Manlii v Julii Game 22

Game 22 – Roman Era 5: Early Empire

Early Imperial Roman (Gordon 6,225 pts) v Dacian (Alec 6,500 pts)

Minor Invasion 88 CE (MeG Magna, 14-June-2023).

Battlefield Effects: Romans: Troop Late Arrival

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This is a Minor Invasion of Dacia by early Imperial Rome. Gordon is one Prestige Point down in this era so is eager to turn things around and bid quite low to be the Romans with the chance to gain two Prestige Points on a win, finally giving me a 275 point advantage on the battle. Time will tell as to whether this is too big, but he does have the advantage of a Battlefield Effect: Troop Late Arrival.

So I find myself defending with the Dacians in 88 CE. As early Roman armies have a deficit of decent cavalry I have decided to choose a decent size allied command of early Sarmatian Iazygians which will give me three TUGs of good charging lancers. The risk of course is that they become Hesitant or worse as determined by the Command Card draw in the first turn.

The lancers combined with the famed Dacian falxmen, classed as Devastating Chargers in MeG parlance, should give me the opportunity to deal Gordon a nasty surprise when they get into combat. As the Dacians are an army of tribal Barbarians my plan is going to be as simple as possible - line up and Chaaaaaaaarge!

The Battle

The pre-battle system isn't kind to either Gordon or me! 

First, despite Gordon choosing mountain terrain I get the better cards and choose the lowest terrain density option and manage to keep it that way, the only terrain is a secure flank of mountains and forests. But then secondly Gordon gets the advantage in scouting, we each have only two scouting cards and I draw two white cards so zero scouting; Gordon draws two red cards! So I have to deploy 80% of my army first giving Gordon the chance to dictate the match ups on deployment and the subsequent fighting.

I decide to deploy all my cavalry on the open flank and the infantry on the right and in the centre. Interestingly Gordon then does the opposite, placing his infantry on his open flank and his cavalry next to the terrain on his left, he also puts an ambush in the mountains and I put one in the forest - both turn out to be bluffs. 

As Gordon has deployed the bulk of his forces over to my left it appears I will have to attempt to swing round to face them - not easy with a army of tribal infantry. 

My army consists of a mix of superior and average quality troops which I roughly alternate along my front line, giving me the ability to push ahead most strongly with my better troops and perhaps not so strongly with the less elite types. Gordon, however, seems to have gone with an entire army of average quality equites, legionaries and auxilia; the reverse of what I expected for a Roman army.

The situation after deployment is as follows:

The first card draw is kind to my Sarmatian allied command - they are reliable and with decent cards.

As the active player Gordon wastes no time in launching his entire army at mine, clearly it isn't going to be long before we join combat. I decide I will have to change my initial planning thoughts slightly and refuse my cavalry flank for a time as the Sarmatians would be in danger of being defeated in detail before I could get the infantry up in support if I was to just blindly advance them forward. So taking advantage of decent first turn cards for the Sarmatian command (the only command that drew good cards in the first turn as it happens) I turn the Sarmatians to the flank and commence marching behind the infantry. The command cards drawn for my infantry commands are so bad all I can do is move them them straight forward.

I send the Dacian light horse, which I had placed on my far left flank, forward though and they enter Cantabrian formation as they go - shooting is ineffective though.

 End of turn one below:

Turn two sees Gordon charge his equites into contact with my infantry and then, after a poor performance in charge and melee combat, particularly as I have pushed forward on either side, they break off to avoid being flanked.

Elsewhere my light horse gets its first shooting hit and Gordon continues his advance on his left wing - turning at an angle towards my retreating cavalry. The Sarmatian command didn't get good cards this turn so all I can do is continue marching them to my right. 

I find it interesting how the course of a battle can be determined by the Command Card draws, firstly in turn one my Allied Sarmatian command is the only one to get decent cards which enables them to commence the turning manoeuvre, in turn two all they can do is either stand still or continue moving the same direction. I wonder how many C-in-Cs watched impotently from a distance as some subordinate decided to reinterpret or change his orders. (ps. I feel Gordon missed the perfect opportunity here to use his Battlefield Effect - he could have cancelled my turning and running away in turn one or even had me move the Sarmatian cavalry forward unsupported if he was lucky enough instead, or he could have caused mayhem in turn two by cancelling their retreat and leaving them in danger of being charged in the flank).

End of turn two below:

Turn three sees no charging but I destroy my first enemy base from shooting by the light horse as they evade from Gordon's charging auxilia.

