Warfare 2022 - Late Roman Style

 

Warfare 2022 was held at the usual mid-November date but at a new venue - Farnborough Exhibition Centre. The new venue is excellent and will hopefully be used for many years to come.

I decided to take my "late" Romans along as the MeG theme was "Rome and its Enemies". I have previously had reasonable success with this army, but how would I do with a new list I had come up with ...

The list I decided to use included an Armenian ally and was dated to the late C3rd and so could be said to be an army of the Caesar Galerius when he fought the Sasanid Persians. This was my list.

It is, in my view, a fairly balanced list with good infantry, useful cavalry and some skirmishers to harass the enemy. One of the skirmisher units are lanciarii who are rather good at chasing away enemy light cavalry.

My first game was against Robin Spence who was using a Late Republican Roman army. We both knew each others lists as I had used mine against Robin recently and he had discussed his list with me before he sent it in. So no surprises here. Like my list, his included an Armenian ally, however, his Armenian cavalry were catafracts. My army had one more legionary unit that Robin's, but his were all Superior. Basically, the armies were quite similar and it would be a very even battle decided on margins in all likelihood.

The table ended up mostly open, with a town in Robin's right hand corner and a couple of gentle hills. Nothing that would overly affect the game. I outscouted Robin and we ended up deployed like this - well this is actually just after the first couple of units have moved as I forgot to take one straight after deployment.

As you can see Robin has initially deployed defensively with his right covered by the town inside of which is a unit of Thracian infantry. He has units of light bolt-shooters behind his legionaries which are useful, but can severely restrict his ability to move if he wants to keep them in support. The Armenians are next to the town.

In response I plan to contain his left with my mounted troops and attack his right with my good legions. I only face off his Thracians with my infantry skirmishers; they are, essentially, bait to attracts the Thracians - I hoped that Robin would push with these to try and turn the flank of my legions, however, I was confident I could contain them and even destroy them over time with missiles.

A couple of moves in and things are shaping up pretty much as expected, although Robin has kept the Thracians in the town so my infantry skirmishers are picking on his allied Armenian horse archers. I hoped he might have a try at the lanciarii, however, Robin didn't fall for that.

A short time later and we are mostly still cautiously advancing towards each other with our infantry - Robin is finding the bolt-shooters really do restrict what he can do, not helped by poor discs. He has, however, brought out the Thracians whom I now attack with my skirmishers as planned.

Shortly afterwards the fighting proper starts. Robin's Armenians have to charge my best legions and I manage to get some of my Armenians fighting one of his cavalry units, although they also have to fight a legion but only on a 1 base frontage. The fight against the catafracts is pretty even, however, my legions have a base of 2 handed Cut-and-Crush troops (a special rule allowance when fighting catafracts) which just tips things in my favour.

Additionally, Robin tries to drive off some of my cavalry that is annoying his left hand legion, but this ends up leaving them open to a flank charge from my second unit of Armenians. I think Robin should have just held back here, but I wasn't complaining.

As hoped my legions fighting the catafracts gained the upper hand thanks to the 2HCC base. My skirmishers, as planned, ended up shooting down the Thracians and elsewhere my troops generally got the better of the fighting - including one of my legionary units which swept away an equal unit of Robin's legionaries in short order.

Robins legion fighting my Armenians ended up with cavalry to the front and rear as you can see below, and when they were charged it was all over.

Ended 15-2 to me. I think this was harsh on Robin given how equal our armies were, but all the little differences went my way.

Round 2 matched me up against Ian Newell who was using Early Germans. This was a large number of warband type infantry supported by some useful cavalry and a Sarmatian ally. It was big and pretty punchy, however, my legionaries should be significantly better in a prolonged melee.

Although Ian tried to get a fair amount of terrain on the field it ended up quite open with a river down one flank. Like Ian I might have preferred a little more terrain, but was happy enough. I got a tad lucky and outscouted Ian heavily - mind you, I'm not sure how mcuh difference that actually made.

Ian deployed a huge mass of warband in the centre with cavalry on each flank, the Sarmatians on his left. I went with my infantry deployed from the river with the cavalry on the right.

Basically my plan was to hold up Ian's left with my cavalry and skirmishers whilst attacking his right with my best infantry including the Exceptional unit.

Alas, my Armenian ally had other ideas ...

This rather restricted my ability to advance for the initial moves somewhat handing the initiative to Ian. Ah well, always a risk with an ally. Fortunately, it wasn't too crippling as Ian's army isn't one to do anything too sophisticated anyway - but it did take 2 fighting units of mine out of the game at the start.

