It's been a long time since I did anything with my Late Antiquity collection and hence this blog! I haven't been able to get to the club much lately and I have wanted to have another go at these rules to familiarise myself with them before inflicting them on anyone at the club, so while I had a bit of free time on my hands over the weekend, I set up another solo game in the shed this time.
I wanted to see if the Goths had a chance of winning with the forces I have, as the first game ended in a Roman victory. The results of this game indicate that they don't! I had the rules more under control this time, and played the skirmishers better, which made the results much more lopsided in the Romans' favour! I'll need to boost the Goths' numbers in infantry or skirmishers or both, I reckon, to get a more even result.
The table was divided by a low ridge with a rocky outcrop and wood with the opposing armies either side of the ridge. The Goths got initiative and their light infantry and archers headed for the woods, while the infantry went to the left and the cavalry to the right of the terrain obstacle. The Romans did likewise, but sent their light cavalry ahead of the infantry and the horse archers ahead of the heavy javelin cavalry.
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| Goths advancing... |
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| ...followed by the Romans |
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| Romans in march column |
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| as are the Goths |
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| Starting positions with obstacle in centre |
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| Approaching each other with counters indicating respective bow range after which each side can't march-maneuver. |
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| Gothic cavalry rounds the woods to be met by Roman horse archers |
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| Gothic skirmishers in the woods try to counter the deep Roman skirmish screen approaching the Gothic infantry, which has formed into Cuneus. |
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| Disruption points galore as the skirmishers get stuck in. The Roman light cavalry were particularly damaging to the Cuneus closest to the camera |
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| The Gothic heavy cavalry shakes out into line while the Roman horse archers disrupt the Gothic light cavalry. |
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| The Roman heavy javelin cavalry try to maneuver to catch the Gothic cavalry in the flank as they round the woods |
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| The Cuneus closest to camera now has 5 disruption points (which really should be 4 plus a marker to indicate it is now Shaken)! The right hand Cuneus advances through the gap between its neighbour and the woods to try to take the pressure off. |
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| Roman archers behind the infantry give indirect fire support |
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| The bickering between skirmish forces continues in the woods |
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| The far Cuneus declares a charge! The light cavalry bugs out.. |
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| ...before the Gothic infantry crashes into the Roman line.. |
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| ...resulting in the Romans being pushed back with disruptions, but by no means a spent force! |
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| The cavalry dance continues on the other flank. |
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| The Goths who adventurously charged are now in trouble! Pinned to the front after their last combat, they can't react to the menacing flank-wards move of the other Roman line! |
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| The flanks charge goes in! |
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| The Goths retire, but with 4 disruption points, they're in trouble! In a sequencing error, the other Roman line should have thrown missiles before the first line charged to make sure of things. |
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| It doesn't matter, though, as they do now, resulting in the Goths becoming Shaken. |
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A follow-up charge results in the Goths bugging out for the rear, past the other Gothic Cuneus which had retreated earlier to try to shed some disruption points.
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With the Gothic infantry in bad morale, unlikely to be able to reform, the game was declared another Roman victory, despite the Gothic cavalry being untouched. I suppose if I had used the cavalry to support the infantry instead of going on a flanking march, the result could have been different, but I still feel the Goths need more infantry to counter the preponderance of skirmish forces.
