The holidays threw off the campaign for a bit, but we’re getting back to battle.
Battle 1: A Disagreement Over Spoils (or, Aristarchus Gets a Taste of Gold)
Aristarchus and his mercenaries moved with impunity through the hinterlands, with the Roman alliance happily looting the villas of the Sicilian farms. He of course was happy to aid in the endeavors. On a quiet morning his force happened upon yet another plantation, moving to secure the best riches. However, this time his scouts sighted a Roman force moving in from the west. His love for the Romans extended as far as their coin, so the prospect of them taking his loot would not stand. He called up his subordinates, Jason and Elarchus, and prepared for a fight.


For Turn 2, we shift to 800 point armies. The Greeks had mounted Lvl 3 commander (Aristarchus), 2 Lvl 2 foot leaders (Jason and Elarchus w/ Musician), 8 armored Hoplites, 7 armored Hoplites, 7 unarmored Hoplites, 8 Slingers, and 8 Petasti. The Romans were mounted Lvl 4 commander (Appius), a Lvl 3 foot commander, 6 Principes, 6 Hastati, 6 Samnites, 6 Equites, and 5 Velites. The Greeks outnumbered the Romans, but they had the advantage of quality. Lots of full armor and high morale.
We played the Retrieval scenario, with 3 blind objectives, with only 1 ‘real’ one, which you reveal in-game. Made it tense as we have to cover all three until the reveal. The Greeks spread out with a Hoplite unit going for each objective, with the skirmishers supporting. The Romans did the same, but were more content to let the Greeks reveal the objectives before getting stuck in.



Highlights:
-Both armies advanced slowly. On the right flank the unarmored Hoplites and Peltastsi faced off with the Samnites hiding in the trees and Velites taking position on the hill. Neither side wanted to be the one to reveal the objective and put themselves into a bad position. They mostly did nothing for the game, which was a bad position for the Greeks.
-In the center the armored Hoplites advanced forward. The Hastati were happy to grab for the objective. They revealed a dummy, so the center suddenly became less important. The Hastati loosed a volley of pilum, striking down a Hoplite despite their close formation. First blood of the game! The Velites did the same, killing a Hoplite on the left flank. The Roman ranged attacks were pinpoint accurate the whole game…
-On the left flank the big Hoplite unit threatened the objective but had to be careful to not get flanked by the Equites and Principes. A couple volleys of sling stones dropped a single Principes but they held firm, even advancing to force the Slingers to retreat into the forest. Aristarchus hovered nearby, eying the objective greedily.
-The Equites performed a javelin maneuver, killing a Hoplite and then retreating. Revealing the true objective, the Greeks needed to do some damage, so they broke formation to attack the Principes over the the low wall. The managed to push them back, breaking their formation, but only did a little damage. I tried to activate the Slingers to take advantage of the loose formation, but the dice were not with me. Their hesitancy allows the Principes to reform into close order. This was a harbinger of later luck.
-In the center, the Hoplites charged the Hastati, brutally cutting them down. Their All Out attack netted 8 hits against the Roman defenders (5 after the defense rolls), killing most. The fatigue broke them. Plutus at least was with these Hoplites.
-The Equites charged the Hoplites, crushing them. The first pass laid on fatigues and casualties. The second charge was interrupted by Aristatchus himself, who beat them back but was not able to stop their inevitable overrun of the weakened unit, wiping them out. My dice were abysmal, with not a single save or morale success in 2 rounds of combat.






-The Roman commander Appius came forward and grabbed the objective himself. With the reveal of the true objective, the whole rest of the table was worthless and the Greeks were woefully out of position.
-The triumphant Equites turned to the exposed Greek commander. They rushed Aristarchus, who parried and dodged them expertly. In return he struck down a few. After several urgent calls from his subordinate Jason, the Slingers joined in and pelted the horsemen until the remaining men broke (the Slingers just kept failing their activation checks).
– The Velites moved across the hill to help the Roman line. As they ran they rained javelins on the Hoplites. Despite their close formation the javelins struck home, killing several. In return the unit gave case, trapping the skirmishers against the pond. In a back and forth melee, the Velites were forced back into the pond, piling up fatigue.



-After resting, the angered Aristarchus sighted the prize, held by Appius. His supposed ally would yield or die. Aristarchus charged, wounding him twice, but Appius would not give up the loot. Exhausted, and with the Principes so close, Aristarchus was forced to flee and watch the Roman commander retreat with the loot. With that, the Greek force broke. The Greeks had 2 break points, plus 2 more from the objective held by the Romans, versus 3 (almost 4) for the Romans from casualties. Based on most of the dice rolling during the game, the army’s heart hadn’t been into the battle much anyway. The Slingers might have been sacked after the battle, having left far too many opportunities to attack wasted.
-With a combination of units extended out too far on the wrong flank and poor activation rolls, my army never had enough command points to push the objectives effectively. The Romans on the other hand performed well, able to fix their line quickly.