Battle Report - 07 Mar 2011

The cavalry exchange javelin fire prior to getting stuck in.

WAB last night - after my somewhat rushed efforts to get a painted army, it turned out that Grahame hadn't seen my message, so had only brought 1000 points. So we settled on the 'Attack on the Camp' scenario from the rulebook, with my forces attacking. Grahame deployed with two cohorts either side of the main gate, flanked on either side by auxillae, and Carl and I sent our two cohorts to face his, and the cavalry swept round one flank. It all went, as they say, rather well... The cavalry exchanged javelins with the auxillae, then went in for the kill - result, a complete stand-off! No casualties on either side in the first round, helped by the cavalry rolling four 5's to save against the four hits the auxlliaries inflicted. Which meant they had momentum, due to the fact that they had a musician....

Meanwhile, on the other flank, two small units of defending auxillae jumped the wall to take on the light archers - that started well, as Carl's opening volley caused one of them to decide it was too hot for them, and retired to consider their options.

Round two on the left - a win for the cavalry, and the auxillae failed their break test and ran, allowing the cavalry to follow through into the flank of one of the legionary cohorts. The first round was fairly inconclusive, but around then our two cohorts made it to the palisade, and battle was joined in earnest. 

Two rounds of that, and one of Grahame's cohorts broke: at that point, we decided a victory for the attackers, with the (apparently well-hard) cavalry inside the camp, was pretty much a matter of time. As it was only 9pm, we set up for a second skirmish, using 'The Ambush'.  I'm not 100% convinced of the setup rules for this one - basically it seems to allow the defender to set up 12" from safety, with the attacker at least 18" away. Had we not had the cavalry, it would have been pretty much a non-event.

*puff* *paint* "Wait up, guys!"
The heavily armoured legionaries struggle to catch up.

Anyhow - the cavalry fast-marched to intercept the lead cohort, while the two cohorts of somewhat asthmatic legionaries (heavy armour, so 3" move) did their level best to fast march in pursuit. Had they got there a bit faster, things would have been rather different - as it was, by the time they were in position to charge home on the opposition, the cavalry (after another ridiculous save of 5 hits, this time by Carl) had been routed, and the followup move took the cohorts pretty much out of reach. 

All in all, a good fun evening, though my cavalry seem to have acquired a reputation for sneaking in kevlar under their chainmail!

In case anyone's wondering about the standard on one of the two legions - the Warlord standard broke several times, the last time while it was being varnished outside, so I gave up, edited and printed off a banner and attached it to a shaft and crosspiece made of florists wire, superglued into the drilled-out hand/shaft. Looked pretty good, considering. (The font is 'SPQR', by the way.)