Manlii v Julii Game 45

Game 45 – Roman Era 7: Late Empire

Patrician Roman with Visigoth allies (Gordon 200 pts) v Huns under Attila with Ostrogoth and Gepid allies (Alec 200 pts)

Major Defence 451 CE (ADLG Std, 10-Apr-2024).

Battlefield Effects: None

Plan

The current Prestige Point score in this era is plus one to me and minus six to Gordon, a large advantage in my favour. As I have the one positive Prestige Point which I don’t want to imperil I didn't want to be the Romans unless I had a very substantial advantage in army points. To my amazement Gordon opened the bidding at the low bid of 200 points, so I was more than happy to let him be the Romans.

As this is the second time the Huns have been rolled in defence in this era Appendix One requires this battle to be based on the famous Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 CE. As the Huns I am required to have Attila as C-in-C, who must be a Strategist Commander, plus I have to field an Ostrogoth ally and a Gepid ally; Gordon meanwhilst is required to have a Visigoth ally.

So, given that (a) I have to field two allied commands consisting of at least four impetuous heavy cavalry each and (b) Gordon wins on an unfinished draw, my game plan has to be one of a fair amount of aggression. This is compounded by having to field a Strategist commander-in-chief who will absorb the bulk of my available command points, meaning I won’t be able to field allied contingent commanders who will be able to reliably hold their impetuous troops from charging.

Factors to consider:

1. How Gordon decides to fight the battle. The challenge for Gordon will be that his army will be a mix of highly controllable Romans on one flank and potentially uncontrollable Visigoths on the other. If he creates a terrain fortress for himself I may have time to let my bow-armed Huns and allied light bow-armed infantry undertake some preparatory shooting. If Gordon decides to advance to contact from the outset my opportunity to do so gets more limited but on the plus-side this should give me favourable, or at least not unfavourable, terrain in which to launch my heavy cavalry strikes.
2. How to select and deploy my army. Just as Gordon has the challenge of how to deploy and co-ordinate his army I have a similar problem – allies composed of heavy cavalry and infantry that want to get stuck in and Huns composed of lighter cavalry which like to do the opposite. In the real battle Attila placed his Huns in the centre fighting local troops including light horse Alans, with the Ostrogoths fighting the Visigoths on his left and the Gepids fighting the Romans on his right.
3. Having a Strategist C-in-C in charge of the non-impetuous troops does mean that the game plan doesn’t need to be one of just line up and charge. For example I could place the allied impetuous troops at my rear table edge and advance with the more controllable Hun troops to start the battle, which may enable me to do a certain amount of damage to the Romans before letting the impetuous troops run loose.

I can see the advantage of having Attila’s Hun command in the centre so that’s what I plan to do if I can. Having the best commander with the most manoeuvrable troops in the centre should enable me to respond to Gordon's moves to quickly bring that command’s troops to bear to aid either wing where they can do the most good. Accordingly I will go with a largely medium cavalry option for the Hunnic horsemen, rather than a light cavalry option, as medium cavalry will be more useful in close combat and I doubt I would be able to use the extra mobility light cavalry provides much in the centre in any case.

Going with medium cavalry is a bit of a risk as it never seems to perform too well, but in this case gives me the ability to charge the Hunnic cavalry into contact should good opportunities arise whilst also maximising my shooting ability when they are unengaged; giving me thirteen units out of twenty-three that can shoot.

The choice of which allied command to place on which flank will depend on the terrain, I’ve given the Gepids the slightly better commander and a couple of heavy infantry units so may place that command closer to or in areas that aren’t suitable for cavalry.

So, my plan will be to take advantage of being the invader to quickly advance my bow-armed units across the table to cause as much shooting damage as possible and then later manoeuvre my shock troops to charge in when and where I have developed an advantage. Of course I’m sure Gordon will do his best to stymie that.

My army consists of: 

• Attila's command with one heavy cavalry bow elite, six medium cavalry bow and two light cavalry bow elite under a Strategist commander; 
• the Ostrogoth allied command with four heavy cavalry impetuous elite and two light infantry bow commanded by an included ordinary allied commander; and 
• the Gepid allied command with four heavy cavalry impetuous, two heavy swordsmen impetuous and two light infantry bow under an included competent allied commander. 

As you can see I have gone with two 'included' allied commanders, which is risky and unusual for me. I also decided to fortify my camp. 

Picture as below (NB I took this photo before I decided to make the allied commanders "included":

This should be an interesting battle; the good thing for me is that, with Gordon as the Romans, if I draw or even lose the battle he still only earns one Prestige Point which doesn’t change the strategic position, nor will a win by me make much difference. Accordingly I can give it everything to succeed where Attila failed.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

 Terrain

As invader I chose the region - Plains. We ended up with three fields, one plantation and a road, mostly on Gordon's side of the table on his left. 

