Manlii v Julii Game 47

Game 47 - Roman Era 3: Middle Republic

Republican Roman (Alec 185 pts) v Carthaginians - Hannibal in Italy (Gordon 180 pts)

Major defence 210 BCE (ADLG Std, 1-May-2024)

Battlefield Effects: Carthaginians: Quality & Cohesion Variations

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

The current Prestige Point score in this era is minus three to the Manlii and zero to the Julii. The event rolled was a major defence against Hannibal in Italy. As we are playing the optional conditions under the Enemies tables Hannibal benefits from a random Battlefield Effect - Gordon rolled the category “Quality & cohesion variations”.

As I wanted to start clawing my way back to Positive Prestige points, and didn’t want Gordon to, I didn’t want to hand Gordon the Romans on a plate so intended to be quite competitive in the bidding; I started at 185 points and Gordon immediately passed, so I am the Romans.

So, I will be facing a Strategist general who will have the benefit of a Battlefield Effect and more numerous and superior cavalry. On the plus side however, I have a five point army point advantage, will be able to field superior numbers of heavy infantry and, as I will be defending, I will at least benefit from Gordon having to make the running.

Gordon chose the year 210 BCE, so will be going with the later post-Trasimene Hannibalic army - an interesting choice as it doesn’t have any impetuous troops.

The Romans in this era relied almost exclusively on their heavy infantry Legions and as the Roman army list requires a minimum of eight of such units I will have no choice but to do the same and build my defence around a strong infantry line. The problem I will face will be the historical one, whilst I can take on anything Hannibal can through at me head on (possibly barring elephants), it will be difficult to cope with fast moving cavalry on the flanks.

Consequently, I will go with:

·      One command consisting of three medium swordsmen Italian allies, a heavy cavalry unit and an ordinary commander, with which I can hopefully anchor one of the flanks in some rough or difficult terrain.

·        One large central command with six heavy swordsmen hastate and Principes units (four of which will be elite) a couple of light infantry Leves (to scare off any elephants) under a brilliant commander, and

·     A third command with three raw legionary units (i.e. mediocre), three heavy cavalry Equites, a heavy spearmen Triarii unit and a brilliant commander. This command will be tasked with holding any open flank.

·        A fortified camp, just in case the Numidian light horse get behind my army.

I will need to try and put pressure on in the centre to force Gordon into a fight with my best infantry but as I have chosen two brilliant commanders, and my units are fairly manoeuvrable, I can see what Gordon does first before I commit. What I don’t want to do is make it easy for the Carthaginians by ignoring Gordon’s moves.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

Terrain

All ended up on one side of the table - my right, two plantations, two fields and a gentle hill. Ended as below:

As usual I am on the left of the photo.

Deployment

I deployed one command in ambush and lined up near the terrain, slightly refusing my left flank.

Gordon placed five Numidian light cavalry units on his far right commanded by a competent commander; two Iberian medium cavalry and two Gallic heavy cavalry units in the centre commanded by a competent commander, and Hannibal's command on the left opposite my legionaries. Hannibal's command consisted of four elite Libyan heavy armoured spearmen, two Gallic heavy swordsmen, two Gallic medium swordsmen, two elite Balearic slingers and two Numidian light infantry.

Things didn't look too good for me, Gordon's two cavalry commands  deployed on my left meant that I couldn't easily cross the table to get to his heavy infantry without being out-flanked. Additionally, if I stood still, there was a strong chance my cavalry would be slowly shot to pieces by the Numidian light horse until they were sufficiently weakened that Gordon felt confident enough to charge in with his to finish them off. 

I felt that my only hope to win the battle was to attack with my right wing medium infantry which I had placed in ambush in an attempt to beat Gordon's and then outflank his central heavy infantry line. The problem there though was that it would probably take longer for me to achieve a breakthrough on that flank than Gordon would take on the other - he also had the battlefield Effect to bring into play at some point. All I could do is put up a brave face and plough on.

Deployment ended as below:

Gordon's first turn

Gordon advanced across the board.

His turn ended as below, it was already going as I had feared - Gordon's cavalry were quickly pouncing on my flank and I hadn't even had a chance to move.

Alec's first turn

I didn't do much, just angling my line a bit. As Gordon was advancing with all his centre and left wing infantry I thought I'd leave it a turn before I revealed my units in ambush, the closer he came to me in the centre and on the left the better all round.

It ended as below:

Gordon's second turn

Gordon advanced into shooting range, scoring the first hits - a sign of things to come. Gordon continued to advance his centre and left forcing me to deploy some of my ambushing command on my right wing.

His turn ended as below:

Alec's second turn

I rallied one of my hits away and fled my skirmishers to safety behind the heavy infantry. I considered whether to commence my right wing attack but decided to wait to see if Gordon would advance his heavy infantry centre any further first, the further forward it came the better I considered my chances of getting to grips with it without being outflanked.

Then to my surprise Gordon threw in the towel!

