Manlii v Julii Game 14

Game 14 – Roman Era 1: Early Republic

Tullian Roman (Alec 170 pts) v Latin alliance (Gordon 170 pts)

Minor invasion 498 BCE (ADLG Std, 5-Apr-2023).

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This game is going to be a lottery, almost identical armies fighting each other. The only difference being that the Latins, being an alliance per the Campaign Rules, have to include an allied command and the allied command spearmen don't have the option to apply the armour upgrade.

So, if Gordon is unlucky on his opening command die roll for the allied command I can attempt to overwhelm the other part of his army. If not it may just come down to who gets lucky.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

As I am the attacker I choose Plains terrain.  Gordon has the compulsory field and chooses another field and two plantations. I successfully select a coastal area and a gentle hill. After placement the battlefield looks like this:

Gordon's left wing is closed down with lots of rough and the hill but the centre is nice and open, suitable for my heavy infantry (and his). My plan has obviously got to be to march into the centre with my first class infantry, supported by the 2nd-3rd classes and attempt to defeat whatever he places there.

Immediately after deployment the battlefield looks as follows:

I deploy in classical early Roman fashion, my four elite armoured heavy spearmen in the centre of my line, flanked by my identical but non-elite second and third class spearmen, with one in reserve. On each end I place a couple of cavalry units, one medium and one heavy, the ones on my right I deploy a little bit over so that they will be better placed to at least threaten a run on his camp. Finally I place one light infantry in ambush on my left.

Gordon deploys two first class heavy armoured and elite spearmen on his centre left and seven second/third class heavy spearmen to their right, keeping one in reserve behind the line like me; all seven of his second/third class spearmen are unarmoured though - a difference that is enough to give me an edge. He places three cavalry on his left and one on his right, a mixture of heavies and mediums. He also places six light infantry along his line, four javelin armed and two units of slingers.

Seeing Gordon's deployment I have three observations:

1.   He has more shooting capability than me;

2.   My four first class spearmen are facing his second/third class spearmen, all of whom are unarmoured, not just those belonging to the allied command.

3.   He must have several units in ambush as he's saved points on his heavies by not armouring most of them.

So, given that I am the invader and need to force the pace to earn my two Prestige Points, my plan has to be to get my first class spear into his second/third class spear as fast as possible; but I will need to watch out for that ambush so my right wing advance will have to be more cautious. If I can get up close to the plantation on his left, I should be able to stop his cavalry advancing where it can get round my flank whilst not letting his ambush get too much of a drop on me whilst I capitalise on my heavy infantry advantage.

So, as invader, I move first and advance my centre straight forward. At the end of my first turn the situation is as follows:

In Gordon's turn he manages to avoid getting an unreliable allied command and he advances all his light troops towards me, but not quite yet in firing range. The situation at the end of Gordon's first turn is as below:

In my second turn I maintain the advance, moving right up to his light infantry and the plantation that contains his ambush. As my heavy spearmen are all armoured they, not surprisingly, shrug off his shooting no problem (Gordon's light infantry shoot with a minus one modifier to the die roll whilst, as my heavies are armoured, they add two plus my first class spearmen add another one if rolling low). At the end of my second turn the position is as follows:

The position at the end of Gordon's second turn is as below, he hasn't done much other than move one of his right flank light javelinmen around behind mine. His shooting is ineffectual again.

My third turn - my light infantry set foot in the plantation in front of Gordon's left wing; Gordon reveals his ambush! Two javelinmen:

On my third turn I charge forward with my centre. Typically (and unfortunately for Gordon) he rolls low with two of his light infantry on their evade move and my heavies roll up! Goodbye skirmishers - an easy four points towards victory.

My left flank cavalry chase after his skirmishers but fail to contact, I flee with my right hand cavalry trying to tempt his javelinmen out into the open.

End of my third turn the situation is as follows:

In Gordon's turn he decides to initiate the fight between our main battle lines and also charges my light infantry in the plantation with his javelinmen, as he decided to charge me with his left hand javelinmen unit (from his perspective) I chose to stand, forcing him to displace the other one backwards; meaning it can't move this turn.

