Manlii v Julii Game 52

Game 52 – Roman Era 3: Middle Republic

Middle Republic Roman civil war 212 BCE (150 pts each)

(ADLG Std, 26-June-2024).

Battlefield Effects: None

The Plan (penned in advance of the battle)

This game is an End of Era Civil War battle for the Mid-Republican Roman Era. Theoretically it is completely equal at 150 ADLG army points each with no Battlefield Effects, however, it has a tremendous amount riding on it. If I win or draw the game I win the entire campaign, if Gordon wins he wins the era and keeps his hopes alive – just. I say 'just' because I have a lead in each of the remaining four eras, three with big margins, so the chances of Gordon even tying the Campaign are slim to none even should he win this game.

To use a tennis match analogy we are into that part of the game where one player has a big lead coming into the final set and just needs to win one more game to win the match, everyone knows that player is going to win, even that other player, but the other player fights on regardless - for personal honour if nothing else.

At 150 points the armies aren’t going to be big, and as they are going to be picked from a list with high compulsory minima they aren’t going to be too different from each other.

My plan is going to be to maximise the heavy infantry in my army and split them between two commands, all having armour but one command containing newly recruited mediocre infantry. I will have a micro-command containing two cavalry and an elite unit of armoured Pedites Extraordinarii medium swordsmen which I will use to have fun with on one flank, possibly starting it in ambush. I decided to go with armour all round rather than having better quality troops in order to better withstand any enemy shooting.

As far as the game goes, as Gordon really needs to win it I will try to be the defender so that I can place some restricting terrain on the table, then sit and wait for Gordon to attack whereupon I will try to get some advantage – overlaps etc.

If we run out of time, theoretically we should refight the game as there has to be a winner, but as I’ve said above, there probably won’t really be any point; if we do run out out time to find a winner it’ll all come down to Gordon’s motivation to struggle on against the odds.

That’s the plan!

The Battle

We rolled for initiative and Gordon won, he chose to attack in the Plain, which suited me just fine.

Terrain

The battlefield ended up as below, a village on my left, two fields in the centre and a gentle hill on Gordon's base line, once again this suited me as it fell in nicely with my game plan. I chose the village and placed the Manlii gens villa in the centre of it.

Deployment

I deployed my micro-command on my left, putting my Pedites Extraordinarii in ambush in the Manlii villa. My other two commands I placed in my centre and on my right, which I refused; my centre contained my newly recruited troops (mostly mediocre quality units apart from the Triarii spearmen unit which was average), the right wing contained the steady troops (mostly average quality units apart from the Triarii unit which was my only other elite unit), I placed my right-wing Triarii on the very right end of my line. My thinking was that Gordon would probably try to overwhelm my right, quite possibly with cavalry, so that was the place for my best spear-armed infantry.

I placed my Leves out front with the hope of causing a few shooting casualties prior to the infantry lines meeting but I didn't want to risk them too much so was prepared to withdraw them quickly.

Gordon deployed with a centre of Hastati & Principes and two similar flank commands each with two cavalry and a couple of Hastati & Principes. He had more cavalry than me but at the price of having to downgrade his infantry so that none had armour. He had one elite heavy swordsmen unit which he place in his centre right; he had some mediocre heavy infantry too, which he placed on his left but no Triarii units.

Seeing Gordon's deployment I guessed he would not lead with an assault on my right after all but in the centre where his better troops were deployed against my worst, a sensible decision on his part I thought, but one that made the possession of the village more important so as to guard against flank attacks.

Deployment ended as below:

Gordon's turn one

Obviously recognising that he had to win the game Gordon began to advance his troops across the width of the table as per the picture below:

My turn one

Not wanting to leave my light infantry on my right hanging out on a limb unsupported I had to choose between advancing my main battle line to support them or pulling them back; given that I had no cavalry on that flank to counter Gordon's I decided on the latter.

I also decided, given the strength of Gordon's left wing, that the right of my line needed further bolstering so sent one of my cavalry over to that flank.

My turn ended as below: 

Gordon's turn two

Gordon continued his advance, his Leves triggering my ambush in the village in the process - as below:

My turn two

I advanced my light infantry on my left wing into the village to support the Pedites Extraordinarii, elsewhere waiting for Gordon's attack, as below:

Gordon's turn three

Gordon continued to advance. On his right he charged one of my light infantry in the village with two of his - I chose to stand and he consequently destroyed it - the first 6-1 of the game. 

In the centre Gordon moved his light infantry into range of my heavy infantry to commence shooting but unsurprisingly didn't achieve any hits against armoured heavy swordsmen. They could stand and shoot at me all day as far as I was concerned as they would rarely hit, and when they did I could rally it off quite easily.

Gordon's turn ended as below:

My turn three

I moved the cavalry that I had sent towards my right wing to a position where it could prevent any outflanking attempts on the Triarii unit anchoring the right of my line by Gordon and continued withdrawing my Leves. 

On my left I decided to try to tempt Gordon to move his light infantry into the village by turning my Pedites Extraordinarii to face the rear, who can resist a rear attack?

Gordon failed to achieve any shooting hits; my turn ended as below:

Gordon's turn four

Gordon continued to move his centre towards my heavy infantry, on his right he took the bait and charged into the village into the rear of my Pedites Extraordinarii. I was banking on my unit's eliteness and armour to survive the attack, it worked but only just, Gordon rolled another six to my three and scored two hits!

