ADLG - Game Report 256

Early Imperial Roman (85) vs Late Imperial Roman (87)

On to the final game of the weekend, and my third Roman Civil War against Angelo's Late Romans where I would be defending in the plains. The deployment was as before, and again it made sense of a sort; the right wing Auxilia would be operating along the coastline in the terrain, while the left wing occupied the field with the heavies and supporting Cavalry in the centre. The one issue was that there were insufficient troops to defend this frontage.

We advanced to the front of the terrain on the left and started the advance along the coastline on the right; the gaps are starting to appear.

The gaps on the left are now painfully obvious. And on the right, I have forgotten some harsh lessons learnt in the past; of which more later.

Contact. The initial contact on the left has destroyed the Equites with their Wing Commander and the lights; no more of those wonderful saving throws from the Light Cavalry! While on the right the mal-deployment of the Auxilia along the coastline has forced the enemy to conform to me giving them an overlap!

As a consequence of this poor deployment the Auxilia on the right have been humbled by their later opponents. The later Roman Cavalry have destroyed all my Cavalry and are now at free rein to roll up the Army.

Outcome

A win for the Later Romans by 12 to 25. Giving me 2 losses, 1 win, 1 draw and 1 mutual destruction for the weekend; a result I think easily reflects some errors in army selection.

Lessons Learnt

One of the ways of covering the frontage is to break the line into smaller groups leaving less than a UD between groups. This would have forced the enemy to conform to me and fight without overlaps.

I think picking an early Roman army with 25 units was a success. However, although the order of battle was balanced it lacked flexibility for the terrain. Moreover, neither Auxilia command was sufficiently strong in of itself too much. A better option might be to increase the Auxilia in one command and place the cavalry in their own command.