The position after Gordon's charge into contact, but before combat is as the picture below. My four first class spearmen are matched against his second/third class and two of my second/third class spearmen are up against his first class.

Not surprisingly my guys come out better in the heavy infantry combats where my first class are involved, but there's no doubt I got lucky against his first class spearmen - my second/third class winning both of those too.

During my turn, I do very little manoeuvring, using my command points to recover from disruption where possible. The combats continue to favour me, my armour saving me on several match ups. In the centre several of his units are getting very close to destruction.

So, the position at the end of my fourth turn is as follows:

In Gordon's fourth turn his centre begins to collapse, he does, however, destroy my rightmost heavy infantry and the light infantry in the plantation.

In my fifth turn I finish off his entire centre fighting my first class spear. In my turn I'll be able to turn onto both of his units either side of the gap, both of whom are within one cohesion point of destruction, their loss taking him to within one point of army rout.

At the end of my fifth turn the position is as follows:

At the end of my fifth turn, seeing no hope of beating me, Gordon throws in the proverbial (or should that be the virtual) towel. The final position is as below:

Gordon's comments

Pre-Game

Looks like two armies of largely heavy spearmen will be battering at each other.

The option to upgrade everyone to armour is briefly tempting, but the difference shouldn’t be that great. I will go for max of heavy infantry and quite a lot of light infantry to slow things down a bit and maybe do some damage. Four cavalry seems a sensible idea. A couple of javelinmen for the main army might be useful.

The Latin Ally gets mainly heavy infantry, a unit of cavalry to provide some flank protection, and some light infantry to maybe do some damage and slow things down. 

The game

I want some terrain for the javelinmen and light troops. Otherwise cavalry and heavy infantry want open terrain.

I get the terrain I want on my left. So I place the command with cavalry and javelinmen there in ambush. Might seem odd putting cavalry there, but they can move through rough terrain fairly quickly if I see any advantage to moving round Alec’s right flank. Otherwise, they might frighten his heavy infantry. I don’t have to charge them and to win he needs to beat me.

Big infantry centre, and the right held by the Ally with light troops on the extreme right. They will try to annoy and/or shoot up his cavalry and ambush.

He has armoured all his heavy infantry and maxed out on elite troops. I am hoping that the +1 bonus if they lose a combat won’t prove too much of an advantage and that my extra numbers will give me the opportunity for +1 support in combat and/or a flank attack.

I wait for him to get within charge range as there is no reason for me to rush the battle. Send the light troops forward to try to get some lucky hits. My shooting is execrable. And he gets most of his line close to mine. However, the ambush is doing its job and his right flank is held back, so I have a small local advantage.

When he gets in charge range I have opportunities for +1 support at each end of the line and that is my best chance to win, so in we go. And we suffer for our boldness – Alec wins big and loses small (armour saves a number of his units from taking any losses). This is not good. Not yet a disaster but I am seeing what I thought was my best chance failing.

In subsequent turns I kill one unit of light infantry with the javelinmen and still hold up his right flank. I eventually get lucky where my cavalry overlap at the left end of my line and a very battered unit of elite spear beat their opponents. At the other end the overlap doesn’t help (despite two overlaps) and my cavalry take a hit. In the middle the elite armoured Romans destroy everything in their path, for no loss I think.

It is all over. 

Post-Game

Blimey! I don’t remember armour being so decisive. I think I was a little unlucky in the first round of combat and never recovered from that (rallying in combat is hard and rallying only ever recovers one loss; when you take two in the first round it is going to be hard to win and recover). The large random variations in combat helped me a bit after the first round and I broke one unit, but did not get the same luck in the centre.

Maybe putting my allies on the left in the rough terrain would have been better, and the cavalry wing on my right flank. The light infantry would have done a similar job as the javelinmen but are less of a threat to heavy infantry. Three units of cavalry on my right would have been more of a challenge for Alec. But I didn’t know what troops he had chosen or how they would be arranged within the army.

So, I am blaming bad luck for this loss.

Result

Roman win - Two Prestige Points to the Manlii