Batle of the Danube 96AD

Last night Paul,Brian and I had a Roman vs Dacian game,with me being the Dacian commander and Brian and Paul each taking a section of the Roman army to command.

This is the scenario and initial troop positions-what the Romans didn't know was that I had,hidden, in the grassy terrain, a unit of Fanatics,Falx armed and dangerous!!

This shows the armies preparing to move against each other.Brian and Paul had come up with a plan,not to move any troops until the reinforcements arrived from the camp-this did not take into account that my plan was to attack the Roman line from move one!!-this caused considerable consternation,to say the least!!

By move number 2 my whole line had charged into the Romans,who,because of their plan,had to stand and take it!!-hurrah-doesn't Brian look a happy chappy??

This is my left flank-Sarmatian heavily armoured cavalry,mixed with a couple of warbands-these were,initially,very effective,and drove the Roman cavalry back-note Paul's reserve cavalry trying to out-flank me,via the grassy terrain!!-big mistake!!!!!!!!

This gives a good impression of my attack putting Brian in a lot of trouble,despite the pila,my troops are pushing onwards-this was going to be"a piece of cake"............

Oh Hell!!what's gone wrong?? this wasn't supposed to happen!! My line has disintegrated under superior training and discipline(and some "jammy" dice throwing!!)-Paul is pressing on with his cohorts,even though my Fanatics are giving his out-flanking cavalry a good old thrashing!

Apart from the nice photo of a clothes peg basket in the background,this shows the demise of the Sarmatian cavalry,and Paul's well timed advance with his cohorts,pushing my tired warbands back-woe is me!!

One final photo,showing my "done for" Dacians trying to form some sort of battle line,and the victorious Romans "mopping" up the last of my right flank troops!!-well done to Paul and Brian.

This was a very good game,full of tense moments when either side could have won-great stuff,and two good games in one day-it's great being retired you know(have I mentioned before that I'm retired?)
No game on Sunday,but will be playing next week sometime-Hurrah!!