Since DBM I have always been a cavalry fan. I never played an army
mainly of infantry. The closest thing were my Cholas, but with Blades
F as mobile as Kn.
I have read with much interest the different opinions about the S
mounted superiority over infantry and how S heavy infantry is fragile
so I thought it was the right time to play an infantry host and check
it. The limited pool (set in second period using just new 2nd book
draft) was excellent to focus on high quality infantry avoiding KnS.
I tested a couple of times Hannibal in Italy without much success and
decided to pick Marian Romans.
After many test I choosed this list:
Sulla Marian Romans - 84/42.5
C1 CiC RBdS, 9RBdS, 1IElI, 1RArtO, 3IPsS, 3RPsS - 30/8-10.5
C2 SGRCvO, 6RBdS, 6IAxS, 4RPsO - 26/7-9
C3 SGRCvO, 6RBdS, 4ICvO, 4ILhO - 26/7-9
C4 4RBgF 2/1
These romans were organized in such a way to let BdS exercise
pression all over the combat front. My plan was to involve them in
combat as much as possible and win or lose with them.
Ps S and Ax S had the role to cope with Wb and with difficult going,
The El and the Art were basic tools for Elephants and first rank Kn
generals, while the few mounted were used to outflank enemy if
opportunity arised or as mere reserve.
The army frontage is very small, expecially for I like to deploy my
Bd 2 deep.
The basic plan was to exploit high Ag, look for night and position
all the army far off a side, tryng to turn the enemy wing before the
enemy unengaged corps could do the same.
Clearly this plan could work versus irregular armies and not facing
another roman. There my BdS would have hopefully made the difference.
Last note, I see this list as a work in progress, I think it can be
improved a lot.
Game 1, Alexandrian Imperial
The guy and that army won one of the 4 tournament of first dbmm
italian championship. Not an easy draw.
He used Perdicca version with experimental phalanx.
Basically he had 2 corps of 4BwX, 2El and KnF, and CiC with most of
KnF, Lh and AxS.
I attacked, and this was very good.
The terrain was quite open, except an orchard in the middle about 60
cm away from the left side edge.
There were too a couple of rough going, placed by the macedonian, one
right in the center and a second on the right, 40 cm from both
macedonian and right edge.
Perdicca plan was to deploy the CiC command to cover more than half
of the table, using two sub starting in column on both side of the
orchards to envelop my left wing.
My plan was much easier: deploy side by side the legions and destroy
the overstreched CiC command, then engage everything on sight.
I was surprised to see that the macedonian subs received averaged pip
and the CiC the higher. This would have slowed my flank turning
operation, and it was exactly what happened.
I put a lot on pression on the enemy CiC that could not slowly
disengage as planned. The subs suffered very low pips that hampered a
lot KnF redeployment. Once I catched and destroyed the CiC the C3
difference was dramatic.
It was like my opponent was in retard of one move each time he moved.
It was a slaughter, I even managed to catch a KnF column in rough
going. The game finished when I took the baggage.
25-0
Game 2 vs Sassanid
I again attacked (luckily) and was able to deploy a couple of
difficult going that divided the table in two valleys, a 40cm one on
the left, and a wider one on the right. The table was perfect for me,
for I planned to overwhelm an enemy wing before the other one could
help.
My opponent, foreseeing that, and placing first with a 2 rounds roman
night attack, deployed in the center a CvS / El corps, then a CvS
column on the left side of it, a CvS corps in line on the right and
finally on the far right the hun ally. The CvS corps on the right had
the back touching a difficult.
I concentrated all my army on the right. My plan was to kill the
small hun ally and then attack the CvS frontally and by the side,
using the difficult to infiltrate in the enemy back.
I attacked hard, and my opponents started to advance and wheel the
central El/CvS corps.
The hun fell quite fast, but I could do initially no headway on the
CvS fighting back to the difficult, I just managed to kill one.
What resolved the game for me were the elephants. He lost three in an
extremely unlucky way, in his bound, opening gaps that I exploited in
my bound.
Once I forced the gaps in his lines the resistance crumbled and I won
25-0 again.
The left corps in column never entered combat.
Game 3 vs LAP
If on saturday everything went perfectly, sunday proved to be a very
different day.
I attacked againg versus a 4 regular pips persian hoste with 24 ICvO,
16 supported sparabara and a lot of LhF.
The persian (italian dbmm champion) was able to force me to play
streching my front and weaking my army. Well planned.
