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.

Fright Knight redux

Since the previous game ended so abruptly, we had time for another.  The board had a more interesting setup this time, with cross-roads passing through a wood, another wood, and a gentle hill as well.

After my traditional '1' for pips on the first bound...

The initial setup for both our forces was sensible.  Myp plan was to use the road to seize the central wood on my first turn with the Ax, march the Bd line up to the gap between the two woods and hopefully combat his Wb there with my Cv in reserve, and to use the LH on each flank to guard my flanks and threaten his.

... but I rolled well for pips after that

My Ax and Ps spread out in the wood to stop him easily skirting it or passing through it.  I had the Ax on the road pulled back slightly in case his Kn charged me.  He'd still get the QK but at least I'd have the double overlap.  I think I should have done something trickier with angled units and gotten off the road but it wasn't an issue in the end.  My LH went to the right of the woods but I got caught out by forgetting about the 2 pip cost due to obstructed LOS over 600 paces, so it didn't get as far as I'd hoped.  I learned my lesson last time and brought my Bd up in time with the rest of my army.  The other LH is out of shot on the left of picture.

He brought his army up in line, slowly spreading out his Kn to meet me.

Git around!  Git!

Realizing that my Cv weren't in much of a position to help and their LOS was poor, I started to redeploy them to the centre road.  The LH continued the flanking move on the right.  The Gepid Ps on my left blocked my LH from attacking their camp by projecting a ZOC out of the woods, and on my right the Ps guarded his flank.  The rest of his army continued to advance.  If you think my LH looks a little too close to the Ps on the right...

Gepids 1 - Romans 0

... you're correct!  The Ps doubled my LH in a straight-up combat and killed them.  I really like the idea of LH but I ain't no good at using them!

Gepids 1 - Romans 1

My CvG advanced up the road.  Probably slightly rash since if the Kn charged him it would be even odds, but hey - that guy's got a wolf-skin on his head, don't mess with him!  Speaking of rash, a unit of Gepid Kn was killed by my Ax which had a toe in the woods.  The odds were even due to the overlap but I'm not sure there was much to be gained, as the Kn would have followed up into the woods if they'd won and I probably would have trapped and killed them reasonably easily there.  The Gepid Wb spread out into double ranks from column formation to face down my Bd.

My Bd was staring downhill at the Gepid warband.  If I rolled enough pips I'd be able to charge them and get an overlap on the left and Ps support from the rear.  The odds weren't going to get any better than this!

Gepids 4 - Romans 1

On the left, the odds were 7-3 to me.  I was beaten, recoiled and killed.  Now the adjacent unit with Ps behind it had the double overlap against it!  Still 4-4 though.  Beaten, recoiled, killed, and the Ps is killed too for adding rear support from immediately behind.  And that's the game.  Aaaaargh!

Post-game thoughts:

1. I had a better plan this game and didn't let my fear of Kn make me do silly things.
2. Bringing my Bd up in concert with my other troops was much more effective.
3. My opponent used his Ps ZOCs very effectively to constrain me.  I need to consider doing similar things myself.  If I'd used my Ax to project angled ZOCs out of the wood I would have disordered his line more as it approached.
4. Once I'd put the LH on my left flank to make him put his Ps there, I could have moved it away to the right flank to join my other LH and it would have been more effective.  Letting his Ps even reach my LH was dumb.
5. I shouldn't have risked my general like that but nothing came of it.
6. Sometimes the odds are all in your favour but the dice ain't.  Them's the breaks.
7. Don't the woods look nice?

Fright Knight

On to the next game!  Ironically, this time my opponent chose to play Gepids, so I chose once again to go Middle Imperial Romans East.  I really need to get more troops to broaden my options!  Fortunately I'd played a few games of De Bellis Solitarius both as Romans and as Gepids in anticipation of my new army arriving so at least I had some idea of what I was in for.  Plus my Secret Weapon had arrived - dice with roman numerals!  Sadly, my roman dice were about as poor a substitute for tactical genius as my painted soldiers were last time.

Here's the board and the setup after the first invader bound:

Which idiot set up this board?  Oh, it was me.

I had set up the terrain with a row of woods and a gentle hill on the invader side along with a crossroads.  I thought that having a combination of open flat spaces and bad going spaces on opposite halves of the board might be interesting.  Turns out I wasn't going to get anywhere near those woods.  My Ax were in column to try to push down the road and get closer to the bad going.  My Bd and Ps formed a solid line in the open, with my Cv and LH flanking my Ax.  The Gepids started their Ps in the woods on my right, their Wb in the woods on my left, and a big line of Kn staring right down that road.

