A Celastraceae of Celts

A Headless Body Production
Venue: Wyndham Resort, née Lancaster Host
Event: Open tourney, Round 1
Players: Phil Gardocki running Republican Roman, List 53
               Don Manser running Celts.
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 25mm, 200 points per side.
Font: Times New Roman

The venue view before the coffee kicks in.

The Forces:

The Celts are led (Pushed? Prodded? Shouted at?) by persons unrecorded.  One is regarded as Brilliant, the others both Ordinary, Unreliable, and Included.
2 Light Horse
25 Warbands, Impetuous
2 Levy
4 Light Infantry
Breakpoint...33 

The legions are commanded by Larrious, the Senior, widely regarded as Brilliant.  Darrious the Elder, who was Competent, despite his age, and Darrious the Younger, also Competent despite his youth.
2 Equites, Medium Cavalry
10 Hastati or Principes, Heavy Swordsmen, Impact, 1/2 Armored
2 Newly Recruited Hastati, Heavy Swordsmen, Impact, Mediocre
2 Extraordinarii, Medium Swordsmen, Elite
2 Other Italians, Javelinmen
6 Velites, Light Infantry Javelin, Elite
2 Syracusians, Light Infantry sling
Breakpoint...26

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Heus!", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen. I tend not to point out Light Infantry, as it clutters the pictures for no real value.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Any vagueness or inaccuracies in the descriptions is to be considered is to be considered Fog of War, and is to be considered part of the fun.

The Celts win the initiative and elect to attack in mountains. 

The Board:

 

Terrain adjustment removed one brush.  

The Celt left has a small number of warbands commanded by an unreliable leader.

Their center has 19+ units.  I have run whole armies smaller than this one command!

Hugging the coastline, another small group of warriors.

Larrious deploys a couple of Velites on the left to slow down the Celt advance.

Between the Steep Hill and the Village is just enough space to deploy his 8 Hastati and Principes.  

Hiding in the Village are a number of Italians

 

Turn 1:

The Celt right command goes unresponsive.  

I realize looking at the photos that the light horse, presumably belonging to the center command, was not correctly deployed.  I didn't catch that during the game.

Their Brilliant commander rolled well on command points.  Enough to advance 4 blocks of troops in addition to the light horse.

The coastal command managed to avoid being unresponsive.

One Velite approaches to withing 4 UD's of the light horse.  Dropping it from double marching, and daring them to come into the Brush.

Another advances to 4UD's from the main line.

One advantage the Romans have is the Celts have only two commander points.  If I can break up his formation then I'll have a chance.

Numidian scouts exit the Village hoping to distract the Celt left command. 

That was not well thought out.  Distract?  The Celts only have one choice.  Move forward.  Regardless of what is in front of them.

Also revealed from ambush, many units of Italians.

Turn 2:

Another round and no response from the wayward command.

Not that it matters one wit...

Velites pull back just far enough to slow down the advancing horde.

Numdians and slingers advance for some useless missile shots.

 

Turn 3:

The wayward command awakes!

And the rest of the horde hasn't slowed down.

The Numidians have done all they can do, and are looking to escape.

Velites form up at the top of the hill.  The new recruits are positioned to cover the flanks for when the Velites are thrown off the hill.

A bit about the dice glued to the stands.  Red 1's signify Mediocre.  Black (sometimes blue) 6's are Elite.  The yellow 3's are armored. This list allows the Legionnaires to be half armored.  

The rest of the Legions are just awaiting the eventual charge.

A gap is opened for the Numedians.

Turn 4:

One of the 25mm tables.

Looks like Alexander verses the Greeks.

The Velites exit the Brush on their own terms.

Two more Velites are facing down the approaching warbands on the hill.

The final advance before the charge.

My missile troops were totally ineffective here.  It was hoped that one or two warbands would take a hit before their Impetuous charge.  Making them much easier to destroy and put a hole in their line.

There is a hit!

The Roman right is putting up a "layered defense."  When the mediums are routed, then the slingers can still hold the flank, at least for a little while.

Turn 5:

That is something you don't see every day.  The Velites stand their ground on the hill   

Destroying one warband and disordering another!

With a great ululation, the Celts charge!  The Roman lines creak, but hold.  Several warbands also begin to weaken.

On the far right, the Italians were given a task beyond their ken.  

Velites with another kill!

Holes begin to form in the Celt line.

The second layer defense is activated in the village.

The score is 13 of 26 for the Romans,

To 13 of 33 for the Celts.

A view after the pursuits of the main line.  

 Turn 6:

One warband conforms onto a Velite, which evades off of the board.  Then a charge by Celt slingers into a Velites flank.  Which stood.

The great scrum continues.  

The Legions flanks supports are crumbling, but the Legions are doing a good job of blood letting.

The last Extraordinarii is surrounded and collapsed.

The Numedians are updating their resumes for another job.

The Roman score is 19 of 26.

To the Celts score of just 14

One unit of Velites turn, but are buggered by the position on the hill, and a bad roll of the dice.

Two cohorts are routed!  But also a pair of warbands are flanked and destroyed.

"We can't trade them one for one, there are just too many of them."

The lights in the village are putting up some resistance.  But mainly this is a Impetuous Unmaneuverable problem.  

Turn 7:

At the top of the 7, the Romans are near their break point at 24

While the Celts are at a comfortable 17.

The Celts secure the hill.

In the center two cohorts take hits.  Center in front of the commander, and just right of center as the Celts turn on a flanker.  Bringing their demoralization level to 26 for the game.

The last Velites stand their ground in the Village and score the last hit.

What went wrong?  I had the ideal terrain, my opponent had an unresponsive command, luck if anything was in my favor, and yet it was a decisive loss.  

It was the Italian command.  With 2 Extraordinarii, 2 Javelinmen, 2 slingers and 2 Numedians, which in the end contributed 11 points of the final demoralization level of 26 for the defeat.  

 

Them coming out of the village was obviously a mistake.  I think I did that to make sure the right flank legionary cohort did not have an overlap.  But the cost was horrendous.  Not that fighting in the village was an advantage.  Both sides having a -1 penalty.  But if the Italians were engaged a turn later, their defeat would be a turn later.

 

But I don't think another turn would have matter, since the Celts were at 17 of 33.   

 

 Next up, the Macedonians...