Manlii v Julii Game 26

Game 26 – Roman Era 7: Late Empire

Late Imperial Roman (Gordon 210 pts) v Huns (Alec 220 pts)

Major defence 390 CE (ADLG Std, 19-July-2023).

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This is a Major defence of Rome against the Huns, so there is one point up for grabs by the Romans and three for the Huns. I was happy to let Gordon take up the Romans at 210 ADLG points as I am a point up already in this era and there are three Prestige Points available on a Roman defeat.

As the attacker I’ll be able to dictate the region so can guarantee it will at least be Plains. Given that my army will be mostly if not entirely mounted I will choose the minimum terrain.

I expect Gordon will not choose to try and compete with my plentiful mounted troops and will make himself as small an area as possible to defend surrounded by bad terrain where he can deploy and wait for me to attack. He could (should?) even choose field fortifications to man. I’ll have to see what he does.

If Gordon goes with fortifications I can dismount my cavalry to become useful medium and heavy infantry to attack him; if he does not, my plan may have to be to skirmish him to death. I have one small light horse command so I will have the opportunity to flank march behind him, which may be useful if he chooses fortifications  and obstacles. 

PS. before the battle I decided to abandon the small light horse third command plan and go with three more evenly balanced commands.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

That’s the plan!

The Battle

 As usual I'm on the left.

Terrain ended up as below. A gentle hill and village on my left, three fields and a road on my right:

Given that the best terrain for defence is in my left centre I expect Gordon will deploy towards his right and march forward to take it so I will deploy accordingly. 

Deployment was as below. I deployed with Gothic impetuous subject infantry swordsmen in the centre plus four Hunnic light horse led by an ordinary commander, three elite Hunnic noble heavy cavalry on my left led by a competent commander plus six Hunnic light horse; and four Herul & Sciri impetuous heavy cavalry and six Hunnic light horse on my right led by a brilliant commander. I decided to leave the impetuous troops to the rear until Gordon revealed his intentions leaving my commanders free to spend their CPs on moving the Hunnic light horse around to start with.

Gordon surprised me by having a fairly numerous cavalry wing, which he deployed on his right - four light horse and two heavy cavalry plus two auxilia - elite Auxilia Palatina swordsmen units - on his baseline and. In the centre he deployed a line of legionary and auxilia swordsmen - a mixture of heavy and medium units. On his left he placed  another couple of heavy cavalry plus two cataphract units plus his only bow armed infantry units - two auxilia sagittarii.

With only two infantry bow armed units and four light horse bow armed units I outnumbered Gordon three to one in shooting capability and was determined to take advantage of that superiority as much as possible.

So, to war. On my first turn I advanced my light horse forward, beginning to concentrate as many as possible towards my left wing to overwhelm the Roman cavalry placed there. I advanced a couple of light horse on my far right to keep the Roman left wing cavalry occupied for as long as possible. The position at the end of my first turn was as below:

On Gordon's first turn he advanced on his left into the field whilst commencing to pull his right wing Auxilia Palatina back towards his left. Otherwise it was all pretty static except in the centre where Gordon wheeled his infantry line to his right - maybe Gordon's CPs weren't great on the first turn but it suited me.

The position at the end of Gordon's first turn was as below:

On my second turn I advanced as many of my bow armed mounted into shooting range on my left as I could - I managed to get thirteen into range against Gordon's four. The result wasn't entirely unexpected I achieved three disorders to Gordon's nil.

The position at the end of my second turn was as below:

In Gordon's turn he charged his right flank equites to his right to chase off my light horse and continued to advance on his left. In the shooting phase the Roman light horse began to disappear - two units went under; to be honest I was surprised Gordon left them there.

The position at the end of Gordon's second turn was as below:

In my third turn I returned my light horse back into the fray and managed to get my noble heavies into threatening positions too. The shooting pressure continued on Gordon's cavalry - two more hits.

The position at the end of my third turn was as below:

In Gordon's turn he charged his central infantry line forward, scaring off a couple of my light horse. On his right he charged with his equites again. I evaded against the un-disordered one but decided to stand against the double-disordered one, even though I only had light horse. It paid off, I destroyed it in the melee phase. I also took out another of Gordon's light horse.

The position at the end of Gordon's third turn was as below:

In my fourth turn I charged the now exposed flank of Gordon's sole remaining equites cavalry unit on his right flank, catching it in the flank with my elite Hunnic nobles; Gordon chose to stand rather than evade off table. Unsurprisingly it was wiped out. I also scored one more hit on his sole remaining light horse archer.

On my right I pulled my light horse back to safety, seeing no need to risk them.

At this point being twelve losses down to my zero Gordon decided the game was unwinnable and capitulated, even though no infantry had as yet been engaged. I agree it probably was going to be a tall ask to stop me winning the battle at this point but even so, as the loss of three Prestige Points probably means this era is going to be almost unwinnable for Gordon and a fight for a draw was still possible given Gordon's intact infantry line I would have given it a shot in his place.

The position at the end of my fourth turn and the end of the game was as below:

Gordon surprised me by taking quite a few mounted troops, thereby weakening his infantry line whilst still not being able to even seriously compete with my cavalry in terms of numbers. Concentrating seventeen mounted units on my left wing enabled me to quickly overwhelm Gordon's half-dozen mounted units on his right cavalry wing, leading to an easy eleven army points to me in the first three turns before his infantry could make any significant progress.

I can understand Gordon's desire to try something other than just sitting there and being shot to pieces by my horse archers but I don't think the plan he came up with was ever going to work. I difficult match up for the Romans which is why I wasn't prepared to outbid Gordon for the honour of playing them. I think Gordon bid too low for this one and on the day probably should have deployed the cavalry command on his left whilst driving hard for the village.

Gordon's comments

Pre-Game

The Huns look too difficult for me to use to beat a Roman army. Fun, perhaps, but beyond my abilities. So, I bid low to win the Romans and do so.

The Huns will have some medium and light horse and I imagine a lot of German allies for impetuous foot and impact cavalry.

I need to have an army to defend, but can’t resist some flexibility and also will take a lot of cavalry.

So, solid infantry centre of 5 legions and an auxilia unit under a competent commander. These will try to find some terrain to protect the flanks and await the onslaught.

One command of heavy cavalry lancers and cataphracts to stand up to his infantry and maybe destroy lighter horse, supported by infantry bow and some auxilia in case of poor terrain and perhaps they will keep his horse archers at a distance.

One command of heavy cavalry and light horse supported by elite auxilia to make a nuisance of themselves and slow things down. 

The game

My deployment was truly appalling. Alec took full advantage and I surrendered after two or three turns without causing him a loss (well may be a couple, but he rallied those). 

Post-Game

I didn’t have to try to win. Should have read my pre-battle notes. 

Result

 Hunnic win - minus three Prestige Points to the Julii