And once again, a victory over the heathen enemy, this time Early Imperial Romans with Inert Claudius.
My army was the same as the last two weeks, and Adam's army was pretty much the one he took to Wollongong - a huge command led by Claudius, packed with Bd (S), Ax (S), Bw (O), Art (F) and an Ele (I). The two subs each commanded 4 Cv (O) and 1 Cv (I). Adam gave the largest PIP dice to Claudius, averaged the two middle ones for the subs, and the baggage took the hindmost.
I was the attacker, and selected two 1FE difficult hills, while Adam selected two 0.5FE rough hills, a patch of scrub and a road. One DH was on my left flank, guarding against the non-existent threat of a flank march (I knew how Adam's army worked). The other DH split Adam's deployment zone in two. One RH was on my mid-left, the other opposite it in Adam's deployment zone. The scrub was out on Adam's right flank. Weather played no part in the game.
I chose to invade in winter, and the deployment dice determined the game started an hour before sunrise, amended to sunrise. I then blew the deployment dice roll, and had to deploy before Adam (I made the same mistake when we played in Wollongong). The Emperor was in the centre, with the left edge of the Skutatoi Bw (X/O) against the RH. The C-in-C was behind with a Kataphraktoi wedge either side, along with 2 Cv (S). The sub on the left had Ps on the RH, with Cv in column behind the hill. The sub on the right had Cv and LH in a long line.
Adam's army was much larger. Claudius's command was as long as my entire army, with the Bd (S) in the centre, Ax (S) either side, Art (F) behind, and Bw out on the right, reaching just beyond the RH. The Cv commands were on each end of the line.
I decided to attack aggressively on the flanks, and defend in the centre, shooting and retreating with the Skutatoi, and saving the Kataphraktoi for the main effect in the centre. As a result, I used the same PIP distribution as Adam - C-in-C the highest, flanks averaging the middle, and lowest for the baggage.
In the centre, Roman artillery tore apart the Skutatoi (4 to 2 each shot). The problem was that if I closed enough to stop the Artillery shooting overhead, I'd be close enough to the legionaries for them to charge. So I preferred to stay back and shoot, though the Skutatoi shooting was abysmal - they recoiled one element in the whole game. By the time the Emperor and the Kataphraktoi were in contact, I'd lost 4 of the 6 Skutatoi DBEs, though the command wasn't disheartened yet (still looked pretty dismal).
On the right, the Cv and LH marched beyond the edge of Claudius's line, drawing Adam's left wing Cv to advance against me. After a few bounds of tough fighting in which some of Claudius's Ax came to help, the Roman Cv command was broken, then shattered, then eliminated altogether. On the left, the fight started a bit more slowly, and I had the embarrassment of losing a Cv (S) to shooting. But eventually my Cv did their job and broke the Roman right wing. So while my victorious right wing turned on the Ax who'd gone to help the Roman Cv, the victorious left wing turned into the Bw.
Meanwhile, the Emperor and the Kataphraktoi were in contact in the centre. The legionaries charged first, to no effect except to push the C-in-C out of combat. He then declared a Brilliant Stroke and charged back in, and legionaries started to die. Within a couple of turns, all three elements had broken through the legionary line, and the Emperor used his second Brilliant Stroke when he charged an Artillery element, destroying it. But Adam had plenty of troops, and was able to hit both DBEs in the flank and kill them. This was enough to break the centre command, though the Emperor was still roaming around the rear of the Roman army.
It then took a last couple of bounds of Cv attacking in from the flanks to get the last elements needed to accumulate 50% losses on the Roman army, breaking it. My losses were 38%, with one general broken and one disheartened (left wing). So if my maths is right, that was a 17-8 win to me. Thanks to Adam for a *very* entertaining game.
I had enough PIPs most of the time, and averaging the two middle PIP dice again insured against the danger of wasted PIPs on one flank and not enough on the other. Adam almost always had enough PIPs, although late in the game, Claudius was so far over one side of his command that it was expensive in PIPs to move troops at the far end of the command. The funny thing was that, even when both Cv commands were shattered, he still usually managed to roll 6 PIPs for Claudius...
I'm amazed at how tough this army is, and I think I'll be taking it to Lance and Arrow in a couple of weeks. The only problem is that when I do well in club games with an army, it usually performs miserably in competition, and often vice versa!
Anyway, thanks again to Adam for a fun game.
Cheers
Barritus