My cards are a bit better so I manage to start turning to face Gordon's infantry with both my infantry and the Sarmatians. On my right I advance into the mountains with a warrior unit to check out the ambush.

End of turn three below:

In turn four I charge into contact with one of my superior TUGs of noble falxmen and line up my Sarmatians ready to charge next turn. The charge combat is quite successful - I kill one base of Gordon's legion TUG and he achieves one wound in return.

Fearing that my light horse SUG will be swept off the board I turn away ready to retreat across table in my turn. On my right I advance over the mountain and ensure Gordon's ambush is a bluff.

End of turn four below:

In turn five I charge in with two Sarmatian TUGs. The result was to prove shattering and demoralising in equal measure: I achieved three Skulls and a Wound against one Skull in return with the result that, despite not having used the Battlefield Effect, Gordon decided he couldn't win and surrendered on the spot!

End of charge phase of turn five and end of game below:

Close up of the Sarmatian cavalry charge end of charge phase turn five below:

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

I again fancy trying to win some points, so bid a little low to win the Romans. I choose 88 AD to reflect the three failed Roman invasions undertaken by Domitian.

We are playing MeG. Alec will have plenty of devastating charging infantry and probably he will max out on Sarmatian type heavy cavalry. This is unlikely to be pretty.

I will have to try to capitalise on the very expensive drilled Roman infantry. They have some chance if they can hold the Dacian charge. A couple of cavalry units to protect flanks as I advance as quickly as possible into contact.

I am also going to be outnumbered and hope that three competent generals will be enough to do the job.

As drilled flexible troops with a deep and abiding fear of massed charging lancers I want lots of rough terrain. 

The game

The terrain did not go my way – not a good start. However, I get very lucky with the scouting and Alec had to deploy 80% of his army before I had to deploy any of mine.

Alec set up lots of infantry on his right and centre. On his left a unit of cavalry with enough gaps to suggest there were more cavalry. I deployed facing his relatively empty left flank. I didn’t fancy trying to carve through lots of large infantry units while what I expected to be his very strong cavalry flank chewed up my right flank. Also I hoped that I could advance to turn his infantry flank and that his cavalry weren’t too successful when they had to charge.

I deployed two legions and two auxilia on my right with the plan that my auxilia would shoot and/or chase his light horse to destruction while the legions forced his cavalry to charge at some time. The other four legions formed a central command to advance and turn to attack Alec’s infantry’s left flank once his cavalry were engaged. I deployed my two cavalry units to face his massed infantry to slow things down and also deter him from turning to quickly to face my Roman infantry. The cavalry would advance and shoot and/or charge to do this.

The plan started fine for a couple of turns. All three commands advanced with the infantry inclining right to focus on his left flank and the cavalry going straight forward:

1.      On my left the cavalry did their job and held up his infantry.

2.      In the centre the infantry got into position to threaten his infantry from their flank.

3.  The right flank caused his cavalry to move back to protect that flank, giving me some room to manoeuvre.

And then it all fell apart:

1.      His light horse slowly destroyed one auxilia for no loss.

2.      His cavalry charged my right flank legions and almost destroyed them in one turn.

3.    One unit of superior warband charged one of my centre’s legions and almost destroyed it in one turn.

4.  Three command cards per command was not enough to allow me to continue threatening his infantry’s left flank and try to stop the destruction all around them.

With three legions in combat rolling white to his green and already badly damaged, next turn there would be a big gap through which his warband and cavalry would charge to destroy the rest of the Roman army. At this point it all seemed a bit pointless to carry on, so I conceded. 

Post-Game

Should I have chosen a smaller but more elite force? Given the terrain and the plan on the day that might have worked – the focus on turning his flank would not have changed and the infantry had more chance of standing up to charges. But, the terrain could have gone some other way and numbers might have been more advantageous. I was certain Alec would take Sarmatians, so perhaps a unit or two of light horse instead of a legion would have been useful. That is probably a better idea as they would have provided more flexibility.

I misread the Battlefield effect and paid the price for that. It might have made some difference during the first two or three turns of manoeuvre.

His four commands allowed him to match my three drilled commands. Wasn’t expecting that!

It was one of those MeG games where it seemed to me quite obvious after a couple of turns of combat where the game was going. To be fair that probably can happen with most systems, but the relatively small number of units seems to make it more obvious compared to ADLG.

Result

 Dacian win - minus one Prestige Point to the Julii