Game 3
Middle Republican Roman (Michael 6,500 pts) v Iberian Spanish alliance (Alec 6,750 pts)
Minor Invasion 198 BCE (MeG Magna, 29-May-2026).
Battlefield Effects: Romans: Special Adjustments
This battle turned out to be Michael’s third go in a row as
the Romans, this time a minor invasion of Iberian Spain. Despite having the
onus of forcing the attack Michael was prepared to drop his army size to 6,500
points versus the Iberians’ 6,750, but does have a Battlefield Effect in his
favour. Additionally, per the campaign requirements I have to choose an
internal allied command.
My plan
The challenge when fighting a Roman army of this era (well, most eras actually) is working out how to stand up to the excellent Roman heavy legionary. As Michael is going to have to bring the battle to me to earn his two points my plan will be to bring the Romans to battle in as much bad terrain as possible in order to channel the Roman attack, as the Roman heavy infantry cannot operate well in bad terrain this should give my loose formation battle troops the chance to stand up to the Roman legionaries at least in part of the front line.
I will choose a Celtiberian ally in addition to the required internal ally to give myself some better heavy infantry plus access to more cavalry. This should enable me to outnumber any Roman cavalry forces and get an advantage on at least one flank; I just have to hope that neither becomes hesitant.
I will also choose a good number of the excellent Iberian 'Caetrati' light troops in order to both be able to slow the Roman advance and counter the Roman skirmishers, plus a couple of sling-armed units to support my cavalry. In case we don’t finish the battle this should also enable me to at least have a shot at causing more casualties than the Romans inflict on my forces so as not to let Michael off Scot free. My plan will be to shoot and evade as much as possible prior to the battle lines making contact, with a bit of luck I may be able to avoid the battle lines making contact all together.
Pre-battle manoeuvring
Despite my hope of forcing a
battle in mountainous terrain the pre-battle sequence resulted in the battle
being fought in a coastal region and also Michael’s generally better cards
enabled him to keep the terrain fairly open. The battlefield ended up with one centrally
located marsh plus a wood and hill on my right. Despite the paucity of terrain here
was no choice but to proceed with my chosen plan and hope for the best. I was
at least able to place both my right wing cavalry units in ambush behind the
hill.
Just prior to deployment Michael
played his Battlefield Effect which resulted in the imposition of the
“starving” condition on my army, effectively reducing all my units’ movement
speeds by one base-width. This is quite a good result for him, my Caetrati won’t be able to so
easily evade as I was hoping without getting caught, especially as there is so
little bad terrain, plus it will make it harder to bring my, generally tribal,
superior forces into play.
Deployment
I did manage to slightly out-scout
the Romans so got to see the Roman army deploy some troops first. Michael
weighted his army towards his right, but surprised me by choosing quantity over
quality to a great extent, having only two veteran legion units, all the other
units being average quality. He did, however, upgrade his light infantry from the
fairly mediocre ‘Leves’ to the far more effective ‘Velites’, so matching the
quality of my Iberian Caetrati, though not the numbers.
It appeared to me that Michael
had placed rather too many units on his right as it looked like he would have
difficulty getting all of them into the fight particularly as his command
structure looked a bit weak, at a combined total of ten cards to my thirteen. I
was also surprised that Michael didn’t give any of his legionary units the
Melee Expert characteristic so my medium 'Scutarii' infantry now stood a chance of
standing up to them in the open after all.
Michael deployed all his cavalry on
his extreme right, leaving the cavalry I had placed in ambush on my right an
uninterrupted run around his left, if I could get them there in time to achieve
anything.
See picture below:
Turn one
On the initial card draw thankfully both my allied commands turned
out to be reliable. Seeing that the Romans weren’t going to go anywhere near my
right flank I wasted no time in revealing my cavalry hidden in ambush on my
right wing and sending them forward, unfortunately this meant I didn't have the cards to get the Celtiberian heavy infantry moving.
Michael and I both got relatively
poor cards but Michael pushed forward on his right as much as he was able
whilst I advanced my skirmishers as planned. I could already see that my fear
of being able to get the whole of my army into a good position was well
founded, my right wing infantry were miles from the action and their tribal
nature plus the starvation effects were going to make it difficult for me to
rectify the problem. All I could do was hope for some good cards for my
talented Celtiberian ally general.
See picture below:
Turn two
We continued pushing forward on
our respective rights and in the centre, though I limited my advance in the
centre to my skirmishers. I kept my infantry TUGs on my left back in order to
give my right wing time to swing round, though poor cards on my right limited
what I could achieve.
I moved my cavalry on my right around
behind the wood, right up to the Roman rear edge. Michael countered by expanding
his veteran legion’s line to effectively block any further advance I could make
without clearing it out of the way.
See picture below:
Turn three
On my left Michael’s advance
finally brought us into conflict. Our cavalry units charged each other, the
heavy cavalry against the opposing heavy and the lights against the lights and
I charged one of Michael’s Velites units in the centre. So far my units have
inflicted slightly more damage than they have received; my charging Caetrati
even destroyed its opposite number.
On my right my cavalry started
launching javelins, however, to little effect.
See picture below:
Turns four and five
On Michael’s far left he decided
not to hang around and charged my cavalry with his veteran legion, perhaps the
sight of the Celtiberian infantry plodding towards him made him think to defeat
my cavalry before they arrived.
On the other flank things went
very well for the Romans, the two light cavalry mutually self-destructed but
the Roman cavalry wiped out their opposite number, with failed morale checks by
me all round.
Seeing the preponderance of Roman
units on my left wing I had realised that I was up against it and had to play
for time so that my right wing troops could arrive on the scene. Prior to turn
five my delaying tactics seemed to be working, I was even slightly ahead in
losses inflicted, in turn five it all changed though. The Roman cavalry pursuit
had taken it behind my infantry battle line and there was little I could do to
rectify the situation.
See picture below:
Turn six and end of game
Turn six saw things go from bad
to worse, my cavalry on my right took a drubbing from the Roman veteran legion,
losing 50% of its strength in one turn and the Roman cavalry on the other wing
swung around ready to charge the rear of my battleline in the following turn.
Luckily for me we ran out of time, Michael had failed to force the win, though
he had succeeded in causing more casualties on my forces than mine had on his
so he didn’t lose any Prestige Points either.
See picture below:
Post-mortem
I think I was lucky not to hand
Michael the win here. My plan had, however, worked to some extent. My skirmish screen, combined with Michael's lack of command cards due to his command structure had slowed the Roman advance to the point where Michael wasn’t able to
capitalise on the Battlefield Effect and largely favourable terrain to get his infantry into the fight before we ran out of time.
Result
Draw - no Prestige Points won or lost.
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