The Old Republic vs Empire.

A Headless Body Production
Venue: Fall In 2019

Event:  L' Art de la Guerre, Theme
Rules Set: L'Art de la Guerre
Theme: Alexander to Aetius Theme
Players: Phil Gardocki playing Middle Imperial Roman
               Ray Weiandt playing Republican Roman

I am going to abuse my position here to offer a link to a different blog post about internet based attempts to commit fraud.  We are all in the target market, and every robo call you receive is an attempt to steal your money.  And while we would never fall for these obvious ploys, we do know people that will, so this may help someone you know.  In my personal experience, the lady that fell for the romance scam would be near the bottom of the list for someone that would fall for this sort of thing.  My write-up is a short read.  Scams.

The Forces:

Middle Imperial Roman

Commanded by Larrylious (Try saying that three times fast), the Brilliant, his brother Darrylious, the Competent and his other brother Darrylious, the Competent, and somewhat unreliable.
8   Legionaries    Heavy swordsmen impact
3   30 mina catapult   Heavy artillery
3   Velities   Light infantry javelin
4   Auxilia   Medium swordsmen impact
3   Alares   Heavy cavalry
2   Illyricani   Light cavalry bow 

Breakpoint of 24

Republican Roman (derived from photos and memory and subject to error)

9   Hastati and Principes Heavy Swordsmen Impact, Amour, Elite
1   Triarii Heavy Spearmen Elite
2   Velities   Light infantry javelin
2   Extraordinarii Medium swordsmen elite
3   Alares   Heavy cavalry
2   Illyricani   Light Javelin

Breakpoint of 20
 

What is a mina?  From the Greek word mna (μνᾶ) was borrowed from Semitic; compare Hebrew māneh, Aramaic  mĕnē, Syriac manyā, Ugaritic mn, and Akkadian manū. It is equal to 70 drachmaes
Or, it could be a unit of weight, A mina was set to 1/60 talent.
So, the catapults are either 2,100 drachmaes, or throwing rocks weighing 40 pounds

The Romans win the initiative and elect to attack in the mountains.
The Middle Imperials are running a flank march on the right flank of 3 Alares and 2 Illyricani.

The Board:
The Middle Imperials are receiving in the mountains and have two brush in their deployment area.

A great looking camp adorns the field.

The Republican right has 4 cohorts of legionaries, supported by a couple of mediums.

The center has 6 more cohorts of legions

That's 10 Cohorts, a perfect Legion.

Their right, 3 cohorts of horsemen supported by Illyrians.

I have better make the artillery count in this one, as my opponent outnumbers my legionaries, and has a quality advantage of both armor and elite!  His Auxiliaries are also elite where mine are not.

Darrylious's (Darryliousi?) medium swordsmen line up in a column, just out to the 4UD zone from the edge.  The hill is steep, and he intends to sit on it.  Larrylious sets up 6 wide in front of the camp.

The remaining picture is blurry and not included, but here is what is going on next door.

If memory serves, the scenario is Hannibal has crossed the Delaware river on Independence Day, and caught King Arthur’s Grenadiers by surprise in their barracks. 

Turn 1:

First turn move, noting unexpected.  A double march of legionaries and swordsmen.

The center cohorts keep in step as well.  30 mina boulders rain upon them for a pair of hits.

Illyricani advance a bit, but the Alares hold back as there is no Roman cavalry to be seen.

Darrylious has a lousy eye for distance.  After extending his line the race for the hill is in doubt.

Once again, Larrylious sets up his cohorts in a balanced formation when he should have weighted it left.

Catapult crews are taking a break after a first turn of successes.  (damn union rules)

Turn 2:

A cautious advance by the Republic's right wing.  The re-positioned catapults have targeted them now.

Illyricani  advance to the edge of the brush, the Velites invite them to come in further.

I know I used that joke last AAR, but this time it is more appropriate, as Republican Romans are so last millennium

Catapult fire disorders two units.  Giving time for the Imperial Auxilla to ascend the hill.

Larrylious decides to hold in place.

Both sides seem to be waiting for the flank march to arrive.

Turn 3:

A bit of light vs light action.  The main battleline cants to adjust to the Imperial lines.

The Republican center leaves their heavily disordered cohort behind but advances the rest.  It looks like they intend to overwhelm the Imperial main line.

Republican Illyricani decide to go into the brush.  The action is brief and bloody.