Here's what happened next:

Whoah there boy!

I diverted my Ax behind my LH which formed a line with my Cv to block the onrushing Kn.  I didn't want the Kn or Ps to flank my Cv so I guarded my right flank by running the Ps forward.  But my Bd got left behind.  The Gepid Kn on my far right was angled to protect his flank with an overlapping ZOC with the Ps in the woods, thwarting my LH.

Then the Gepid Kn crashed into my line:

Sudden impact

My Cv and CvG were recoiled right off the hill but fortunately not killed.

On my left, the Gepid Ps and Kn charged my LH:

Gepids 2 - Romans 0

My LH units were both slaughtered, while my Cv continued to be pushed back.  My CvG was scant millimetres from recoiling onto the Bd behind them.

Gepids 3 - Romans 0

My Bd moved forward to get me an overlap on the Gepid KnG and clear the rear of my own general at the same time.  It didn't help my other Cv unit which was finally cut down by the Kn, Gepids 3 - Romans 1.  On my left my Ax took the fight the Ps in the hopes that by doing so I could avoid the adjacent Kn.  On my right I ran my Ps forward again hoping to draw the Wb forward when I inevitably recoiled.

Run, Forrest, run!

The Kn on my right finally got into the action, charging my Bd, but the line held firm.  My CvG, on the other hand, continued to fall back before the onslaught of the Gepid KnG.  The Wb on my right put my Ps to flight, chasing them back through my line of Bd but fortunately I'd be able to bring them up again in my turn.

On my right I was more worried by the Kn than the Wb because although both had the QK against my Bd, at least against the Wb I had the combat advantage.  So I scooted the rightmost blades forward to overlap the Wb, then double ranked the blades against the Wb so as to be able to claim Ps support against the Kn.  But sadly...

Curse you pesky Wb!  Gepids 4 - Romans 1

My plan worked in that the Bd on the left killed the Kn, but the Bd beside them facing the Wb were recoiled and destroyed.  And that was the game!

The fact that my Ax again failed to kill the Ps on the left was confirmation that my Secret Weapon roman numeral dice were no help to me.  Looking back on the game, I tended to roll well for pips but poorly for combat.  But you get the die rolls you deserve, I think.  I wasted my LH by leaving them swinging in the breeze like that.  Sure, I wasn't expecting them to be doubled and killed but in low-factor combats like that, anything is possible.  My biggest mistake was to rush my fast troops forward and leave my Bd behind.  The reason I did, of course, is that I was scared of those Kn running at me.  What I should have done is hang back to advance at a more measured pace so that I could have a solid Bd line and use my Cv and LH on the flanks.

Fun game though, and once again I learned a little more about how to use my army.

Gepids ahoy!

Unfortunately I have a tendency to make impulsive purchases on ebay while procrastinating from my work.  So as of last night I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of some dice marked with Roman numerals:

It annoys me that the II isn't on the opposite face to the V.  How nerdy is that?

 I also bought a whole new army (!!!).  I bought some Germanic warband figures and some Germanic cavalry.  At this stage the plan is to make a Gepid army (II/71) and I should have enough infantry left over to be able to morph it into a few different barbarian armies.  I was seriously considering making a Galatian army because I like chariots and scythed chariots look even better, but painting Germanic figures looks a bit easier than celts so I'll do that first.

They should arrive in a week or so, so when I've got some work done on them I'll throw some pictures up here.

How not to win

Next game report - I played Middle Imperial Romans vs Mark's Carpi.  Since my figures were freshly painted, I decided that they must be invulnerable, so I failed to make any sensible decisions at all.  But judge for yourself...

Terrain:
I had a road angling up to the left out of my deployment zone, and some gentle hills in the middle of my deployment zone.  The Carpi had some steep hills in their deployment zone.  There was another gentle hill in the midfield to my right between us.

Setup:
Here is where I began to lose.  My setup makes no sense.  From left to right I placed:
[Bd][Bd][Bd][Bd][LH][LH][Cv][CvG][Ax][Ax][Ax]
            [Ps]
with the leftmost Bd almost up against the board edge.  Then the Carpi deployed as shown below, leading me to switch my LH and my two leftmost Bd to try to centralize my Bd line a bit.  (Click all pictures to embiggen)

Terrain setup and the board after my first bound, in which I rolled a '1' for PIPs as that is the tradition.

