Neo Babylonians and Marian Romans, not two empires that ever ran into each other and not two armies that get used very much in Ancient Gaming but I and Anton selected them for our most recent game to amusing Results. Here are the initial deployments and terrain. Anton's Marian Romans are proximal, and my Neo Babylonians are distal.
I start with an apology, I managed to lose both written armies so these line ups are from memory
Anton's Army from left to right is as follows.
Unit I 50 x Spanish Scutarii, IC, LMI, HTW & Sh
Unit II 24 x Roman Legionaires, RC, HI, HTW & Sh
Unit III 24 x Roman Legionaires, RC, HI, HTW & Sh
CinC HC, JLS & Sh
Unit IV 24 x Roman Legionaires, RC, HI, HTW & Sh
Unit V 24 x Roman Legionaires, RC, HI, HTW & Sh
Unit VI 24 Elite Roman Legionaires, RB, HI, HTW & Sh
Unit VII 20 Thracians, IC, LMI, 2HCW, JLS & Sh
In the rear row Unit VIII 12 Gallic Cavalry, IB, MC, JLS & Sh
My Army from Left to Right
Unit A 12 x Arab Camelry, IC, MCm, 2 w/B
Unit B 12 x Arab Camelry, IC, MCm, 2 w/B
Arab Ally General HCm, B
Unit C 12 x Arab Camelry, IC, MCm, 2 w/B
Unit D 4 x Elamite 4 mule Hvy Chariots, IB driver & 3 with B; 3 x Elamite Cavalry, IB LC, JLS & B; 15 x Elamite Archers IC, LMI, B
Elamite Ally General 4 mule Hvy Chariot with driver and 1 w/B & JLS
Unit E 4 x Elamite 4 mule Hvy Chariots, IB driver & 3 with B; 3 x Elamite Cavalry, IB LC, JLS & B; 15 x Elamite Archers IC, LMI, B
In the Back Row 30 x Chaldean Infantry, all RD, MI; 1/3 JLS & Sh, 2/3 B
Off Board on Flanking manuver
CinC 4 Horse Heavy Chariot, RA driver, 1 w/B, 1 w JLS P Standard
4 x 4 horse Hvy Chariots, RA, driver 1 w/B, 1 w/JLS; 10 x RC, MC, 1/2 JLS & Sh, 1/2 B
On turn One Anton's Legions moved forward. The compressed legions (Units II and VI) expanded out to their sides. Meanwhile, his loose order infantry (Units I and VII) moved out to the extreme flanks to move through the woods and threaten my flanks. Finally he sent his cavalry to his left flank seeing that my camels would be wider frontage than his end Legion. Otherwise Anton chose to keep his three central legions on more narrow frontage to try and concentrate force onto my units. Almost all of my units also surged forward all archers blazing away causing some casualties as indicated by the caps behind Anton's units, but all morale tests were passed thus ending the first turn.
The photograph of Turn two has been lost to the ages. During this turn my mounted troops charged Anton's legions. My Units A and B charged Anton's Unit II and pushed it back. My Unit C charged Anton's Unit III and was pushed back. My Units D & E advanced and shot at Anton's Unit VI but once again the morale check was passed.
On turn three Anton's Unit I charged my Unit A to assist his Unit II. While the new arrivals managed to push back my Unit A, Anton's Unit II was pushed back anyway and broke. His Unit III charged my Unit C while he was still disordered, My camelry evaded away and Anton's unit stopped on my evade line. Meanwhile my unit D charged into Anton's Units IV and V with the Elamite Ally General attached. Unit D rolled an UP FOUR and managed to push back BOTH of Anton's units. And my Unit E charged into Anton's Unit VI and managed to push it back as well. At the end of the movement phase my flanking force arrived on the extreme right and Anton repositioned his Unit VII to block my arriving flanking force.
Turn four saw Anton's Unit I roll Horribly (Down Three) resulting in him failing to push back my rapidly dwindling Unit A. My Unit B pursued Anton's Unit II as his Unit VIII lining up to charge Unit B the next turn. My Unit C reorganized as Anton's Unit III reorganized themselves planning to advance on my Unit C. My Unit D managed to push back both of Anton's Units IV and V breaking both of them. Unfortunately Anton managed to kill my Elamite Ally General, but in the resulting morale test with two routing enemies they were in pursuit of, the death was meaningless and the morale test was passed easily. My Unit E pushed back Anton's Unit VI, but being B class they did not break. Since Anton did not declare a charge on my flank force I decided to expand instead of attack immediately.
Turn five saw charged of my Unit B by Anton's Unit VIII, which broke my Unit. My flanking force charged Anton's Unit VII and broke them outright, however when the casualties were assessed it was determined that my CinC was killed in the fight setting off a second wave of morale tests. Finally, my Unit E rolled my second UP FOUR of the game while Anton rolled a down one. This resulted in the shattering of Anton's unit of elite legionaires.
Anton felt the need to commemorate this pair of rolls as the end arrived.
When all the morale tests were completed ALL of my units managed to pass. Turns out having FIVE routing enemy units in sight is more important for a units morale than either their own general, or the army CinC getting killed. Meanwhile, Anton's Unit II, his only unbroken unit of Legionaires promptly failed their morale test for seeing a (three) friendly units break, so it turns out that having five broken friendly units is more damaging to unit morale than having your CinC still alive. Anton decided at this point to retire from the field with his Spanish Scutarii, telling his currently winning Gallic Cavalry to follow, but they were more interested in running down my Arab Camelry.
All in all an interesting game. Lots of violence and lots of figures removed as a result. While I did have a couple of hot rolls, the last one did not matter that much as all I needed was to push Anton's Unit VI back one more time and they were breaking anyway, but it certainly was a flashy way to deliver the coup de grace.
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