LIR v Visigoths again

This is our repeat of the previous game of Late Imperial Romans v Later Visigoths.  Again, the pictures are taken from a pretty low angle so although they look nice and pretty it's sometimes a bit hard to see what's actually going on.  Sorry for so long between posts.  I actually did most of this one a week or so ago but ran into some glitches with blogger and didn't get back to it until tonight.

Anyway, here's the board and the early setup - crossroads through a woods and two gentle hills. 

Tally ho!

 I put a column of Ax on the road and sent them scooting into the woods.  I sent a Cv and LH to the right around the woods.  My Bd and Ps started to plod around the left of the woods towards the enemy camp, with the CvG and LH on their far left.  My plan was to distract the Visigoths on the right on the board with the Cv and LH, block them in the woods with the Ax, and put pressure on their camp with the Bd.

The Visigoth setup looked odd to me at first but here's my analysis of it:
- 2xCv and 2xPs on my right to oppose my mounted.
- 2xWb on the road to oppose my Ax, with the KnG in a nice central position.
- 2xBw,2xWb,Cv on the right to defend the camp and harass my mounted with shooting.
The only thing I would do differently is to keep the two Bw units together and not put them near the wood where they can't shoot.

Romans 0 - Visigoths 1

I left the right flank quite static as I was spending most of my pips on the left to advance my Bd and in the middle to reorganize my Ax into a line.  Once again I had pushed my Ax too far forward and into a vulnerable position for no benefit.  The rightmost was killed by a lowly Ps when overlapped by his Cv.  The others recoiled the enemy and bought some time to withdraw.  The gap in front of the enemy camp continued to tempt me.

Romans 1 - Visigoths 1

Realizing that my Ax were about to get overwhelmed by a bunch of thugs with sticks and rocks, I sent them some Ps backup.  This enabled them to kill an enemy Bw which had attacked them in the woods.  The enemy Ps moved to a flanking position but I rolled well and recoiled the enemy again.

On the right, my Cv and LH moved to threaten the flank of the enemy Cv.  On the left, my Bd marched onwards.  My LH scooted around behind the Visigoths Bw which turned to face them.

Here's what happened next:

Romans 1 - Visigoths 2

My LH kept turning the Bw around because I was too scared to charge them and didn't want to be forced to flee off the table and I figured that if I could get far enough around I'd be able to bypass them entirely and charge another unit.  In the woods the Visigoth Ps flanked my Ax which was killed by his Wb.  His other Wb recoiled my 2 remaining Ax.  On the left flank my line of Bd started to curl around to line up to his angled block of Wb.

Romans 2 - Visigoths 2

Right about now I realized that my General was way too far out on the left flank where not only was there nothing for him to do, he was also so far from the woods that I was paying extra pips to try to save my Ax.  So I turned him and moved him full speed back behind my lines.  My Ax retreated also at top speed to escape the Wb.  My LH charged the rear unit of his Wb on my left flank, thus evading the shooting of his Bw as well as robbing the Wb in front of my blades of a rear support factor.  That unit of Wb was duly despatched.

Romans 3 - Visigoths 2

His Wb pursued me out of the woods but was driven back by my Ax with some lucky rolls.  On the right flank our mounted units finally clashed but all that happened was that my LH was recoiled.  My CvG continued to close in on the woods and my LH ran down the Wb that they had rear charged earlier.

Romans 4 - Visigoths 2

In a final bid to win the game, his Wb near the woods charged my Ax again and also flanked me with his other unit of Wb but again I rolled luckily and he recoiled, straight into the path of my CvG.  My Ax followed up in my turn and my CvG flanked his Wb and it was killed and the game was mine.

Post-game thoughts:

1. Again, I tried to concentrate on keeping it simple and again it worked.
2. Again, I was the beneficiary of lucky die rolls when it counted.
3. Again, I was too aggressive with my Ax simply because I like them.  Realistically, they should have been killed three or four times by the enemy Wb and it was only luck that saved me.
4. Moving my Cv and LH to the right of the woods was a waste.  Perhaps if I had kept my CvG more centrally located the whole game it would have allowed me to use them more.
5. DBA is fun!

Late Imperial Romans v Later Visigoths

For this game, I chose to play Late Imperial Romans West  II/78a:
CvG, Cv, 2xLH, 3xBd, 3xAx, 2xPs

My opponent chose to play Later Visigoths II/82:
KnG, 3xCv, 4xWb, 2xPs, 2xBw

I laid out the terrain, choosing this time to place only some roads, a wood and two gentle hills.  I wanted space to spread my line out like good old fashioned Romans!  My opponent put a block of Cv on the hill and his block of Wb on the flat with Bw on the right and Ps on the left.

After the first bounds

Naturally, I got a 1 for pips first up.  The Visigoths grabbed the woods on my right with their Ps and angled everybody else to go around the woods.  Even though I had my Ps and Ax on that side I decided pretty early on that I wasn't going to distract myself by contesting the woods unless I had an easy kill on the cards.

After a few more bounds my much longer line was starting to envelop the Visigoths:

Come to papa!

My real fear was that his Kn would punch through my Ax or Bd with the quick kill, but since it was his general he probably decided that it was too risky.  I sent a single Ax through the woods to turn the block of Wb away from my Bd, ignoring the enemy Ps in my rear which were now out of command distance.  My LH went wide left atop the hill, so the Visigoths bent their line of Cv back to protect their flanks, but it did cause them to have quite a fragmented line.

Romans 1 - Visigoths 0

The Wb split up to try to kill my Ax in the woods but the Ax recoiled.  My LH charged the lone straggling Cv with one overlap and killed them in an even fight with a lucky roll.  My Cv also charged the Goth Cv with an overlap but got a stick.  The enemy Cv then withdrew from combat back to the top of the hill.  The Goth Bw started to shoot my Ax but nothing came of it.

Romans 2 - Visigoths 0

My CG then attacked the next Visigoth Cv in the line, with the flank from my other Cv unit.  I got the recoil easily on a 4-2 combat and the enemy Cv was cut down.  The Visigoths were suffering a severe pip drought at this time so it was not easy for them to respond as I rolled up their line.

Romans 3G - Visigoths 0

TheVisigoth KnG decided to stop the rot himself and turned and charged my Cv even though this put him in a position to be flanked by my CvG.  His remaining Cv came off the hill to give an overlap, making it a 3-2 fight in his favour, but if he recoiled he'd be destroyed and the game would be mine.  That's what happened, giving the Romans a long-awaited victory!

Post-game thoughts:

1. My plan this game was to keep it simple.  No elaborate back-field runs, no attempts at pushing big columns through bad going, just rely on a solid wall of Bd and mounted.  And it worked!
2. It certainly helped that the bad guys had Kn + 3xCv rather than 4xKn.  It allowed me to be much more assertive in enveloping him.
3. We used a system of drawing playing cards ranging from Ace to 6 to determine pips.  No different really to rolling for pips except that if you draw some low cards early you know you're due for higher cards later on, which is a nice psychological and statistical addition to the game.