Two weeks ago Terry Gore and I got together for one of our obligatory bi-monthly games. Rather than playing Medieval Warfare, we decided to play Ancient Warfare, primarily to refresh our memories for the upcoming tournament this summer at Historicon. Personally I think Terry is tired of facing my Burgundians and was attempting to get revenge on me. As I do not yet have a 25mm army, Terry stated that he would field two armies for us to game with. Saturday night when I arrived at Terry's house my co-commander Ken Brate could not make it, being ill. Leaving three of us, Terry, Paul Schneider and myself to game.

Terry fielded a Late Roman army against Galatians. I thought I would get the Romans, as I prefer trained troops over untrained. To my surprise Terry stated, "Bruce, you take the Germans, Paul and I will be the Romans." Great I thought, Terry is really going to put it to me tonight. The terrain was already set; the center dominated by two woods on the flanks with a hill in the middle. The Roman side had two hills, one on their right flank and another behind the woods on their left. My Galatians consisted of primarily close order troops, unarmored warbands backed up by two veteran heavy infantry units. Two loose order warrior units, a skirmish infantry unit, two fanatic scythed chariots, two units of light chariots and two heavy cavalry as well as three generals, two with extra HC bodyguards. The CiC would remain a single stand.

The terrain placement dictated my placements. The woods would channel my attacks as I placed my close order warbands in the center backed up by veteran heavy infantry and the CiC. Two scythed chariots were place in the front, prepared to perform a Galatian banzai charge into the Roman line. On my right flank I planned on sending the two loose order units into the woods while I loaded my right up with two light chariot units, a fanatic cavalry unit and a veteran heavy cavalry unit with a general. The woods on the left would contain my sole skirmish infantry. My entire left flank was left open. My battle plan was simple, a concentrated push up the middle by frenzied warbands.

When the dividing screen was removed I viewed the Roman dispositions. A single line running across their base line with no reserves. The Romans had opted to defend everything rather than concentrating their forces consisting of multi-armed legionaries, archer units, loose order infantry, skirmish cavalry and loose order horse archers. The Romans had loaded all the cavalry on their left, facing my cavalry wing. Their initial deployment was flawed and in the following turns Terry and Paul scrambled to get their right flank into the battle.

[Ed. Well, it wasn't all my fault!]

The battle open with our skirmish cavalry charging into each other with mixed results. A Hunnish SC unit hit one of my LCh and killed an entire stand. I rolled poorly and the unit routed. The Huns pursued and hit my General and his HC bodyguard. My second LCh unit declared a charge on a Roman SC and horse archer unit. The resulting melee resulted in a locked battle. In the center my HChs came within charge distance of the Roman line and being fanatics, did not need a charge order, a cruise control army. The right unit rolled short and failed to make contact halting disordered in front of a legionnaire unit. The second chariot fared better and slammed into an archer unit. The Romans passed their morale check but were unable to inflict any hits on the chariot and were pushed back. My German infantry moved closer on the Roman center as Terry and Paul issued orders to shore up their endangered center.

The following turns set the stage for the battle's outcome. The Huns lost their fight with my Galatian cavalry, lost a stand, failed their morale check and ended up routing off the board. In the center the disordered HCh took three hits from missile fire and when they contacted the Romans they were destroyed with another hit. One warband made a fanatic charge but it too rolled short and became disordered. I continued to push in the center as the Romans began to pull their right flank into the center. The two loose order units cleared the woods and began to assault the hill defended by a Roman loose order unit supported by a horse archer unit. Roman archer fire caused a stand loss to one unit and they failed morale, routing back. This was fun, I was either failing morale checks or rolling short for my charges. But you can't be deterred by bad rolls and my deployment would soon pay off. Though units in subsequent turns failed morale, the fact that they were supported and had a general within range lessened the severity of the failures.

The hapless warband on the left charged again and rolled short again. Now they were fragmented, unsupported had and Romans bearing down on their flank. The battle in the center was locked. The HCh continued to push back the archers and a warband hit a legionnaire unit with disastrous results. The Romans rolled up and being armed with everything including the kitchen sink routing the Galatians. [Ed. This was our high-water mark.]

My unarmored warbands had failed to break the Roman line as Paul and Terry out rolled me. Warbands are great if they can push back the enemy, but today the gods were not smiling on the Galatians. It was like watching the opening battle scene of Gladiator.

But my second line was prepared and charged in to hit the Romans. My close order veterans began to roll up and push back the Romans. The HCh after three turns routed the archers and were now in the Roman rear. My fragmented warband on the left went into square with locked shields as the Romans poured archer fire into them. A legionnaire unit marching from the left was preparing to charge one of my Galatian warbands. I ordered the left flank Galatian HC to charge the Romans to protect my infantry.

Unfortunately the Romans had deploy orders and were able to face the charge. But the charge had prevented the Romans from hitting my infantry who were winning their close action. The right stabilized as my fanatic HC hit the Roman horse archers locking them in melee. The end came quickly for the Romans. The HCh had to charge toward the nearest enemy, being fanatics. They wheeled and charged into the flank of a fragmented legionnaire, routing them. The domino effect began as unsupported Roman units failed morale checks including a Roman general. The Romans had reached their break point and the battle was over.

It was a hard fought game with both sides hovering near the break point during the last turn. The Galatians suffered from repeated morale failures but were still able to push in the center due to the second line of heavy infantry. The Romans in attempting to defend all the terrain features on the table had denied themselves any reserves. Putting their archers in independent units made them vulnerable to the chariots and close order troops and targets of my attacks.

This game narrative highlights the key elements of Ancient Warfare. A poor or faulty initial deployment will cause you problems and it takes time to issue orders to units and move them to where they are needed. Troops need to be supported with generals and other units to lessen the severity of morale checks. A couple of bad die rolls will not lose you a game, or expecting a unit to achieve resounding success on their own. Support attacks with other units to exploit victory or defend against defeat. Initially I felt uncomfortable with the Galatians, thinking them unsuitable for my style of play. But after a couple of turns I recognized their attributes and detriments and tailored my battle plan accordingly. Generals had to learn how to use their armies while on the job, we as gamers have the luxury to look at our actions and see what we did wrong. Don't be discouraged over a bad game, we've all been there. It's taken me twenty years to learn how to beat Terry, maybe that's why he now invites newer players to the game to blame them for defeat?

[Ed. Hey! Paul, are you going to take that?]

Bottom line is have fun, enjoy the company of friends and learn from your mistakes.