Greece, 360AD. Two armies face each other, the Romans, led by the

Emperor Constantius II, and a Spartan army led by Agesilaus.

Constantius surveyed the field of battle. The left flank was very

hilly, several of them quite steep, and a vineyard rested on the

slope on the large hill on the left. Immediately to his right on the

center of the field was another steep hill and beyond that several

patches of rough ground. There was another hill in the center, to

the rear of the Spartans. Constantius drew up his forces, to his

left he placed all his infantry, under his direct command. These

were arrayed in two lines, with the Gothic mercenaries forming the

bulk of the first line. In the center and to the right of center he

placed his two cavalry commands, hoping to take advantage of the

more open terrain. The Spartans formed up their Phalanx in the

center, with most of their light troops evenly divided between the

left, center and right of the battle field. The Spartan cavalry were

formed up facing the Roman cavalry, they too hoping to take

advantage of the terrain.

At the sound of the trumpets, and at the 'signal', the battle took

place.

Within a very short time the Roman infantry first line engaged some

peltasts. psiloi and several bands of hostages. After a skirmish

that saw the Roman light infantry drive off all the Spartan forces

on the steep hill and the vineyard, with support from some

auxiliaries and Goths,  some of the Goths and Auxiliaries supporting

them broke through the Spartan skirmisher line in front of the

Phalanx and engaged the Spartan warriors.

On the right a titanic struggle broke out between the Roman and

Spartan cavalry forces. The battle raged on for what appeared an

eternity, with even the Roman generals in charge of the two cavalry

commands becoming involved. Sheer weight of numbers overwhelmed the

Roman cavalry commands and the one furthest to the right become

totally shattered and fled the field, soon to be followed by the

other command.

It was at this point the Roman first line clashed with the Spartan

Phalanx. Weakened by the previous assaults on them by the combined

Psiloi, hostages and Peltasts, the Goths and auxiliaries who engaged

the Spartans were beaten off.

Constantius resolve wavered and he gave the signal for the Romans to

retire.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Well, the 'Westgate Warrior's' club's inaugural game took place as

planned on Sunday.

The game was a clash between Late Romans and Spartans, Dave Mather

commanded the Spartans and I commanded the Late Romans. It was a

25mm scale and 350AP clash. The Late Romans C-in-C was Constantius

II, so was Inert C-in-C, the Spartans were commanded by .

The game proved very interesting, lots of situations arose which we

dealt with as best as we could, sometimes having to agree on a

gentlemanly basis on how the situation could be resolved. Kinked

lines and TZ's provided much of the debate.

Anyway, onto the battle itself.

I fielded the Late Romans, and, as a novelty, I decide to take all

12 elements of Wb(O) available to the Romans on this date. I used a

typical 'Vegitius' formation, two lines of infantry, and put all the

cavalry on one flank, the cavalry commands were also in two ranks.

What surprised both Dave and myself was how long the cavalry battle

went on for. The game started about 3.15pm and ended at

approximately 6.30pm. The cavalry first became engaged when the far

right Roman cavalry command engaged the Spartan cavalry during the

second bound. This must have been at about 3.30pm'ish. This one

command, comprised of just 7 elements did not become shattered until

the very last bound, at 6.30pm, and that only happened when the Sub-

Gen's element was the last to be destroyed! It performed much better

than the other cavalry command of 9 elements, which had much more

superior types i.e. Kn(X) and Kn(F). The big talking point of the

whole game was when one of the bands of Spartan hostages, Hd(I)

actually managed to destroy a Wb(O) element! (In Dave's words the

Goths got their eyes scratched out by the hostage women!)

The game again was won on the wings, with one cavalry command

shattered, the other broken, it only took another 8 Me of troops for

the whole Roman army to become broken. And this happened when the

Goths and auxiliaries reached the Spartan Phalanx and died horribly!

Dave and I both came to the conclusion that Psiloi are worth their

weight in gold. They really do hold things up and Ps(S) can do

horrible things to Wb(O)!

