Roman Civil War vs Brian 1.8.13.

It's Thursday,so what else is there to do but Wargame??
Brian and I had a right old "set to" this morning,such an exciting game,with loads of manoeuvre and good/bad dice throws,commanders killed,and of course foul language!!

This is the very brief scenario which we used to fight our battle, and the following photo shows the table before any troops were placed on it.

This shot is looking from Brian's side of the board,his task was simple-he had to capture the fort!

Brian's veteran and battle hardened legion moves into position,his second line cohorts move off to their left to guard against my relief column moving at double pace towards the gap in the mountains.

To the "thwack" of the catapults bombarding the walls of the Fort,Brian's Tungrian Auxilliaries raised their war cries and splashed over the stream,against my impassively,silent Batavians.
The catapults have done some damage to the fort-however it was against the back wall and not the front,so my defending troops were safe from attack for the time being.

The Tungrian archers have fired their first volley at my Batavians,and as luck would have it,one of their arrows happened to bury itself deep in the chest of the Batavian commander!! oh woe is me!!

The central unit of auxilliary infantry decided this was a message from the gods and retired for two moves,leaving an ugly hole in my line!

My first three cohorts of the legion are moving behind Brian's aux. infantry in this shot,I was on the point of surrounding him,and winning the game in one fell swoop_hurrah for me!!what could go wrong?------Well,the Gods of wargaming decided that this move was very close to a "gloat move" and when Brian shot his catapult at the rear cohort,it took a hit and the ensuing morale check forced it to halt and face the enemy!!my master stroke had come undone.

This photo shows the moment of impact of a huge stone upon the rear cohort,and Brian's legion poised to take advantage of it!!

Meanwhile on the far flank,both legion cohorts have lined up facing each other,my cavalry have charged into the rear of Brian's cavalry (who are busy chasing my horse archers!!) Again,a master stroke,his commander fell off his horse and the flank was mine!! hurrah,what could possibly go wrong?---well,my commander was also killed and I had no support,so my morale forced me to go back two moves!! the words bloody and hell spring to mind!!

Brian's legionary cohorts are pushing me back into the fort,his auxilliary units are winning the melee in front of the fort,only a miracle can save me now,will the Gods favour me??

In a word-NO!! The battle for the pass was a complete nonsense,with Brian putting his best troops against my ordinary types,and after one round of fighting (in which my commander was killed!) all my troops decided to head back to the safety of Rome!! I was done for at this point,and Brian,who didn't gloat but wanted to,was declared the winner!!

What a game! very enjoyable,good fun,and played in good part!!

Roll on Sunday,probably have a Zulu game,with possibly Dave (remember him?) Richard,Graham and Brian.