Manlii v Julii Game 51

Game 51 - Roman Era 1: Early Republic

Tullian Roman (Alec 188 pts) v Etruscan (Gordon 200pts)

Major invasion 477 BCE (ADLG Std, 12-June-2024)

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

The current Prestige Point score in this era is zero to the Julii and plus three to the Manlii. The event rolled was a Major Invasion against the Etruscans at 200 points with no campaign Battlefield Effects. As I didn’t want to risk Gordon tying the Era I was determined to win the bidding so ended up being the Romans at 188 points, a twelve point deficit.

The armies are almost identical – small numbers of cavalry and wall to wall heavy spearmen. The only difference is that in ADLG the Etruscan’s are permitted two units of elite armoured heavy swordsmen with two-handed cutting weapons i.e. the generals’ axe and fasces equipped bodyguards, i.e. Swordsmen equipped with 2HCW in ADLG terms. There is no evidence, as far as I am aware, that they were actually deployed in any numbers on a battlefield but they are permitted in ADLG nevertheless. If Gordon chooses them – and I will be surprised if he doesn’t – and can get them into action with even a tiny bit of luck they could easily win him the battle.

I think this game is going to come down to:

·        who gets the luck;

·        who can achieve some tactical advantages in the form of overlaps and flank attacks;

·        how much I can avoid those elite Etruscan axemen.

To that end I have gone with two commands each with nine heavy spearmen units, and one command consisting of two heavy cavalry and two light infantry, a small number of the heavy spearmen are 1st class so have armour. I’m hoping to use the small command to try to get behind an Etruscan flank, an ambush or flank march perhaps, whilst the eighteen heavy spearmen units line up and get stuck in toe-to-toe with their Etruscan opposite numbers.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

As we are playing ADLG as the campaign invader I started by rolling to see who got to be the attacker, and it came up as Gordon's choice as per the normal ADLG rules. So, we rolled for initiative and Gordon won - choosing to be the defender in Plain - just what I would have selected anyway!

Terrain

Fell as per the photo below - a gentle hill in Gordon's central deployment zone, a plantation on my left and two fields, one on my right and one on my baseline. In addition a road ran across the battlefield.

As usual I am on the left of the photos.

The gentle hill looks like it is well placed to give Gordon pause, as I have to attack to win the game there is a good chance Gordon may just deploy his main battle line on the forward slopes and wait for me to attack. If Gordon deploys in a way that makes that look likely I plan to play up his wishes and will advance my centre to give him that impression. With a bit of luck that will tie down his centre as he waits for my onslaught, giving me a chance to pick off whatever forces he places on his flanks.

Deployment

I placed my two heavy spearmen commands in my centre and on my left, my small mobile command I placed on my right.

Gordon did place his largest heavy infantry command in the centre (including the two elite swordsmen with two-handed cutting weapons) as hoped, together with one lone light infantry slinger. On his right he placed a smaller number of heavy spearmen units plus a couple of medium cavalry, on his left he placed a similar command but one that also included four javelinmen units. As Gordon had deployed his wings forward of the centre I was hoping that he would indeed advance the wings to battle and leave the heavy infantry centre behind.

Deployment ended up as below:

My first turn

I advanced all across the line as planned, getting as close as I could to Gordon's flanking units whilst hopefully giving Gordon the impression that I would attack the hill in the centre. The position at the end of my turn was as below:

Gordon's first turn

In the centre Gordon advanced onto the forward slopes of the hill and stopped with his entire heavy infantry line as hoped, on his right he started marching his cavalry around my left flank. Gordon had the CPs and the room to move them a third time up to the plantation but for some reason decided against it ending on the table edge far from any infantry support.

On his left Gordon marched forward with his javelinmen units and moved his medium cavalry up behind them, the position at the end of Gordon's turn was as below:

My second turn

I couldn't believe my luck, in his last turn Gordon had left his best elite swordsmen units at his rear table edge whilst marching his cavalry and weakest infantry - the javelinmen units - towards me; my forces were ideally placed now to pick off Gordon's flank units.