Deployment

I deployed as planned, the Gepids on my right, Ostrogoths on my left and Attila's Huns in the centre.

Gordon deployed two commands consisting of Roman and Foederate troops on his left and centre and his Visigoth allied command on his right. All of Gordon's commands were a mixture of heavy cavalry and heavy infantry except for two light horse which he deployed on his extreme left flank - these were Gordon's only missile armed troops.

Gordon went with a fortified camp and also placed two ambush markers but both turned out to be bluffs. 

The position on completion of deployment is as below, as usual my army is on the left of the picture.

My turn one

Neither of my allied commands proved to be unreliable. I advanced my non-impetuous troops forward, all of whom were armed with bows, but none were in shooting range as yet. I also began to swing the Ostrogoth cavalry around my left and I re-positioned the two Hun light cavalry in my central command to my far right; as below. My intention with the Ostrogoths was to force Gordon to stretch his forces to his right or risk being outflanked, whilst on the other flank to counter Gordon's light cavalry with my own for as long as possible.

Gordon's turn one

Gordon advanced most of his army forward a couple of UDs in line with his light horse. Gordon's Visigoth allied command also proved to be reliable. 

My turn two

I advanced my frontline forward a touch more to get into shooting range whilst continuing to swing my Ostrogoth cavalry around on my left and the Hun light cavalry around on my right.

In the shooting phase I managed to score a couple of hits. I think Gordon rapidly got the message that if he chose to stand still I would just continue shooting his forces to bits.

Gordon's turn two

Well, Gordon's reaction to my shooting was immediate, he pretty much charged all along the line, I chose to evade everywhere as I had no intention of getting into close combat this early in the game.

Unfortunately for Gordon the charge by the Visigoth heavy cavalry was too good; rolling up on the charge roll, and being impetuous they had to charge their full move distance. So they had to move forward into a position right in front of my elite Ostrogoth heavy cavalry and where I could immediately charge a flank on one side and overlap the other.  

To make matters worse the Visigoth commander had also moved out of command range of his second rank Gardingi medium cavalry and consequently didn't have the command points to move them forward into closer support which he would have done if he'd moved them first.

Picture as below:

My turn three

In my turn I returned to shooting range in my centre and right wing. On my left I initiated the clash of the Goths! I charged into combat with a couple of my Ostrogoth heavy cavalry on the end of the Visigoth heavy cavalry line whilst manoeuvring two more around to threaten their flank.

I managed to sneak a Hun medium cavalry unit forward through the gap that had opened up between the Visigoth cavalry and infantry, pinning the end infantry unit whilst charging into frontal combat on the other end of the Visigoth cavalry line with my lone Hun heavy cavalry unit and simultaneously into their flank with another Hun medium cavalry unit.

In the combat phase I managed to destroy one Visigoth heavy cavalry unit and severely damaged the one on the other end of the line, as below. Gordon felt impelled to throw his commander into combat, it prevented the unit being destroyed and it survived the subsequent commander death die roll (and managed to survive two more death die rolls before the game came to an end).

The position at the end of my turn was as below. We traded shooting casualties at the other end of the line between the light cavalry.

Gordon's turn three

Seeing the unfolding disaster on his right Gordon continued to throw his army forward to try to get to grips with mine elsewhere. As I had enough room I continued to evade but it wouldn't be long before I would be forced to commit to combat.

Unfortunately for Gordon the Visigoth command roll was low so he still wasn't able to bring forward his second line cavalry, but did rally one hit off his flanked Visigoth heavy cavalry unit as well as turn his one free heavy cavalry unit onto the flank of one of my Ostrogoth cavalry that had to pursue in my round; the one with the included commander.

In the combat phase I destroyed one more Visigoth heavy cavalry unit (the Visigoth commander survived the death roll for the second time) whilst Gordon disordered the one of mine that he hit in the flank; luckily for me my commander succeeded on the death roll too.

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

My turn four

I continued to develop the attack on my left, swinging the Ostrogoth cavalry further around, and pulled my light cavalry back on my right; elsewhere I carried on shooting, as below:

Gordon's turn four

In turn four I decided I would evade in the centre no further so stood my ground with my Hun medium cavalry when charged by Gordon's foederate heavy swordsmen. I won one fight disordering one of his swordsmen units but I lost one cavalry unit in the process.

On his right Gordon finally managed to get the Visigoth Gardingi moving forward. 

