Monday 24 March 2014

Another Roman Victory!

There was a gathering in the "Shed of war" on Saturday the culprits from left to right were Big Lee Alternative report click here. , Surgit, Ian, Postie and David or Izzy as he is sometimes called. We all randomly selected our place in the game and I was the Roman Legate, Izzy was my Tribune. The other three were some Pictish barbarian rabble unfit to wash a Romans feet! Ok Big Lee was supposedly incharge of them, and it was his "Daughter" we had captured.... only in the game.... but he did say she was rubbish around the house so I don't think we would have much use for her in reality, maybe some amusement for the lions in the arena.

The situation was that Tribune David Had to escort the prisoner and the loot erhm I mean Taxes back to the fort which was mine to command. The Three oiks you can see on the left where given 2 objectives, to rescue the hostage and to capture the fort. And this is what Happened.


 Thousands of 'em... No but about 300 in all
 The Thin Red Line. Izzy's column of about 50 men.
The Mile Fort I was in command of. Which the Picts were to attack as well as rescue the hostages. 
 The Original Roman Plan was to leave 1 Unit to slow the pict advance. But we soon realised that these Picts could move fast and one unit would be little more than a speed bump!
Adapting the plan  We sent the Prisoners on alone with 4 guards and Tribune Izzy would use all 3 units to attack the Picts.
So Izzy left the road and took the battle to the barbarian horde.
 I lit the distress beacons to notify the nearby forts that we were being attacked. I set the 6 cavalry figures and the Fort standard bearer to assist.
 Chieftain Big Lee Started to move his troops up allowing Ian and Surgit to Battle away at Tribune Izzy's PBI.
 Cheftain Lee kept his troops out of range of my 3 Scorpions but my Oranger crew had obviously had a heavy night and Missed by about an inch on every single occasion. The Oranger killed only 1 barbarian in all the game. Such a disappointment! 
 Tribune Izzy did a fine job in fighting off the Picts. Such a good job that the one battering ram that the Picts had was diverted from it's job of moving to attack the gate and instead attacked Davids Legionaries.  This was clearly not part of their original plan so they adapted it and instead settled on only rescuing Big Lee's daughter.
The Cavalry I sent out to assist were mown down by arrows and wiped out in 2 turns. And the battering ram moved a further 6 inches away. All the while the hostages and loot were getting closer.

 I receiver 6 more cavalry as reinforcements from the lighting of the beacons. At this stage I wish I had nor sent out the first cavalry unit oh well too late to worry about that.
 The Pict skirmish line captures the wagon of Taxes. And is closing ground on the hostages.
 My pitiful Oranger so little damage, but at least it was deterring the Picts fanatics from getting unhealthily close.
 I sent My last Cavalry out to act as a screen to get the Hostages into the fort.
 They charged, now just down to 3 men. And Died very quickly!
 I Moved my archers onto the walls closer to the gate and fired like Billy-o at the skirmishers.

And Managed to do just enough damage to stop them for a turn
while I got the Prisoners/hostages inside the gate.


And That's where we stopped the game. The Gods favoured the Romans and we shall all say a prayer to "Postius" God of Wargames shed.

Final thoughts: I think the rules really did favour the Romans and make them too hard to kill. When 50 troops can hold off 300 it does seem one sided. Having said that it did come down to a single dice roll in the end when my archers did enough damage to force a morale check on Lees skirmishers. So It really could have gone either way. It was in the end a Roman minor victory mostly thanks to Izzy. But it could have been a Roman disaster if the Picts had got the hostages back (-12 Victory points, or lost the fort -20 Victory points). Which would have made the 2 victory point difference completely insignificant.

And a big thank you to Postie for hosting and Umpiring the game. All the figures and Terrain is his and it really was a joy to be part of it.

Thanks for reading and with luck more again on Wednesday.

All the best Clint

31 comments:

  1. That was a great read, it's nice to learn about the battle from the other side of the walls, too, he he.

    I liked the scenario, too, very far away from the ordinary slaughter fest.

