The army I took was Marian Roman and the list was (queue somebody spotting its\u00a0illegal or something like that):<\/p>\n
Command 1:
\nLucius Licinius Lucullus as a Brilliant Reg Cv(O) C-in-C, 8 Reg Bd(S), 2 Irr\u00a0Ax(S), 3 Irr Ps(S), 1 Reg Ps(O), 1 Irr El(I) = 29 ME<\/p>\n
Command 2:
\nAppius Claudius Pulcher as a Reg Cv(O) SG, 6 Reg Bd(S), 4 Irr Ax(S) = 24 ME<\/p>\n
Command 3:
\nGaius Sornatius Barber as a Reg Cv(O) SG, 6 Reg Ax(S), 2 Reg Ps(S), 2 Reg Ps(O)\u00a0= 16 ME<\/p>\n
Baggage Command:
\n6 Reg Bge(O), 10 TF = 12 ME<\/p>\n
For a grand total of 81 ME. Although I was probably the smallest army there at\u00a0only 52 elements including the baggage, I think I had more ME than most of my\u00a0opponents because of the Bd(S). OTOH, that means that they can be lost pretty\u00a0quickly.<\/p>\n
The army is a refinement of the one I took to Warfare last year. The main\u00a0changes were to make the commands more asymmetric to allow one to have the low\u00a0PIPs (which involved concentrating the Bd(S), to drop the Cv(O) (that just got\u00a0themselves into trouble), to add the El(I) to try and counter the nasty wedged\u00a0Kn(F) and to have space to put some real elements to defend the camp.<\/p>\n
The strategy was that we would normally try and deploy on just one side of the\u00a0table and turn a flank, hoping that we could destroy that before the other flank\u00a0of the enemy could wheel across and engage. Against a mobile steppe enemy we\u00a0would just hunker down and rely on the toughness of the Bd(S) and Ax(S) rather\u00a0than advance and risk the flanks as they just evaded away. Lucullus’ command\u00a0would normally go in the centre as the main fighting command, and get the middle\u00a0die. One flank command would then be the hinge and would deploy with its auxilia\u00a0in the camp, giving them a factor of 6 behind the TF and making them very\u00a0difficult to winkle out. The other flank would then get the high die and push\u00a0forward as far and fast as possible, using the Auxilia to deploy in the flank\u00a0zone and push through any terrain on the side of the table. If I defended then a\u00a0BUA could help push the hinge point as far forward as possible.
\n
\nGame 1 was vs Ian Sims with LIR. An army and opponent that I had faced at\u00a0Warfare. I was scared of his Gothic warband and his Art(F) who can kill Bd(S)\u00a0quite easily if they gang up on them. I invaded in Spring (hoping for rain to\u00a0affect his Art(F)). Instead we got mist and a 2 am start which I leapt for so\u00a0rapidly that neither of us remembered that we should have re-rolled (point out\u00a0to us the next morning). I started a night attack an hour before dawn and ganged\u00a0up on his left flank – Ax and Bd defending a RGo with a column of LH(S) behind,
\navoiding the Wb on the adjacent hill in the centre. We marched up through the\u00a0mist which cleared just as dawn broke and we bore down on the RGo. Pulcher’s\u00a0command had reached the rear table edge by this point and had boxed in the LH(S)\u00a0behind the RGo. Barba’s Ax(S) tried to hold off the Cv(O) between the RGo and\u00a0the hill and the Wb advancing off the hill. They were taking a fair few\u00a0casualties doing this and things were starting to get very ropey over there\u00a0although the elephant wandered over to lend a hand as well. Just as they\u00a0demoralised though the legionaries finished carving up the Bd and Ax in the RGo\u00a0(after a rather slow start) and Ian’s combat luck completely \u00a0deserted him as\u00a0elements started dying like flies. Can’t remember exact result but it didn’t\u00a0reflect how tough a resistance Ian had put up. The Bd(S) are just incredibly\u00a0resilient and in the end the S kicks in and starts making holes.<\/p>\n
Second game was against Steve Scott with Hsiung Nu, including a large foot\u00a0contingent. He invaded Italy but was forced to deploy first. The centre of the\u00a0table had a BUA, with my camp deployed behind it to wall my deployment zone\u00a0into two halves. The camp was defended by 3 of Pulcher’s Spanish Ax(S) with the\u00a0rest of his command lurking around the BUA to act as the hinge. The other two\u00a0commands deployed facing Steve’s right flank infantry command who where in front\u00a0of a vineyard. The centre of Steve’s army was LH(S) and Kn(F), the right was a\u00a0command of LH(S). Lucullus and Barba’s commands zoomed forwards as fast as they\u00a0could to take out the enemy infantry as quickly as possible while Pulcher\u00a0skirmished against the enemy centre. Steve was hampered