What I should have done, if I'd been thinking, was something more like this:

Wishful thinking: if only trees were made of ice-cream too!

If I'd had my Ax opposite the bad terrain I could have used them to flank to the left of the enemy camp while my LH flanked to the right of the enemy camp.  Meanwhile my Bd and my Cv could have marched directly at the enemy camp to force battle.  Even with my bad setup, I could have used the road to rapidly redeploy my Ax in column to the left and brought my LH to the right.  But I didn't do that.  I just charged everyone forward, meaning that my Bd line got jammed up against my Cv group because I didn't want to send it into bad going against the Wb, and on the right my poor Ax were quaking in their boots against the enemy Kn.  This is what happened next:

Plan A failed.  What do you mean, there's no plan B?

My CvG, with an overlap from Cv and Ax, charged his unit of Wb.  Good odds, but I recoiled!  Meanwhile my Ax woke up to the danger of the onrushing Kn and flanking Ps which were about take the uphill position against me, and reversed back out of danger.  The Carpi Bd+Ps left the steep hills to threaten my Cv.

Discretion is the better part of valour

I ran my LH in column in front of the Wb on the steep hills, hoping that they would take the bait and come out to try to kill me.  What he really needed was to lock me in and then flank me, but of course my LH just fled, which was helpful in getting them over to the other side of the board where they were needed more.  My Cv line backed up to gain some thinking time.  If only I'd thought to think!

Here's what happened next:

Carpi battle plan: kill the enemy. Roman battle plan: ride around in circles.

I got my LH where they wanted to be and kept my Bd on the move, but the onrushing throngs of Carpi had me intimidated and I didn't really know what to do.  So I came perilously close to losing the game on the next bound when the Carpi CvG and LH ganged up on my CvG and nearly assassinated him!

We have a situation.

Fortunately I rolled very well and recoiled the Carpi mounted troops and then killed the Wb facing my Cv.  Situation averted. But this is when things started to go pear-shaped...

Watch out for those Knights

The Carpi Kn massacred my Ax where they stood.  One Ax retreated to stand beside the LH, while the other flanked the Carpi Ps which my other LH was trying to cut down but it ended up being entirely ineffectual.  Meanwhile my Bd line bit the bullet and pounced on the Wb which were still lingering on the edge of the bad going.  I'd been putting this off because I was spending all my PIPs trying to rescue my Cv and Ax and hadn't properly figured the odds.  Even as it was, we didn't do this combat right.  We allowed the Wb an extra +1 for the rear rank but it shouldn't get that in bad going.  Didn't affect the combat (6-1) but it did mean that we took off both units of Wb instead of just one. Whoops!

Then things continued to go pear-shaped...

I said watch out for those Knights!

The Carpi Kn spun around, charged my Ax and dispatched them.  The Carpi Ps recoiled my LH.  Stupid LH.

Disaster

The Carpi LH and Ps trapped my LH and killed them.  The game was now poised 3-3 but my Ax would now be a sitting duck for the Carpi mounted troops.  So I charged my Bd/Cv/CvG and LH against the Carpi Bd/Wb/CvG.  The odd were with me but I think I should have resolved the combats in a different order, starting with the central one where I had a small advantage.  Thanks to the hill, the CvG vs CvG fight was even odds, even though the Carpi CvG was flanked.  We resolved this first, I lost, and was recoiled.  Now the Carpi warband was even odds against my Cv and it was killed in a 6-1 massacre.  My Bd had to win to keep me in the game but it was recoiled, and the game was over.

Carpi 4 - Rome 3.

It was a fun game, but I think I played really badly.  I was too cautious with my troops.  I need to attack when and where I have to advantage, rather than trying to engineer the perfect engagement.  I set up my troops foolishly, putting my slowest troops on the flank where they would take too long to get into action, and my bad going troops nowhere near the bad going.  Even worse, I failed to correct the situation once I recognized it.  But most of all, I just didn't have a plan at all.  The whole game I simply tried to patch up the things that the Carpi general was doing to me, rather than trying to do things to him.

Next time - [shakes fist] - next time!

And finally, here are the things I realized we didn't play right:

• Wb don't get rear rank support in bad going.
• Bd don't get rear rank support from Ps when fighting Bd.
• Once again we forgot line-of-sight issues when considering PIP costs.

It didn't make any difference to the outcome but it's funny how just a two-week gap can make me absent-minded.

Imperial Romans progress

Spent a fair bit of time today finishing off the Imperial Romans.  Again, it's quick and messy painting but I just wanted to get them to the point where they are all painted and based.  I can tidy them up later on.

