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.

:(