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    1. Thank you Mathyoo. It is pleasant to have objectives in a battle and not just trying to kill more of the enemy than he kills of you.

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  2. The scenario smells very much like the opening part of "The Eagle of the Ninth" (the excellent book, not the appallingly bad film).

    Personally, I don't find it at all surprising that 50 trained, hardened legionaries could hold off hundreds of tribal warriors, at least for a while. There have been victories over far worse odds than that in real-life battles, after all!

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    1. 2/3rds were Auxilia only one unit of Legionaries. And you are right that there have been greater victories against larger odds and also right about the book plot. Also a little like king Arthur, but no Sarmations.

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  3. Great read and a well deserved Roman victory; despite any reservations you may have of the rules the Romans were the superheroes of their day and the game did seem to me to be balanced at the start.
    Trifle unfair I thought of the Picts ramming your fine lads in the rear, very unsporting.

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    1. I have seen a battering ram used on a person in re-enactment. NOT as part of the show.

      I realise that most rules are pro-Roman for a reason. to me though they did not seem as balanced as they might. But it would be nice to see a Roman vs Numidian or Parthian game to see if the balance really is there.

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  4. Sounded like a good time mate and a win is a win, by the way I got the figures you sent last night from Ray!

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    1. It was a good game and I really did enjoy it being safe inside a fort.

      Glad you got the figures and I hope you like them.

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  5. Wonderful report and eye candy there Clint, looks like great fun was had by all

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    1. I think we all had fun and it was a joy to play on such a nice table.

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  6. Another cracking report and a stunning table.

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    1. I can take no credit for the table or the figures, but it is always nice to have a game like that.

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  7. Sounds like a great time for all.

    I like the scenario. Not just needing to kill as much of the enemy you can.

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    1. It was a good scenario it presented several options and allowed players to think. Thank you Johnny.

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  8. Great report Clint, just wish I could have played the bugger!

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    1. I would have liked a longer chat with you about Donnybrook and to thank you for passing the figures on to Fran. It would have been good to have you play as well. Funny when Surgit moved the only battering ram away from the gate in his desire to kill Davids troops.

      Thanks Ray There will be another time.

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  9. An exciting battle. I really like Postie's chain gang hostage model.

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    1. Thank you Baconfat. The game did have it's moments.

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  10. Great game report and your team was victorious hoorah!

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    1. Hoorah Indeed. As Fran would say a win is a win! Thank you Simon.

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  11. Looked fun, my favourite wargames are multi-player mulit-objective affairs. What rules were you using? If the points of the 50 Romans = the same as the barbarians then it's fine I think, just for the hollywood theatrical heroics of it all, and may be true anyway :)

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    1. Thank you Dave. The rules are a home brew set developed by Postie so not a commercial set at all.

      And it was good fun . I will enjoy another game for sure. I will endeavour to put on a multi player game with different objectives on down the club some time after Salute.

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  12. Cracking report, cheers and top-notch play-set too. Kudos to Postie

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    1. Thank you Ad yes Kudos indeed to Postie.

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  13. That was a great batrep, Clint. I, too, liked the game's objectives, which gave the scenario a nice narrative feel to it rather than having one side bashing the other for no good reason. Also, congrats on your victory!

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    1. Thank you Bryan. So many times are battles fought by wargames without clear reasons and they become just slug-fests one side trying to kill more of the other but for no clear reason.

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  14. Great looking game; impressive fortress!

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  15. A great write up of a great game mate. It was a close call but you did the right thing by keeping your forces in the fort until they were needed. And moving your archers to provide maximum firepower near the gate was crucial in the end. If you hadn't inflicted 50% casualties on my pict skirmishes I wouldn't have been disordered and could have made that vital last Charge move next turn and reached the prisoners before they moved inside the fort. The 12 victory points we would have gained would have swung the game firmly to us, but it wasn't to be.

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    1. It was close in the end. But if you had got your daughter back I would have been forced to come out of the fort and give you a good thumping!

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