Slitherine

The Forces (for Oct. 18's Battle):

The Spanish Under Sertorius



The Celtiberian heavies still have the best chance against the Romans in the open, but so far, in three or four games, once the Roman legionaries connect...it's been a slaughter. The trick for the Spanish is to delay that hit as long as possible! So skirmishers out front just hoping to entangle with Roman skirmishers...but there's no way the Roman CAN put skirmishers out in front of his heavies for fear of them getting tangled up and delaying that eventual hit.
Of course the Spanish end up with droves of bodies on the flanks...hoping for that glorious encirclement. Will Pompey's Gallic cavalry hold them off? Will his tiny band of Cretans delay them long enough? Tune in next weekend (or whenever I finally manage to post the results), same FoG channel, same FoG time!

The Romans Under Pompey the Young



The best troops in the army, aside from the legionaries, is the superior armoured Gallic cavalry. Working together as two 4-paks with commander(s), they can more than hold their own against any of the Spanish cavalry. Supported by those nimble Cretans (who also are superior...rerolling those pesky '1s'), they can be extremely effective on one flank. Only prob...there's another flank!

Since reading more about the Punic War I am interested in anything Spanish. Can't wait to read the Bat AAR.

Brian

Thanks for the army lists and set-up. I eagerly await your battle report!

Salve,
Scott

All I can say is.... "Play up Pompey, Pompey play up !"

The forces deployed!



The rough terrain all falls on the Spanish side. Will they come out of it? Notice the Spanish generals waiting to scurry the skirmishers forward with double moves!

Opening moves.



The Roman right flank felt awfully weak: only two 4paks of LH and a 10pak of LF versus a 10pak of MF impact + Sertorius with the Spanish Cavalry along with a 6pak of slings. But terrain would help the Romans.

Terrain problems!



The terrain slows the Spanish down more than planned. This gives the Romans time to manouver. The slings advance but put themselves within range of the Roman LF javelins...

In the centre, the Romans plod forward and the Spanish skirmishers (LH + Javelins LF) dash towards them to slow the heavies down.

On the Roman left flank, the Gallic Sup Arm cavalry advance.

Skirmishers everywhere!



The Roman right continues to move into place, eyes on the slingers. The skirmishers moved right up to the heavies, hoping to cause cohesion tests from shooting, but to no avail.

On the left, the lines close.

Action!



A. The Roman LF javelins have charged into the Spanish slingers. The Spanish cavalry has joined in. The steep hill on the far left of the Spanish line continues to hang them up.

B. In the centre, the skirmishers flee from the Roman charges.

C. The Spanish slingers evade the Roman cavalry charge which hits the Spanish drilled MF behind! The Spanish general valiantly attempts to stave off doom!

Roman Glory!



A. The Roman LF drives the Spanish slings off. Remarkably, they stand and continue to fight the Spanish cavalry! (I think there may have been a couple "11's" on cohesion rolls!

In the centre, a familiar pattern. The skirmishers are back!

B. The Spanish drilled MF soon fall to the Roman cavalry.

Mixed Results



On the Roman right, the glorious LF finally succumb to the Spanish cavalry. They never broke...they died to the last! But now the Roman offensive spears take aim at the Spanish cavalry.

Guess what the skirmishers do in the centre?

Spanish LH javelins disrupted Pompey's elephants!

Right Roman flank moves on.

The centres connect soon!



Spanish left flank is looking a bit rough...cavalry close to being hit by spears...MF unable to catch pesky Roman LH...

Skirmishers flee behind the lines!

A mishmash of Romans set up in front of a 10pak of Spanish MF, tempting them to charge.

Lots of Action!



Roman Right: LH keeps Spanish MF occupied; offensive spears hit the Spanish cavalry; Roman 4pak of heavies keeps Spanish LH off offensive spear flank.

Mixed-up melee on the Roman left! The Cretans help by standing to receive the Spanish charge...but not for long. The elephants, much to Pompey's horror, also are in for it...

All over but the elephant-burgers!



A. Spanish cavalry runs off. (Now...it occurs to me we muddled up there...the cavalry should have broke-off and reassembled away from the spears the first time they connected...but ah well...live and maybe remember next time!

In the centre. the Romans hit one of the Celtiberian BGs and already the Spanish begin to crack. One more round there will see the BG break. The fighting continues over the bodies of the elephants and into the woods!

We called the game at that point, giving it to the Romans even though neither side had lost large numbers of BGs. The game was very enjoyable, saw much better use of skirmishers than previous games, saw the typical Romans-march-across-the-table, saw the Spanish left flank begin to crumble because of a BG of Roman LF with javelins, and saw the Roman Gallic cavalry (superior/armoured) do its usual thing (expensive but worth it!).

Nice AAR and pics, I enjoyed reading it. This game illustrates nicely a question I posted a few weeks ago about strategy. It looked like the Spanish fought mainly on their side of the board with a number of BGs not even moving. I guess if your in the terrain you want why move your line.

Can I ask, who is the manufacturer of the Roman Cavalry?

If everything goes as planned I will be trying to run a demo game next month and will post an AAR and pics as well. Nothing like a good game to spread the word.


Brian

The Spanish DO linger on their side; at least the centre. There really is no way, barring extreme luck, that even the Celtiberian HF can stand up to the Roman heavies. What has seemed to be the best plan has been to hold back, delay the inevitable hit, while you attempt to do something with one or more flanks.

The problem with THAT strategy is that even 1 BG can hang you up. We actually played a 2nd game yesterday, switching sides. It took me 3 or 4 turns to get flank BGs into enemy ones...then the Roman offensive spears: 1. disrupted in first combat > 2. bolstered a turn later > 3. disrupted > 4. fragmented > finally broke...but that was anothe 5 turns worth of time!

I don't see any prob with a player doing this. In that 2nd game I figured I'd push the Celtiberians out...they died .

Figures are all RAFM from here in Ontario:

http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant. ... y_Code=AHP

They are "multiparts"...so lots of variations possible but lots of gluing too! There is probably better quality stuff out there, but I like the figures (done by a buddy who use to live here)(Bob Murch) and I like being able to combine different heads/shields/weapons, esp. for "barbarian type" armies.



Dan T.

BrianC wrote:Nice AAR and pics, I enjoyed reading it. This game illustrates nicely a question I posted a few weeks ago about strategy. It looked like the Spanish fought mainly on their side of the board with a number of BGs not even moving. I guess if your in the terrain you want why move your line.

Can I ask, who is the manufacturer of the Roman Cavalry?

If everything goes as planned I will be trying to run a demo game next month and will post an AAR and pics as well. Nothing like a good game to spread the word.


Brian

Ideally, the Celtiberians should be held at 15MU from rear table edge. This allows for an initial rout of 3+2 as a worst case...then will allow for three rally attempts before they flee off rear table edge.

As well, each side of the Celtiberian BG needs a 6pak of MF in rear support. These should be connected by any pursuing enemy BGs, leaving the Celts outside of the 6MU restriction for rallying.

Thanks Dan,

I just made that comment about the Spanish not moving because I was playing before where I would advance in order to be fair to the other player. I felt it was wrong to stay in one place where say my flank is protected and make the other player come after me. So its good to hear that players are playing to the strength of their armies and I will do the same thing next time its needed.

RAFM is 25mm right? Currently I have all 15mm but I must admit 25mm looks great.

Brian