The game ended as below:

Post-Mortem

A strange game this one that ended before it really began. After two turns Gordon became convinced that he didn't have a chance of winning in the time frame of an evening's play so conceded the game despite having quite a powerful Battlefield Effect ready to use - apparently rolling Morale collapse. 

Gordon's view of how the battle would go was obviously completely different to mine - to me the chances of a Carthaginian victory in an evening's play were greater than mine, to Gordon it was nil. Who's view was correct? I guess we'll never know.

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

Alec bid 185 to be Rome. I could not beat him as Hannibal with a battlefield effect if I bid lower, so Alec is Rome.

Hannibal seemed to know what he was doing on the battlefield so I take something akin to a standard army: 1 command of five Numidian light horse under an ordinary general; 2 medium and 2 heavy cavalry under an ordinary general; a strong infantry force of four elite spearmen, 2 heavy swordsmen impact and 2 medium swordsmen impact.

In an ideal world we will fight on an open plain and the light horse can do their thing (although I always mishandle light horse, perhaps this time I will learn my lesson).

However, Alec only has not to lose and could sit on the table edge in a terrain fortress and let me bang my head against his line. Open terrain makes that more difficult for him and the light horse give me some ability to pin a command of infantry while the main fight happens somewhere else. A couple of medium infantry give me some chance in terrain, either to protect a flank or threaten his largely heavy infantry army from a flank. 

The Deployment

Alec gets a very secure flank on my left and puts his fortified camp close by. I deploy the infantry command in front of his infantry, then the cavalry and then the light horse. So my cavalry are facing mediocre heavy infantry, which they can’t touch, and better cavalry who are well supported by the infantry. The light horse are going to have to perform miracles here.

There is a missing Roman command which I decide is almost certainly in the rough terrain.

Alec has basically sat on the table edge. What I can see is at least as good as what I have and greater in number: he outnumbers my battle winning infantry and his cavalry are better than mine even if one fewer. I have an advantage in light troops but they won’t win this game. His two brilliant generals don’t have anything to spend CP’s on except rallying any shooting losses I cause, at least until we get into combat and then, like me, they will be rallying melee hits.

My thinking is that I pin the commands opposite my cavalry and light horse and try to go through his infantry with mine. Should stop them intervening and rolling up my line from my right. Basically it will come down to luck as to who wins the main combat, but a strategist might give me the edge when it comes to rallying losses. Then a bit of manoeuvre and luck on my right and centre might win me the game. 

The Game

Apart from a surprisingly hesitant Hannibal I advanced quickly to pin the commands on my centre and right. Hannibal slowly moved forward, partly low dice and partly too big a command to easily manoeuvre. Hannibal got the medium infantry onto my left flank and into the rough terrain.

The Numidians caused one hit from shooting but Alec rallied that. My light troops advanced and exposed his ambush of 3 medium swordsmen. Each as good as mine and more of them. And one ambush marker still not revealed.

It is now 8.30 and we have two hours to go.

I am outnumbered by troops at least as good as my own and, arguably because of my successful early moves with the cavalry, have no chance of outflanking or beating his troops on my centre and right. The infantry fight on my left is even and will come down to luck until he outflanks my main force on the left. There is also a very real chance that he will outflank my right as well: a couple of charges will see off the Numidians and his 3 heavy cavalry plus a unit or 2 of infantry can hold or defeat or see off my slightly inferior cavalry command. My light infantry have some chance of delaying the swordsmen in poor terrain as they have ZOC but they can’t stand up to them.

I cannot see the point of continuing. I consider discretion to be the greater part of valour and head back to camp, conceding the field. 

Post-Game

Alec got a good position and made great advantage of it. Unlike some of the recent defensive battles the quality of Alec’s troops and my own choice to have a relatively large number of Numidians meant that Alec did not really need the terrain and could simply sit on the rear edge and wait for me.

With a little foresight that could have been foreseen and I could have maximised the infantry component and then the combat would have been more even.

I imagine Alec was fairly confident that he could withstand what I could throw at him on my right and that his slight advantage in numbers on my left gave him a strong advantage: one free unit of swordsmen could win the game given my lack of reserves.

I did toy with the idea of putting my cavalry on my left to face what I expected to be a strong infantry command. They would then have skirmished and tied up troops. My infantry could then deploy on my open right flank and try to defeat whatever turned up there. But, I would have been vulnerable to a couple of cavalry units. However, the medium infantry could probably handle a single unit of cavalry and maybe even two with a bit of luck.

The Battlefield effect didn’t strike me as that useful in a battle of heavy infantry units – breaking them is hard and for some reason I didn’t believe it would ever be used.

Maybe I was too tired to try? Or, reading what I have just written I seem to have been beaten by my pessimism from the moment I saw his ambush. But I still don’t think I could have won against Alec’s intelligent deployment, two brilliant generals and better troops for a simple line up and batter each other game. 

Result

 Roman win - one Prestige Point to the Manlii