On Monday, Carl and I played a 2000pt game of War and Conquest. We used two of the lists I have written for the Age of Warlords event in Peterborough on 13.9.15. I took Late Western Patrician Romans and Carl took Ostrogoths.
My army was led by a General, Army Standard and a Frankish Allied Noble. The Roman troops were a unit of 10 horse archers, a unit of 24 ledes and a unit of 16 sagitarrii. The Foederate barbarians included 14 Hun noble bucellarii who accompanied the General and his banner bearer, a unit of 12 Alemannic/Burgundian heavy cavalry and a unit of 24 Alemannic/Burgundian infantry. They were accompanied by a unit of 24 allied Frankish infantry armed with the dreaded angon/francisca.
From memory, Carl's army was led by a Goth Dux (warlord) and his army standard bearer. He was also accompanied by a Goth Comes (senior noble). The Goth troops consisted of a unit of 8 Gardingi (comitatus), a unit of 10 armoured Fideles cavalry and a unit of 10 unarmoured Fideles cavalry. They were supported by a unit of 24 foot Gardingi, two units of 24 foot Fideles and three units of various skirmishers. carl had forgotten that, unlike AB, personalities are additional to the unit strength, which hampered his cavalry. In WAB, a unit of 8 warriors plus 2 characters count as a unit of 10 models. In WaC, the personalities do not contribute to unit strength.
Anyway, we rolled for battle objectives in secret. I had to get a unit onto the centre of the table and deny the enemy from getting within 12". Carl had to get one unit into my deployment zone and deny me getting any into his. We were to play variable game length (at least 6 turns) although we ran out of time after turn 5.
Here are some pics with the story of the game...
I deployed with the Franks holding my far left. They are hard to control and cannot be influenced by the Roman command, so the further away the better! My right was held by all my cavalry - horse archers on the extreme flank, Foederate next, then the General's Bucellarii. The battle line was held in the centre by the Roman Pedes and Foederate infantry. The sagitarrii screened the centre.
Carl deployed Fideles on foot on his far right. Next, his foot Gardingi and mounted Gardingi in the centre. Moving to his left were the rest of the foot Fideles, the armoured mtd Fideles and the unarmoured Fideles. Skirmishers took the very ends of both flanks.
Here's my battle line...
The battle was a well-balanced affair that saw my missile troops do much execution amongst the Goths, allowing my cavalry to dominate my right. However, the Goth skirmishers weakened my allied and Foderate infantry which enabled their own heavy infantry to break my left flank completely. When we stopped at the end of turn 5, my Foederate cavalry were poised to rear charge the Goth Fideles who were holding my Bucellarii, but the Goths on my left were poised to flank my remaining infantry. Carl won by virtue of the fact that he had achieved his objective (my Foederate cavalry were about an inch too far out to be classed as 'in the Goth deployment zone') and I hadn't and wasn't likely to with Goth foot Gardingi poised to roll up my remaining infantry.
Here's some more pics from through the battle...
First, Fideles and foot Gardingi from Carl's line.
Mounted Gardingi with General and army standard
Carl's left flank...
The Roman advance...
The Goths follow suit...
Battle lines begin to close...
The Franks have gone all impetuous and charged...this didn't end well!
The Franks are in retreat and the Goth right is poised to attack...
The situation at the end of turn 5...Marginal Goth victory!
What the game proved was that the lists are well balanced. Neither army was overpowered. It also proved that small cavalry units do tend to suffer!
I'm looking forward to playing some more games with these very late Romans. They are great fun!! I shall be taking this army at the Age of Warlords War & Conquest event in Peterborough on 13.9.15.
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