Friday 1 April 2011

Battle Report - 21 Mar 2011

I seem to be a week behind - I'll try and catch up, but I have no photos for the Pig Wars game on the 28th yet (hint, hint, DP!).

So - the 21st was a warmup/practice game for the club's upcoming WAB2 Roman Civil War campaign - 10 or so players, a mix of various LRR/EIR armies, Liburian, Dacian, Macedonian. This one was Grahame and I against AndyB and Phil, EIR vs a mix of Macedonias (Phil) and Dacians (AndyB).

I took the left flank, Grahame the right, correctly guessing that I was going to have the dirty job - holding up Phil's two phalanxes (phalanges?) and that really irritating cavalry wedge, while Grahame, at least in theory, cleaned up the Dacians.

In theory....

The wedge hit the skirmish line (archers), which was sort of in the plan. Leaving the auxiliary cavalry just inside revealed charge range when they ran away wasn't, since I'd slightly misjudged just how far the damn things move. And, of course, 10 of them charging get attacks, and I only get to fight back with what's left of 7 (those in contact plus half the wedge)... [hrm, note to self, the "Alexander The Great supplement says 'that many extra surviving defenders' - I should check whether that means before or after casualties!]

The cavalry did actually survive the first round, but not the second. Surprisingly, the archers rallied, which meant they got to hold the wedge up again.

Meanwhile, my two cohorts of legionaries got stuck into the phalanxes: the first round of both combats went to a musician roll-off, and I lost both, meaning Phil had momentum.

Round two was more clear cut - one cohort broke and fled, the second collected a third unit of infantry in the flank...

It survived that round, too. But not the third. Mostly because the third involved them collecting that damn cavalry wedge in the rear! Not that it wasn't inevitable - it was pretty much behind them when it broke the auxiliary cavalry, and those things are very manoeuvrable.

At that point, everything I had on the board was routing, and not coming back, so.. well, that was pretty much it. As you can see, the wedge and the phalanxes headed off to do more damage...

Given Phil's Macedonians will be putting in an appearance in the campaign, I really need a plan for dealing with both the wedge, and the phalanxes. The latter always get initiative in the first round, which is tiresome, and the wedge is just ... unpleasant. However. I think I have an idea... :D

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