Battle Report - Later Republican Romans vs Hellenistic Greek

[petedalby]

Romans
4 x TC
1 x 6 Elite Armd HF Imp, SSw
4 x 6 Sup Armd HF Imp, SSw
2 x 6 Avg Prot LF Jav Lt Sp
1 x 8 Avg Unp LF Sling
1 x 4 Sup Prot Cav Lt Sp, Sw
2 x 4 Avg Unp LH, Jav Lt Sp
Fortified Camp

Lance's Greeks from memory
1 x FC
1 x TC
2 x Ally TC
2 x 12 Avg HF Prot Pike
1 x 6 Avg Armd MF Off Sp
2 x 6 Avg Prot MF Off Sp
1 x 4 Avg Prot MF Off Sp
1 x 8 Avg Prot HF Off Sp
1 x 6 Avg Prot HF Off Sp
1 x 4 Sup Armd Cav Lance, Sw
1 x 6 Avg Unp LH, Jav Lt Sp
3 x 8 Avg Unp LF Jav, Lt Sp
2 x 4 Avg Unp LF Sling
Unfortified Camp

I won the initiative and unwisely went for Hilly. I wanted some Gentle Hills to ambush my Legions from but both pieces were discarded by 6's. I chose a Coast for the first time as I knew Lance's army would be bigger than mine and I wanted to secure a flank and lose the minus 1 for troops within 6 MU of the edge. I also went for a large Steep Hill to block the other flank. Unfortunately Lance filled the gaps with 2 x Brush, and a Vineyard - his other pieces being discarded.

So from my left we had the Coast, a small gap, a large Brush, a larger gap, a Vineyard with a another piece of Brush behind it, a larger gap and then the Steep Hill. Not a lot of room to manoeuvre!

I deployed one BG of Velites in ambush in the Brush. They were supported by the other Velites and both BGs of LH. The legions were deployed either side of the vineyard with the slingers opposite the vineyard. The Cav were my right flank unit.

Unsurprisingly Lance attacked through the Brush with 1 BG of MF, 1 BG of slingers and 3 BGs of LF Javs. The Vineyard was attacked by the Thorakitai and the other BG of MF. The HF remained close to his baseline initially. His LH moved against my right flank and played a game of cat and mouse with my Cav for the whole game.

My ambush was quickly discovered - a useful learning point, so I withdrew until friends arrived. Once support had arrived 1 BG of Velites with a TC quickly routed an 8 of LF - definitely worth the extra point to be Protected. Unfortunately my other Velites and 1 BG of LH were disrupted by shooting and on the back foot. My other BG of LH exploited the gap left by the routing LF and spent the rest of the game hunting another 8 of LF - eventually ending the game by hitting the enemy Camp.

The Thorakitai and Thureophoroi made the vineyard their own and the rest of the Greek HF started to move up.

My legions were badly hampered by the terrain and I manoeuvred poorly. 1 BG ended up charging both pike blocks to buy their friends time and put up a heroic fight lasting several bounds before they were butchered to a man, helped on their way by being charged in flank by the BG of 4 MF.

I charged 1 legion into the vineyard against the Thorakitai. Although I was Severely Disr, they were Disr, 3 dice vs 4 but I was Sup and had a General. They made short work of the Greeks which Lance felt was a bit harsh. The slingers were able to concentrate their fire on the MF who had some unfortunate CT tests and broke after 3 rounds of firing. We missed the fact that the vineyard counted as cover which would have made a difference. This invalidated the result really.

On my left flank we had a similar result with my victorious Velites shooting against the 6 MF. They also broke due to shooting.

On my right the Greek Lancers charged a legion and broke off disrupted - a TC helped considerably here. The 2 BGs of HF Off Sp then came into play and were fairly quickly both routed. The slingers in the meantime had moved back into the vineyard and polished off the Greek Cav with shooting who also broke.

My elite legion went to help their friends against the pikes but it was too little too late. The pikes held the initial charge and started to grind them down. It seemed to take ages for my legion in the vineyard to extricate itself by which time it was blocked from expanding into the Open by the pikes and the 4 of MF and were also taken in flank.

Over on the left I lost my LH and the other unit of Velites.

At games end the Greeks were defeated but I had lost a legion, 1 BG of LH and 1 BG of Velites and the Elite legion were fragmented - so 7 from 11. I'd also lost 2 Commanders. See separate post on this.

As ever it was a fun game but they were some big swings due to extreme dice on both sides.

Shooting from LF is still very good - especially if the target hasn't got rear support or the benefit of a General - arguably too good? Maybe they should just get 1 dice per 3 bases for shooting?

And I worry that both LF and LH are too manoeuvrable. They are so hard to catch.

But the Romans were good fun to use - frontally they are very strong - but very expensive!

Pete

[shall]

I guess what we have done with speeds and troops types is to stretch the character of each army more towards how we perceive its real feel. So your highly manourvrable light troops and really tough frotnal Romans are a reflection of this.

Clearly also we have more ebbs and flows - local swins etc. We are hoping this adds to the excitement. Certanly as a comp "pro" it doesn't bother me one bit as I still feelt hat there is a great deal of skill in the game overall. But they are the skills you mention Pete:

• terrain choice (where to fight our battle)
  deployment
  mavnouvre well
  time attacks well
  rideyou luck here it happens
  manage the risks where thigns go badly
  use you strong troops in the right roll

Over the years a favourite apsttime of mine has been reading memoires of real generals. It strikes me these are the things they worried about and that the great did well - certainly the better recorded later parts of history - Malborough to Rommel say - really give me that feel.

My hope is that FOG will see a change in mindset that brings wargaming skills more in line with actual battle skills.

Si