I advanced my centre a bit further by charging the Etruscan slingers to keep Gordon fixated on the idea that I might charge uphill to destruction whilst on the flanks commenced operations. On my left I advanced my heavy infantry forward towards the Etruscan cavalry and left an inviting unguarded flank at the end of my main battle line to tempt Gordon to attack (which didn't work as it happens). My infantry had got close enough to the table side edge that I now didn't think he had the space to get around my left flank.

On my right I charged forward towards his javelinmen units with my heavy infantry and cavalry. Gordon evaded and, against the odds, it was my heavy infantry that caught one of his javelinmen in the rear rather than the cavalry. In the subsequent melee Gordon's javelinmen unit managed to survive but still suffered two disorders.

My turn ended as below:

Gordon's second turn

Gordon stood still with all his heavy infantry, doing nothing with his centre other than sending his slingers forward again (they evaded to the rear in my last turn). On his right, after examining the chances of getting past my infantry into the plantation, Gordon decided against and retreated with his two medium cavalry. 

On Gordon's left he decided to charge into the field with a lone javelinmen unit to attack my two light infantry units whilst angling the  remaining two to form a line facing my cavalry. I decided to stand rather than evade with my light infantry as they are allowed to do when in bad terrain as (a) the odds were even and (b) if Gordon were to destroy one I could still pin his unit with the other light infantry unit; and (c) if necessary I could send the heavy cavalry unit that was in the rear into the brush to attack its flank. 

In the shooting phase Gordon scored no hits, in the fighting phase it was me that got lucky, rolling a six to Gordon's one so destroying Gordon's javelinmen unit that he had sent into the brush in only the one turn!

My third turn

On my left I moved my heavy infantry forward to pin both of Gordon's cavalry; they were now effectively neutralised, all they would be able to do is stand, charge my spearmen unit with all the odds against them, or evade off table. This left three of my left wing spearmen units free to come around behind the Etruscan line to either attack Gordon's cavalry of the heavy infantry from the side or rear.

On my right I charged one of the javelinmen units with one of my heavy infantry - Gordon decided to stand. I then charged the other with my heavy cavalry, Gordon stood again. In the fighting phase my Roman cavalry destroyed one whilst my heavy spearmen disordered the other - scoring two hits.

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

Gordon's third turn

Seeing the way things were going on his flanks, and realising that I wasn't going to attack his elite axemen units whilst at a disadvantage anytime soon, Gordon finally decided to come off the hill in the centre; he charged forward, contacting the four units on the left of my battle line. Elsewhere, on Gordon's right he turned his cavalry to face my infantry but could do nothing else and on my right he disengaged his javelinmen, advancing his cavalry in an attempt to cover its retreat.

In the fighting phase the four heavy infantry combats slightly favoured my side, I scored two hits on Gordon's units to his one against me; I was saved in one combat by that unit's armour.

The position ended as below:

My fourth turn

Seeing that Gordon had finally come off the hill in the centre the battle was now hotting-up in earnest, at least the Etruscan elite axemen weren't in combat yet; but they were getting close.

On my left I advanced a second infantry unit to pin Gordon's medium cavalry whilst moving another to a position where it could charge into the flank of Gordon's infantry in my next turn.

On my right, because I needed to keep the pressure on as much as possible I charged one of my heavy spearmen at Gordon's medium cavalry. Gordon had a dilemma here, if he stood then I would be able to charge the other with my heavy cavalry but if he evaded it would uncover the rear of the sole remaining javelinmen unit; Gordon chose to evade, enabling me to subsequently automatically destroy the javelinmen unit when it failed to evade far enough to avoid being caught in the rear (thereby suffering a third cohesion loss). All the Etruscan javelinmen units were now destroyed.

