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
It is important to remember that while cavalry was used in the Spanish Civil War lessons had been learnt from WW1. As such they were not used so much for cavalry charges but more for scouting and recon. Most often when cavalry were used in Battles they dismounted and fought on foot. So here are a group of 5 bases to be used as scouts and no doubt how we would use paratroops! By that I mean travel fast to the objective and dismount and wait for a relieving force. While that was not exactly how they were used in the SCW it is how I can see players using them in game terms. I want to make it clear I have no issue with this approach, I am sure I would do the same. It is after all how I use Cavalry in ACW games.
