Goths came a visiting

[Westbury]

Over one of the (many) lockdowns Dave decided to paint up some of the Gripping Beast plastic Goths and some Late Roman cavalry with a vague idea of stretching our post Roman Britain collection into Gaul and last week we cobbled together some kind of an encounter. As most of our post Roman foot are painted as remnants of the various units that were in Britain we could easily field enough Auxilia plus skirmishers so a decent sized game was conceived 
The battlefield was fairly plain, broken up by several copses of trees and a ruined building or two. The Romans (we were thinking one of the several tyrants flourishing independently in the early C5th) deployed their cavalry (3 Equites, 2 Equites Inferior and 1 Equites Superior) on the left and then three commands of 2 Auxilia plus skirmishers extending from the centre to the right. The Goths deployed their own infantry (2 units) plus some Frankish mercenaries on the right, then 2 cavalry commands in the centre, one large (4 units) and one small (2 units), and on the left the Romano Gauls contingent of 3 foot units plus skirmishers. All commands had a bodyguard unit which contained a general and his guard. 

[Westbury]

Both sides initiated a general advance and most units got moving - our rules require a test to get moving so pretty soon lesser units have fallen out of step with the others which seems to be what happened, as best we can tell.
On the Roman left the skirmish cavalry galloped up to the Gothic foot and annoyed them with some minor casualties but didn't stop them advancing. The good news was that early in the battle the Franks decided to go home (random event card played by the Roman player - each side has a deck, one random card per turn, each card costs points, limited number of points).
On the Roman right the Auxilia managed to keep a decent frontage except for one unit that just would not move    

[Westbury]

Things heated up when the Gothic War Leader got the the larger cavalry contingent together and swung over to his right to take on the Roman cavalry.
This combat stretched out over several turns but during those turns the Romans lost all 3 Equites units, which left that side of the Roman army somewhat vulnerable, the only consolation was that the Goths were weakened by the attack and 2 units retired due to losses. The left centre Auxilia held their nerve however and managed to repulse and then follow up on one of the remaining cavalry units and start to shove it backwards.
On the other side of the field the other 2 Auxilia commands pushed forward and faced down several charges from the smaller Gothic cavalry contingent, wearing them down. The Romano Gallic allies struggled to get their act together and when the Sub Leader got a grip and personally led one unit forward with his bodyguard he was cut down in the ensuing melee and his guard left the field carrying his body; the contingent then halted and would fight no more. 

[Westbury]

Back on the Roman left decision time had come.
The Goth War Leader knew he had to see off the the last remaining effective Roman cavalry unit, the Equites Superior (cataphracts), to break the wing, but with his troopers weakened all that was left was him and his loyal bodyguard 
Into the charge he led them! And again! And again! But he just could not break the steady cataphracts who were steadily wearing down his guard and coming close to killing the War Leader himself. But, as the sky darkened, the bodyguard of the left centre Auxilia contingent joined the fight (actually it took 2 turns to pass their charge test which was rather funny) and finally the bodyguard and the War Leader himself went down. All was lost.

[Westbury]

All in all an exciting game. Two leaders killed, cavalry going back and forward until exhausted and then leaving the field, infantry grinding it out; pretty much as we wanted it.
The use of the Romano Brits as Romans looked ok and gave us a bit of an incentive to broaden the armies a bit further, we've got some Huns so maybe some more Goths, especially infantry.
Chalons? No, stop! 

[has.been]

As always a spectacular show, but I thought
you and Dave weren't doing anymore big projects.