ADLG - Game Report 127

British (98) vs Early Imperial Roman (85)

For my second game I decided to bring out the Ancient Britons for a period correct battle against Ian’s Romans. Trying to find toom for 31 units on the table is a little bit of a challenge – I was trying to intimidate Ian through weight of numbers. I decided to field the Warriors in the centre in two lines, this way I reasoned that I would have reserves to plug the inevitable holes that would appear in my line.

My goal was for my chariots on the right to sweep around and take the Romans in the rear, but perhaps more chariots would have helped.

The Romans had seen through my cunning plan on the right and were even now trying to restrict the ability of my Chariots to move against their flank and rear. In the centre the initial contact has been better for the British than is usual against the Romans. However, on the left I was unable to commit the light troops into the plantation through lack of command points and troops in their way.

The British reserve line has been committed to battle. On the left the warriors have the opportunity to finish off the Roman line and roll it up. That is if we have the command points to do so. On my right the Roman allied Cataphracts are bearing down on the reserve Warriors of the right flank.

The British are having some success on the left. Meanwhile the British warbands have avoided the Cataphracts. However, the big question was would the right stand sufficiently for the British left to defeat the Romans.

The Roman right has rallied sufficiently to create a new line of battle, while their centre rejoice and recover after overcoming and destroying 10 warbands! The reserve warbands on the centre right have had some success and are now in a position, led by their General, to sweep around the enemy rear.

And finally the Cataphracts bring the battle to a close by wounding the Chariots.

Outcome

A win for the Romans by suffering 19 hits but inflicting 31 on the British.

Lessons Learnt

Once again an Ordinary General had far too many units to command!

The reserve line in the centre helped to plug the gaps, as forecast, but at the expense of dying to a man.