Thursday 26 June 2014

Saturday Mega Game "Britannia" The Romans are at it again, Part 2

Lunch was over.
Fed and watered, we set about the game once again.
A meeting of the Roman commanders was had and we decided to stick to Glenns original plan.
Andy had a meeting with himself as to how to deal with the Romans who had weakened his centre and we're now threatening each flank at the river crossing points.
In classic military style, all good plans never survive contact with the enemy.
This is how it panned out.

As my Legionaries, finally got across the bridge, the threat of advancing
warbands forced them onto the hill.
But things were still moving slowly for the Romans.

Andy pulled back his centre units as the Romans continued with the
artillery fire upon them.
The British fell back to the slope of the Hillfort.
Glenn as "Paullinus" edged forward in the centre, ready to attack.
His artillery would support the assault.

Andy had now formed a pretty solid defence at the hillfort.
Warbands moved forward to await the Roman assault.
He knew he had a strong force to counter any breakthroughs.
At this time, Glenns Auxiliaries decided to cross the stone bridge on
the left.
Andy ponders sending Arviragus and his division to engage them and
protect his flank.
The Roman plan was working, The British force was been pushed
on both flanks with the Roman centre ready to strike.


Failed orders prevent
Arviragus and his horde heading towards the Stone bridge crossing
and the warbands in the centre from moving to counter the slow advance
of Paullinus.
Time for the Romans to attack, haha, easier said then done.
Glenn as Paullinus in the centre, struggled to move again,
even with a bloody re-roll.
My Legionaries on the right faired no better and stood as a horde
of naked Fanatics appeared over the brow of the hill.
Glenn managed to get the Auxiliary infantry over the stone bridge, but
the Auxiliary cavalry were less eager.

The  Fanatics dander is up and they clash straight into the Legionaries.
Even un-supported, these are a damn nightmare.
The Romans and supports are pushed back after losing the initial round
of hand to hand.
Meanwhile at the stone bridge, Glenns Auxiliaries reform in front of
the bridge but no Arviragus can be seen.
They are alone as the cavalry are still on the opposite side of the river.
British Skirmishers start to pepper them with ranged attacks.

The Fanatics are putting up one hell of a scrap.
A flank charge from one of the re-forming Testudo's swings the balance
in Rome's favour.
The fanatics give ground  and the weakened cohort follows up.
Glenn starts to move in the centre as my Auxiliaries finally start to cross
the wooden bright on the right to back up my Legionaries.

My Auxiliaries finally start to move up to support my Legion.
The Fanatics are soundly beaten and die to a man, the Romans paid
heavy for this minor victory.
The rest of the legion failed to do anything.
The flank was open but we couldn't move.
Glenn finally got moving in the centre and crossed the river as the
British skirmishers fell back into the woods as the warband's closed to engage
Glenn's Cohorts.

The centre is smashed and the Warbands are beaten as Paullinus takes
the centre.
A British division is broken and flees the field, but the Romans are
seriously weakened from the melee.
I fail to move my Legion again and Glenn fails to get the Auxiliary cavalry
across the river.
Although Glenn's Auxiliary archers manage to engage Andy's on
the left, driving them back.
Arviragus still fails to move, what's Andy up to. 

Andy's British cavalry then hurl down from the hill and smash straight
into Glenn's weakened Legion.
Breaking both the Legionaries and the support, they make a sweeping
charge into the flank of a third cohort that was dealing with the
skirmishers in the wood next to the centre crossing.
This cohort was also destroyed.
Glenn had lost 50% of his division in one round of combat.
One more loss would break the division.
It took only a supported unit of British Medium cavalry to change the
face of the Roman assault.
I still failed to move my Legion on the flank (not helped by
forgetting the Drilled free move yet again) but my Auxiliaries started to get
into position on the right.
Arviragus, hampered by the broken British division, still sat looking
towards Glenn's Auxiliaries at the stone bridge on the left.
They hadn't moved and the cavalry were still on the opposite side.  

Paullinus (Glenn) sent the Scorpion forward to try to break the Victorious
British cavalry.
This it failed to do and left itself a little exposed.
I managed to get a unit of Auxiliary cavalry into position on the right,
but the rest failed to move, yet again.
My Legion edged forward slowly.
But failing to rally anything hampered them.

We saw this coming, the cavalry charge the lone Scorpion.
Break it and break the Roman division at the same time.
Paullinus had to retire with his Legion.
On the Left Arviragus finally moved to engage Glenn's Auxiliaries
at the stone bridge on the left.
More Celtic cavalry headed towards my Deploying Auxiliaries on the right.
Things were not quite going to the Romans plans.

British Cavalry clashed in to the un-supported Roman Auxiliary cavalry
as they had just re-formed from column.
The Auxiliary cavalry were soundly beaten but the British cavalry were
also badly mauled and left shaken.
My Legion never got anywhere near the fighting.
Arviragus sent his full division headlong into Glenn's Auxiliaries at the
stone bridge.
Against all odds, Glenn's troops beat them back, breaking  a unit of
chariots in the process and leaving the entire division "Disordered".
Without his cavalry though, Glenn was unable to capitolise on this.
It was now 7pm
We called it .

The Final positions when we called it.
Well, what a game of very mixed results.
Phew!
Seven hours of gaming.
We gave the British a well deserved Tactical Victory.
Each side had a broken division, But the Roman one was Paullinus, the Roman CinC.
Both sides still had plenty of fight left in them.
The British had taken slightly more casualties.
But were still in a strong position.
I had lost a single unit of cavalry out of my two divisions
Andy had a full untouched division each of Cavaly and Warbands/Chariots.
Glenn still had a Full Auxiliary division minus a small Bow unit.
But time caught up with us.
It would have been great to play it to a completion, maybe another day.
Big thanks to Andy & Glenn for a great day of Gaming, much laughs and piss taking.
We will have to make the Saturday games a semi regular thing, methinks.

7 comments:

  1. Great looking game, these pictures are really impressive. Love your Roman army!

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  2. Great game, so Loki finally wins one ;-)

    Ian

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  3. Top game there Kev and great report and photos

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  4. I believe nailbiting is the word, excellent work boys, is it usually that difficult to move?

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  5. Great report and photos Kev!

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  6. Another great report and collection of pics!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fantastic looking game Kev!

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