BatRep of Roman V Dacian Basic Impetus

Keen to play with these rules for a second time, we stayed with period for out next game. That's three games played two weeks between each, HOORAY.

Well that's something to cheer about, what is not is the epic fail of downloading the photo's from my camera, managed to delete them so no pics so you will just have to take my word for it.

Again we went with the Impetuous Light Rules but this time instead of the Gauls we played the Dacian force against the Romans. These are the free to download rules and armies from the Internet and are designed to act as an hook for the full rules. Well it looks like it is working as Barry is hoping Santa or the Birthday Fairy brings them for him. Well we certainly got a good game out of them. I had failed to get round to re-reading the rules but they are so basic it's not difficult to pick them up after just two weeks. We set up the terrain then diced for table sides and then diced for forces. I was keen to get the Romans again and was lucky enough to get them. Once we were set up and I looked opposite at the massed forces I was not so sure. A quick count of units and it was confirmed, Barry had 3 more units than me and as one of my units was ART B I felt he had 4 more! But three of mine are rather tough Legion guys and regards Cav mine again was of better quality. I set up with a double Legion (large unit - two made into one) centre right with the Art B and Archers centre left with the other Legion and my unit of Cav on my far left. My right itself was the two Axillia one behind the other. Three hills dominated my side of the field, two out front (one each flank) whilst the main one was angled through the middle with the crest forward of my start position. I planned to hold the left hill with my Cav and send my double Legion beyond the crest of the main hill. To make sure this happened I needed the Initiative in the first turn. I did not get it but Barry just sent skirmish units forward and so I was able to get the ground I wanted.

Both of us stood off each other with his skirmish line happy to send arrows at my unit whilst my archers and Art B fired on targets, neither really doing much. Barry wanted to get his Javalin armed skirmish unit into range and temped me to charge in with my Auxilia which rolled very well routing the skirmishers and clearing the way to push on the right. The stand off on my left continued for a while but with it becoming obvious I was not going to come off the hill Barry sent in some of his best troops, with support from behind. Now Barry was rolling something like 13 dice to my 7 so it did not look like I would hold for long but again I rolled well whilst Barry just got the one result so I knocked him back off the hill with loss. This was the story of the fight for these units all day until near the end after losing no casualties my Medium Cav destroyed the front unit of heavy infantry. Meanwhile in the centre I charged the bow armed skirmishers with the second auxillia but these evaded leaving me close to the Dacian main line. The medium unit facing me charged in with support but again the dice were kind and I survived the initial charge just disordered. My double Legion was making steady progress to support him whilst the Art B continued to keep the unit on my Auxillia's flank disordered and started to reduce it's strength. A archer unit had positioned itself so as to temp (I think force) me to charge it with the other auillia which again went well for me as I drove it over the right flank hill in some disorder. But in doing so it allowed a medium unit to get behind him. Fast forward two turns and he was the meat in a Dacian sandwich!

Over on the left the Med Cav was keeping the Heavy foot entertained so I moved the spare Legion forward to clear the medium foot and light horse away from my Cav. The medium foot was punished but in shear desperation to buy time to reorganise the foot Barry charged the lights into my Legion and the unthinkable happened. Yes I dropped it two levels with the Pilum but still they charged in and disordered me! From this point onwards the combination of medium foot crashing into my Legion only to be thrown back followed by his Light Cav rescuing the situation for yet another turn. It should not have happened once but it happened time and again. Sure I was wearing them down and it was really just a repeating freak of the dice but still it was interesting to watch it play out.

In the centre no such suttle action was in play. My Auxillia after standing against a supported attack was now driving the Dacians back mainly due to their reduced support as my Legions smashed into the best supporting unit and was to keep on driving until the unit was destroyed. The whole centre started to melt away and whilst my unfortunate Auxillia was being whittled down it was not being destroyed fast enough. This allowed the victorious Legions to turn about and join the rear of the melee and smash the medium unit. Meanwhile the Axillia in the centre turned to menace the Light Cav/Medium Infantry Combo. Quickly from here I managed to get the required points to break Barry's Army. I had suffered less than I deserved and in fairness Barry was diced rotten and not once did he moan. Though I think one die of his will be held in high esteem being about the only thing that kept him in the game, this being the roll a 1 die that was the start of the save roll.

It was great to get a game played to a conclusion and it's a real shame I have no pics as Barry had in the last two weeks flocked his bases and this really finished off the units.

Having played further into a game and being more astute to what was going on we started to pick holes in the rules. These holes will of course be filled by the full rule set but for the most part we were able to work out something reasonable and now plan to work a few of these observations into the rules we are using at the moment. Obviously a lot depends on when we get the full rules and if we like what it brings. For me when you play with so few units I don't want to get too bogged down and think we could make the basic version work well for us. Next up for me will be some sample playing of the Field Of Glory rules. First on my own to get a feel for them and reduce the page turning in a face to face game and then probably with Lee over the Festive Period. Matt also wants to try them so again plenty of opportunity to test drive them.

Next up for Barry and me will be a small 6mm Naps Battle with his newly painted Brits that look just right for the scale. When he told me he painted them all in just 4 mornings my jaw dropped. No way could I have painted so much in so little time and made them look half as good. My only conciliation is that today I finished six French Dragoon Regiments, the subject of the next post.