We played these last Thursday night. I didn't get around to writing this down until the following Tuesday, so my memory (dubious at best) might not be that reliable. Tom, Rick and I played 5 games in 6 hours, including a break for dinner. We used 3.0 rules with the 2.2 army lists. When will 3.0 be published? I'm not holding my breath.
Game 1 saw Tom take the early Franks – 11 blades, 1 psiloi – (his Vikings stood in for them) vs. generic Huns – 11 light horse, cavalry general. The Huns invaded but Tom got rooked by the terrain placement rolls. His army evidently got caught on their way to the battle field they wanted to defend. The only terrain on his side of the table was a river placed just in front of his deployment area. He deployed behind it in a long line, hoping it would slow me down. I deployed a column of 4 right horse on my left, 3 on my right and the balance of the army in line in the center.
The river turned out to be a shallow rivulet that didn't slow movement at all or convey any combat bonus for defending behind. My flanking columns whipped around both the Frankish flanks. Tom advanced to attack my center. He got into contact and was taking advantage of his longer line, knocking out a unit of light horse. Then the flanking columns descended on his rear. Huns won 4 – 1.
Game 2 Rick defended with the Franks vs. my Huns. He got some woods on his right and deployed in a single line. I was in three groups as before. My left column did not try to pass the woods. My center came up slowly and my right moved deep around his flank. The Franks tried to pin the flanking move into the corner of the table. A confused scrum broke. Two things became apparent. Light horse could move to reinforce the scrum much faster. The other thing that became evident was the mismatch between light horse and warband. In a straight fight, if the warband doubles light horse, the horse flee. If the light horse doubles the barbarian foot, they die. The only way for warband to kill light horse is to flank them. Rick managed to do that and kill two squadrons before his army collapsed. This game went to the Huns 4 – 2. We broke for dinner.
Then game 3 saw me defend with the Franks against Tom's Huns. I placed a hamlet, two steep hills and a wooded area. The woods ended up behind Hun lines and of no importance. The rest of the terrain ended up right in front of the Hun line, too far away for me to defend but forcing the Huns to advance through three defiles to get at me. The hamlet was in the middle with a defile on each side and the last defile was on the far right flank. I hoped to possibly block the ones around the town and gave up on the far one. I deployed in two lines, figuring it was easier to form square. Tom deployed in two columns. One moved towards the defile left of the town. I advanced a unit to block the defile. The column swerved and rode through the defile to the right of the town, leaving one squadron to watch my blocking force. The other column rode through the defile on the far right and headed for the edge of the table.
I began putting a line together at a right angle to my old line, one flank based on my camp and the other based on the hamlet – sort of. The Hun squadron watching my blocking force attacked. My psiloi went up and flanked the Hun, who was sent to the steppe in the sky. On the other flank Huns got into contact in small numbers and I flanked another squadron and dispatched it. I sent my victorious light infantry into the hamlet with an eye to threatening the Hun general who was nearby.
Tom rolled a 1 for movement and nearly quit. But then he used the 1 to have his general attack my skirmishers in the hamlet. His general pushed them back. I should have reinforced the hamlet. Instead I put in an attack near my camp. I foolishly put a unit in to gain an overlap, but the unit's rear was butting up against my camp. And now my troubles began. Tom's general doubled the light infantry and killed them. A counter-attack against my right wiped out the unit that couldn't retreat through the camp. More of his light horse moved up against my right. I doubled him, he fled. He doubled me, I died. The game went to the Huns 4 – 2.
Game 4 saw Rick's Huns invade Ton's Franks. Tom got wooded areas on his right and center, so the Huns moved around his left. Rick didn't push deeply around the flank, just kept edging and hitting. The same truth worked here: doubled Franks died, doubled Huns fled. Sometimes fleeing Huns left the flanks of friends open and the friends died. But the Huns won 4 – 2. These 4 games gave a pretty convincing display of the superiority of light horse over warband.
Game 4 saw me as Radagaesis invade Tom's Patrician Rome. Tom did better on terrain placement, with two wooded areas and a river in front. There was an open area behind the river on his left, so my Gothic knights formed a column and headed that way, with the Gothic foot advancing on their left. My lone squadron of light horse ran forward and founds the river to be deep enough to be a military obstacle, but not a raging torrent. I crossed the river as quickly as possible while Tom was hobbled by low movement rolls. I managed to get all my horse across the river while the Roman horse formed up to face me, the line at right angles to the infantry lining the river. The Gothic horse charged. There was much pushing to and fro. Then the infantry got into the act. One of my knight squadrons pushed to far forward, was flanked and slain. The infantry fight saw my left two units finally defeat and rout their enemies, while my right two units were slain. One more knight went down and Rome won the day 4 – 2. It had been a much closer fight the score indicated. We'd like to see these two armies matched again.
Seeing the Franks thumped 4 games in a row finally gave me the impetus to finish my early Franks. The rank and file is done. I'm putting the finishing touches on the general command elements, a mounted and a foot version. The mounted element can pass for Gothic knights, so they can work for other armies too.
