We each had about 350 points.
The Numidian's:
- Left flank: 3x Numidian light Cav & 1x Gallic Med cav.
- Centre: General, 2x Roman trained hewavy inf, 2x light warbands, elephant, 2x skirmishers
- Right Flank: 4x light warband & 2x skirmishers
Kent ran the same army as last week in two commands including a leadership 9 general.
- 2x Libyan Spears
- 2x large Gallic Warband
- 1x Spanish med infantry
- 1x Spanish light infantry
- 2x Spanish Med Cav
- 1x Numidian light Cav
- 1x elephant
- 3x skirmishers
The armies deployed. I wonder what cunning plans Kent has in store for my army tonight.
Turn 1, the Numidians advance on their right flank but refuse everything else- due to woeful command rolls.
The Gallic Warband hold the Carthaginian centre.
I send forth all my skirmishers to harry the opposing skirmishers, and start by rolling well and forcing a few break tests.
Turn 2 or 3. I thrown my elite cavalry in vs the Gallic Warband- they hit me with 11 dice + supports last week, this time I intended to give them a bloody nose. But once the dice had been rolled my Cav lost by 1, rolloed 3 for my breaktest and so broke! There goes my best unit. Meanwhile the Numidian light cavalry refuse too throw javelins anywhere near the elephant.
A close up of the action just prior to the Gallic Cavalry being destroyed.
Any thing you can do I can do better. On the right flank Kent throws a unit of Spanish medium Cav into my warbands but the outcome is indecisive and we are locked in a swirling melee that soon attracts more units, including the Numidian elephant.
Having lost my cavalry my centre was in danger of being outflanked and overwhelmed so I pulled back to reduce the exposure of being overlapped on my left flank- and to buy time to try to win on my right flank.
Kent threw his Libyans and Spanish medium infantry in to support his cavalry against my "Numidian" warbands...
However, luck went my way and somehow we broke the cavalry and they swept away the Libyan heavy foot unit supporting them. Suddenly the Numidians had some hope! The warband at the top of the picture was about to die though, in a hail of javelins from Kent's skirmishers.
Yep, those warband have now been taken care of. If we can destroy that unit of medium Spanish infantry then we are in with a chance... as long as we don't lose too many more units.
Hmmm. Things not looking quite so good in the centre. Speaking of which. Where the hell has our centre gone?
There appears to be a rather large gap where the centre should be.
On the far left over 5 turns my "elite" Numidian cavalry has refused to advance, while Kent has managed a single move forward!
My two "extremely tough" units of warband do their utmost to halt the Carthaginian juggernaut- oh that's right we are LIGHT warband. Oh crap.
This ended up being the critical battle of the game. Although outnumbered the Spanish refused to die and held off all attempts to break them. Had they been destroyed then one of the two Carthaginian commands was broken and would have given us the game.
In the centre, I'm running out of warband as the Gauls rip though my units!
Finally though our cavalry starts to obey orders on the far left flank.
The final clashes as the now heavily outnumbered Numidian's try to snatch an improbably victory from the jaws of defeat. My Roman trained heavy infantry use the "close ranks" special rule to avoid taking some damage and keep us in the game.
But it is not to be. Kent is not to be denied his well earned victory. On the bright side though the cavalry finally clash, we destroy the medium Gallic unit for the loss of one of my Numidian light units.
A sorry looking end of the game for the Numidian's as our centre too crumbles.
Well that was a lot of fun.The game flowed a lot better than last week and ebbed and flowed nicely. None of my skirmishers managed to evade any units charging them and were slaughtered as a result but it was a game with lots of drama and what ifs. We still made a few tactical errors- throwing in supports when maybe it would have been more prudent not to, not to mention sending my medium cavalry into the heart of the opposing battleline unsupported- oops, but we had a much better handle on the rules and were both much happier with how the game played.
It looked one sided at the end but I had very nearly shattered Kent's right wing and was close to breaking his army as a result so was close and could have gone either way. Most of my units are less powerful than Kent's but was really happy with how they worked together. I've still some work to do refining tactics etc but like the way the "brittle" Numidian's play and was really happy with the game and am keen for a rematch.
Craig
Enjoyed reading this. Inspired me to keep hacking away at my own armies.
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