Antioch 101AD

The fearsome threesome played an unusual game last night,that turned out to be exciting and tactically taxing,based on a sortie and raid by a Syrian force attacking a catapult battery,held by a Roman force.
Brian was the Roman commander, and Paul and I were the sortie troops and raid troops respectively.

This is the scenario,Brian was in the kitchen for the first two moves,being asked for instructions and orders for his troops,he didn't issue any orders for the first move,which allowed Paul's sortie troops to get quite close to his defences,however as my raid troops erupted from the palm grove he was spurred into action and sent a couple of cohorts to my flank-in retrospect he should maybe have sent the cohorts out to steady his hard-pressed troops at the barricades-but it's always easy to see these things in retrospect!!

Move one,and Paul's attack on the catapult battery is just starting,with only one archer unit guarding it and no support coming,the catapults looked in real trouble!!-as yet I have not "erupted" from the palm grove.

The battle for the battery is in full swing,Brian is sending his camp cohorts(camp??) to all parts of the defences,but will he get there in time??

The battery has been captured!!hurrah,but can Paul hold onto it?My raid force is moving onto the large hill and is about to take on the might of Rome,in the form of two cohorts and some auxilliaries-help!!

Brian is putting up a magnificent defence and Paul is now sending his second wave of troops out of the city to support his first wave-meanwhile my raiding force is being given a damned good thrashing!!

Paul is trying to form a line,but is being harassed by Brian's light cavalry,Brian's defences are holding,but increased pressure from the second wave of Syrians is going to tell soon!!

Paul's troops have set fire to the siege tower on my flank,and is trying to help my desperate situation,the central battery position is being contested hotly by Brian,but his right is very weak,and the catapults have been destroyed,so basically-game over!!

One final photo showing my troops in total disarray,however it was my intention to divert enough troops from the centre to allow Paul to win the day-well that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!

A brilliant game,well enjoyed by all three of us,
Probably won't be playing on Sunday,but roll on next week.