A thoroughly entertaining game that will provide much food for

thought and I cannot wait for the next clash!

Just for the record this was the Roman Command, I'll let Dave post

his version of events and details of his command.

 

Late Imperial Roman (Eastern) 360AD

Commands-

Constantius II (Inert) Cv(O) (Left side)

12 x Wb(O)

16 x Ax(S)

8 x Ps(O), supporting the Ax

8  x Bd(O)

4 x Ps(O), supporting the Bd

4 x Ps(S)

 

Sub-Gen B (Ursicinus) Cv(O) (Center)

2 x Kn (X)

2 x Kn(F)

1 x  Cv(O)

2 x Lh(O)

1 x Lh(F)

 

Sub-Gen A (Trajanus) Cv(O) (Right side)

3 x Cv(O)

2 x Lh(O)

1 x Lh(F)

 

Train

4 x Bge(O)

6 x Tf (Ditch & Palisade)

 

Battle Report from David Mather's Point of View

Played a 25mm game yesterday 6' x 4' 350AP between my LHG Spartans

(Agesilaus in Asia) versus Adrian Coombs-Hoar using LIR (Eastern) –

Constantius II (inert) 360AD

My army consisted of

Agesilaus Reg Cv (O)

4 Cavalry Reg Cv (O)

4 Hamappoi Reg Ps (I)

1 Spithridates' Deserters Irr Kn (I)

2 Paphlagonians Irr LH (O)

4 Cretan Archers Reg Ps (O)

4 Mercenary Peltasts Reg Ps (S)

1 Paphlagonian Irr Ax (O)

2 Hostages Irr Hd (I)

21.5 ME

"Xenophon" Reg Sp(S)

2 Spartan Reg Sp(S)

15 Hoplites Irr Sp (O) (3 x 5 city states)

5 Mercenary Peltasts Reg Ps(S)

6 Javelinmen Irr Ps (I)

2 Hostages Irr Hd (I)

31.5 ME

"Lysander" Reg Sp(S)

9 Spartans Reg Sp(S)

2 Thracians Irr Ax(S)

6 Thracians Irr Ps(S)

2 Hostages Irr Hd (I)

30 ME

Army Baggage

6 x Bge (I)

3  ME

Adrian's army was based around Vegitius – and had 2 smallish commands

of mounted troops and a large command of foot (including 12 Gothic

warbands) and the obligatory magic tents with ditch and palisade.

With almost 30 elements of Ps I intended to clutter the flanks with

difficult terrain and to use the Psiloi to dominate from difficult

going.  I could not afford a head on clash between the heavy foot

unless I had made serious inroads into either the Romans or broken up

their formation.

The Romans won the first dice roll and invaded Greece in the Summer.

I faced west and placed my 5 on my right.  Adrian placed the 6 on his

base.  I picked 2 x DH, 2 x GH, 1 x .5 V and 1 x .5 O.  Adrian picked

2 x RF

The terrain finished (from my position) with a RF in my right hand

corner.  Forward of that near the centre line a DH with a Vineyard on

its southern slope.  A GH in the centre back in my deployment area.

On Adrian's base edge the olive grove was on the left - a DH in the

centre and the GH on the right.  One RF could not be placed.

Adrian then doubled me on the dice and deployed first (at 7am in the

morning with a strong but inconsequential wind blowing from the

South).

From my position Adrian deployed his infantry in 2 lines – front

line  of Gothic warband flanked by Ax(S)/Ps(O) blocks with a group of

4 Ps(S on the right facing the DH) behind them the second line of 2

deep legionaries with Ps support flanked by Ax blocks. In the centre

in 2 lines were the heavy mounted – Kn (F)/Kn(X) with some light

support and on the left the light mounted command (Cv and LH (O)/ (F)

again in 2 lines)

.

 I deployed with the Thracians in the Vineyard and DH.  The Spartans

were held back in a 3 x 3 block on the flank of the vineyard – with

their hostages to the front.  Next to them stood the "allied

hoplites" in a 5 x 3 block – each 3 representing a city state.