Here are some better shots of them.  As usual, click to embiggen.  Oh, and see the hills in the background?  I made them today.  They were a bit of an experiment and didn't work out quite how I would have liked but they are certainly nice looking and useable.

Blades

 

Psiloi and Auxilia

Cavalry and Light Horse

Imperial Roman Army

Roman Blades progress

Here's an awful picture of some quick and dirty painting: (click to embiggen)

These are 3x4Bd, 1x3Bd from my Romans.  I really rushed them so they are messy as, but as least my opponent won't have to fight the "Roman Grey Legion" again.  I guess I can always go back and improve them later on.

Middle Imperial Romans vs Early Visigoths

On to game 4!  I stayed with II/64b Middle Imperial Romans but switched a LH out for Art, determined to learn how to use it.  I left out Bw though since just one seems a bit pointless.  Might have been useful against Mark's knights!  My list:
3CvG, 3Cv, 2LH, 3Bd, 3x4Bd, 3x4Ax, 2Ps, Art

Mark was using II/65b Early Visigoths:
3KnG, 3Kn, 8x4Wb, 2x2Ps
More Kn to face, which I am a bit scared of, especially now that I only have one LH unit.

This was the board and initial setup:  (click on pictures to embiggen)

A big steep hill centrally to my right, gentle hills in each deployment zone, a waterway running down my right table edge, and a patch of rough adjacent to this.  I deployed two Ax to try to seize the the steep hill and drive off any Ps incursion and hopefully exert a ZOC into the central clear space to slow down his advance while my Art blasted away.  My LH went on the right, hoping to scoot around the edge of the steep hill.  My other Ax was far left to seize the rough.  The Art formed up centrally in between my Bd line, and my Cv formed a reserve behind.  Perhaps the Cv would have been better behind the Art - you'll see later on that they get jammed a bit behind the Bd.  My first pip roll was a 1, again.

My opponent set up his Ps to seize the steep hill, which he did very well with a multiple move first bound.  He also set up a flanking force of Kn and Wb on my right and his main block of KnG and Wb centrally.  All moved forward.

My Ax had trouble getting onto the hill at all!  His Ps flanked me and had the uphill advantage but a lucky die roll recoiled them.  Uh-oh, here come the Kn, getting ahead of the slow Wb. I lengthened my line with the LH, hoping for overlaps to save me.  My Bd/Art line advanced, keen to shoot.  Perhaps I should have left them where they were but fortune favours the brave.  My Ax got into the rough so he split off a column of Wb to deal with them.  After the first casualties the board looked like this:

What happened was that after some ZOC games on the edge of the hill, my LH charged his isolated Kn with an Ax overlap, while my Ax charged a Ps.  I rolled luckily and the LH got the quick kill on the Kn, and the Ax killed the Ps at even odds.  So that was two kills that I didn't really earn but I took them anyway.  I had already started to bring my Cv over in support in case things went badly against the Kn.  My Art in the centre laid a few recoils on his Wb and Kn.

Then this happened:

We realized that Wb aren't penalized when fighting in bad going!  Doh!  So his Wb column to my left chased  my Ax out of the rough and the other unit to my right hid on the steep hill where it would be safe from the LH and Cv.  Wow - this changes everything for Wb.  From now on I'm going to have (even more) trouble with these pesky barbarians.

Figuring that the LH could be more useful elsewhere, I ran them right up the middle of the battlefield, thinking of either flanking the Kn or attacking his camp.  My Ax pursued his Ps up the hill, forgetting that the Wb was there...  This is what I got for that mistake:

One of my Ax on the hill was flanked and massacred.  The other one decided that the hill was no longer strategically useful and returned to the shelter of the nearby Bd line.  The Bd on the left of the Art retreated with a large expenditure of pips to buy me some more time while I tried to win the game by charging his camp with my LH.

Sorry about this next photo.  It's woeful.  But it shows some important stuff:

His Ps somehow got killed by my Ax, which then retreated off the hill away from the 2 Wb elements. My LH repeated bounced off his camp.  My Bd stupidly advanced, cutting off my Art shooting angle.  Whoops.  An impulsive charge with my Bd was what lost me the last game, and it nearly lost me this one.  I wanted to shoot the Wb and overlap the KnG to win the game, but because I was unable to shoot the Wb because it was in side contact with my Bd, it simply rushed past me and straight for my Art.  My CvG took a couple of turns to scoot left around the back of my Bd/Bd/Ax line and then made it a Bd/Bd/Ax/CvG line, which fortunately for me had the faster units on the outside of the wheel, allowing me to square up to those Wb bullies in the rough.