throughout the battle by\u00a0not having enough PIPs with his key central command to get it into action\u00a0quickly enough. The left-most LH(S) command quickly redeployed across the back\u00a0of the table to his right flank, trying to come around the 1 element wide gap\u00a0between the vineyard and the table edge. The main Roman line went through the\u00a0infantry pretty rapidly, breaking then shattering it. We held up the centre\u00a0until the Kn(F) got into action, when they rapidly killed 4 of Pulcher’s Bd(S),\u00a0breaking that command. It was all looking pretty hairy especially as the LH(S)\u00a0were skirmishing quite effectively with my Ax(S) in the vineyard and I was\u00a0having to throw Lucullus’ Bd(S) over there to try and stave them off. Then the\u00a0Kn(F) general of the LH command was 6-1ed when overlapped in my bound by a Ps(O)\u00a0and went down, and it was all over. Very very close battle, seat of the pants
\nright up to the end.<\/p>\n
Third game was vs Mike Newham with a very tough looking Lysimachid. He invaded,\u00a0but deployed first, and there was rain threatening and mud, which took his Kn(F)\u00a0down by a factor. He deployed from right to left with a huge command of Ax(S)\u00a0facing some vineyards I had put down, then Art(O), Pk(O) phalanx, then the Kn(F)\u00a0wedges then some more Ax, Ps and LH on a gentle hill. I had built a nice\u00a0defensive perimeter with two vineyards and a BUA, which Mike had deployed to\u00a0take, so I deployed on the other side of the board that was nice and open. Barba\u00a0got to defend the camp and the BUA, Lucullus went in the centre and Pulcher was\u00a0tasked with assaulting the muddy hill. We pretty much kept to that plan. Mike\u00a0was able to redeploy his Illyrian Ax(S) rapidly across the table but they had to\u00a0fight their way step by step through the BUA. They just emerged on the other\u00a0side at the end of the game. Pulcher’s assault on the hill went very well,\u00a0despite the mud and we reasonably rapidly took it. In the centre the Kn(F) were\u00a0wary to come forward because of the mud and the elephant, but finally committed.\u00a0The elephant killed a LH and a Kn(F) but was then skewered by a bolt-thrower.\u00a0But that gave me enough to break the command and it instantly went to shattered\u00a0because of the number of spent elements. I was unable to restrain my army (I had\u00a0only 1 group on the table, of a Cv(O) general and a Bd(S) so a lot of them went\u00a0hurtling forward to fight shattered troops. I lost one more Ax(S) which I thought\u00a0was enough to dishearten Lucullus’ command until I realised I was looking at the\u00a0ME total for Pulcher’s command. Time was called at that point with a very bloody\u00a0battlefield ending in a draw. It could have gone either way from that point.<\/p>\n
Game 4 was against Ian MacKay’s Hsiung-Nu, which was a matchup from hell for me.\u00a0There was no upside to winning for me and everything to lose, so I hoped for a\u00a0solid defensive position. Instead I invaded Mongolia in the Spring. Fortunately\u00a0I managed to get a scrubby flat in each corner of my table edge. I put the camp\u00a0in the centre and Pulcher in the camp. Then Lucullus with a solid line of two\u00a0deep Bd(S). then Barba in the RGo with a solid line of Ax(S). The weather\u00a0difference meant that his LH would be downgraded after 8 turns. Ian hadn’t flank\u00a0marched and after a brief demonstration against my line realised he wasn’t going\u00a0to crack it in 8 turns with LH and it was too risky to send in Kn(X) against\u00a0double ranked Bd(S) and potentially lose everything, so we shook on a draw,\u00a0which was all we needed to end up 1st and 2nd.<\/p>\n
Its a very tough army and after the practice at Warfare I am now much happier\u00a0using it in a suicidally aggressive manner, which it needs to win games. The\u00a0Bd(S) are very resilient, but when a couple of them go, the whole thing can\u00a0unravel very rapidly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The army I took was Marian Roman and the list was (queue somebody spotting its\u00a0illegal or something like that): Command 1: Lucius Licinius Lucullus as a Brilliant Reg Cv(O) C-in-C, 8 Reg Bd(S), 2 Irr\u00a0Ax(S), 3 Irr Ps(S), 1 Reg Ps(O), 1 Irr El(I) = 29 ME Command 2: Appius Claudius Pulcher as a Reg … Continue reading “Battle Reports from RollCall”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wargaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partridge.site\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}