Han Chinese vs Marian Roman
Mike Bowles and I had another 400 pt DBMM game last night. Mike used his Han Chinese in its next and he says, final format. I decided to try out a new army, and plumped for the Marian Roman as a contemporaneous opponent. I elected to gio for the "Sulla" version. Dicing indicated that I was the invader, and accordingly Sulla lead his 2 legiones into Imperial China.
Terrain selection saw me try for 2 difficult hills to cover my flanks, whilst the Chinese decided on two gentle hills and an orchard.. The dicing resulted in one suitably placed difficult hill on mty left flank, but the other ended up even further to the left, right into the flank sector. The chinese selections resulted in the wood to his left flank, and tone of the gentle hills to his right flank. The other gentle hill landed in my deployment zone so Mike placed it carefully into a corner, behind my difficult hill to ensure that I did not get its benefit. The Roman left was relatively shielded by the difficult hill, but the Roman right was wide open.
The Chjines host comprised:
Command One: Cv(O) SG, 4 x LH(F), 16 x DBE Bw(X)/(O).
Command Two: Cv(O) SG, 4 x Ps(O), and 16 DBE Bw(X)/(O).
Command Three: rKn(O) CinC, 4 x Kn(O), 6 x Cv(O) and 4 x Lh(F)
Command Four: 4 x R Bge(F) (pip dump)
Sullas small army was organised:
Command One: Cv(O) SG, 1 x Ps(O), 12 x Bd(S).
Command Two: Cv(O) SG, 1 x Ps(O) 12 x Bd(S).
Command Three: Cv(O) CinC, 8 x Cv(O) 8 x Ps(S), 4 x Lh(O).
The romans deployed first and I placed command one up against the difficult hill on my left, (with the legions organised in 2 ranks, the general and the ps(O) tucked in behind), command two in line and to its right (organised in the same way), and command three slightly behind and to the right to cover the wide open flank, where I suspected the Chines mounted command was likely to be. I put ther german Cv(O) in two separate lines, each with its supporting Ps(S), formed one behind the other, with the Lh(O) in column coverinmg the right flank. The CinC stood to the rear.
As I suspected the Chinese formed with their left flank, the mounted command, formed on the gentle hill, with the Lh(F) on the flank, then the line of kn(O) flanked by Cv(O), and with the CinC and 2 escorting Cv(O) formed behind. the two infantry commands then formed a single line from the hill towards the orchard covering the other flank. It fitted quite nicely with the Ps(O) and the Lh(F) from the two commands tucked in behind. This meant that my 2 Legionary commands were facing the chinese firing line, and my cavalry were left having to face off the chines mounted wing.
The game got under way with poor PIP's from the Roman CinC who managed a 4,1,1 and having allocated himself the highest, with the 2 subs averaging the rest this meant a slight shuffle forward by the legions, whilst the German cavalry lines moved froward and attempted to make a single long line of cv(O) backed by Ps(S), and the Lh(O) moving out to the flank. each general used his freebie to move a little towards their respective flanks, but the whole thing did not look impressive. the Chines first bound saw much better PIPs, but Mike had alsready decided that his infantry line was holding the best position, and merely used his 6,4,4,4 to move the infantry command Lh(F) into, and through, the orchard to extend his flank, and to move his CinC and escorts to the Left flank, extending that line as well.
The next couple of moves saw the Roman infantry inch their way towards the Chines line, and the German cavalry attempt to libne up with the Chinese mounted. The Lh(O) came into line to extend the german line, and the CinC moved to the extreme flank. I think my plan was to ensure that the line overlapped the Chines, but was not to attack the mounted command, but rather to draw it off the hill. For their part the chinese stood still except that the infantry comamnd Lh(F) moved out to threaten the Roman flank. This was countered by the legion splitting of 2 elements into line, and joined by the SG to act as a flank guard whilst the rest of the Bd(S)moved against the chinese infantry.
The Germans eventually lined up against the chinese mounted, but short of the hill so that the Chines would have to give up the uphill advantage if they wanted to fight. and an eventual bound of good PIP's for the Romans saw the legions close quickly on the Chinese Infantry line. The next bound the Chines infantry shuffled forward a little, and that was it. However this meant that the end of their infantry line were now able to shoot at the end German cavalry, and as expected the shooting sw the first casualty of the game as the Cv(O) was shot down 9:4.
That blow took away the German overlap on the inside (left) end of the line, and I was not so confident! Indeed my next plan was to withdraw the cavalry a move, but my next bound PIP's were poor (1,1,1) and all I was able to do was move the legions close enough to be the preferred target for more shooting. I also made the mistake of thinking I needed more PIP's to about face the line of Cv(O). so I left them standing. the chines shooting saw the ineveitable recoiling of a numkber of the Bd(S), but the double ranking ensured that they remained in blocks. Even with the overlaps that I faced at the end of the lines the shooting factors of 5(O):3(S) meant that the romans were pretty safe, as indeed it proved. Next bound the Chinese infantry stood still, and the mounted wing moved into charge reach of the German cavalry. The flanking Lh(F) tried an attack on the Roman SG and his ecorting bd(S)
A repeat iof the chinese shooting saw more recoils amongst the legions. but this helped to bring many elements back into line, although it did result in the extrem,e right Bd(S) being forced back and detached from the rest of the block. The Lh(F) discovered that Bd(S) were tough, and 1 element died fighting the SG, whilst 2 elemenst were spent in combat with the Bd(S).