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

My turn five

I finished off the last of the Visigoth heavy cavalry and reinforced my centre with one of the Gepid heavy foot units - in fact having insufficient CPs I had no choice but to let it do an uncontrolled charge into combat - it promptly lost three cohesion points. Elsewhere the fighting continued, as below:

Gordon's turn five and end of game

In Gordon's turn, seeing his right flank being rolled up, he charged into combat everywhere he could. There were twelve melee combat rolls in total and Gordon chose this moment to get as bad a run of luck as you will ever see, mostly rolling ones and maybe the odd two - dead Roman units and disorders everywhere.

Counting up the end of turn casualties I just managed to get Gordon's army to its breakpoint - twenty-three. I was at six out of twenty-six.

Post-Mortem

Neither side did much wrong apart from the one mistake by Gordon on his right wing in turn two - charging his Visigoth impetuous heavy cavalry forward when unsupported by its flank guard. This put Gordon on the back foot for most of the game as the looming disaster on that flank plus my overwhelming shooting superiority meant he then had no choice but to hurl his troops forward before I rolled up his right wing and/or shot his troops to pieces.

I was pleased how the game developed, placing the Hun command in the centre and going with medium rather than light cavalry pretty much worked out according to plan.

In the end the game was quickly decided by the eleven bad die-rolls by Gordon on turn five which proves Attila could have won if his opponents had been equally unlucky! Even if he had been less unlucky or even luckier than me, he was still in serious trouble having already lost all his Visigoth heavy cavalry at this stage so I was in position to start rolling up his line.

Gordon's comments

Pre-Game

I win the bidding to be Rome. Looking at some reference books the Romans had three different commands: Aetius and Romans, Sangiban with Alans and Burgundians etc., Theodoric with Visigoths. So that is what I shall take.

Romans get a strong force of legions and auxilia, a couple of heavy cavalry and two light horse.

Sangiban gets two impetuous heavy cavalry and four impetuous heavy swordsmen. Theodoric gets three impetuous heavy cavalry, two medium cavalry and two impetuous heavy swordsmen. Theodoric is competent, Aetius is brilliant, Sangiban is ordinary.

I choose heavy swords rather than medium because I expect Alec will have a lot of impetuous cavalry and heavies can withstand them far better.

Basic plan = follow Aetius, depending on terrain. Romans force a flank, Alans hold the centre, Goths win or delay defeat on the other flank.

The Deployment

Rough terrain ends up in my left corner, so that determines where the Romans will go. Next to them Alans and Burundians, next to them Goths with medium cavalry as a reserve. My Romans are facing strong force of German cavalry so will advance as quickly as terrain and enemy allow to pin and ideally outflank them or force them to charge my heavy swords – bit of a risk as swordsmen have no advantage over the cavalry except numbers.

Alans to advance slowly forward to prevent the Hun centre intervening on either flank and absorb shooting. Goths to move forward and prevent Alec’s Goths outflanking and maybe even beat them (something of a lottery given we are basically the same troops).

The Game

Alec advances on my right and centre but holds on my left, except moving light troops forward to slow my advance. Which is already slow because of having to move through the fields. Could be a problem if he does well elsewhere.

Hun shooting causes some casualties but my troops charge so he has to evade. All roll long for their charges, which is good news as it keeps the infantry close to his cavalry. Unfortunately, I got carried away on my right and charged with Theodoric’s heavy cavalry before moving the supporting medium cavalry – they ended up out of command range and then I did not have the CP to move them – a disaster in the making and completely unnecessary. Roman infantry get out of the field and chase off skirmishers.

Alec capitalises on my mistake on my right and the Goth cavalry spend a couple of turns getting wiped out, despite some small success and some particularly spectacular failed flank attacks of my own even after I managed to get my medium cavalry into action. Theodoric turned out to be the kiss of death to every combat he joined, but managed to survive a couple of death die rolls.

I managed to get my Romans into position to attack the cavalry on my left flank, although the auxilia were still a little way behind. After a round of successful combat in the centre my infantry suddenly started to lose badly and the Goths were clearly going down, so I had to commit the Roman infantry.

There were twelve combats in my turn, and despite no particularly bad match-ups I lost 11 out of 12 and drew the other: basically even combats, a few plus ones to Alec and in one case plus two for a flank attack for me). And that was game over.

 Post-Game

Too optimistic about my chances to get through the poor terrain on my left, but not sure I had a lot of choice unless I had left a couple of units to cover it and deployed the Romans in the open terrain, pushing my entire line to the right.

Major stupidity was not moving my supporting medium cavalry forward when I had the chance so that the heavies were committed unsupported, outflanked and outnumbered. Think that would have lost me the game even without the major bad luck in the last round of combat.

Entertaining and a good win for Alec.

Result

Hun win - minus three Prestige Points to the Julii