Well, last week I took on Tim M's Later Hoplite Greek Spartans with my Late Imperial Romans, led by the Inert Barbatio. I was the invader, in spring, with weather and time of day playing no role in the game.
For terrain I selected a river, which didn't get placed because of adverse dice rolls. Tim selected a couple of small difficult hills and a couple of woods, only one of which was placed. All three terrain pieces ended up pretty much along the centreline, the two hills on my right and the wood on my left. This left a reasonable amount of space in the centre.
My next dice success was to double Tim's deployment dice, meaning I had to deploy first. I placed Barbatio with massed Cv, LH and Ax (24 ME) on the right, with the mounted facing the gap between the two steep hills and the Ax facing the inboard hill. The legionaries sat in the centre, in two ranks, and with Art (F) interspersed and a small mounted reserve (30 ME). On the left I place the second sub-general with a smaller mounted force on the legionaries' flank and Ax facing the wood (18 ME). Beyond them were the Moorish allies, Ps and Ax facing the wood, LH behind (10 ME). I gave the C-in-C the highest PIP dice, and averaged the other two between the centre and left.
On his right, Tim deployed a small mounted command with Cv and LH plus some Ps. Next to them were two commands of mostly Sp (O) with a couple of Sp (S) and Ps mixed in. Then, on his left flank, facing my C-in-C, Tim deployed an allied command of Persian Cv. He gave his highest PIP dice to his mounted command, and averaged the PIP dice of the two hoplite commands.
As Barbatio was inert, Tim got the first bound. He sent Ps onto the inboard steep hill and into the wood, moved his mounted around the wood, and sent the Persians forward as far as they could. My response with miserable PIPs was to send the C-in-C's mounted into the Persians and send the Moorish LH across to try to block the Greek mounted. I also realised that putting legionaries in two ranks to fight hoplites was a complete over-reaction, especially as the Artillery carts could shoot overhead, so I decided to expand the legionaries out into a single line with the carts behind. Not easy to do with 1 point off each PIP dice.
The first contact between the Persian and Roman mounted was a disaster for me, with two LH lost. The only bright point was that I outnumbered the Persians. On the opposite flank, Tim was able to sneak a lone LH past the Moors, but I wasn't able to do much with it, as the Moors got no PIPs the following bound. Tim then exploited the high PIP dice for that command to march the LH into the rear of the Moorish general, killing him. This immediately broke the Moorish command, and of course completely unhinged my left flank.
On my right, the combats finally started going in favour of the Romans, with a couple of Persian Cv being destroyed. I tried to support the mounted by sending the C-in-C's Ax up the steep hill, in the face of Tim's Ps (O) and (I), but both sides suffered casualties. In the centre, the legionary redeployment proceeded slowly. And on the left, the Ax entered the woods to take on the Ps. Tim's Greek mounted pressed around the wood as the Moors departed in haste, and he also advanced his hoplites facing the Roman left wing Cv.
After a couple of lucky combat results on my part, the Persian command broke, leaving only the general and one other element to mop up. The legionaries also completed their redeployment and resumed their advance. I was now in a position to sweep around the unprotected left flank of the Spartan phalanx (although the C-in-C's command was on the edge of becoming disheartened), while simultaneously hitting it from the front. Meanwhile, the Ax on my left completed the destruction of the Greek Ps in the wood. At last the battle seemed to be swinging in my favour.
Of course, it didn't work out that way. The last two Persian Cv hung on against all the odds, slowing down my right flank, and the pressure on the left flank increased steadily; some hoplites turned to face the Ax in the wood, others moved on the Roman mounted, and the Greek mounted advanced towards their flank.
Finally, however, I shattered the Persian command, and around the same time got the legionaries into contact. The Roman right wing started to attack the flank of the main Spartan line, just as their reserves started lapping around both ends of the Roman line. All I needed was a few good combat results from the legionaries, and I could break the Greek left wing and with it the army.
It wasn't to be. Hoplites overran the artillery carts and hit some legionaries in the flank, and Greek Cv surrounded and killed the Roman sub-general on the left flank. The Roman left and centre both collapsed, with the Greek left wing 0.5 ME from disheartening and 2.5 ME from breaking.
All in all, another thoroughly enjoyable game, for which I should thank Tim, a game in which I didn't feel out of it until the final collapse. I didn't help myself by messing up the deployment of the legionaries, though I probably wouldn't have been able to attack much sooner if I'd been better organised - I needed the flank threat to materialise first. What I could've done was to use the centre's mounted reserve more aggressively. But I also messed up the deployment of the C-in-C's mounted troops, forcing me to initially attack with LH instead of Cv. My PIP dice were abysmal - even without the Inert penalty I had a lot more below average than above average bounds; I rarely had the PIPs to do everything I wanted to do. Tim's, on the other hand, were generally as good as mine were bad, meaning he rarely had maneuver problems. My combat dice probably came out about average.
Sooner or later I'll work out how to use these Romans...
