Western Roman (late) vs Early German

[massina_nz]

To celebrate the arrival of LT I thought I'd write up my first LT battle as an AAR.

Why did I choose to play as Late Western Romans? I suppose it's a romantic choice from some old movies I watched when I was a kid.

Anyway please feel free to chip in with any comments. I seem to be an above-average player, winning about 75% of my games, but I still make plenty of mistakes.



Here’s the initial map screen, I initiated the challenge, but since I’m placing first I guess I lost initiative. I’ve played this map once before and was very unsuccessful with my early Carthaginian Army with it’s Ancient Punic panzer division.

It’s a 500 point battle, where I selected Mixed terrain as always, but guess that doesn’t matter any more. FOW is on as well as Double Moves..

For the Late Western Romans I’ve gone for the light spear legionaries rather than the impact foot, mainly because I always preferred what they looked like.



This is my left flank, I’ve placed the catapult to maximise it’s arc of fire in case I have to retreat in the centre I only bought it because I had 15pts left and no idea what I wanted to buy.. I’ve placed by Light cavalry here as they have more open space, on the other side of the battle field they can easily get confined and evade off the map. The Limitanae, I’ve placed in the hills to give them a better defensive position, and all my heavy cavalry are placed on my extreme left flank in the most open flank.



On my right flank, again I’ve placed the Limitanae in the hilly terrain, and the Auxiliaries behind them. I’ve ignored the far left flank; if I have to I can withdraw the Auxiliaries to cover it.

You’ll note I always make sure all units are within command radius on the first turn, even if it means narrowing my front, when I can expand it later once I can’t use double-moves.

Now how do I draw the Germans forward?



Notably a lot of German units are out of command radius

I can see 45 of the 55 German units, there may be some in the wooded hill on my left.

Plan is to disperse the German cavalry on my left flank and bottle them up. Advance in the centre and ignore the German left flank. And just fight the other 2/3rds of the Germans with most of my forces.



The legions advance, and I send a couple of Aux (highlighted in red) units from the left to right flank, really just as a delaying force



My left flank advances, I manage to position my three generals so all but one unit is out of command radius

[massina_nz]

Tribesmen appear from the woods as expected. German skirmishers on my left flank look a little close to my light cavalry for their comfort.

German warbands advance in the middle and their covering skirmishers again seem to have advanced too far.



I don’t send my light cavalry ahead to chase off and contact the foot skirmishers, because they’ll end up being in range of the warbands. Instead I hold them back and advance my cataphracts and armoured cavalry. The cats are in range of the German cavalry charge, but the other cavalry are not. I await my opponent’s next move in interest.



My centre advances, and I send a bow unit to my right wing as well as the two Auxs, they should be able to hold the left flank for some time in that hilly terrain.

[massina_nz]

German cavalry charge in as I hoped, and they suffer a Fragment, presumably because my cavalry are much better armoured, which would have negated his charge bonus. Have to be careful here to make sure my cavalry don’t get bogged down with those warbands on the right.



Only the right-hand part of the German centre seems to be advancing, with the left hand part holding the slope. Note the German skirmisher on the far right is very exposed. So I dutifully cut off it’s evade move with my two skirmisher units, and then three hits from my heavies destroy it.



Well the cavalry results are fairly disappointing given I had the advantage in all of them. However the unengaged German cavalry on the far left, evade my charge only to end up at the map edge which allows me a rear contact, and a fragment result.



My right flank defences solidify.



I’m able to isolate another German skirmisher, but now one of my Aux units (highlighted in red) is in charge range of some warbands. Not really a wise move on my part

[massina_nz]

My opponent feeds some warbands into the fight on my left flank, the warbands hit and take reasonable losses as well as one disruption. The German cavalry get the worse of the combat results again. One of their fragmented units survives but the one by the map edge is destroyed



In the centre, the Germans advance pell-mell. My exposed Aux unit is attacked by three warbands and survives surprisingly well.



