ADLG - Game Report 192

Ostrogoth (95) vs African Vandals (142)

With the Ostrogoths all prepped and ready it was off to Oxford for the One-Day competition. The theme for the day was the Age of Aetius, with any valid army list between 390 and 454AD. Actually, this theme was ideal for me as it gave me the impetus to fill a missing link in the ADLG timeline of the armies I could field. My first battle was against Gordon’s African Vandals, and it was my decision to attack in the plains. I decided to keep a similar deployment to that which I had used on the last outing, with the cavalry on the wings and the infantry in the centre. In retrospect not a good decision.

I placed the main effort on the right with the infantry line supporting the right hand cavalry wing. Meanwhile the Vandals started their move to the right.

On the right the cavalry wing continues to close with the enemy while the infantry come up in support against the enemy line of infantry. On the left the picture doesn’t tell the whole story. I used my Huns to engage some marauding Moors, only for them to be caught in the flank by other Moors, which allowed the Moors to come behind and attack my cavalry line in the rear!

Henceforth with this debacle behind us it was up to the centre and right to see if they could redeem the error on the left. Perhaps a vail hope, the Cavalry have managed to destroy one of the vandal cavalry units, but the infantry has suffered a loss on contact to the Vandal infantry.

The remnants of the left wing continue to try and delay the inevitable. Meanwhile in the centre the Ostrogothic infantry have flanked a Vandal Infantry unit, but it refuses to succumb to the attack. I have left the other two infantry advance to the camp, as I might need the benefit of sacking the enemy camp.

Out on the left the last remaining Ostrogothic cavalry are refusing to lay down their arms. While the bowmen sent to support them have ow been flanked by the moors. In the centre we finally routed the stubborn Vandal infantry, but even more impressively a unit of Bowmen have inflicted a hit on another vandal infantry unit. The right wing of cavalry has been reduced to two effective units.

Outcome

We were Vandalised by 25 losses to only inflicting 13.

Lessons Learnt

The loss of the Huns on the left early in the game was a game changer and which could have been prevented with a little more thought.

Once again the deployment of the bowmen didn’t allow them to contribute significantly to the battle.