavy foot Average Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x8
10.Javelinmen light foot Average Undrilled Unprotected Javelins Light Spear x5
10 Units
order of march (1,2,10) - (3,4,5) - (6,7) - (8,9)
Introduction
This was our first game for a while due to holidays/work commitments etc etc. It was definately first with the new rules. I know there has just been a EIR / German game just been posted,
but we'd planned this for some time so it would be interesting how this panned out in comparison. We tried 15mm as all games so far had been 25mm and we felt a change was in order to compare the dynamics.
So,we began armed with new rules with colour printouts of rules and reference sheets, definately a bonus when trying to work out CMTs and Terrain charts!!
As familiarity has grown we tried to use all the rules - so
Dice off for attack/defence. The Romans ended up defending. As there are no terrain types in the army lists I spent a while arguing whether any terrain in the Roman empire would count as
Steppes
</joke> The Germans chose argicultural as invading region. Defending the Romans picked a village, a lake (impassable) and 2 more fields, on top of the 2 compulsary fields. The Germans picked 2 open areas (wishing to keep the field open) Village first - on an edge - shifted back 6" into the German half. Compulsories next... The fields landed touching the edge - a
bit of shifting - one was removed. Next the Open area. One in the centre of the table - no shift available. The 2nd in a corner of the table. The last couple of fields ... one ended up
against a short edge the other removed. I can't rememeber when the impassable lake was placed, but we followed the rules and it was straight forward. It landed in the center and shifted t
be adjacent to the village.
So finally we had a village with a lake adjacent on one flank, and 2 sets of fields on the opposite flank. The centre 4' of the table was open. This phase felt fine. Looked reasonable. I
think our terrain needed to be a bit bigger for this game, but I can live with that.
Scouting - neither side having an advantage was a dice off. The Romans lost and deployed first
Initial Deployment
The Romans looked confident in their Legion getting them in the centre of the field to take on all comers. Flanked by Auxuliary units with Cav in reserve and skirmishers on the right out
front. The Lake and village provided great flank cover. The army looked small and reserves where non-existant , apart from cavalry and there was a cavalry sized gap ahead of them anyway!!
The Germans ... Well it looked grim really based in the factors. Against the Legion they would be level on the impact, and then have the horendous ++ (SS & BA) against in the onsuing melee.
The Aux were a little better being ++ for in the impact, then - (BA) in the Melee. Mmm... advantage needed to be sought elsewhere. The Germans seemed to have better /more Cav so the plan
was that the German left wing would push on supported by Javelinmen and hopefully defeat the Roman lights, and have numeric advantage against the Roman Cav... (that was the plan anyway).
The German line would then echelon back to generally avoid the fight.
Bound 1.
Romans defended and so went first. This actually still isn't in the rules,and is based on forum notes!!! Confirmation of this would be good.
Impact
None
Normal Movement
The Romans moved forward across the line wishing to contact ASAP. The new rules kicked in as we now noticed that 2nd moves are only allowed if Gen is with BG or BL!! Ahh.. the Moors
scooting around a flank plan was kiboshed. Fortunately the main BL has generals so they moved max forward. No CMTs were required - so just straight moving
Shooting
None
Melee
None
Inter Bound
None
Bound 2.
Impact
None
Normal Movement
The German left lurched forward again no CMTs were required. I'd just got used to trying to remember which impulsive units had activated, when this rule up an leaves!!
Shooting
None
Melee
None
Inter Bound
None
Bound 3.
Impact
None
Normal Movement
The Romans advanced again. The Legions taking the fore... The Moors turned 90 and headed in the direction of the German javelinmen. The Aux Cav advanced to fill the gap in the line - not
rocket science! No CMTs.. easy life. Generally speaking I think during this game the no of CMTs you could count on the fingers of 1 hand!!
Shooting
None
Melee
None
Inter Bound
None
Bound 4.
Impact
None
Normal Movement
The Germans again echeloned forward on the left flank. Relative troop speeds, and lack of impulsive movement made the manouever a breeze - no CMTs
Shooting
None
Melee
None
Inter Bound
None
Bound 5.
Impact
The Romans equites chanced their arm. Seeing an opportunity to gang 2 units only one. The javelimen passed a CMT to charge no lights frontally. The factors were even in the fight for the
Cav and the Germans had a + for mounted in the charge against lights. The fight stalled. The Romans lost by 1 with the javelinmen.No casulties. All COH tests passed! Bog... The germans has
the general in the front rank so were re-rolling 1&2s. The Romans cav re-rolling 1's It was OK though.
Normal Movement
A general wheel to bare by the left flank. The right re-intforced the line. Units moving to deny some melee overlapping elements.
Shooting
None
Melee
Nothing much. The Romans lost by one and the Javelinment COH failed to drop them to distrupted.
Inter Bound
None
Bound 6.
Impact
The left most german block charge the Roman javelinmen. 1st issue to be raised. It doesn't state that being locked in combat precludes evade as a charge response. We decided that you could
therefore evade out of combat. The evade route was chosen to be directly away from the charge. 2nd issue... Does the evading unit change orientation (ie wheel away from the charge) or does
the unit move away keeping its original orientation? We chose to wheel away... The lights threw up in their VMD, so did the germans, not enough to catch though! There used to be a
mechanism by which a charging unit could test to short charge - these seems to have gone. So the warband advanced 5' forward and looked a bit exposed!!