No dust in sight, where is Darrylious's cavalry?

Darrylious charges to the top of the hill, Republican lights evade.  Boulder upon boulder pummel the Republican line.

Larrylious stands pat.

The Republican Romans have 9 points towards their breakpoint of 20
The Middle Imperial Romans have 0 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 4:

The Republic decides to hold and rally, their lights providing some payback.

Their center command completes it's line up.

Their remaining Illyricani as had enough and breaks off.

At some point Darrylious will show up and the Republic Alares will have someone to fight.

Darrylious makes a small adjustment to his line.  His Velites flank the Republican lights.

Larrylious finally gets his reserve cohort in line.  It's 8 on 8.  Half the Republican cohorts are disordered, but most are elite, and all have armor.

Imperial Velites taunt the Republican X cohort.  (It might be I, who knows?)

Imperial Velites get behind the Republic lights, trapping them.  Impact swordsmen descend on the from the hill top, and one amazingly survives! 

It looks like the turn sequence is a bit off.  Bear with me.
Not obvious above is the gap between the Imperial battle lines is now too small for the supporting catapult to shoot anymore.

Larrylious holds his line, allowing more rocks to descend from the heavens.

Turn 6? 7? 

The Republican Romans have 12 points towards their breakpoint of 20
The Middle Imperial Romans have 1 point towards their breakpoint of 24

Most of the Republican line holds.  Sounds of lyres and flutes fill the air soothing the mass of men while their centurions reorder the lines.  One by one the cohorts find their cohesion.

And then the Republican Romans have 10 points towards their breakpoint of 20
while the Middle Imperial Romans have 1 point towards their breakpoint of 24

I Cohort, didn't get the word, and charged ahead, while cohorts II - X mutter, "Tibi muta stercore"

The taunting continues as X cohort is the only target for both catapults ans the Velites.

Darrylious has an abundance of command points, and charges while leaving his II cohort back for a rally.

Larrylious still holds the line, watching the Republican X cohort disintegrate under fire.

The Republican Romans have 13 points towards their breakpoint of 20
The Middle Imperial Romans have 0 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 7?
I leave markers that don't get published and they say this is turn 10.

A Republican Extraordinarii is destroyed.  If the second falls the Republican main battle line will be turned.

A blurry shot.  Sorry.  But an important one.  The Republican main battle line charges.  Down the line the Imperials suffer badly, losing 5 of 8 battles.

The last Extraordinarii falls.  Darrylious savors is delicious victory.  Possibly his first.

The smirk on Larrylious's face turns to panic as his cohorts begin to fail.

The Republican Romans have 17 points towards their breakpoint of 20
The Middle Imperial Romans have 7 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Darrylious has arrived.  His hope of ransacking the enemy camp is pretty much trashed, so he is instead vectoring towards the battle, his path cleared by a desultory catapult shot dispersing the last Republic Illyricani.

The Republican Romans have 18 points towards their breakpoint of 20
The Middle Imperial Romans have 7 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 8:

Imperial legionnaires are finding out how their ancestors conquered the world

Almost half of their cohorts have been routed.

But elan can only do so much against superior firepower, as the catapults now have new targets to strike.

Despite all the pummeling, Republic legions have resilience.

And with that the Republic reached their break point.  But despite that, I see their legions falling back in good order, as the Imperial legions are in no shape to pursue, and the cavalry pretty much will cancel each other out, preventing pursuit.

I had a lot of fun with the catapults.  The jury is still out if it is legal to put them in the brush.  The judge decided I could not do it again this tournament, and that is the consensus of the major players on the east coast.  The forum, however has an unsubstantiated opinion that it's OK to put them in rough, but not difficult.  To which a Frenchman wrote, "quel est le rapport?"  Loosely translated means "How do you figure?" 

How effective were the catapults?  I would say they were instrumental to victory.  In hard points, they contributed 7 points directly to victory. Plus 3 more due to unexpected behavior.  I don't think the Republic Illyricani would have tried to force the Velites in the brush if the artillery were not there.  I also don't think the Republic Heavy Cavalry would have held back as far as they did.

And when you consider how fast the Imperial legions folded, that was a good thing.

In the future, the catapults will be on the shelf.  Part of their effectiveness is my opponents were not expecting them.  And if I was on the attack, then they would have been useless. 

