Terry has a Commagene Ally. His army is FC, 3 x TC of which one is an ally, 1 x 12 Pike, 1 x 6 Unpr MF Bow, 1 x LH Bow – these are the allies. 2 x 6 Sup Full fat Legions, 2 x 4 Full fat Legions with 2 supporting LF archers, 2 x 6 Armd MF LtSp sw Auxilia with 3 supporting LF archers and 2 x 4 Prot Cav. The cav and the MF Bow are undrilled. Everything else is drilled. 11 BGs breaking on 11.
Terry has +2 PBI vs my +3 but I lose and he chooses Mountains. Once again we have quite a congested table with 3 Steep Hills, a Forest and several bits of Rough.
This is deployment. From my right I have my Thorakitai, Pike, 6 base Legion and then the 2nd Pike BG. The 4 base Legion is in rear support. Then I have my 8 MF with the 6 MF supporting both them and the 2nd Pike. On my left I have my lancers supported by the protected cavalry with the Thracians opposite a Steep Hill. The LF are out front as usual.
We can also see Terry’s deployment. His last 2 BGs down are on his left – the 2 x 9 of Auxilia. His cavalry and LH are behind his main line which is a 6 Legion, 12 Pike, 6 Legion with the 6 MF Bow providing rear support to the Pike. On Terry’s right he has his other Legions who are deployed in a Forest. Despite being our rules author Terry has also missed the fact that these guys cannot be a battle line and march together as they are severely disordered.
I was to move first. I was a little surprised to see the Auxilia on my right and I feel a little out gunned there. I send the Protected Cav and the 4 base Legion over in march moves to shore up the position. I push forward in the centre and also send the Thracians up the hill. My other MF hold back in the Rough as do the lancers.
Terry sends his Auxilia even further over so I divert my Thorakitai as well. My LF sling are trying to tempt the Romans to charge. The LF Javs are content to slow the Legions and stay out of charge reach. No-one is paying the Thracians any attention so they keep on going.
The Romans are tempted but don’t charge too far and the Slingers evade. The initial match up is not looking too great for me vs 2 full fat Legions and a 12 base Pike block. On my right I believe the Thorakitai can beat one of the Auxilia and I’m hoping the 4 base Legion supported by the Protected Cav can handle the other one.
Both Legions are out of the woods but have no inclination to chase the Thracians who decide to plod on and take the camp. Could be worth an extra 5 points if I don’t lose my army.
The main lines hit and we exchange extreme luck. After impact and melee Terry has lost a Legion and my left hand Pike are fragmented. The 6 base Legion is holding up but has lost a base. Never a good thing for average troops. My victorious Pike would love to turn on to the enemy Pike’s flank but the presence of the MF Bow and Auxilia make this too risky.
Unsurprisingly my fragged Pike break and the Legion pursues into the 6 base MF BG who disrupt. My Pike turn to face the Auxilia whilst being very careful not to expose their flank to the MF on the hill. On my right the evens impact of Thorakitai vs Auxilia goes in my favour and the Auxilia disrupt.
My MF quickly drop to fragmented but have still not lost a base. In a worrying development Terry has brought his cavalry into a flank charge position against my Legion. My lancers have about faced and don’t really fancy the prospect of charging into full fat legions with LF bow support.
My Pike and 4 base Legion combine against Terry’s Auxilia who quickly drop to fragmented. Unfortunately the flank charge is delivered and my Legion breaks. Amazingly my MF are still hanging in there so I send my IC over to try and bolster them. Could be a risky move.
My routing Legion bursts through my Protected Cavalry who disrupt. When they are hit in the impact they drop to fragged. It’s unravelling fast.
There is some good news however. Both Auxilia BGs are also broken and I have 3 BGS to try and get back into the action.
More good news follows as my IC manages to rally my routing Pike BG. Hurrah! And the following turn they are back up to disrupted. My MF can hold on no longer though and have broken. And at the very top of the picture the Thracians are just coming into charge range of Terry’s camp. My lancers desperately don’t want to charge and fortunately follow orders. Seeing what’s coming the enemy pike have about faced to get out of danger.
Terry has teed up another flank charge – this time on my MF in the rough. I really need to pass a CMT to form Orb at this point. Terry’s Legion charges into the now steady Pike for round 2 and this time nothing disastrous happens.
Frustratingly my MF fail their test to form Orb and that seals their fate. We then had one of those wonderful swings of the dice. Terry’s flank charge cavalry failed to hit whilst receiving 2 hits from me and immediately double dropped to fragmented.
Unfortunately the celebrations were short lived as my MF went down in a heap in melee and double dropped themselves to routed. My Pike have managed to disrupt the Legion and I am getting close to delivering a flank charge of my own.
And then time was called. We had both lost 8 AP at this point until we realised that Terry had bolstered his fragmented cavalry too soon. This tipped the game marginally in my favour but the Thracians had taken the camp so it was 24 – 16 in my favour.
It had been a great game with both sides seeing some extreme swings of luck. A bit more time would have been nice but then you wouldn’t have got so many photos.