Slitherine

A Battle in Pictures
A 600 point battle between Classical Indians and a Mid-Republic Army.

I'm not having much luck so far with the Mid-Republic Romans...

Before Deployment


The Indians had the initiative and chose Agricultural. The terrain came down all to the sides, resulting in a very open center and very little terrain anywhere important. A gentle hill, two open fields and a plantation is all that was placed, and all on the Roman side of the table.

My initial feeling was that open ground would favor me, as I'd be able to advance the heavy foot Legions without getting bogged down in terrain. You may start laughing now.

Deployment


The red lines indicate the Roman "center", while the blue indicate the Indian "center". The Roman deployment is standard, with the two Legions in the center, the Spanish Scutarii and armored cavalry on the left while the Italian allied foot and protected cavalry is on the right.

The Indian deployment was heavy chariots, 2 units of elephants and a unit of cavalry on their right, 2 units of medium foot bow, a unit of Javelinmen and an elephant in the center behind a unit of forest Indians, and an elephant and medium foot bow on the left.

The initial deployment by the Indians has weighted their right with their decision forces (elephants, chariots and cavalry), but at this point it doesn't look too bad for the Romans on that side. However, the weight of Indian shooting on the Roman right is heavy and threatening.

My initial thought was to advance quickly and bring the Indians to contact rapidly. I expect the scutarii and cavalry on the right to delay the elephants, while the Legions got into contact. My right flank cavalry would try to tie up the far flank of the Indians, while the Italian allies screened the right flank.

To this point, I'd been told that the shooting was fairly ineffective in the game and that the Indian medium foot had trouble in a stand up fight. First lesson learned - don't believe everything you're told.

Early Maneuvers

End of Indian Turn One


The Indians advance and manage a slight echelon and wheel. The chariots, elephants and cavalry on the Indian right runs ahead of the line.

End of Roman Turn One


The Romans also advance. Legions leave the medium foot behind by using the Second Move.

I had to move the commanders to the medium foot on the flanks, looking to get that second move in for them so they could keep up with the Legions. In hindsight, this might actually have been a mistake... the medium foot can always catch up and having them back might actually have done more to protect my flanks than having them forward.

End of Indian Turn Two


The elephants are charging ahead, the chariots following in echelon and the Indian cavalry fills the resulting gap. The forest archers are racing forward as well, looking to slow down the advance of the Romans.

End of Roman Turn Two


The Roman velites separate in the center, hoping to slow up the chariots and screen off the forest archers. On the Roman right, the Italian foot catches up. On the Roman left, the cavarly shifts from an 'evade' poster to a fight formation.

This is the last turn everything is going to plan, and the last turn I have the illusion that shooting in Field of Glory is "ineffective". The velites have broken away looking to do a standard job of driving off the enemy skirmish scree (the light foot bow), and disrupt his advance.

"Over the top, boys!"

I started to feel like I was charging across No-Man's Land into the face of machine guns over the following turns...

Indian Turn Three


The Indian archery kicks in... the velites in front of the chariots are disrupted by their fire. Just a taste of things to come. The bulk of the Indian line holds in place, content to let events develop.

Roman Turn Three (Indian 0/11AP, Roman 1/12AP)


Indian shooting from the chariots manages to fragment the velites and the Indian army has its first Attrition Point. The chariots slow up the advance of Legion II and the armored cavalry on the Roman left has done some arranging.

Indian archery off the chariots was particularly nasty, particularly on the small four stand unit. At this point, I was extremely concerned about the elephants off to the left of my line. I felt that if I advanced my Legions too far forward, looking to engage the Indian main line, I'd be openning a flank to the chariots. This slowed that left Legion, and the Roman line started to break up again.

Indian Turn Four (Indian 0/11AP, Roman 2/12AP)


The forest indians pull back from the velites and disrupt them with fire. Meanwhile, the Indian chariots route the velites with a third volley of fire. The elephants on the far right of the Indian line move up and prepare to engage the scutarii.

Roman Turn Four (Indian 2/11AP, Roman 3/12AP)


The Romans decide they can't wait and send the scutarii and armored cavarly forward against the elephants. The cavalry take it on the nose - disrupted and lose a stand in the resulting combats. The scutarii are disrupted and lose a stand, but manage to kill a stand of elephants... resulting in an auto-break and rout by the pachyderms! The scutarii pursue into the Indian chariots, which are themselves disrupted by seeing the elephants route.

In the center, the velites charge forward and drive off the light foot bow ... and are shot up by the medium bow. Roman Legion II (on the left) wheels slightly and prepares to charge the Indian chariots in their next opportunity. On the Roman far right, the cavalry moves forward, looking to drive into the Indian flank.

The break of the elephants was luck - he rolled a 1. This was the high point for the Romans; the Indians were momentarily concerned and possibly in trouble. However, reviewing things from this distance, I can see that the Roman line is once more fragmented and going in piecemeal. This is especially bad against the steady line of bowmen. Still, if my luck held, I could have pulled off something here.