Some thoughts on the flank march.  There are a number of reasons to do one.  In this case, my cavalry was not very good, and it keeps it out of trouble.  And as the Republic cavalry was kept in reserve the late arrival pretty much balanced out. Also my infantry fit just perfectly in the terrain offered.

But I wanted this game to be about the catapults.  And with fewer units on the board, their effect is enhanced.  So in that regard, mission accomplished.

Roman Civil War, Old Empire vs New

A Headless Body Production
Venue: Fall In 2019

Event:  L' Art de la Guerre, Theme
Rules Set: L'Art de la Guerre
Theme: Alexander to Aetius Theme
Players: Phil Gardocki playing Middle Imperial Roman
                Kevin Hatch playing Late Imperial Roman

I am going to abuse my position here to offer a link to a different blog post about internet based attempts to commit fraud.  We are all in the target market, and every robo call you receive is an attempt to steal your money.  And while we would never fall for these obvious ploys, we do know people that will, so this may help someone you know.  In my personal experience, the lady that fell for the romance scam would be near the bottom of the list for someone that would fall for this sort of thing.  My write-up is a short read.  Scams.

The Forces:

Middle Imperial Roman

Commanded Larrylious (Say that three times fast), the Brilliant, his brother Darrylious, the Competent and his other brother Darrylious, the Competent, and somewhat unreliable.
8   Legionaries    Heavy swordsmen impact
3   30 mina catapult   Heavy artillery
3   Velities   Light infantry javelin
4   Auxilia   Medium swordsmen impact
3   Alares   Heavy cavalry
2   Illyricani   Light cavalry bow 

Breakpoint of 24

Late Imperial Roman (derived from photos and memory and subject to error)

6   Legionaries    Heavy swordsmen impact, amour, some elite
3   Velities   Light infantry javelin
4   Auxilia   Medium swordsmen impact
6   Alares   Heavy cavalry, 2 impact elite
2   Illyricani   Light Javelin

Breakpoint of 22
 

What is a mina?  From the Greek word mna (μνᾶ) was borrowed from Semitic; compare Hebrew māneh, Aramaic  mĕnē, Syriac manyā, Ugaritic mn, and Akkadian manū. It is equal to 70 drachmaes
Or, it could be a unit of weight, A mina was set to 1/60 talent.
So, the catapults are either 2,100 drachmaes, or throwing rocks weighing 40 pounds

The Romans win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

The Board:
The Middle Imperials are receiving and have two fields in their deployment area.

Behind the rough, field strewn hill are 4 units of Auxilla. 

On the Via Apulia, facing Romeward, an impressive cavalry force.

The Middle Imperial's Cavalry take up position on the left.

8 Legio's line the impromptu camp.

I had a real camp, with a pallisade, pack camels and everything.  I left it in the basement after giving it a fresh coat of flock.

On the far right, catapults and Lanciarii.

There is a debate on if it is legal to place heavy catapults in the rough.  I have posted it in the forum here.

Turn 1:

The referee blows his whistle.  "Lay On"!

Roman Alares gallop down the via. covered by the Auxillia on the hill.  That means Darrylious's Cavalry will be outnumbered 2-1.

The Late Legionnaires, move not at all.

Running interference to the far left, two units of Alares, in a gully.

Darrylious postures forward. 

Larrylious marches, shifting left.

Darrylious Auxillia leaves the field, his Velities pinning the Alares at 4UD.

Turn 2:

The Auxilla stay on the hill.  The Alares have a command point shortage and cannot deploy like they wanted.

The Legions advance, lining up with the Auxilla.

Here is the reason for the Alares problem (2 frames up)  The other 2 heavy horse decided not to contest the gully.

Darrylious holds firm with his heavy horse.

Larrylious extends his line.  The Legio on the far right however could only extend to the right flank, so instead he is taking the long march to the left.

In retrospect it was a bad idea to form up 6 wide, and then one on each end.  Thinking on how the battle would develop, it would have been better to weight both rear rank Cohorts either right or left, not both.  It's a mistake I'll repeat the next game.

The Auxilla contract and advance.  The concept will be to be in a single line then turn onto the flank of the opposing legions.

Turn 3:

Here come the opposing Alares.  At this time I forgot they were all impact cavalry, mine are not.

The Roman foot troops hold their position, out of catapult range.

The Late Imperials are willing to wait the outcome of the cavalry action.

But Darrylious never intended to fight here.  And begins his orderly withdrawal. 

