The Tribal Twostep

In which our two heroes explore the joys of Tribal manoeuvre with many Yellow Cards used for wheeling and for MF1 moves. Read on ... 

In our second game of the year Ray and I fielded Thracian Lowland Tribes and Gallic Foederate Roman respectively. Alas due to my work commitments we didn't have the usual amount of time for the game, and with some chat about upcoming competitions and the next issue of the Mortem et Gloriam Players Podcast, we did not have time to play the game to a conclusion. Much fun was had though and we now feel we have got the hang of the game again and can start playing at proper speed.

The Thracians won the initial dice roll and chose to defend; they also won the first card play and chose Standard as the territory type. An uneventful PBS sequence left us in Open density of terrain with Rocky Ground/Woods secure flank.

Scouting resulted in the Romans being outscouted by 10%. The armies deployed as shown in this picture; Romans on the left, Thracians on the right. All the terrain pieces are Rocky Ground.

The Thracians main strength is towards their right where they have a Hill Tribes ally and a mass of cavalry, some of which are Superior. However, they have massed horse archers on the left to pressure the Roman right through the rocky ground there. The Romans have massed the best of their cavalry on their left and the best of their Germanic infantry on the right. Both armies have a lot of Tribal infantry and it s not going to be a game of too much subtlety ...

Some pictures of the toys on the table. Ray's Thracians are especially nice; painted by Zaknafir Zak.

The start of the game is cagey - seems to be the usual description of this phase when Ray and I play, probably as we are quite evenly matched. There is some manoeuvre by the infantry - you will see some of the Roman troops have even wheeled - but not that much due to the aforementioned Tribal nature. Only one infantry TUG on table is not Tribal ... Even the cavalry on both sides has been cautious in their manoeuvre - cards may have been a factor of course.

The following move saw troops advance towards each other is a fairly straightforward way. A Roman unit of Alans faced off at close range against a Superior Thracian cavalry unit. Although the latter could skirmish their route away was blocked by another unit so all was set up for a scary Green vs. Green clash where wild random results can always occur - in many ways it is a match-up you want to avoid if possible, but it hadn't worked out that way. The massed infantry are still just outside of being able to charge each other, but a whole mass of dice rolling for them cannot now be far away.

In the rough on the Thracian left the Thracians are being rather cautious which is allowing the Romans to get better shooting opportunities.

The upcoming scary fight ...

The much anticipated hot Green on Green action kicks off next move and it all goes wrong for the Alans on the Roman side. At the end of the move they have been reduced to 3 bases and have inflicted but a single wound on the Thracians, who can buy it off and the end of the move. Polite comments were made about the luck of the dice and the risks in Green vs. Green combats. The infantry lumber into a position where next move there will be a big crunch, and more Green on Green action will no doubt happen, but is leavened by other factors and a fair number of white dice will be rolled, plus some Yellow with the possibility of the occasional Red if things roll right.

The situation the Alans have ended up in. What is even funnier is that the base on the right has a Forced Charge on the infantry in front of them as, due to the base next to them being Skulled, they are no longer Engaged in combat. So many ways for them to break next move ...

Bucellarii have pushed forward aggressively, but again this could just be hot Green on Green action. The Romans are not proving to be very risk averse today.

Imminent infantry clash.

It will come as no surprise to anyone that much charging and fighting happened the following move. The Roman bucellarii won their Green on Green fight much as the Thracians had earlier - in this case their Shoot & Charge was useful as they knocked a base off before the fighting started; lucky shooting. The infantry fight resulted in small advantages to both sides at different points along the line; unlike the cavalry fights there were no big swings of luck. The Roman's Germanic foot did benefit from a couple of Shatters and also the odd Shove in the Combat Phase as they were Close formation fighting Loose formation in the open, but never got the rolling effect down the line which could have been decisive. 

The bucellarii having destroyed their opponents have pursued into another unit, however, by doing so they can now be flank charged. Ray ensured this happened by expanding the top cavalry unit otherwise the bucellarii would have pursued past them. Good move.

Alas, as mentioned at the start this was when our time ran out. I think Ray has the upper hand here due to having almost broken through the Roman centre. We thought if played out to the end the Thracians would win 15-6 or 15-8.

On reflection I think I was too keen to get the Alans fighting, and with a bit more caution could have improved their fight. On the other hand I probably held the bucellarii back a bit too long and could have pressured Ray's right more with them. But for a first run out with the army I was reasonably happy.

Rays' view:

I liked the look of the Gallic Foederate Roman. I questioned there being enough Alans knocking around 5th Century Gaul to field a sizeable contingent, let alone an ally*, but was robustly rebuffed by Nik; well he did write the list. I do like these Roman remnant armies, something romantic about them. Arturius and his Sarmatians** and all that. Ahem, what about the battle report.

I hadn't used the Thracians for 15 months so, being a goldfish, it was like having a new army.  I was way too passive with my mass of flexibles and javelin men on my left flank. This passivity has to stop. The dice were always going to be swingy with lots of green on green action. I could see clearly where 10 points minimum would have come from. As for getting the full 15, it would be nip and tuck. Nik and I have decided the re-learning period is now over and back to full tournament speed from our next game. Now, back to all these Alans roaming around Gaul ………

* an Alan ally is allowed to the Gallic Foederate Romans although I did not field it, my Alans were TUGs allowed in the main list (although I think the list is in need of some errata in relation to them).

** the author of this blog would like readers to know that views expressed by Ray on this subject may not reflect the author's own views on the subject ... 😉