A fresh set of rules has got everyone dusting down their old armies and trying them out. And I’m no different. For the BHGS Challenge I considered Pyrrhic, Roman, and Numidian/Moorish. Several posts rated the Numidan list as the worst list in the Rise of Rome book. That appealed to me as a “challenge” so I decided to give the Numidians/Moors a go. After drawing up a list the week before the event, and one practice game, I was ready (or not…)
Looking at the list it was clear the Imitation Legionaries (AKA “FAKES”) were a ‘must’, as were elephants. Looking at the options the Spanish MF employed by King Bogud in 47 BC seemed to be most useful.
So the army was:
1 x IC King Bogud of Mauretania
3 x TCs
4 x 4 LH Unprotected Average Undrilled Javelins Light spear
1 x 6 LH Unprotected Average Undrilled Javelins Light spear
2 x 8 Javelin LF Unprotected Average Undrilled Javelins Light spear
2 x 6 Slingers LF Unprotected Average Undrilled Sling
4 x 6 FAKES HF Protected Average Drilled Impact foot sword
1 x 8 Spanish foot MF Protected Average Undrilled Impact foot Swordmen
2 x 2 Elephants
16 BGs with an initiative of 3.
The battle plan was to create two groups of skirmishers, one on each wing. The FAKES and Elephants would be positioned centrally, on the rear table edge, and march where they would be most useful. Although the FAKES and Spanish weren’t particularly star troops, 32 impact foot bases and 4 elephants meant that the opponent couldn’t ignore them and concentrate on driving the skirmishers off the table.
Game 1 vs Jerome Bodelle’s Selucids.
Operating “in haphazard groups” (Sallust) they would harass the enemy with a rain of javelins, outflanking and surrounding them, but scattering to avoid enemy charges.
Jerome was the no.1 seed, so clearly game 1 wasn’t going to be a piece of cake. I controlled the terrain so went for steppe with a lot of broken ground, which my LH and elephants could operate in.
Jerome had:
2 x 6 MF thureophoroi types
1 x 6 LF javelins
3 x 12 pikes (1 being superior)
1 x 4 cataphracts
1 x 4 elite companion lancer cavalry
1 x 4 LH javelins
1 x 2 scythed chariots
Onto the game:
Jermone planned to delay on his right, whilst attacking in the centre and left. I wanted to delay on my right and centre, and attacked against Jerome’s weak left.
On my right my outnumbered Spanish were screened by my javelinmen,
But they didn’t delay the Selucid thureophoroi for long and they were soon pressing my Spanish hard
The Spanish were dispersed, leaving my right wing open. I then used one unit of LF javelinmen to try and slow down the thureophoroi whilst the rest did a runner for a safer sector of the table. This caused a massive traffic jam as my LF tried to avoid the thureophoroi swinging in from the flank and the pikes advancing in the centre. A few BGs managed to squeeze out of the trap, a few didn’t. I was 2 BG’s down.
On the other side of the table things were going better. The scythed chariots charged the elephants, which surprised me. Jerome had an internet based QRS (from yahoo?) which showed incorrect factors for scythed chariots against elephants. Jerome accepted the situation with good grace and the elephants turned the chariots into match wood. The elephants then turned on the cavalry:
The Companions went down, and 2 BGs of LH slipped around the flank to take out the Selucid LH and the baggage. 2 BGs to me and the camp….
But in the centre…
The FAKES didn’t survive much past first contact with the pikes. I failed to disrupt any pike BGs and consequently I was on a double negative POA for melee. I rapidly lost three BGs of FAKES, to make a total loss of 5 BGs.
Everything was descending on my camp.
But time was called and the game ended. A loss: 6 points to me, 10 to Jerome. Jerome used his units well, frequently using the 2 MU restricted area to limit the options of my more mobile troops.
Game 2 can be found at: viewtopic.php?p=50943#50943
and the parenthesis quotes explaining concepts of the rules as they explain certaing actions in the game.