Larrylious's line also advances and slides.  That crookedness is unintentional.

2 Heavy Cavalry vs 4 Medium Swordsmen.  I'll take that bet.

Turn 4:

The Alares approach, but contract around the hill.

Auxilla and legions form a unified front

Their flank covered by two remaining Alares.

Darrylious leads his cavalry back, presenting a bucket for the Alares to charge into.

It's an obvious trap that says mainly, "Don't go there."

For this is where the Middle Imperial's want to fight.  Catapult boulders start to rain in.

Larrylious, Darrylious and Darrylious can hold this position all day.

Turn 5:

Late Imperials decide to charge with their lights!  The Middle Imperials lights are ground under, and the supported heavies take a hit!

The legionaries are lined up, let the taunting begin.

 And the stones begin to fly.

Every now and then a spunky javelin chucker scores lucky.  Velites take a chance leaving the gully and score.

With the infantry about to engage, the cavalry takes it easy.

However, it did not go well for the Middle Imperials.

However the artillery has found its range and has double hits on two cohorts.

The Auxillia didn't have enough range to get all their elements in on the charge, so went for position instead.

Turn 6:

The Late Imperials charge.  And they have lances!  Two Middle Imperial Heavy Cavalry are run down, taking Darrylious with them.

Some how I missed the fact I was facing impact cavalry.  I would have handled this differently.

The Late Imperial Romans have 4 points towards their breakpoint of 22
The Middle Imperial Romans have 10 points towards their breakpoint of 24

The crush of impact was bad, and it turns worse.

The Late Imperial Romans have 5 points towards their breakpoint of 22
The Middle Imperial Romans have 12 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Once again I throw my troops in piecemeal and pay a heavy price.  But there is hope.  The Late Imperials far left Legio has two hits on it and will be overlapped.

The Middle Imperial's Auxilla were looking forward to 2-1 advantage on the Late Imperials cavalry, but the Late Imperials added a couple of cohorts to the fight.

The last cavalry cohort is just barely holding on.

Larrylious commits his last cohorts to the fray.  His left cohorts are about to collapse, but the right side has 4 straight wins.

The Middle Imperial Swordsmen commit, charging the heavy horse.

The Late Imperial Romans have 12 points towards their breakpoint of 22
The Middle Imperial Romans have 14 points towards their breakpoint of 24


Turn 7:

The Middle Imperial left has totally collapsed.

The right is holding and has turned the flank of the Late Imperials.

One Middle Imperial Swordsmen are collapsing before the combined arms of Legions and Horse.

The Late Imperial Romans have 13 points towards their breakpoint of 22
The Middle Imperial Romans have 20 points towards their breakpoint of 24

The Middle Imperials turn the right flank for the catastrophic flank charge, and wiff the die roll.  Larrylious draws his sword and advances to the front, and catches a spear in the eye.

The loss of Larrylious is enough to take the Middle Imperials over their break point.  So the loss of a swordsman is only icing on the cake for the Late's.  The destruction a Late Imperial heavy horse provides little solace to make up for it.

The Late Imperial Romans have 15 points towards their breakpoint of 22
The Middle Imperial Romans have 24 points towards their breakpoint of 24

What went wrong?

Relying on my opponent to do what was needful to win?  Richard was not going to allow more  boulders to be hurled at him than necessary before his assault.  When push came to shove, I had only damaged one of his legions.  After that, it was armored, and some elite vs unarmored Legions, with predictable results.

I can't say I lost this battle in any one spot, the fact is, I lost it every where!  There was no single spot I shined, and only one battle that worked out as planned.  I can blame dice in some places, but overall I was defeated by superior troop match-ups by my opponent.

How did the artillery fare?  To tell the truth, I overloaded on the artillery for the fun of it.  I looked at this theme as an opportunity to break out figures long languishing on the shelves, and would have brought more artillery if allowed.  I combed through the lists and no list allows more than 3. 

I brought them to watch the WTF response and got it.  Kevin Swanson, the referee didn't catch it till the second game and that was gratifying.  

Artillery is more of an environmental effect.   In this case it caused Kevin to redirect his cavalry command away from the splash zone, and into my cavalry command, which he won decisively for 11 points. So that would be classed as an epic failure.

As far as actual damage.  2 legions were disordered twice, one died when impacted, the other served as support only.  2 light foot were disordered, one of which was destroyed.