My next bound and I was determined to withdraw the Cv(O) line out of chearge reach but a further bound of apalling PIPs meant that I belived I did not have enough PIPs to do so. I moved the CinC to join the battle ine wehre he stood as an overlap against any contact. The legions advanced close eneough to charge on their next bound. Chinese shooting saw the line badly staggered, however, somewhat ruining my plans. Sure enough, next bound the chines mounted line charged into the Germans. The shooting further staggered the Roman line, and the mounted combat was then on. It went better than I expected I suppose, but resulted in a few recoils on both the the chinese and Roman side side and a QK result from one of the Kn(O). The supporting Ps(S) saved my bacon in the other 3 Kn(O) v Cv(O) combats. Miek was very clever with his management of follow ups.
Next bound and I was able to advance some of the Bd(S) into the bw(X/O) line, and attempted to shore up the Cv(O) lines, trying to reduce overlap factors where possible. Once again, however, my poor PIP dice meant that options were limited. Due to contacts there was little Chinese shooting this bound, but what there was saw a couple of more Roman recoils. The close conbat did not go to plan, howeevr. My first dice saw a QK result on the Chinese bws (counting as Sp(O) in combat), but in other combats overlaps saw Roman recoils or stand offs. The mounted combats saw another cv(O) die (bad dice) but 2 Chinese Lh(F) died also. the other results saw a mix of recoils all around. I started to have a bad feeling about the poor mounted command.
Next bound and the chines PIP's were once again good. the mounted command got a 6 and used all the Pips to move some elements back into contact ensuring a number of overlap scenarios. The Chines infantry stood still and shot at available targets. though this time with very limited effect. In th ehand to habnd, however, double overlapped legionaries suddenly died, and the in the mounted combats the QK result from the chinese Kn(O) saw another 3 dead Cv(O). The only bright spot was that the Kn(O) that had killed the cv(O) in the previous bound was double overlapped in combat with the Ps(S) at the rear and was killed! Another Chines Lh(F) died in combat with the Lh(O) on the roman right fklank, but a Lh(O) was killed by the chinese CinC. The mounted command was disheartened, and I saw the beginning of the end.
My next bound and good PIP's allowed me to rejoin a couple of mounted combats, and to put more Bd(S) into contact with the chinese lines. The chinese shooting was largely ineffective, and the resulting close combat saw each command lose 2-3 double based elemenst to the Bd(S), but not without cost. another 2 Bd(S) were killed where overlaps, coupled with the Romans not getting the +1 back for (S) status in their own bound, and poor dicing saw to the rest. The disheartened mounted command tried hard, but more casualties saw the command break that bound. Fortunately, the nearest friends were too far away to take the temporary 2 ME penanlty) the Chinese were now worried about their infantry line, however, and their bound saw both infantry command SG's try to plug the gaps, whilst the mounted command closed in on the doomed Roman mounted.
Shooting did nothing, andthe combats went pretty much as expected. The mounted command lost a couple more elemnst of Ps(S) and a couple of bd(S) got recoiled by the chines infantry. However, some chinese also got recoiled which proved very important next bound!
The shattered Roman mounted was able to stand, despite being almost wiped out and I moved a number of bd(S) back into contacty with the Chinese line. we were both aware that "Time" was nearly up, and i fully expected to lose the game this bound. Indeed, Sulla himself died in valiant combat with attacks to his front and rear, and the rest of the roman mounted command died, with the exception of a single Cv(O). In the infantry slog, however, the chinese right flank command suffered enough causalties to go disheartened.
We moved swiftly into the next bound and the Chines CinC managed to move a number of his jubilant mounted round to threaten the flanks of the Roman infantry, whilst the rest of the command went Sponno and surrounded the remaining german cv(O) element. At this stage I was willing to give Mike the game, as his mounted command closed in for the kill. However, playing through the bnound resulted in a number of dead chinese infantry. The loses to the right flank command, coupled with the already dead and spent Lh(F) from that command broke it. But time was up.
A quick tot up of the points showed a confused, but probabale 13:12 victory to the Romans, due to the benefit of being the invader. In truth, the Roman army had suffered a loss of 28 ME's from a total of 77 but Mike pointed out that his remaining infantry command was 1 ME from being disheartened and his Mtd command 1 ME from the same fate. It was only after we packed up that i realsied that all that being so, the breaking of the chinese right flank command, and the resulting 2 ME loss to all comamnds within rnage meant that the other chinese infantry command also broke! ... and the baggage command within 400 paces also broke... and the mounted command within 400 paces of both, also broke!
Ironically, I had through the Roman cause lost only minutes before.