ADLG - Game Report 254

Early Imperial Roman (85) vs Pyrrhic (44)

The final game on Saturday, and a game which Colin would win; or at least a Colin, as I was against Colin's Pyrrhic Army. And of course there had to be elephants to contend with. I was gifted the privilege of attacking in the Plains. Once again a similar deployment for the Romans, with the heavies down the middle flanked by the auxilia commands.

The initial goal was to try and punish the Pyrrhic Pikes alongside the gully and pummel them into submission with the artillery; after all Kevin had done the same to my Ptolemaics. On the right I wanted to use the gully to flank the Pikes and elephants. While on the left it was a question of how best to protect the flank of the other two wings whilst protecting oneself from the vicissitudes of the Pyrrhic cavalry.

As the enemy closed, I was forced to send in the Numidian Light Cavalry in against the Pyrrhic General, and they exceeded expectations! However there has been an overall lamentable failure to protect the left flank of the centre.

The success of the engagement on the left was short lived, as once again the Wing Commander attached to the Equites died in battle leaving the Numidian's to face defeat alone. In the centre a Pike unit has been destroyed but at some cost as the flank of the victor has now been exposed. On the right the battle against the Pachyderms has become fragmented. As such the remaining Roman Equites have been forced to move forward to confront the beasts.

The losses on both sides have climbed significantly, and albeit for some execrable combat results we would have been destroyed each other in battle – it was not (quite) going to be a truly "Pyrrhic victory".

Outcome

A Pyrrhic victory by 22 of 25 to my 25. A win for a Colin, but not the Colin.

Lessons Learnt

I was in two minds as to whether to deploy the heavies on the right next to the coast; on balance that would have made sense as they could have used their artillery to good effect against the Elephants!