In the fighting phase I succeeded in destroying one Etruscan heavy spearmen unit on the right of Gordon's line which combined with all the destroyed javelinmen and two further disorders, meant the score at the end of my turn was 12-0 to me; it ended as below.

At this point Gordon conceded the game.

Post-mortem

I think Gordon effectively handed me the victory on this one by sitting on the hill too long in the centre with his best troops, leaving his medium cavalry and javelinmen to attempt to take on my army alone. I find that javelinmen units are very difficult to handle, in open terrain they are very vulnerable - especially to cavalry, so combined with another run of fairly bad luck from Gordon, when they got into combat they proved easy meat. 

Once the Etruscan javelinmen were destroyed for no loss, and now seeing that the Romans were in a position to start rolling up the other end of his line, Gordon had had enough and surrendered having barely committed his heavy spearmen phalanx, his potentially battle-winning elite heavy axemen were not engaged at all.

The game went largely as hoped and planned, so all in all a satisfying win for the Manlii.

Gordon's comments

 Pre-Game

Alec wins the bid to be the Romans. Both armies are basically heavy spearmen. As Etruscans I could simply choose a few cavalry to protect flanks and then maximise the heavy spearmen and plan for defended terrain. However, I think it will be interesting to add a bit of complexity to the army and go for one command of four javelinmen, two spearmen and two medium cavalry. The central command has heavy spearmen and a couple of elite heavy swordsmen to give a bit of variety. The final command is heavy spearmen with two medium cavalry. 

The Deployment

Alec invades in the plains. Forgetting that a successful defence is much easier with terrain to protect the flanks, and that I have one command that can deal with terrain, I choose only two pieces and a road. The hill goes usefully in the middle of my deployment zone and the field on my left. Alec moves the field to be less useful to me and I forget to try to move it back. Not an auspicious start.

However, after the troops are deployed we have two lines of heavy spearmen with some cavalry, and my javelinmen on my left.

Alec uses the right hand plantation to anchor his infantry flank. I have a couple of cavalry to try to slow things down here as I am overlapped on my right.

On my left Alec has a couple of light infantry to defend the field and some cavalry in reserve.

In the centre the lines are basically equal.

My plan is to advance slightly to take advantage of the slope of the hill, to delay his infantry with my cavalry on my right and use my javelinmen to move through the field to threaten his advance on the left flank. 

The Game

I then proceeded to make an absolute mess of the plan.

I got too cocky with my right flank cavalry so that they got pinned by a couple of spearmen and did little to prevent my overlapped line being outflanked.

On the left I did not place the javelinmen well so that instead of taking the field and moving towards Alec’s camp they got destroyed through inept play (and  bit of bad luck). One got caught rolling short in evade while Alec’s spears rolled up. Another got destroyed in one round of combat with the two light infantry (by 5:1 dice rolling). My cavalry did not have the room to manoeuvre to provide protection against Alec’s cavalry and the remaining two javelinmen were ridden down.

By now both flanks were overlapped and neither flank was secure. My right had lost a unit and was losing the melee, we had two hours left to play and the only way to win, or even draw, was to rely on outrageously good dice on my side.

So, I conceded. 

Post-Game

Alec went for a very strong heavy infantry army that could cover a large part of the table and simply walk into combat. Which is basically what most of my army was designed to do. I think I had a reasonable chance with the army if I played it aggressively and if I had been more intelligent in my delaying tactics and protecting my flanks. However, Alec had a more focussed army and played it more sensibly. I forgot my plan and did not make best use of the javelinmen, either as skirmishers or for my original plan of finding some terrain and taking advantage of it.

Deciding to use my right flank cavalry to advance up the right flank made some sense but I went too far and got outmanoeuvred by heavy infantry. This might be a case where playing remotely did not help my spatial awareness. It isn’t normally a problem but here I really did not appreciate the relative positions of our troops. 

Result

 Roman win - three Prestige Points to the Manlii