Indian Turn Five (Indian 2/11AP, Roman 4/12AP)


The elephants and chariots spend the turn mixing it up on the Indian right. The Roman velites in the center hold up under heavy fire, and on the Indian left, the Roman cavarly has managed to bolster itself.

The key moves here were the Indian cavalry, which moves up and plants itself in front of the Roman Legion and the fact that scutarii conformed and blocked the front of the Indian chariots.

Roman Turn Five (Indian 2/11AP, Roman 7/12AP)


The Roman armored cavalry and scutarii continue to muck it up with the Indian elephants and chariots on the Roman left. On the far right, the Roman cavalry is repulsed with heavy losses by the medium bowmen. In the center, the velites break under the relentless fire and the Italian allied foot also take it in the chops by volleyed bowfire.

The Legion II (on the left) moves up but does not contact the Indian horse.

Big mistake this turn was not charging the Indian cavalry and trying to drive it off or at least forced it to break off - something that would have likely happened. Instead, I effectively neutralized my Legion by choice. On the right flank, I learned that even medium foot can kick cavalry ass, if it has enough machine guns... I mean, bows. Of course, the real mistake there was not supporting the cavalry with my own medium foot.

The balance here is clearly in the Indian favor... and I'm thinking it might have been an idea to have bolstered the routing velites to keep the APs from going to his side.

The End Game

Indian Turn Six (Indian 2/11AP, Roman 11/12AP)


The Indian Army comes close to winning this turn, but the Roman's hold on. Bow fire breaks the Roman cavalry on the Indian left. Bowfire decimates the Italian foot in the center. The chariots destroy the scutarii finally, and the elephants break the armored cavalry. In pursuit, the chariots impact the Legion.

If the Legion II had charged the cavalry, then likely the Indian chariots would have pursued into no where.

Roman Turn Six (Indian 2/11AP, Roman 11/12AP)


Only by a lucky bolster of the Roman cavalry on the right is the Roman army able to hold on. The Legion is mucked in with the chariots, is worse for wear for the experience. In the center, the Legion there charges forward against the light bow and gets shot up.

Really, the writing is on the wall here, with the Roman army disintegrating fast. The chariots are more than a match for the heavy foot, and the Indian shooting continue to be deadly.

Indian Turn Seven (Indian 2/11AP, Roman 14/12AP)


The elephants charge the fragmented Italian foot, who rout and trample the Army commander under foot. On the Indian right, the chariots roll over the Roman legionairres and capture a Roman senator. And in the center, bowfire continues to rain down on the remnants of the Roman army which breaks and routs away.

Victory to the Indian army.

Once more, I make the mistake of fragmenting my army and letting it be defeated in detail. My current lesson from all this is to consider the two Legions as one "maneuver unit", rather than as two separate units. This might help keep them from splitting up and getting chewed up piece meal like they have against the Macedonian and Indians.

Another lesson learned is that medium foot bow is deadly, especially when your opponent rolls 4+ alot. Chariots and elephants are as scarey as expected, though chariots also benefit from the rolling a lot of 4+, as well.

The Indian advance on their right was very effective in pinning the Roman left - if I continued to advance, they'd be on my flank; if I turned to face them, though, the medium foot and elephants of the main Indian line could advance on the newly exposed flank. Even so, once more I should have committed the Legion on that side to the fight sooner, and probably held back the other forces as a 'flank protection' force, instead of advance into the bow fire of the Indian line.

Nice write-up!

We did this too last night with 900AP as practice for Devizes this July.

Romans had 2 Legions with the Scutari, Extraordinarii, Cav and a Pergamene ally. Indian went for heavy chariots, lots of elephants, more elephants, and a few elephants. Oh and some battle wagons and a few archers.

The Indians maxed out on terrain with mainly rough and uneven, the Mid Rep Romans also maxed out with Hills, Forest and Brush. I think this was key, as the terrain fell nicely enouh for the two legions to sit in a gap and advance with protected flanks. The MF taking the terrain either side. Pergamene on one flank and the Nellies and Cav on the other. The Indians used the Battle wagons to protect a flank and then trundled forward.

For the Romans we kept it really tight and manged to draw out some of the enemy bow from the forest as a legion threatened to move in andswing around the elephants. The enemy bow were creamed. But the Scutati did get trashed by elphants in the brush. Fortunately there were lights in the to tie up the nellies had we carried on.

The 4 base Indian chariot BG performed badly, losing out to the Pergamene HF Theurophoroi.

Elephants vs the other Legion was touch and go either way with one BG on each side beginning to look shakey so could have gone either way. Significantly the elephants were failing death rolls.

Whilst the Romans played tight, the Indians did manouevre a bit which hindered them as their support line where not always in place. Also, they gave the Romans the dream start by charging velites with their cavalry. The Velites dispersed back through the legion and the cavalry slammed into a brick wall and promptly broke.

At the end we had the winning draw 8pts to 6pts and had we continued it still could have gone either way.

Steve P