Manlii v Julii Game 20

Game 20 – Roman Era 4: Late Republic

Triumvirate Roman (Alec 180 pts) v Parthian (Gordon 180 pts)

Major Invasion 53 BCE (ADLG Std, 31-May-2023).

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This is a Major Invasion of Parthia by Late Republican Rome, so as the Roman side I have three points up for grabs on a win but only one on a loss or draw. As I’m three points up in this era I could afford to match the enemy army size in the bidding, I was surprised that Gordon wasn’t prepared to drop lower but he let me take the Romans at 180 points.

In this era the Romans are forced to go with a large core of legionaries - heavy swordsmen in ADLG terms so the battle is going to end up with a slugfest between the Roman legionaries and the Parthian cataphracts. The key, for the Romans, is going to be to try to pin the cataphracts down into combat whilst fighting off the inevitable swarm of horse archers in as a good condition as possible.

So, I have gone with a large command of five elite legionaries led by a brilliant commander, another command of three legionaries with one elephant unit led by a competent commander and a third cavalry/light horse command led by another competent commander to try and hold off the pesky Parthian horse archers for as long as possible. In addition I’ve gone with a fortified camp for obvious reasons.

My plan will be to head towards the Parthian camp as fast as possible in order to force Gordon into battle; hopefully the elephant unit will cause him a few headaches along the way.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

I am playing from the left of the picture.

Terrain selection fell as below. A gentle hill on my rear right with a plantation further up the right edge. On the left were three fields, two in my centre and one on my far left. I was quite happy with that. I deployed my fortified camp beside the rearmost field.

So I forgot to take the usual photo following initial deployment. I decided to ignore the left-hand side of the table and deployed with my small cavalry command on my right followed by my mixed legion and elephant command then my elite legion units in the centre. I placed a couple of bluff ambushes in the fields along with one light infantry bowman unit.

Gordon deployed with a small light horse command and one cataphract on his right - facing nothing. In the centre he placed his heaviest and best troops - elite cataphracts with a couple of skirmishing bow units. On his right he placed two cataphract camel units supported by half a dozen horse archer units.

So in accordance with my plan I advanced as fast as possible with my legionaries towards his cataphracts and try and work the elephant unit into somewhere where its ability to cause panic to mounted units can come into play.

At the end of my first move the position is as follows:

I continue the advance, my left wing is already looking troubling as Gordon moves up the four Parthian horse archer units.

End of turn position:

I swing my heavy swordsmen legionaries to head towards the Parthian camp and defending cataphracts but take the first casualty on mu light infantry bowmen in the centre, ending as below:

My advance continues but I take a couple more hits from shooting, losing my first base. 

End of turn picture as below:

In accordance with my plan my legionaries in the centre continue their advance, pushing through my own skirmishers (who have been losing the missile exchange in any case), their left flank is beginning to feel a little exposed though. I only have two infantry skirmisher units to hold off his four light horse coming around my flank, not good odds. On my right I charge with my Numidian light horse towards his horse archers which promptly evade.

End of turn position as the picture below:

Gordon decides to advance a cataphract unit on his right flank to try and get round my hanging left, and an unsupported unit of cataphracts towards my mediocre elephants in the centre. Is he mad? On his left he sends a cataphract camel into one of my legionary heavy swordsmen to great effect - causing three hits, ending as follows:

If Gordon was tempting my elephant unit to charge to its destruction he was to be sorely disappointed, my elephant unit has been more than a match for the Parthian cataphract unit, sweeping it away in one turn. The Parthian camp is now nearly in charge reach. I have to leave my left hand most legionary unit hanging back from the steady infantry advance however because of the threat from his roving left wing cataphract unit.

End of turn position as follows:

Below is a close up of my right flank. Gordon's cataphract camels fail to break through but are causing me serious consternation.

The main Parthian cataphract battle line goes in with devastating results to my legionaries, but my Greek light infantry bow on the far left of my line not only hold off Gordon's roving horse archers but the one in the field actually disorder the one to their front by shooting. On the other end of the cataphract battle line Gordon's skirmishing bowmen charge in and punish my elephant unit.

