Manlii v Julii Game 27

Game 27 – Roman Era 1: Early Republic

Tullian Roman (Gordon 200 pts) v Sabines (Alec 220 pts)

Minor defence 504 CE (ADLG Std, 23-August-2023).

Battlefield Effects: Weather Effect 2 – Fog. Roman – Special Adjustment 5 – Night Shift Engineering Works; Battlefield Manoeuvres 5 – Hidden Ambush.

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This is a Minor defence of Rome against the Sabines with their Fidenae (Etruscan) and Camerians (Latins) allies based on a battle in 504 BCE. The battle is a night attack by the Sabines et al on a Roman fortification using the weather rules for fog to simulate the restricted vision and command ability imposed by night.

Given the set up it is going to be very much up to me to take the battle to the Romans who only have to sit behind their fortifications. The ability of a Roman ambusher to attack from any source of cover basically means I am going to have to largely ignore the threat it poses and get on with the fight, all I will do is provide a camp guard as the Sabines cannot fortify their camp.

My plan will be to have three equal commands so that each can take the fight forward where terrain allows. The Sabines will be composed of impetuous medium swordsmen so will be able operate in difficult terrain, the others will have to take advantage of whatever clear terrain exists.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

Terrain placement fell as below, four steep hills, one area of brush and one gully. Gordon lined up the four fortifications allowed by the Battlefield Effect next to the gully plus a fortified camp.

Given that Gordon's Hidden Ambush Battlefield Effect relied on attacking from cover I was surprised that he didn't choose more terrain that provided cover, however, the end result, unfortunately, still produced a very favourable terrain fortress for the Romans.

Initial deployment was as below. I placed the Sabines on the left, the Etruscans in the centre and the Latins on the right. The Etruscans and Latin forces were largely composed of heavy spearmen, the Sabines were mainly made up of impetuous medium swordsmen. As the Roman left was protected by a gully and fortifications my plan was to advance as fast as possible with the Sabines and use their impetuosity to try and overwhelm the Roman right.

On turn one the Latins prove to be unreliable, consequently I had to waste value command points prompting them to activate, the limitations on movement imposed by the night conditions didn't help closing with the Romans either. Having considered the terrain I decided I had to try a left hook on the end of the Roman line, however, given the slowness of the advance it took too long to get into attack position - about eight turns. 

As the terrain wasn't conducive to attacking with spearmen the Camerians would be sitting out the action.

 

See photo at the end of turn eight below:

The first attack goes in, I lost; see next photo:

Gordon's turn - My attack continued to falter see next photo:

In my next turn I charged in with the rest of the Sabines and some Etruscans - I finally begin to make some progress. See photo below:

Gordon destroys a Sabine swordsmen unit and advances into one of my reserve units see next photo:

He has advanced the unit too far and I manage to flank and destroy it, it is too little too late though. End of turn photo as below:

We ran out of time shortly thereafter, end of game position as below:

So, I totally failed to press home the attack with enough vigour and speed, the final result was a draw; losses were 8-4 to Gordon.

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

I didn’t fancy anyone’s chances of winning this as the attacker. Night would almost certainly mean that the Sabines would struggle to do enough damage before the game ended. The Etruscan and Latin allies would provide a strong defensive line, but in combat had no particular advantage against similarly armed Romans.

The Roman fortifications could stymie any attack and the ambush might prove useful.

So, I bid low for Rome and got it.

I chose two commands of much the same composition: heavy spearmen, inc. two elite and armoured; some light infantry and a couple of cavalry. For the third command I went with javelinmen and light infantry supported by a couple of spearmen. They give me some flexibility in bad terrain (which Alec might prefer given medium swordsmen) and if the terrain doesn’t work out for me I can put them behind the fortifications. 

The Deployment

Alec chose to invade in the mountains. I suspected lots of swordsmen. The terrain went pretty well for me: I got a fortress of sorts and space to deploy to within it and maybe even attack swordsmen affected by steep hills. The gully looked the most risky are for me so I put the fortifications here and deployed the javelinmen behind it. I figured that the spearmen could look after themselves in the open, where I expected his spearmen to deploy, so deployed them as a centre and right flank. The cavalry would be a reserve, except for one right flank unit which was my hidden ambush. The light infantry would deploy forward and move forward to make sure Alec couldn’t double move and further hold up his advance.

The brush close to Alec’s camp looked a good place for the hidden cavalry ambush to appear. So I determined to hold them hidden until his main line was far enough forward that they would have plenty of things to spend command points on and I might be able to hit his camp before his reserve could get in my way. If not then an advance to the rear of his main line would spoil things. 

The Game

Bad luck for Alec on turn one as his allies were unreliable. I was able to move my light infantry closer to him so that only his cavalry and Sabines had the opportunity to double move. He lost some movement having to spend command points to activate the allies.

As the game progressed it was apparent that his left flank Sabines were expected to do most of the work, with the rest of the army seemingly there to stop me redeploying to meet them. However, my deployment close to the rear edge meant that I had the units and time to turn to face the threat.

The visibility picked up to the end of the game, until it made little difference to movement (although the halved command radius hindered Alec’s attack).

When the crunch came the Roman spearmen largely held the impetuous swordsmen and started to destroy them. I made one stupid mistake when I was unable to resist a +2 advantage against some already disordered swordsmen and charged them, only to lose the combat and get destroyed by a flank attack next turn.

And then the game ended after 3 ½ hours. 

Post-Game

I never used my hidden ambush. By the time Alec’s centre had advanced quite far enough for me to be comfortable doing so, I needed command points to rally units and didn’t get a great number of them anyway. If the game had continued they would have appeared and headed for his camp.

The Sabines still had plenty of opportunity to win – my spearmen were getting disordered and some of his swordsmen were still fresh. In the centre combat was basically even and could have gone either way. My left flank would probably have struggled to make much effect, although I would have had to move to threaten his centre’s flank. Alec would then have had to commit spearmen to the gully which might have been to my advantage.

But, all I had to do was sit tight and not make a hash of it. So I sat tight and didn’t make a hash of it (one uncontrolled pursuit excepted).

A point to me. 

Result

 Draw - one Prestige Point to the Julii