Having witnessed the destruction of the Berlin Brigade last week, the last gaming Thursday of January saw our reporter hurry off to “somewhere in the North East Balkans in the late 4th century AD”. Following the destruction of the Roman field army at Adrianople in 378, desultory fighting continued and this week we found a large Gothic force once again taking on an Eastern Roman force. Would “Buchanicus” prove a better General than the former Emperor Valens?
The Goths got off to a terrible start as Buchanicus played his Stratagem forcing the Gothic centre Command back one box. This took their two warbands off the table including their General. Rob’s plaintive cry of “wwhaaaat” was almost predictable.
The Romans then advanced across the table in the classic formation of an infantry-heavy centre and cavalry on the wings.
The Goths set up similarly albeit the centre was much weaker in actual combat power. As Chris moved forward with the Roman infantry, Dave played a canny game with the outnumbered Roman cavalry forces. His lights fired arrows and threw javelins to frustrate the heavier Gothic cavalry force,
whilst his single Cataphract unit charged the Gothic General.
The result was a dead unit and the General retiring off the board. Another command now “out of command”! Four victory medals to the Romans to add to those already temporarily lost when the infantry involuntarily left the table.
“Test for morale” came the cry from Tony. Was he trying to take the Umpire’s epithet of “honest”? The result was a disorder on another Gothic cavalry unit.
In the centre “Banksius’” infantry finally got to work with his legionaries and Auxilia. A combination of pila, ordinary attacks and hero re-rolls destroyed the raw Gothic bow and they seemed on the verge of taking the camps until Fritigern (aka Rob) managed to tempt his raw warriors back onto the table to defend Gothic honour, and recover some badly needed victory medals.
Tony was seemingly having better luck with the Gothic cavalry, and at one point seemed to be on the verge of outflanking the Roman cavalry wings plus potentially launching a flank attack into the Roman infantry centre.
However the judicious withdrawal of some Auxilia not only saved the unit, but gave the protection of a zone of control to the infantry flank. Whether this was a brilliant piece of Generalship ship by Banksius or an act of pure self-preservation by the Auxilia will no doubt be debated by historians for generations to come!
Chris’ infantry continued their grim work. Double disorders were inflicted on the raw Gothic warrior units, but the line still held. Just. However with only two victory medals left the destruction of a Gothic cavalry unit on their right wing saw the end of the battle.
A comprehensive Roman victory 16-0. The Goths never seemed to recover from the morale-sapping sight of their warriors and general leaving the table pre-game, plus their superiority in cavalry could never be turned to their advantage. Losing one General was careless, losing two within three turns catastrophic. Adrianople was definitely avenged!
Simon
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