Unsurprisingly this meant that Ian was going to be advancing straight at me. I was able to push my cavalry and skirmishers forward though and these effectively kept his Sarmatian ally out of the game for a fair amount of time - I think I was helped by Ian getting poor cards for this ally.

On the other hand that was an awful lot of Germans rushing towards my army ...

Fighting started on my left when I advanced my best foot and then charged Ian's cavalry with my guard legionaries. If I can win here I will be able to put quite a bit of pressure on Ian despite the Armenians continuing to stand idly by. Ian's Sarmatians are still bottled up at this point much to my relief. I did think he could, and should, have pushed a bit harder here, but that is just my view and things always look different from the other side of the table.

Finally, after 5 moves the Armenians decide to join in after all. A bit just in time really.

This rather precipitated a move towards fighting all along the line. It was going to be pretty much straight up and down now as the hesitant Armenians had robbed me of any chance of doing much else. However, as mentioned previously my troops are generally better in a prolonged fight so it was all to play for.

Well, better in theory that is. Practice turned out to be somewhat more even ... Ho, hum.

As you can see quite a few of my units are losing bases and the Exceptional legionaries seem to have forgotten how to fight.

It all really started to go wrong after this. Although I did break some of Ian's units in general this left my own so badly damaged that they could be easily broken themselves. In addition I lost an Armenian unit in one move in a straight 50:50 fight allowing Ian to set up a flank charge on my line.

This, unsurprisingly caused the final demise of my army and I lost 10-15. Despite everything this was an absolutely cracking game. Oddly, the ally not playing to begin with actually added to the fun of the game. Many thanks to Ian for such a great game; he went on to place 2nd as well.

Annoyingly, thanks to a spot of car trouble I missed the Sunday morning game - but at least it was sorted without costing me anything. A bit of retail therapy was, therefore, in order.

However, I was able to play the last game of the competition against Peter Cross who was using early Carthaginian - an army I have used and like, but Pete has a different composition to that I use.

The table was pretty open, with a river down one flank. Pete outscouted me and we ended up deployed like this.

Pete has deployed a mass of Ligurians in a swamp beside the river, with his African spearmen next to them and nearly all his cavalry on his left including a Numidian ally. He has some elephants safely at the rear and they will take no part in this battle - probably sensible as a lot of my army will take them out fairly quickly.

I go with infantry on the left, cavalry and skirmishers on the right and the Armenians positioned to intervene where I think they are needed. I am planning on my infantry being better than Pete's and my right wing cavalry and skirmishers being able to contain the Numidians.

First moves go as expected. Pete's Numidians rush towards my relatively weak right whilst I advance my infantry towards his. My right wing manoeuvres to counter the Numidians - the lanciarii are eyeing up one unit of the Numidian light cavalry; these are just the sort of troops they want to fight.

A bit later and Pete is teeing up his mass of Greek and Campanian cavalry to have a pop at the legion on the right hand end of my line which is a tad exposed. On the right skirmishing is happening. My infantry keep advancing.

Pete's cavalry charge goes in and is, shall we say, somewhat disappointing. Pretty much no casualties to either side. OK by me, but frustrating for Pete. On the right my lanciarii are doing their job rather well and overall the Numidians are contained and not doing much. A unit of my Armenians is countering the Numidian nobles who are starting to look outnumbered.

The lanciarii, and more surprisingly the skirmishing archers, dispose of the Numidian light cavalry for next to no losses themselves - although the archers will be run down by the Numidian nobles next turn, and exchange I can live with.

Pete breaks off his cavalry attack to tee up a second go. My infantry are getting close to being able to charge Pete's weaker foot. Proper fighting will shortly happen.

And so we go crunch. Whilst I chase off the Numidian nobles the infantry clash and Pete's cavalry charge in again for a second go.

many combat dice are rolled and it transpires that for all their quality my legionaries are not really up to it this game. Pete's infantry, however, are and produce a classic display of "the White dice of death". I lose bases faster than Pete despite being at an advantage in almost every combat. Ah well, it happens.

A closer shot shows just how badly my infantry were doing.

We didn't quite manage to finish the game, which was a shame for Pete as he was well on course for a resounding victory, and the score ended up as 4-11. A tad frustrating for me dice wise, but I had my fair share of luck in other areas and in other games so you just have to roll with it.

Overall, this left me close to the bottom of the table.

However, it was all great fun and a really enjoyable competition. I think I may have been a bit unimaginative with how I used my army, but it could have won the games it lost and I liked the composition. It will be back.

Congratulations to Matt Haywood who won after stepping in at the last minute due to a covid related drop out.