This is the final photo I took, just before my last turn:

His central Wb column charged my Art and killed it.  His Wb came screaming off the hill and attacked my Ax, and recoiled it back into line with my Cv.  In my turn the Cv closed the door and the Ax won the combat, killing the Wb.  And finally my line of Bd/Bd/Ax/CvG with Ps support charged the Wb in the rough and killed two units.

So I won the game, but to be honest it was more to do with lucky rolling than clever tactics.  Still, this time I didn't get split up into too many small groups, I more or less stuck to my plan, and I made only two obvious bone-headed mistakes (charging my Bd when I should have hung back, and getting flanked by the Wb on the hill while Ps-chasing).

Things I learned:

1. Art is useful for slowing down the enemy and disordering the enemy line.  But keep your firing lanes clear!
2. Wb are useful in bad going!
3. I need to pay attention to command distance and line of sight.  I think we may have forgotten about the steep hill blocking line of sight.
4. Ps can support Ax just like they can Sp or Bd.
5. Keep units together to protect their flanks.  I think I might not have been able to kill Mark's Kn if they hadn't gotten so far ahead of the Wb.

Now a two week break in gaming.  Guess I'd better do some painting of these Romans, eh. 

Middle Imperial Romans vs Suevi

This was my third game of DBA.  I didn't take any pictures of my second game, which is a shame because I can remember that I played poorly but I can't remember why.  All that I can recall is that I got split up into lots of tiny groups which were isolated and killed by the barbarians, and I was using Western instead of Eastern M.I.R. with Bw and Art, which I had no real idea of how to use effectively.  So let us move on.

I was playing II/64b Middle Imperial Romans again, with Ps instead of Art and Ax instead of Bw:
3CvG, 3Cv, 2x2LH, 3Bd, 3x4Bd, 3x4Ax, 2Ps

My opponent was playing II/72c Suevi:
3KnG, 8x4Wb, 2x3Bw, 2Ps

Here's the board: (click pictures to embiggen)

Some hills in each deployment zone, a wood in the top left of the picture, a road running from left to right, and a river running across the board between the armies.  The river has two fords, one where the road is and one right in front of those LH units.  We agreed that the fords would count as roads.

I set up my Ax in column on the road, thinking I might be able to sprint them across the ford and form a line over the river.  I planned to dash across the other ford with my LH, flank the mass of Wb and slow them down and give my Bd and Cv time to dismantle the Suevi at their leisure.  My opponent faced off against my Bd with his Wb, opposed my Ax with more Wb, and deployed across from the woods with the Bw and Ps.

This is what happened next:

 I kept rolling poorly for pips so he beat me to the river in all three spots.  I re-deployed the Ax to the shelter of the woods, diverted the Cv to threaten the Wb, and tried to slowly form a line with my Bd and Ps, while screening them with the LH.  You'll see that the Ps is in front of the Bd.  The idea was that the Wb would crash into them, recoil them to a support position, follow-up, and in my turn be destroyed.  Oh if only.  Meanwhile, my Ax narrowly avoided another recoil disaster, with fractions of a millimeter separating them from the angled element behind.

 My Ax finally overlapped and killed a Bw in the woods, so I diverted an Ax to get an extra overlap with the Cv against the Wb on the ford.  Now that my Bd line is established, I scoot my LH across the river.  My opponent rolled poorly for pips and was expending them all trying to rescue his remaining Bw and Ps in the woods so the river crossing stalled.  Too many columns perhaps?

Right about now I thought I had it in the bag.  I'd just killed the other Bw and got all my Ax together to pursue the lone Ps.  My Cv had only recoiled the Wb on the ford and the river had prevented me from closing the door on them, and it would be prohibitively expensive in pips to enter the river myself in pursuit, so I charged their rear with my LH to distract them.  This combat was, however, destined to just bounce back and forth and achieve nothing.    It was at this point that I lost my head.  Rather than waiting for the Suevi to reach my Bd line, I charged them as they exited the river.  My Ps fled and on his turn he crashed into my line.  Uh-oh.

His Kn killed my Bd, his Wb killed more Bd, and he closed the door on me, trapping another Bd unit and turning my Cv around.

My Ax caught his Ps and killed it, but my remaining Bd were trapped and killed.  Suevi 4 - Romans 3.

:(