The West Fights Back

 After the shock defeat in Northern Gaul by the British usurper to the Imperial Purple, Edicus "Proceritas" (the tall), Aetius the Magister Militum of the West has marshaled all the forces he can from Italy and has marched to confront the Rebels. On the way he was met by a Visigothic army determined to take advantage of the situation. The armies met as Aetius crossed into Gaul.

As I am still showing positive for Covid and rules author Rob Broom is recuperating at home we decided to fight the next battle remotely. Since I last did this Zoom has limited all sessions to forty minutes so I set up my iPad on Facetime and the iPhone on Messenger and we duly made contact this morning at 0930. I had brought an army with a strong Roman infantry force supported by Goth Foederati, Huns and archers, Aetius had a personal bodyguard (Bucellarii) of Steppe Noble cavalry. Rob had warbands of warriors, some cavalry and swarms of skirmishers.

 I set up with my cavalry on my left and infantry prolonging the line with the Goths on the right, opposite the Visigoths had cavalry on their left, the infantry then a horde of skirmish troops on the right. My plan was to destroy the enemy right and wheel in as my infantry began to advance, I would be cautious on my right and see what the enemy cavalry intended to do. Rob advanced his flanks and ran into an arrow storm from the Roman lines and men fell, the Visigoth riposte managed to scare away the Huns for a turn but they came back and slowly but surely the enemy skirmish lines were destroyed. I held my infantry back in shieldwall while their cavalry crashed into my right flank archers, these stalwart men stopped the horsemen and then routed them and caused them to flee the field, sadly in their enthusiasm they ran into the Mounted Comitatus and were in turn dispersed, but it was a good trade off.

Romans

Visigoths

My Goths had now managed to get close to the Comitatus and charged them putting them at a disadvantage, although the cavalry made a brave effort the numbers were in favour of the Germans and another enemy cavalry unit fled the field. Despite their flanks floundering the enemy infantry were still cautious about taking on the main Roman line, however one Fideles unit struck the elite Celtae Seniores and although at first doing well the Romans recovered and yet another Visigoth battle formation ran. The Roman cavalry were now manouvering and threatening the Goths right flank, throwing caution to the wind as the action seemed to be going against them they at last hit the Roman line. The shieldwalls held and the green Quinta Macedonica managed to throw back the enemy Dux and his bodyguard, they rallied shortly after but the writing was on the wall as the Visigothic battle line faltered and the Romans prepared to roll up the enemy flanks.

Visigoth right collapses

Romans hold the centre

Visigoth left folds

We called a halt, the game had gone very well for me and I cannot complain about die rolling, Rob can as several times he hit rock bottom at the wrong time. If his skirmishers had been half as good as mine he might have stopped the Roman cavalry but he failed, he was left having to rely on his warbands and they just could not move my infantry. Aetius will now march north and attempt to defeat Edicus who remains near the coast attempting to persuade the local warlords to join his campaign.

As I said above I still tested positive for the annoying plague on Monday despite feeling absolutely fine, I shall test again this weekend and am hoping to get back to the club on Tuesday. I have managed to complete a unit of Albanian Stradiots (there's a joke waiting there) along with a French general. On the tray are a second unit of mounted Crossbows from Steel Fist, a tad on the large side but they will not look out of place on the tabletop. I had some senior moments ordering up a number of arquebusiers from TAG but managed on my third attempt, so they will finish my French army when they turn up.

I have bought a superglue accelerator for the first time, I know baking soda does the same job but too much and you get a grainy join, I am fed up holding metal for minutes and merely gluing the arm, weapon or whatever to my fingers. 

I am at it again, I settled down with my drink and sweeties to watch the highly praised "All Quiet On The Western Front", now if the movie had been called something completely different I could have sat through it and maybe, just maybe, enjoyed it. But I was expecting AQOWF and this film is not that, so much so it is a completely different story. It starts with the date '7 November 1918', four days until the end of the war, alarms were ringing and I can still hear them.

 My mum used to keep a set of boxes for her money, food, electricity, gas, insurance etc. I have the same, Illegals, Albania, Rwanda, France, Ukraine, Slavery Reparations, Industrial Revolution Guilt, Green tax and now, just as I thought I was managing, it would seem I now need a box for the effects of weather on the third world courtesy of Sharm-el-Shiekdown, for which I am again guilty it would seem.