Live by the List, Die by the List

Well, as my Senior Roman Prefect might say after last night, I have met the enemy he is mine, although the victory was not quite as sweet as that for a couple of reasons. Simon asked to use Vikings against my new Patrician Romans so my Saxons put on horned helmets for the evening and joined in the fun.

WAC is an army list rules set, you can research your own army and if you disagree with the 'official' list you can pop your comments along to Rob Broom, and Rob will quite happily have a look and possibly change things to your way of liking. I am quite flexible on army lists, I research mine so am happy with what I have, I have argued successfully for some changes in the past and can play with the official lists, or the lists which my friends use for the gaming weekends, which differ at times with the official lists, or I can play with 'home improvements' when my son turns up.

Simon used one list for his army then I sent him another one at the last moment and this just confused the issue. The Viking list is one where we all have a notion of how they fought and how it should be represented on the table and so far not many of us seem to be able to agree. Thankfully I hardly ever come up against this army so apart from the historical interest it doesn't matter to me, but of course it does matter to those with Viking armies. I have my Pontius Pilate bowl of water ready.

So, opposite my boys were five infantry blocks two of which had archers in the back ranks and two were elite, I think most had 'Mixed Weapons' which corresponded to big axes, there were no skirmishers or cavalry so Simon's flanks were fragile. I had painted up my command figures for last night in order to use the Patrician Romans and had three Roman infantry units to hold the line supported by two skirmishing archer units and my strike force of Goths, Noble infantry and cavalry with their own general.

'Vikings' on the left, Romans on the right.

On deployment I could see the Viking left flank should be the target and managed to marshal the Goths opposite it, the Roman line looked a little fragile but I hoped it would hold up the enemy centre just long enough. I threw the Goths forward and Simon met me with his Renegades who had chased away some archers and then bravely ploughed into the Goth foot, they had their job cut out for them even with charging downhill. Sure enough they took horrendous casualties and fled only to be caught and dispersed later in the turn, the Goth general urged his men on against the lone Viking unit now holding the left. On the right Simon had some luck and again he sent men downhill and swept away the Anglevari, his centre now decided to test the rest of my line, just as his left was ridden down by the Noble cavalry and the Goths now free to attack his rear.

Shieldwall!

The Anglevari brace themselves.

It was now Lady Luck deserted the Vikings, the victorious unit was too busy picking up the spoils of war to turn on the Roman flank (failed command test) while the imperial shieldwalls held and in one case routed the Hirdmen and captured the enemy king, it was all over for the pagans.

The victorious Goths

The Pagan line about to break.

 My army had fought well and Plan A worked, although I did not expect to lose the Anglivari in one fell swoop, Simon's inexperience with the rules and the army showed, his dire die rolling at the end was also a factor, but I expect things will be much different next time we meet. I have another game next week against Ryan's Seleucid's which are still being painted so again it is more of a test game as Ryan, like Simon is new to the rules. I am going to take Legio XII Fulminata along and I am looking forward to getting them on the battlefield, it has been a long time.