In the centre my heavy infantry continued to resist Gordon's Leves' shooting.

Gordon's turn ended as below:

My turn four

In my turn I turned my Pedites Extraordinarii around and sent my remaining light infantry forward to assist, it worked - in the melee phase I destroyed one of Gordon's light infantry and disordered the other.

Elsewhere I continued to withdraw my Leves on my right flank but otherwise continued to wait. Gordon's Leves continued to achieve nothing in the shooting phase.

My turn ended as below:

Gordon's turn five

I forgot to take a picture at the end of this turn probably because of all the excitement as Gordon charged into combat against the left of my heavy infantry line where my mediocre troops were stationed. Even so he failed to win big, I caused more disorders on his troops than he did on mine, largely due to several bad rolls on Gordon's part. I also finished off Gordon's remaining Leves unit fighting in the village, my family villa was safe for now!

My turn five

In my turn I didn't do much other than commencing to rally my severely disordered Pedites Extraordinarii unit and moving my remaining Leves unit  in the village to support the main battle line.

The main melee continued between our heavy foot units with me continuing to get the better results. Gordon's elite unit now had three hits, much to his chagrin, luckily for me it had come up against my one non-mediocre unit in that flank - my heavy spearmen Triarii - otherwise it probably wouldn't have fared so badly.

My turn ended as shown below:

Gordon's turn six

Gordon, at this point began to feel that the battle was lost and, I think, may well have jacked it in if it wasn't that I reminded him that the whole campaign was on the line; he consequently resolved to carry on for a turn or two. He threw his mediocre left wing heavy infantry units into combat in this turn against my average quality ones, but, despite his resolve, his luck didn't turn. On his right two units were destroyed (including his lone elite swordsmen unit) and on his left I scored two hits to his none.

Gordon's turn ended as below:

My turn six

In this turn I basically did not a lot. I rallied my Pedites Extraordinarii unit in the village back to full health and moved my light infantry to slightly more useful positions but otherwise just stood and continued the fight.

In the melee phase Gordon actually began to make some headway on his right with his remaining units, on his left. however, catastrophe struck - two of his heavy swordsmen units went under. He was now on fourteen points of losses to my five.

End of turn picture as below:

Gordon's turn seven

This turn was to see Gordon's final fling of the dice. He sent his medium cavalry into combat with mine on his extreme left, maybe hoping to get to my camp. It was not to be, despite finally destroying one of my heavy swordsmen in the centre his cavalry unit came off the worse - suffering two disorders.

I finally achieved a shooting hit (the only one of the game by either of us) - against one of Gordon's right wing heavy cavalry.

The turn ended with Gordon's army one point off army destruction, and as I had several units on his flanks ready to start rolling up his line, he threw in the towel for the last time.

Gordon's turn, and the game, ended as below;

Post-mortem

Recognising that he had to win the game or the whole campaign was lost, Gordon charged into contact wherever he felt he could achieve an edge. Unfortunately, the Fates can sometimes be cruel, despite a couple of sixes at the start of the melee combats, when it really mattered the dice just didn't fall his way. All the main combats except one went my way and his army was only one point away from demoralisation when he decided to call it a day.

With the battle went the era and the campaign!

Gordon's comments 

Pre-Game

Two armies of Roman legions. This is likely to be a simple face-to-face contest. I imagine Alec won’t want a lot of terrain, no more than me, given we are both using armies that are badly disadvantaged by terrain. However, both are only 150 points so there could be plenty of space for manoeuvre.

The big decision is whether to opt for fewer armoured troops or more unarmoured. Previous games have shown the advantage of armour, but I decide a couple more legions might be more useful.

I take four cavalry in case there are open flanks. 

The Deployment

Neither of us choose much terrain. What there is protects Alec on my right flank and slows things down for me in the centre. Looks like a classic corner sitting defence from Alec. I have the same option on my left but that won’t win me the game.

Deployment confirms my thinking, with Alec’s army deployed between a field and the village. I deploy two commands opposite Alec’s army with the other command wide on my left in case I was wrong about Alec’s intention.

Our troops are broadly similar – we each have an elite unit, a number of mediocre units. Big difference is Alec has armour. My slightly more numerous cavalry are not likely to play much of a role. But they do offer effective flank guards with little to oppose them

So, I will slowly advance in the centre and right while the unopposed left moves slowly through and around the fields. I might get to surround or at least discommode Alec.

My centre and right contain the average legions and are faced by Alec’s mediocre troops. This gives me confidence even with the disparity in armour. 

The Game

My army does what I expected it to, at least until it got into combat.

The only excitement before the main combat was catching Alec’s medium swordsmen in the rear with my light infantry as they retreated in the village. Despite a good start by inflicting two disorders on them, the swordsmen turned and destroyed the facing lights despite being disadvantaged. Swings and roundabout. However, it reduced the risk to my right flank.

My right and centre moved rightward to line up with Alec’s mediocre troops. And then charged into them. And lost almost all the first round combats. They never recovered from that.

My left flank mediocre infantry and cavalry threw themselves on Alec’s better troops in a desperate attempt to gain some advantage but it was a long shot and the dice played fair to reflect that.

The Julii are written as the villains of history. 

Post-Game

I blame the dice for losing this one. 

Result

 Manlii win - Middle Republic Era won by the Manlii.