End of turn position as below:

Several of my units are pushed to the limit of destruction, but I take out both of Gordon's skirmishing bowmen opposing the elephant with the support of some light infantry javelinmen. The Parthian camp is now undefended. My units on my left hold on manfully, despite Gordon throwing his general into the fight.

End of turn position as follows:

The end of the game - I loot the Parthian camp and do enough damage elsewhere to take the Parthian army over its rout level. It's a close call though three of my units die on the last turn of the game (marked D below).

Man of the match goes to the Greek light infantry unit which held off the four Parthian horse archers on my left flank for several turns, even destroying one of them.

So my plan roughly worked as I envisaged it for once. I managed to advance my centre enough to take advantage of a hole that developed in the Parthian line to get to Gordon's camp whilst fending off the light horse that he had swarming the flanks. A close run thing as it turned out but victory was claimed by the Romans, largely by getting the extra points from looting the Parthian camp.

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

The Romans are going to have lots of heavy infantry. The Parthians won’t have the space to skirmish them to death, or even much chance of damaging them with shooting. So, I need to maximise the cataphracts. And to give me more chance of beating them in combat I will take 4 (maximum) elite, and for something different will make two of them camelry.

I put the camelry in one command with some light cavalry and a competent commander, and aim to place them opposite his cavalry command.

The elite cataphracts go into one command with a brilliant commander and some light infantry, with the aim of a straight forward fight with the legions.

The rest of the light horse and one cataphract go into the final command (with an ordinary commander). A possible flank march or on table flank protection.

A simple plan and aim for open terrain.

 The game

Terrain was fine, some fields but largely out of the way.

I deploy the central cataphract command in front of the camp, the camels on the left and the remaining command on the right.

My right flank is facing his cavalry and some legions. I hope to get into contact with his cavalry and my camels and then threaten to delay the legions. My centre will wait for his legions and hope for luck (although I should have a small advantage in combat, especially if the charge goes well and I get the furious charge benefit). Alec has what appears a relatively weak left flank so I aim to get round it and threaten his rear with my light horse and the cataphract unit will threaten the flank of his legions and break up his concentration of force a little.

Alec has to win, so advances as quickly as possible in the centre and my left flank. His left flank is still a bit open so I advance here and on my left to attack the cavalry. The main force of cataphracts hold back and await the legions.

On my left my and Alec’s light horse skirmished to little effect. One unit of camels spent a lot of time charging and not catching anyone. The other unit got stuck into a legion and eventually broke it, but took a lot of damage in the process. They were destroyed when a new legion contacted them.

My right flank looked good until one unit of his light infantry fought my entire light horse to a standstill. The unit of cataphracts charged in with the general in support and proceeded to lose every combat. At least the general was able to rally some of the losses to keep them going for a while.

This was a big thing, as the central cataphracts were doing well against his legions: having had a good first round in the charge they slowly ground the legions down for no loss, but the bonus from light horse attacking their rear could have won the game for me. However, his light infantry and elephant destroyed one unit of cataphracts (I made a very silly move with it, which was not a necessary reaction to his moves) and also the light infantry (who did some damage to the elephant). They then pillaged my camp.

So, I lost.

 Post-Game

I think my basic plan was good.

My right flank was held up by a tenacious and very effective light infantry unit and suffered from shooting by another unit left secure in a field.

My left flank could have been handled better but trying to manoeuvre all the light horse proved beyond my command ability and the second unit of cataphract camelry never did much apart from get shot at.

My centre did its job, but Alec was able to outmanoeuvre me and take advantage of poor command decisions.

What might I do differently? The army itself worked. The cataphracts are needed to beat heavy infantry and there was enough light horse to provide them protection. Focussing the camels on his infantry rather than chasing light horse would have been more sensible. Learn to use light horse!

Result

Roman win - three Prestige Points to the Manlii