Late Roman Battle with the Ancient Portable Wargame

I'm preparing for a map-based Italian Wars campaign to be remotely played with Jamie, using the French-Spanish "War for Naples" in southern Italy in 1501-1503 as the setting.  We wanted to look at the map and push counters around on it to make sure it would work reasonably well, and if we were going to be a video call, we may as well have a game, too, so I set up a Late Roman game using various bits and pieces of my battle generators.

Barbarians. Mostly Goths with a few Franks.

The Barbarians were the attackers and ended up deployed with all infantry in center, and their only cavalry unit on their right.  The Roman infantry was mostly deployed in center, but with a cavalry and infantry unit on each extreme flank as well.  Because the barbarians were lower on total Strength Points, they were upgraded with two additional light infantry archer units, which could be deployed further forward than the rest of the army.

The Roman left. The numbered papers give grid references for the remote player.

My first instinct was to class both the legions and the barbarians as simple heavy infantry but with a 2-grid ranged attack (javelins and other short distance weapons), with the legions perhaps elite instead of average.  Then I figured the legionaries suggested in the Developing the Portable Wargame ancients rules were fine as is (5 SP with ranged attack, but average).  I was less sure of the "Barbarian Tribesmen" stat line in DtPW, which seemed more appropriate for linebreaking Gauls or ancient Germans ambushing out of a forest, but then I figured the 3 SP, 3 movement, and +1 to attack if moving at least two squares in the charge move additions could also abstract a group that took courage in a first massed attack and but which could not hold up in an extended combat with a Roman line.  So, Legionaries and Barbarian Tribesmen as suggested in the book it was!  The Chance Cards used in the previous Belle Epoque game, as described at Grid Based Wargaming, were used again.

Roman center.

As you can maybe surmise from the photos, my continued slide towards larger infantry units continues, with the heavy infantry for both sides being increased to six 40mm square stands of three figures each (so 18 figures/unit) rather than the intended four stands (12 figs/unit).   Cavalry has oddly shrunk to five figures per unit, and the light infantry units are just three stands (9 figures/unit).  Jamie had chosen to be the barbarians, so I played the Romans.  

After the Roman cavalry on Roman left has been destroyed.

I pulled my infantry on the flanks in towards the middle, and sent my cavalry on the left forward to disperse the light infantry skirmishers.  Although I drove a unit back several squares, the cavalry lost two out of three SP in the process, and on his turn Jamie was able to destroy that unit. 

The Barbarian infantry prepares for a mass charge.

Because the destroyed cavalry was opposite the lone Gothic cavalry squadron, the barbarians now sent said Gothic cav around the Roman flank, with three full units of light archers getting a lot of 6s on their hit rolls and knocking off an SP here and there on the left flank of the Roman infantry line.

Roman legionaries in line.

Then, a familiar disaster. The Roman general's unit takes a hit and rolls a "6" indicating that he has been slain.  Because he counts as 6 SP lost towards the Romans' exhaustion point, what was a even game at 3 or 4 SP lost per side now suddenly has the Romans on the brink of exhaustion.

Goths slowly advancing into charge range. Last known photograph of Roman leader before he was slain by a Goth arrow or spear.

The Romans were in a decent enough position, with a well formed line, but really at this point the Goths could just hang back and let their longer range archers continue to chip away at the Romans, with no fear of counterattack.

Goths in close combat with legions.

And that is exactly what Jamie did, although he did line up his big infantry charge, it was never necessary as the archers, with the help of a few javelin attacks by the heavy infantry and cavalry, were able to push the Romans past 50% lost SP quite easily.

Corner of the Roman "L", with 4 lost SP markers on it.

After the game, Jamie felt that the Goths ending up with four light infantry archer units was too much for the Romans to handle. I said it was my own fault for not sending both cavalry units out on each flank to harass the skirmishers (I only sent one and when that one failed I held the other back).  My decision to deny the entire left flank to a single Gothic cavalry unit was an over-reaction - I should have kept advancing on his heavy infantry with the entirety of the legionaries). We both agreed that the dead commander counting as 6 SP for calculation of exhaustion was too much. I was willing to keep the notational value of 6 SP but only have the commander slain on double 6s on 2d6 instead of a single 6. I think we have agreed to keep it to the 6 on a 1d6 test, but with a notational value of 1.

End of game or close thereto.  The legionaries on the corner will break with loss of their fifth SP, which combined with earlier loss of the cavalry unit and lost SP up and down the line, will push them past 50% lost. 

As always, the real solution for a better game might be more miniatures - I still want to paint up more Late Romans and play Roman vs. Usurper Roman games (each with Barbarian allies - this seems to be the most common historical occurrence), and I have Alan horse archers to paint up that would add another layer to the troop dynamics.  I'm also eyeing a pack of Byzantine arcubalistarii, which would add some fun visual variation, and could be fielded as "close order archers" for the Romans.  The same Old Glory line also has a mixed skirmisher pack of staff slingers and javelins which could give the Romans some additional unique skirmish units.