Mercenary peltasts  were out front with Javelinmen in the rear with

the baggage behind.  Part of the hoplites were on the GH with the

hostages ahead.  Agesilaus took up position on the open left flank.

Spithridates in the centre of the line flanked by the Hammipoi backed

cavalry. The mixed Ps in reserve with the Paphlagonian LH on the left

flank.

The basic plan (not very cunning) was to advance hard with Agesilaus

to break the smaller mounted command and move onto the centre command

whilst it was pinned by the hoplites.  On the right hold the hill and

push the Ps(S) towards the Goths – with the hostages help break up

the Roman line – We could then bring up the Hoplites to finish the

job.  Under no circumstances engage the heavy foot in a major clash.

Thus dice were allocated as Agesilaus high, "Xenophon" low "Lysander"

middle.  With the Romans being under the command of an inert general

I took first move and promptly rolled 2,1,1 and high for the baggage 

With no capability to make any real maneuver it was ahead with

Agesilaus and  a smattering of Thracians

.

Looking back at the rules – not sure didn't make a mistake here – The

central hoplites are Irr Sp(O) in a block 5 wide 3 deep some of which

were on a hill – Is that just 1 to hold – some of the group are

uphill of nearest enemy but not all.  Of course the sub general being

regular is of no use in this situation.

Adrian had split his Pips infantry high cavalry command average –

train low

The battle now played out as follows – Adrian's infantry wheeled to

advance past the Vineyard to contact the hoplites – The Spartans did

everything in their power to prevent it – Highlight was one of the

hostages 6-1 a Gothic warband and killing it – those Asiatic women

and children fight dirty (and have sharp fingernails) – The mercenary

peltasts sniped away at the Goths witling them down until few of the

Roman front line actually made contact with the hoplites – who

quickly mopped them up – recoiling them and next bound lapping round

for double kills. On the far right the Thracians were swiftly thrown

off the hill but Adrian didn't have enough Pips to capitalize – using

the Pips to try and get the infantry blocks up.  The Thracians fought

like women – the women fought like Thracians ;-)

The decisive part of the game was fought out on the left flank – with

Agesilaus having early success against the small cav command –

racking up 4 elements in quick succession – it then stalled for a

while as it took 3-4 bounds to get it from disheartened to shattered

(needed to kill all the troops to shatter this command-  in the end

its general died last – the coup de grace being delivered by

Agesilaus who took the Roman general in the rear (along with Spartans

in front and flank.

In the centre aspects of Agesilaus command were attacking the flank

of the exposed central mounted command – in a war of attacking

exposed rears(avoid the Greek cliché) the Greeks won out -  a

clibanarii caught the rear of a Hamippoi only to be reared itself by

Spithridates deserters – With 2ME troops committed and killed the

central command went straight to broken .  Shortly after that the

Roman line staggered into the hoplite mass and was repulsed with

losses – This took the Romans to half army broken and with the

Legions as yet uncommitted they retired back to the camp – With both

sub general's dead Constantius could easily concoct a missive to Rome

blaming them.

The Spartans had triumphed 25-0 – Spartan losses were light mostly

Psiloi totaling 5.5ME – the hoplite army had won – although hoplites

only fought 4 combats.  The plan had worked but it was scary stuff –

Adrian never seemed to be short of Pips but struggled to get a

consolidated attack in – With the inert general and an average he was

losing 4-5 pips a turn (somewhat offset by the magic tents).

Only real rules issue was the ever popular trying to figure out what

happens when a deep kinked line hits a flat line – think we got it

correct but never sure.

We played the straight line measurement rule (no doglegging) which

although clean does seem to throw up some oddities/dominoes) – we

shall see how that pans out at the right time.

Hopefully my army was legal and I got the holding on a hill correct.

The use of Psiloi is certainly something I am utilising more and

more.  A good entertaining game I suspect Constantius II would not

have been too fussed with the loss of a couple of rivals and most of

the Goths.