Manlii v Julii Game 43

Game 43 – Roman Era 5: Early Empire

Early Imperial Roman (Alec 168 pts) v German - alliance (Gordon 180 pts)

Minor Invasion 1 CE (ADLG Std, 27-Mar-2024).

Battlefield Effects: None

In this era the Prestige Point score is currently: Me: Zero; Gordon: Minus five. So, despite having a substantial lead I am still only tying the era as I don’t have any Prestige Points and if an End of Era result is rolled it will either be a draw or will end in a civil war. My goal, therefore, has to be to win the bidding so that as the Romans I can win the battle and earn the Prestige Point I need to win the era in due course.

To that end I was prepared to bid quite low, and ended up winning with a score of 168. This is a deficit of twelve, on top of which I have to win the battle as a draw won’t be good enough to earn any Prestige Points. I will, at least, be helped by the fact that all the German warriors will have the Impetuous characteristic. This, combined with the Early German poor command capability, will force Gordon to attack my troops, so corner-sitting won’t do him much good.

The only terrain option will be forest, but given the small size of my army there should be enough clear terrain to manoeuvre my troops into an advantageous position in which to advance my troops and force the German warriors to charge me. After that it's all going to come down to die-rolling

That’s the plan!

The Battle

 Terrain

Gordon went heavy on terrain - two woods, two wooded hills and a marsh. So I went light - an area of rough terrain and a road. I thought that whatever he thought was good for him would probably be bad for me! Placement ended up as below:

As usual I am on the left of the picture. Most of the bad terrain ended up on my right hand-side with a clear area in my left-centre. Not too bad a result for me I thought.

Deployment

I decided to go for a flank march and chose for it to appear on my right. My thinking was to catch whatever forces Gordon deployed in the wood from behind and keep them tied up whilst I performed a left hook. Having a command missing would hopefully also make Gordon more cautious giving me more time to manoeuvre my forces. The two on table commands were a mixture of Legionary heavy swordsmen, Auxilia medium swordsmen and a couple of heavy cavalry on each flank.

Gordon also only deployed two commands so where was the third? Three choices - hidden in ambush; flank marching on his right or flank marching on his left. All are possible. Gordon's two on-table commands consisted, as one would expect of a mixture of heavy and medium impetuous swordsmen with a couple of medium cavalry in each command. 

My turn one

I advance my cavalry wings.

Gordon's turn one

Gordon advances his battle-line, slightly refusing his right wing. He rolls a one for his hidden command which, if an allied command, means it may be hesitant.

My turn two

I decide that in order to win the game I am going to have to gamble  - I decide that I will ignore the fact that Gordon's missing command may turn up on my left so I turn my left wing towards their left and advance towards the road, whilst advancing my left wing cavalry; I wanted Gordon to think my flank march may appear on his right so decided to be aggressive with them.

Gordon's turn two

Gordon continued to be aggressive on his left, he clearly wasn't going to be put off by the threat of a flank charge; he charged into contact with my heavy cavalry with his medium cavalry.

Gordon managed to get the first hit, disordering my left-most cavalry unit.

My turn three

My command rolls continued to be dire but I pushed up on my left, hoping to support the Roman cavalry before it succumbed.

Gordon's turn three

Gordon's flank march/hesitant ambush continued to remain off-table. he did destroy one of my cavalry though - the first 6-1 of the game.

My turn four

Not a lot happening apart from the loss of my second left-wing cavalry unit. My flank march announces its arrival - dust clouds on Gordon's left wing.

Gordon's turn four

Now Gordon knows my flank march isn't going to appear on his right so, as he continues to get good command rolls, he advances his right and centre commands whilst turning his cavalry around towards his camp and the direction my flank march is coming from; his hidden command still refuses to appear.

My turn five

My flank march turns up and I head it towards Gordon's camp whilst keeping away from his ambush markers.

Gordon's turn five

Gordon charges in with his main infantry line. As my flank guard of cavalry has been destroyed I can't prevent Gordon sending his cavalry around to charge into my flank and rear. On the other flank Gordon's third command still doesn't appear.

Fearing the worst in the upcoming combats, due to the German warbands impetuosity we roll the combat dice. I finally get a bit of luck, or more accurately for a while Gordon's deserts him rolling a series of ones, so I come out ahead.

My turn six

I continue the advance of the flank march towards Gordon's camp. in the combat phase I destroy one of Gordon's warbands. There is nothing I can do to prevent Gordon's right wing cavalry from continuing to roll up my line. I fear it is only a matter of a couple of turns before I'm defeated.

Gordon's turn six

Gordon continues to roll up my left flank as expected. The only bright spot is that Gordon's command in ambush still fails to activate - he's not going to need it though. In desperation I throw in my commander on my left flank in a last ditch attempt to win a combat - I lose the combat and subsequently the commander.

