Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Remember he who writes the history wins the battle.
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guard
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:07 pm

Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby guard » Sat Jul 01, 2017 4:36 pm

Brief battle report – More pictures located at https://www.flickr.com/photos/guard44/
(Please note other games / rules sets also located there). Hope you like.

Friday night’s Swordpoint battle was played out to further highlight this rules system within our group of friends, this time generals fielding the armies of Middle Imperial Rome (Proxy models required at the moment) and the Dark Age Scots under Macbeth. Quite a lot of historical lee way required for this matchup.

The commanders for this mind numbing onslaught were:
Steve - Middle Imperial Rome (Some valued input from Ian)
Mick and Gavin - Dark Age Scottish

Points 1,000 per side (Still a lower figure due to still learning the rules).

Army compositions:
Middle Imperial –
General X1
Legate x3
Equites Singulares x6 bases
Praetorians x5 bases
Elite Legionaries x 3 units of x6 bases
Archers x4 bases

Dark Age Scots –
King Macbeth
X2 Sub Generals
X1 Highland Chieftain
Mounted Thanes – Superior Fighters x4 bases
Light Cavalry x6 bases
Norman Knights x4 bases
Thanes x8 bases
Scots Spearmen x2 units of x12 bases
Highland Clansmen x8 bases
Skirmishers x2 units of x6 bases

Break points: Middle Imperial Rome = 8 / Dark Age Scots = 9

Although these little guys were made of lead you could almost feel the tension with wind gusting the standards to and through as regiment by regiment advanced towards the enemy. Blood lust and fear mixed emotions came to the front as battle commenced where victory would surely go to the Brave and the lucky? Or maybe the just down right sneaky? Lol

As always there was to be an element of luck, (good and bad) in the battle but generally the feeling was that the army design was better for one of the sides, this was not recognised at the start of the game and you could almost sense the apprehension on one side of the table.
The main question to be learnt from this game was: who would win Quality or Quantity?

The pictures highlight the deployment with the Middle Imperial Rome forces loaded out on one flank trying to keep in formation hoping the enemy could not out flank them while the scots having more units spread from the same flank into the central position.

The Romans advanced with their heavy close order Legionaries endeavouring to make contact with the enemy their front, the follow on intention to take the fight to the Scots spearmen on the hill where their superior training should allow them to sweep all before them. This plan of attack was treated with contempt when the spear formations on the hill fell back a move enticing the Roman elite to advance into the jaws of death.

The Scots with their more numerous light units, Skirmishers plus cavalry outflanked their enemy with an ever increasing amount of fire power causing the weaken Roman units to falter and then eventually (Starting on the flanks then onto the Legionaries themselves) break.

Near the end of the game the Highland Clansmen charged into the Roman open order archer unit managing to break them making them fee, other Roman units seeing this catastrophe gave up the fight and headed for home and the game was over (About 2 ½ hours give or take a bit of chatting / reading up the rules)

Lessons learnt: It’s better to have a balanced army with all types of units, Close /Open / Skirmishers etc. and very important to have some long range firepower.

I found watching this game exciting, and very thought provoking especially army composition for future games.
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KazadHarri
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 7:26 am

Re: Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby KazadHarri » Mon Jul 03, 2017 7:03 am

A question: Did you by your Romans as Veterans? They should also have been drilled, and Stubborn which makes hard for one cohesion test to make them flee.

3rdAD@Spearhead
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:40 am

Re: Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby 3rdAD@Spearhead » Mon Jul 03, 2017 8:03 am

Sounds like you obtained a pretty conclusive answer to the quantity versus quality question.

It might be interesting to see how the Roman's would fair if they were to maybe drop the Legionaries from Elite to Seasoned and then use the 144 points on some more Archers and Light Cohorts. Those troop types would most likely be able to secure the flanks and screen the Legos until they could close.
I may have to try this type of battle, as you have definitely peeked my interest. Thank you for posting this Battle Report.

LeadMountain
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 11:50 am

Re: Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby LeadMountain » Mon Jul 03, 2017 11:17 am

I was the (poor) Roman player. I did forget the Praetorians were Veteran but none were Stubborn . Out of the 5 cohesion tests, all at the max of 9, I rolled 7,11,11,12,12 !!!

Bob Stradling
Posts: 393
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Re: Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby Bob Stradling » Mon Jul 03, 2017 11:46 am

You can't argue with dice like that. Were they all within 12" of the breaking unit?

I have found that if you have an elite force that a refused flank is often the way to go. Although you need to have your better figures closer to the hinge. Perhaps if your archers had been at the other end of the battle line. There again with your dice......

KazadHarri
Posts: 15
Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2017 7:26 am

Re: Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby KazadHarri » Tue Jul 04, 2017 6:20 am

Ouch. Time to get some new dice. Those are the cursed. Or maybe traitorous gauls...

LeadMountain
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 11:50 am

Re: Dark Age Scots v Middle Imperial Roman

Postby LeadMountain » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:51 am

Those dice are not cursed - I was using my Dystopian Wars dice that roll 6s in abundance.
Unfortunately SP requires both high and low scores for different situations - I'll keep these dice for hits and get a different set for C tests :-)


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