There were 2 small difficult, one on each side, that hampered enemy
Lh (placed by me) and a big swamp on the persian center edge. There
lurked zillions of sparabara. The Cv was in a 1 meter long solid line
between a side difficult and the swamp, while on the other side there
were many Lh ready to jump on me.
I put all the legions in 1 rank and attacked the enemy Cv, leaving
some too to face the swamp. Spanish auxilia and psioli tried to avoid
on the far right enemy infiltration, while on the left, where I
focused the main attack on enemy Cv, I had a reserve of 4 Lh. My Cv
covered the gap between the flank of the legion and the orchard.
I felt uneasy. I couldn't see the fourth persian corps and I had no
reserves at all.
I tried to force a result, marching hard the legionaries through the
bare plain, going over a small hill, descending it and approaching
the enemy.
On round 2 a flank march entered on my left. Disaster. I stopped to
advance in that sector, put the Lh in fron to cover the legion left
flank and withdrawing the CvO to use it versus the march.
This one resulted made by a subgeneral and 4 LhO. Luckily for me it
had the lower pip dice, so my gallic cavalry was able to catch it and
disheartned the corps. This took many bounds for the persian
skillfully used an enemy hill. In the meanwhile the enemy didnt stand
idle. He attacked my Lh flank protection and smashed through it.
I hastily started to individual move my bd to form a sort of hedgehog
and save my mobile baggage that was following the legions. I used the
hill as a covering point to resist enemy charges and had to sacrifice
some PsS to rectify the line.
While this happened, I charged hard in the center with my BdS but had
no success.
Another crisis then opened on far right, where my AxS were able to
charge with overlaps and closing the flank two enemy LhF. I was
confident that, killing this couple, I would have the right number to
force the enemy skirmishers back and support an attack in the marsh.
I charged overconfident and when dust settled I lost 2 AxS out of 3
while th 2 LhF where still alive. I had from this moment a dramatic
withdraw that made me think of french in russia harassed by cossacks.
The crisis on the left was stopped when finally I regrouped my mauled
CvO, catched a couple of marauders and forced back the enemy short of
reserves after having lost.
The game ended with my repeated charge in the center, there were some
losses but no decision.
A very nice match where in the end I scored 1 more penaly point for a
14-11.
Round 4 vs Kushans
This Kushans was made with 2 huge LhS corps and a KnX corps. In total
it fielded 12 KnX, 12 AxO and 35+LhS
I attacked (nice) and put two big 1 ME difficult, one on the left
side edge and the second on my baseline on the far right. There was
no other feature on the table
When we rolled for the deployment, my opponent rolled 3. I felt well,
thinking to a night attack (1 or 2 roll) but when the die landed with
a 6 I realized I was in a dire straits situation.
I opted for a strong defensive position and to give the initiative to
my opponent.
I put all my army in column on the far right, marched out of the
enclosed field at 45° and finally turning left.
The result was that my army was anchored between a big difficult
dominated by my terrain troops, and had some reserves to fight a long
frontal struggle.
The bad part was that to cover al the needed space, my Bds were
deployed 1 deep, then 2 deep, then 1 deep again and so on. Risky when
facing a cataphract army with feigned flight.
My opponent deployed his host in the middle of the bare plain,
declaring he would have not charged me.
I calculated that leaving the position and going for him would have
been possible just deploying 1 deep my bd and having about 20 cm on
each flank very weakly held.
With a 13-12 for me the final score would have been 77-77 with me
above for having scored more points in the game between us.
This argument didnt't convince him and the game wasn't fought.
A shame, I would have liked to try turn his flank on a night attack.
So 77 and second position, thank to a 25-0 on the second table and
some incredible tales of 4 KnX killing 20 CvO for no losses :))))
I did enjoy using marian romans. They suit well to an offensive
tactic, 8cm move is really a lot. Thinking to my limited experiences
with infantry in DBM now it's much more fun use it.
I had some training games versus enemy Wb, phalanx and bd that were
terrific.
Looking at my opponents I faced 4 mounted host (not my preferred
enemy really, I couldn't use QK) and the romans performed well. I
didn't find my self never disadvantaged in direct combat (S vs
mounted is a good help) but on the 4th game I failed to use all the
plans I had and this was a bit frustrating.
The army is flexible enough to field different kind of auxiliaries,
but what I like more is that the battle will always be decided by
legionaries.