My turn seven

I continue the advance towards Gordon's camp. In the centre I destroy another German warband. It's too little too late though, I am now only two points from breaking.

Gordon's turn seven

The last turn of the game - Gordon takes out a couple more units and it's all over. I have 18 losses, breakpoint 15. Gordon has 10 losses with a breakpoint of about 21. 

Post-mortem

So a loss for the Manlii. An all-together unsatisfactory performance on my part. Two particular mistakes by me spring to mind:

• Advancing my left flank cavalry too soon with the idea that I could put pressure on Gordon to think the flank march was going to arrive on that flank. This error was then compounded by accepting combat at a disadvantage when I didn't need to.

• Going for a left hook after choosing for my flank march to arrive on the other flank. The choice of a left hook left my flank-marching command out on a limb and unable to make a telling contribution even when it did turn up.

Other than the above, the nail in the coffin was that Gordon seemed to consistently roll good Command die-rolls for most of the game whilst I seemed to do the reverse. The much needed advantage in manoeuvrability for the Roman army just didn't happen, however, all told this was a largely self-inflicted defeat.

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

The choice of terrain for the Roman invader is forest. So, I might as well go for a lot of medium swordsmen and try to keep them in bad terrain so that his legionaries can struggle to gain much advantage. However, I do like heavy impetuous swordsmen so I have one command of those. They can also cover the camp and provide some staying power if the terrain does not go my way.

The army list leaves me a little confused (it vaguely suggests everyone is an ally) so to be safe I make two commands allied troops (the medium infantry commands). Each command gets a couple of medium cavalry to run around getting shot to pieces and carved up by pretty much everything. Or, form a reserve to cover any breakthroughs of the main line.

It is an aggressive army so as defender I will probably mishandle it badly. 

The Deployment

Having chosen a largely medium infantry army I wanted terrain. And Germany has only forests, so no choice for Alec as the invader. Most of it ended up on my left flank. Not quite what I wanted as I had hoped to break up the battlefield and disrupt Alec’s heavy infantry line. But at least I had a potentially very secure flank.

So, I put one allied command in ambush in the woods, then next to them the other medium infantry command and then the heavy infantry to hold the centre and right. Alec’s deployment broadly mirrored my own: ambushes on my left, two heavy infantry commands in the centre and right. I outnumber him significantly on table. Given that he has taken armoured infantry I don’t expect he has many other troops in the missing command.

It is possible that he has auxilia in the woods, or even a flank march. However, that doesn’t worry me too much. I have a fortified camp and I can sit and wait for him, as I have only to not lose. My medium infantry central command gives me some ability to react to any movement of his commands to either flank.

My extreme right flank could be vulnerable to his two heavy cavalry, as they have the edge on my medium cavalry, but I think I can also cover the flank with an infantry unit or two and still hold the line against his legions and auxilia. 

The Game

Alec started cautiously with his cavalry and I responded by moving forward slightly to give my reserve cavalry some room to manoeuvre.

My hidden ally proved unreliable (Hurrah! For rolling a 1). They stayed unreliable throughout the game, despite some exhortations from the C-in-C.

Alec got his cavalry close to my extreme right but I managed to support the cavalry with infantry and when my cavalry charged his he stood. A pleasant surprise for me. Especially as I destroyed them in two turns of combat. His infantry started to move to outflank me, heading for the road. I continued to advance slowly; I didn’t have much choice with heavy infantry and medium swordsmen slowed by the woods.

Alec advanced all his infantry and his cavalry on my left continued to hold to protect the infantry flank. In the absence of his third command and my own third command’s continuing invisibility it looked a good opportunity to take advantage of my numbers and roll some high dice to win the game quickly. So, my infantry charged to contact.

While the main combat was developing (looking evenly balanced – my first round was not successful; think I got one successful furious charge) Alec’s third command turned up on my left. They were cramped against the table edge to avoid activating my hidden allies and I was able to turn the cavalry reserve to at least threaten any attack on the camp and to slow down his advance. Getting his units through the marsh would probably take longer than resolving the game in the middle.

With the loss of both his cavalry on my right I was able to get my cavalry on his flank and rear. And that won me the game as they slowly rolled up his line. Just as well, as the medium swordsmen were slowly being destroyed. 

Post-Game

While the combat dice seemed pretty much average for both of us, I did have good command points for the troops deployed on table. Alec’s choice of a flank march on my left meant that losing a command to unreliability did not make much difference. If they had activated earlier I might have won a turn earlier as another five swordsmen and two cavalry would have been a significant threat to his two cavalry and infantry flank.

Overall, Alec being too aggressive with the cavalry on my right and some luck in the combat against them won me the game by allowing me to turn his infantry flank. 

Result

 German victory - minus one Prestige Point to the Manlii