Dacians vs Romans

Well what a week,both Brian and I are expecting a hand written note from George Osborne thanking us for saving the economy!!-Brian has bought a new lap-top computer,and I have ordered a boat load of figures from Warrior Miniatures(watch this space)
But onto more sublime things,last night I gave my Dacian army a run out against a Roman army commanded by the "chuckle brothers" Paul and Brian-and what a game it turned out to be,at the end of the night my nerves were shredded and I had to drown my sorrow in the demon drink!!

This is the very simple scenario,I held the high ground and fort,Brian and Paul were to attack me,and capture the fort-simple!!

The top photo shows Paul's dispositions against the fort,and the bottom photo shows Brian's dispositions against the dreaded Sarmatian cavalry,and well-placed warbands,ready to strike any advancing Romans in the flank!

All hell breaks loose on Brian's flank,as I charge into his lines,hoping to catch him whilst he is busy moving his cohorts into an extended line,meanwhile the cavalry have moved against each other,brushing the archer units aside.

On Paul's flank,I have elected to charge with two warbands,and combine the other one with the centre cavalry,in an attempt to clear away Brian's archers. Paul's cohorts took a terrible toll with the pila,and I was sorely beaten to say the least,however I put my commander into the fray to stop my troops from retiring.

My extra heavy cavalry are doing well,combined with the warband I put with them,they are driving the Roman horse back-however things were not going as swimmingly with my warbands,who were being chewed up and spat out by Brian's cohorts!!

To negate the effect of my bolt-throwing machine and javelins,Paul has adopted the Testudo formation(very crude cardboard items- I must get round to painting the Warrior miniatures ones,blue!)
This proved very effective and the melee at the wall of the fort was short-lived and bloody,I did manage to slow his advance into the fort down a bit,and actually drove one cohort back-hurrah!!

Paul is employing a good tactic in this shot,he has placed his slingers in front of his second wave of attacking cohorts,taking casualties off my defenders before he launches the final assault,and takes the fort!!

A final shot,I have had to put my CinC into the melee to try and stop Brian from rampaging all over my warbands! With Brian and Paul both successful,I pleaded for a draw but they wouldn't accept it-obviously not Gentlemen!! so I was declared the loser.
Yet another good and interesting game,full of colour and movement(most of mine was backwards!!)
Roll on Sunday.
All of the figures used in this game were either Lancashire Games or Prince August.