For this game against Ian I decided to get my 28mm Early
Imperial Roman and German barbarian armies out of the boxes and try them with
Sword and Spear rules. Both armies had 470 points and used the basic (not
upgraded) troop options. The Germans had 3 leaders compared to the Roman 2.
We diced for sides and I got the Romans. Next we diced for
terrain and ended up with 4 pieces of rough ground which were located around
the edges of the board, so we were left with a basically empty gaming area
(much to my relief). Next we bid for scouting which the Germans won, but
because the Romans had all the heavy foot it made no effective difference. The
two armies deployed facing one another, the Germans had to utilise a second
line because they had so many troops. The German cavalry was facing my left
flank, where I had deployed my bolt-shooters and some auxillia.
The Germans advanced whilst the Romans sat still. Ian first
attacked my left flank with his cavalry supported by some warriors. My
bolt-shooters were overrun and the auxillia also went down after a couple of
turns. I reinforced using my Roman cavalry and this turned the fight. The German
cavalry were destroyed, plus some warriors, but my cavalry pursued and were
eventually also destroyed. The left flank now seemed stable, so Ian launched
his main strike across the rest on my front. This was the key turn of the
battle and the result would determine the winner. Ian needed some good dice
rolls but only threw average numbers and the Romans held. The Germans did
achieve some success on the Roman right flank, destroying my other auxillia unit
and engaging a pinned legion in the flank. At this point the Germans fell below
the 1/3 loss value and all German units had to take discipline tests. Ian threw
OK except on his flanking units which failed, and these losses when combined
with their accumulated casualties caused them to rout. Suddenly all the pressure
on my right flank was gone! The next turn saw Roman victories across the
battleline and the German army morale collapsed. A glorious Roman victory!
The game played fast with no rules problems.
Both players were tested in their dice allocation decisions and, I think, the
game was enjoyable for both of us. I think the Romans are a very tough army; the
legions with a discipline 3, strength 4 are hard, and when you add on the
armour and thrown weapon characteristics, they become a very tough nut to
crack. Although the Germans have the impact characteristic, their discipline 4,
strength 3 profile is too weak to prevail (NB/ I forgot to include the
undrilled characteristic, so they should have been even weaker!). With
hindsight I should have upgraded a significant proportion of the German army to
heavy warriors (strength 4) to give the Germans more chance. Increasing the
table size might also have helped but the Romans could easily re-deploy units
to counter any flanking movement, so long as they held their ground. I hope to
have a rematch but with a better designed German force.
No comments:
Post a Comment