Rome Triumphant

 We have had some visitors recently so that along with trying to work out how many people I could meet within a radius of two meters, six and a half feet for we awkward folks and not be £10,000 lighter I haven't got much done.

I had thought of starting an ACW campaign involving mates Matt and Rob, hoping that Rob could come here and fight any battles which turned up, but the loons in Westminster put an end to that, although I believe as of writing I still may be able to venture two miles up the road and enter Cumbria, but then what do I know. With the ACW on hold I set up a War and Conquest rematch with Rob Broom down in Bristol, Rob would again be the Seleucids and I would lead the Twelfth, a large game this time of 3,500 points, I would kick it off once my visitors had gone. I would send Rob a grid map and photographs for him to make his moves, it worked well the last time and this time with a small grid attached he should have a better idea of distance.

Rob brought three phalanxes supported by Companions, medium cavalry and horse archers, also in the mix were light infantry, skirmishers and two elephants. I took four Roman cohorts and one Auxiliary cohort, cataphracts, horse archers, Auxiliary cavalry and archers, Lanciari and skirmishers along with two bolt shooters to deal with the elephants. A lot of firepower there. The Seleucids lined up with the phalanx in the centre, Thracians and horse archers on the right the rest of the cavalry on the left along with the skirmishers and Thureophoroi light infantry. I put my heavy infantry in my centre with the Auxiliary troops on my left, the Auxiliary archers I sat in a wood on the right, also on that flank were the Cataphracts, one Roman cohort and my Lanciari.

 

  I decided that I could probably win on the right, the Lanciari being an excellent unit to beat skirmishers and probably the enemy medium cavalry, the cataphracts hopefully could take the Companions and Cohors II should easily beat the Thureophoroi. My left looked threatened by the Thracians as I did not want to peel off the Auxiliary cohort from the main line as there was a handy hill to their front which they could stand on. So I decided my Auxiliary cavalry would deal with the Skythians while my horse archers harassed the Thracians. Rob I think simply wanted to crush my centre, he did want the Thracians to threaten my left but they got bogged down a bit in the orchard due to bad movement rolls.

 As the initial moves played out Rob surprised me and took his cavalry away from his left and sent them straight at my line, the elephants also advanced along with the Purple (veteran) phalanx, the Whites stayed on their hill while the Blue ran forward. I sent a hail of arrows and bolts towards the Greeks and failed miserably, so much for plan A. Rob now won the initiative and slammed his cavalry into Cohors I and the Auxiliary archers while the phalanx moved slowly forward in line with the elephants. My boys took the shock and bent but did not break. Meanwhile I had chased away the Skythians and moved my Auxiliary cavalry forward to hopefully turn and hit the Purple phalanx or at least give Rob pause in his advance. I had secured the right flank and turned the cataphracts towards the enemy engaged with the archers.

 A crises had now approached as the elephants and the veteran phalanx also smashed into the Roman line. Although I was happy with the situation on the flanks I wondered what I would do if my centre disappeared. First up the Auxiliary cohort was sent packing by the veterans, sadly they failed to inflict any casualties on the Greeks and their morale failed, but all was not lost. Within a few minutes disaster struck the Seleucids, the victory against the Auxiliaries was a cruel twist by the Gods, the Seleucid cavalry were beat, routed and caught, this debacle also saw the morale of the Blue phalanx crumble and they too fled. To make matters worse Cohors II broke the Thureophoroi and dispersed them also, the poor Thracians with only a shield now fell prey to Roman barbs and suffered horrendous casualties. What about the elephants, well they too were defeated and ran amuck, one turned on the Purple phalanx and moved through it causing mayhem and stopping them following up their victory. The other ran through the Praetorians and caused the rallying slingers to once again run, the bolt shooters tried to kill it but failed although it was certainly on its last legs but still managed to be a danger to the Romans as it wandered here and there.

 

The Thunderbolts managed to grab the initiative for what would become the last move as the destruction of the Seleucid army continued. As the rest of the legion reorganised to sweep forward Cohors III charged downhill into the bewildered White phalanx and sent them packing, I was disappointed that my Auxiliary cavalry had been spooked by the elephant before it had died but you can't have everything. A great opportunity to get a lot of figures on the table and throw some dice, big thanks to Rob for taking part.

So what have I done, well working slowly, very slowly on those extra warband figures, probably because they are just extras and not a complete new unit, also in the mix has been a couple of map projects. The one on Charles XII of Sweden and his campaigns has been completed and a re-rendering of some Russian maps involving their attack on the Finns, early war I think but of course I don't read Russian, I have just started those.

What next I wonder, perhaps I could rope someone else into a War and Conquest game or try some Market Garden scenarios as I have just got the campaign book from Warlord. I am looking into buildings and terrain for my Berlin Project as well, I have decided not to do battle boards as I just do not have the room to store them unless I close the PO, so the buildings will be free standing with added scatter terrain, lots of it.