Gepids v Middle Imperials Romans East

Today it was my turn to choose which army to play so I chose to play with my opponent's Gepid army, in honour of my own force which is under construction.  He took my models and played Middle Imperial Romans East, taking Art instead of LH and Bw instead of Ps.

The board had two gentle hills on each side, some woods, a crossroads, and a steep hill near the Roman camp.  (Click pictures to embiggen)

After my bound.  Amazingly, I didn't roll a '1'.

I chose to set up my Kn in the face of the enemy Art.  Possibly stupid, but my thinking was that he would have to reinforce that flank or I would crush him and then take his camp.  That would make it easier for my Wb to go fast down the road.  With that in mind I raced my Ps up into the woods to prevent him from coming much further.  Of course, his Ax were in front of those woods so it was easy for him to chase me out again.  The photo doesn't show it but his mounted wing was on my extreme right behind his Ax.  In response to my setup and first bound he began moving some Bd to guard his Art.

Shot from the Goodyear blimp

My Kn moved up to just outside Art firing range in column then took the plunge and ran in.  In hindsight I should have been in a 2x2 formation, that way he could only recoil one of the two halves of it.  On the way in I used the Ps in the woods to block his Art shooting at my Kn.  My Ps in the other woods were chased out by his Ax, and the other one crossed over in front of my Wb to threaten the flank of his Art.  In response, he kept bringing his Bd up to protect the flank of his Art and raced his mounted units around the rear to try to get to my Kn.

I thought I had plenty of time to get my Kn into him but then I rolled three consecutive '1's for pips.  Grrr.

Gepids 1 - Romans 0

Rather than get my whole column of Kn flanked by his rapidly approaching cavalry, I just attacked with one unit and killed his Art.  His Bd came down off the hill and chased away my Ps.  My Wb subsequently attacked his Bd on the road but were recoiled.  Which was to keep happening an awful lot as it turns out. 

Gepids 1 - Romans 1

We both started rolling low pips so there was some to and fro between my Kn and his Bd atop the hill but eventually he got the uphill and the overlap and doubled me, killing my Kn.

Gepids 1 - Romans 2

Still suffering from my low pip rolls...  His Cv and CvG flanked my Kn and killed them.  His Bd and Ax tried to do the same to my Wb on the right near the woods but my Wb was made of sterner stuff.

Cowards!

I finally stopped rolling 1s and started rolling 6s.  But only for pips, mind you, not combat.  My Kn turned his CvG and attacked his other Cv too with some Ps on the flank to stop overlaps.  The Ps fled of course, but the Kn recoiled too, which wasn't part of my plan.  The other Kn got stuck in combat.  My Wb turned his flanking Ax and recoiled it, but my other Wb was recoiled by his Bd on the road.  Enough recoiling!

Gepids 2 - Romans 2

The Romans wisely retreated their Cv to reform their lines.  My Wb again surged forward, this time crushing an element of Bd on the road.  Two kills apiece now.  The other Wb column was recoiled again.

Gepids 2 - Romans 4

The Romans now attacked with everything at their disposal.  On the left the LH ran into the hills to prepare a flanking move.  On the right, the Bd had Ax on each side of him to overlap my Wb which had followed up the previous combat and put himself at great risk.  Sure enough, my Wb was doubled and killed and I lost two elements.  The game was up, unless I could scrape two more kills out of the combat on the left of the board.

The CvG, Cv and Bd on the left had charged my Kn, KnG and Ps.  Unexpectedly, the Ps caused the Bd to recoil.  Then my Kn caused his CvG to recoil.  The game was now unwinnable for me but I could still kill his Cv to make it 4-3 and salvage some honour.  He was double overlapped and I had my KnG versus his Cv so it was 5 to 1.  But the dice showed 2 and 6 giving us a stick.  Aaaaargh!!!

Post-game thoughts:

1. It was a great game.  Lots of tension, lots of drama.  Very uncertain outcome.
2. Gepids are an enjoyable army to play.  Reasonably mobile and quite dangerous.  I'm getting the hang of Ps now.  Having 4 of them is great.
3. The Art and Bw didn't achieve much.  Part of it was bad luck with the dice, but I would have fielded them together.  That way you could run the Bw out in front of the Kn to try to kill them once they closed with the Art.
4. Perhaps I should have targetted his Bd and Ax with my Kn.  But doing that would have meant that the Wb couldn't use the road so I would have either have had to leave them behind or hand over the strategic advantage while I brought them up.
5. I think I may have forgotten to follow-up a few times when I recoiled the Ax and when his Cv broke off contact, but if I had I would have been in even worse trouble so let's just pretend we saw nothing...
6. DBA is fun.