Stephen and I ended up facing Kent and Dave. Stephen took command of my Romans and I took a German warband. Our combined forces consisted of:
Early Imperial Romans-300pts
- Command: Average
- Commander: Fair (+2)
- 2x CM Equites Alares
- 3x FP Legionnaires (incl Gen)
- 3x FL Auxillaries
- 1x Scorpio, Ballistra
- 3 x T Regular Archers
Early Germans- Batavi 300pts
- Command: Poor
- Commander: Fair (+2)
- 1x FL Elite Warband large (Gen)
- 2x FL Warband (large)
- 2x FL Warriors
- 2x FL Macemen
- 4x CM with hundreds
- 4x S Javelinmen
Kent and Dave had similar forces
4-5 legionnaires
2x auxillia
2x raw legionnaires
2x slingers or bows
Kent also had 2x light Cavalry
Deployment
Stephen and I toyed with the idea of utting all our forces on one side of the rver but decided against ti. Stephen took our right flank (vs dave) and I the left vs Kent. I deploye in width rather than depth- and this would ost me dearly.
My warband started on opprtunity. I eon the dice off to go first and promptly sat back and waited- something I should have coninued to do.
Kent's new legionniare's start to advance- nice very figures.
My flank remains refused- thanlks to me once again rolling doubles for command- aving learned my lesson on Wednesday my command is now poor rather than incompetent. Dave's command also suffered the same fate this turn! In the distance Stepen's nbow adance up the road and his auxilia start clearing the woods of enemy auxilia. His cavalry start a very big flanking movement.
Meanwhile Kent advacnes his skirmishers and light horse.
Dave and Stephen's forces close.
Still a bit far away for any effective bowfire though.
With Kent's light horse and slingers advancing I decided to unleash the horde.
Come on, up and at em!
Dave's legionnaires advance.
Our bow forces a couple of disorders.
c
Kent throws his auxilia into my warband and macemen- routing two units.
Meanwhile the skirmishing between the Roman slingers, cavalry and my warband continues.
I decide to send my cavvalry in to support Stephen.
I manage to destroy one of the light horse.
Stephen's bow continue to snipe at Dave's- and manage to destroy two units eventually.
Stephen also outflanks the auxilia in the woods and destroys one- Dave's flank is now under serious threat.
Hmm, what to do, what do do? My cavalry are making a beeline for Dave's bow- but alas will bounce of them rather embarassingly!
My three large warband units advanceing down the valley of death- in the distance Kent's legionniares are preparing to meet the onslaught.
Auxilia clash on the hill. Stephen's auxilia win the clash and rout Dave's.
Stephen's bows contonue their (rather) ineffective fire.
Kent's legionniare clash with my warband- i made a couple of mistakes regarding large warband (not adding the +2 dicce when charging for the large unit and disordering the front unit when I should have disordeered the back). My warband were totally outlcassed in the ensuing clashes.
The not so think red (and white) line.
A view from Dave's position- my Cavlary are trying to cross the ford in the distance while Dae's legionniares are tryng to maintyain thir front. Stephen has them under a lot of pressure but alas my Germans are losing the battle on the other flank.
The warband about to go in.
Another failed charge- disrupted by pilum the German cavalry retreats in disorder.
Do or die time. The Germans are being cut to peices. The eltie General and hiis warband are "stuck" fighting Kent's general in an inconcusive combat while my other surviving large wqrband charges up the hill only to be repulsed. Dave's command is also nearly borken- we need to destroy two damaged untos of legionnaires to still snatch victory before all is lost.
My General and his followers are all that is left of my warband!
Stephen throws all he can vs a legionnire hitting it 3 times while it is flnaked but the legionnaires remains teady and don't break! Vicotry to Kent and Dave.
That is all that is left of my command. I amanged to lsoe 3 units of Cavlry in my last turn- only some macemen, my general and 2 units of skirmishers survived!
As the sun sets the battlefield falls silent.
Thoughts
A great game, it took about 3 hours all up. I made a couple of mistakes using the Germans (not having the large warband rules sussed). My biggest mistake was letting my warband loose too soon. Holding them back a couple more turns would have allowed Stephen to exploit the other flank- he had Dave on the ropes. Delaying the committing of my warband a bit longer would have also meant Kent would have to advance slowly- I thought I saw an opprtunity to deal with the light horse & skirmishers but it wasn't to be and Kent successfully lured my troops out. He used an effective tactic of advancing with his skirmishers so far forward that I thought I had a couple of of turns to deal with them before his legionnaires were close enough to interfere but in reality I was lured out into the open a turn or two too early.
I also think deploying in width rather than depth was a mistake. I thought 4x units of javelins armed skirmishers should have been enough to protect my larger blocks of warband but as it turned out my small warband units would have been better in front of my larger units to soak up some hits and hopefully damage the legionnires before I committed the larger blocks of warband.
Dave bought my Imperial Roman army (500 pts) so I will use that money to add some Crusader Germans to the mix for more variety. I really enjoyed using this force and look forward to trying to suss out how to get the most out of it.
Well played Kent and Dave, and sorry Stephen. Once gain I was losing the game faster than you could win it!
Craig
Awesome game, Craig - Good to see a solid Roman line, grinding down the Barbarians again!
ReplyDeleteI need to encourage Poochie to get his Barbarians sorted so we can get in some big games up here.
Cheers
Nice battle report - enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteIt was a lot of fun, but alas I have a lot to learn about running Ze Jarmans
ReplyDeleteCraig
Excellent report Craig. The table and troops all look fantastic too. Would have been a wonderful day.
ReplyDeleteHi Craig - just one though on you post-battle musings: Jason may have a different take re: depth for the warbands BUT the times I have been most troubled as the Romans is when the barbarian attack came as two prongs.
ReplyDeleteThere are two types of fighting troops: The Cav (which you can control) and the Warbands, which are incredibly tough and hit hard but are also hard to steer. However, you can point impetuous troops straight ahead down a flank and have them wheel to hit the Romans from another tack. The Romans can come after you but this is messier than we tend to like and your cav can be the 'wingmen' for the warband.
This might make it harder for the Romans to get things working to their advantage in combat - FP can be a PITA to work with when you have to reset your lines/angles.
I was hoping that the skrimisers to the fore and small warband on my flanks would protect my big blocks till I got into combat with the legionnaires, didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped.
ReplyDeleteI like the two pronged idea- today our biggest issue was me releasing the warband too early- they are not quite as responsive as my Seljuks are:)
I'd like 8 cav but just can't afford the points- am working on a 500 pt force now- which needs a min of 20x warriors! :)
The Germans were fun and challenging to use vs the Romans so it should make for challenging games- we've never found impeutous warband to be the issue that they seem to be on the Impetus forums.
Craig
VBU skirmishers tend to pop at inopportune moments. I would expect Romans to beat warbands on a front on front fight, as long as the Romans use their combined-arms.
ReplyDeleteI think the issue others are having with Warband is possibly a mainly 28mms thing and even then is something we don't have the same issue with because we have effectively grown our boards by shrinking the army frontage.
I am very glad I let myself be persuaded by your heretical 8cm ideas! :)
That looked like a fun game :) (must resist temptation .. i dont want Macedonian Phalangites ......)
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, where did you get that base cloth?
cheers
@ Jamiee: LoL- I did it as I liked the look but it seems our basing has other, unintended benefits. I have always struggled with warband vs Romans in Impetus so hopefully can come up with some counters to te nasty heavy foot + pilum.
ReplyDelete@ Scruff: GW gaming mats- got them from Comics in CHCH, about $65ish each but they make look good.