Sulla in Milan


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.