On my right flank everything looks very stable. My understanding based on the FOG wiki, is that there will never be any anarchy charges here, because my Aux are parked in difficult terrain for his cavalry and infantry. We'll just stare at each other over the stream and shoot arrows at each other. Good for me!



In the centre I await the warband onslaught; I send some of my Limitanea to the second rank as rear support to assist the cohesion rolls of the front rank units. On the right side, my legionaries - which I used to destroy the German skirmisher last turn retreat so they can then reform back in line with all the legionaries.



A sole Limitanae charges into assist the isolated Aux in the centre. I inflict a disrupt result, which was better than expected, and the Aux unit is able to inflict a further cohesion drop. Two different types of combat, impact and melee, allows me to induce two cohesion drops


On the far left, the German Cavalry dissolve as one unit routs and has a domino affect on the others.

At the end of the turn I haven’t lost a point yet and have inflicted 14 so it’s looking very good so far.

[massina_nz]

On my left flank more warbands are feed into the fray, one suffers disruption, and one frees up his commander as the Equites Alani break off.



In the centre that Aux unit fights on strongly, even routing one opposing unit. The warbands hit my main line and cause some chaos scoring good results.



I manage to get a rear attack on the left-most warband and disrupt it, otherwise the combat results go my way, but not enough to cause any cohesion losses for the Germans.



My lone Aux finally suffers a cohesion loss, whilst my legionaries are able to struggle on, not losing any more cohesion and having better combat results than the Germans.



A good start for me.

[massina_nz]

In their turn, the Germans lose a couple more warbands on my left flank.



My Aux is finally exhausted and routs, I lose my legionaries who were fragmented last turn, one routs through my general, who I had placed there last turn in the forlorn hope that he might aid that unit in recovering cohesion. Elsewhere on the main battle line the Germans generally get the better of the combat results.



On my left flank I manage to rout another three German units, as my cavalry start to turn inwards towards the centre



In the centre I get the better of the combats, but can’t turn any fragments into routs. This battle could still go any way, but my superior armour should improve my chances of victory here, as both opposing forces are average HF swordsmen. Where I can I place a unit in my second rank with a gap in-between, which gives a rear supporting unit bonus to both units in front of it, and also provides a gap for any front line troops to rout through. [but I feel like I'm teaching people how to suck eggs here]

[massina_nz]

German general still toughing it out – but is destroyed in my turn



I lose three routs to two, in the German turn.



My left flank begins to push into the centre



I manage to rout one unit, but my line starts to look patchy, thank god the German reserves are far away

[massina_nz]

On my left the German general still toughing it out – but is destroyed in my turn



In the centre, I lose three routs to two. I would be in serious trouble if the warbands had arrived en masse.



My left flank begins to push into the centre. But even those cats can’t charge HF on hill slopes and hope for any real success



I manage to rout one warband unit, but my line starts to look patchy, thank good the German reserves are far away.

[massina_nz]

More routs in both battle lines. Even my General evades away



Germans realise they can’t cross the stream and send their cavalry towards the centre, but too late.



My cavalry continue to head toward the centre, ignoring the warbands on the hill. Hopefully they can reach the centre before it breaks



Centre still holds but it’s getting dicey. This time I tell my C-in-C not to evade.

[massina_nz]

My centre begins to break down. Can they hold the line until the cavalry arrive? I realise now I should have held back my left wing cavalry commander a bit so I could double-move my cavalry over to the centre.



My C-in-C charges a fragmented warband but to no effect, and I lose another legionary at the far right end of my line.

[massina_nz]

Another German turn and I lose another unit from my front line.



In my turn I rout several German units and the victory is mine.



A pretty easy victory for me in the end, as early on I was able to kill off a number of isolated German units, and easily rout the German right wing, whilst holding the German left wing at bay with a smallish force. And in the centre the Warbands were feed into the battle piecemeal rather than a semi-co-ordinated-mass. I think the terrain here helped my army, allowing me to narrow the frontage of the Germans where I needed it, and having clear terrain for my mounted troops to do their job.