Normal Movement
The line was advanced to support the errant unit above. The German lights moved up to shoot the Moors
Shooting
Rubbish... nothing
Melee
The fight was now identical Cav fighting one another (Germans with the edge for better re-roll). 4 dice each - looking for 4's . 2 casualties each - draw. No COH, no chance to fail death
roll
Inter Bound
None
Bound 7.
Impact
The Moors charged the impotent javelinmen. They were so closed that an evade looked unlikely, so they stood to take it like a man!
The fight went the way of the Moors (being a +) and the lights lost. They passed a COH, but lost an element.
Normal Movement
Legions moved up to charge. The lights moved out of the way, the Aux moved up. The lights tightened and closed.
Shooting
None
Melee
The Cav fight was indescisive'ish. The Germans lost, passed a COH, but failed a death roll.
Inter Bound
The general moved to hopefully rally the lights.
Bound 8.
Impact
The German WB did not want to charge. However, the left most units failed a CMT and had to charge the Aux. The 2nd German cavalry units charged the Aux that had emerged from the fields
(hopeing their + would be enough to win!)
WB vs Ax ... The Germans won , just. The Romans passed COH, but did lose an element. The rules do state that the casualties are taken from the front rank but its unclear on whether the 2nd
rank (archers in the this case) would move forward to fill the gaps. We did not (but it seemed a bit wrong)
Cav Vs Ax ... The Germans lost, just. Passed a COH and DR. Nothing.
Normal Movement
The remaining German units advanced to fill gaps , create ZOIs etc .. Not CMTs
Shooting
None
Melee
CV vs CV - stalemate. COH passed, DR passed ... fight continues
WB vs Ax - The AX fight back with a (+) but nothing happens. COH passed, DR passed ... fight continues
CV vs AX - No headway (CV have the edge with a (+)) ... COH passed, DR passed ... fight continues
Inter Bound
We forgot the CV should break off against the steady AX foot !! ironically this was the pivotal error in the game!
Bound 9.
Impact
The AX on the roman far left charge the WB (a bit rashly). The rightmost legion impacted the corner of the warband.
The WB were ++ , but the AX held on. COH passed, DR passed
The Legion were level with the WB both impact. As it was corner only 1 element each fought. 2 dice each on 4's. Nothing happened.
Normal Movement
Left legion wheeling to cover the gap.
Shooting
None
Melee
From the left...
AX vs WB. The AX (+) triumphed with good dice. COH failed, DR lost an element
Leg Vs WB. The legion (++) did great dispatch. 3 @ 3's (re-roll 1's) vs 3 @ 5's. I thought maybe a gamey tactic would be to use the romans in this way (ie approach at angles with small
units) Hit a corner - luck out the Impact due to low dice rolling. And grind away the Warband in melee with the above factors. The melee factors mean that you will win! You will get 1p3
against 8's and could get 1p3 on 12's. The Germans will always have to take COH with -1/-2 ... not great. All the romans need to do is avoid casualties because of small units by cutting
the number of elements fighting. 1 in contact with rear support + overlap seems too easy. I forget the term the Romans used for close in fighting... butcher work!!
WB vs Ax - Romans lose, just. COH passed, DR failed
CV vs CV - stalemate. COH failed dropping to Disrupted,DR passed ... fight continues
CV vs AX - The Germans lose slightly - horrendous COH roll sees them fracture. Pass DR though.
LH vs LI - The javelimen lose. COH passed, DR passed ... fight continues
Inter Bound
None
Bound 10.
Impact
The Centre WB failed its CMT to not charge. It raced forward toward the legion mincing up their tribesmen! The angle meant that they pressed forward so the whole unit could contact. The
even fight did go the way of the Germans. The Romans passed a COH , but lost an element (still 8 is a big unit!)
Normal Movement
The last BL of warriors moved up to ZOI the legion :-O
Shooting
None
Melee
From the left...
AX vs WB. The AX (+) won. COH passed. DR lost an element. The Romans were winning, but the unit size compensating
Leg Vs WB. The legion now facing 2 lots of WB (still on ++ with a re-roll though) won (surprise!) The WB passed the COH & DR
WB vs Ax - Romans lose by 2. COH passed (good dice), DR passed
CV vs CV - stalemate. COH passed, DR passed (need to test at the end of the bound because of friend breaking - good dice sees them OK)
CV vs AX - Germans break
LH vs LI - German javelinmen break
Inter Bound
German cav & lights both removed a element, which means both BG can never rally.
Finale
2 units broken (4 Attr points) , none fractured sees the romans win a decisive victory in the new scoring system. I liked the old scoring mechanism, the new one seemed a bit bland
How it looked on the table at the end
Gamewise it felt far more comfortable. The rules feel more 'finished'. We did run out of time (3.4 hours) But it was a result! The Germans were a bit up against it and any more time would
have resulted in complete break I feel. A couple of issues resulted but not too bad. 6 games down the line I think maybe its time to push the envelope and try to play a bit more tricksy.
we've got a biblical ding dong lined up next
thanks
Simon
