After Action Report – Roman Civil Wars ‘Rome Versus the East’ Scenario –

[Compass Rose]

After Action Report – Roman Civil Wars ‘Rome Versus the East’ Scenario – by Paul Bruffell

In the early years of conflict in the East, the Roman army saw a great variety of weapons and cavalry on the battlefield. Only the great commanders could adapt to defeat such a variety - can you show you too are a great commander? – so ran the introduction to this table top battle.
This fictional encounter has all the trappings of good entertainment. With a hot coffee in hand, I set to the challenge issued by my friend. I chose, of course, to play the Roman army. To emulate the great commanders of the Roman Republic was too attractive an opportunity to turn down. I was soon to learn this was going to be more of a challenge than I expected.

My initial positions are as you see below but the enemy army is partly obscured by dust clouds kicked up by the swirling wind. The visibility was seriously reduced and this partly nullified the strike power of my archers and slingers. Considering the reduced visibility, my battle tactics were - to seek out the enemy positions, numbers and troop types with my skirmishing light infantry on the left; move my elephants in the center to engage the enemy phalanx and create as much chaos as possible and on the right use my light cavalry as flank protection for the legionaries. Of course, ‘the best laid plans of mice and men’ readily fall apart once battle commences and so it was here.



By turn 5 out of a set battle of 20 turns the armies had closed and the picture was a little clearer.
My elephants charged in to the enemy phalanx but their ranks held firm and my beasts were slaughtered all too quickly. The skirmishing infantry that went with the elephants can be seen below pulling out of the melee as they are ineffective against pike men in close combat. The Roman legionaries are now approaching the phalanx hoping to catch the phalanx disorganized by the elephants and unable to array a wall of spear points.



On the left my light infantry started to pour missile fire into the chariot group and camels. Meanwhile, my experienced heavy cavalry drew up ready to exploit any gaps in the enemy line.



On the right of the map, I charged my light cavalry in to a group of javelin men and quickly scattered them allowing the cavalry to overrun some stone throwing engines that had barely fired a shot. So far the skirmishing had gone my way but the main encounter was still to come. I had to move the Roman legionaries in to battle against the phalanx and seek the opportunity to strike at the flank of the pike men.

The screen shot below shows the battle development on turn 7. The phalanx had moved forward and swept aside my light medium infantry throwing javelins. Losses to these men were so high I sent out desperate commands for their immediate withdrawal. Unfortunately, the onrushing legionaries trapped some of my javelin men between the two forces and they were quickly dispatched by the pike men. The phalanx, following Hellenistic military tactics, had closed ranks and doubled their depth to become an unstoppable machine. The first wave of legionaries throwing themselves on the spear wall made no effect and the pike men continued forward. Roman losses were now mounting at an alarming rate. So much so I kept glancing at the victory point score as I saw the battle swing in favor of my enemy.



The only positive news I had on the right of the map was my light cavalry were now forcing some pike men to turn in their direction as their right flank protection had been destroyed.

On the left of the map the enemy chariots had charged in to my light infantry immediately followed by their camelry. The camels quickly broke through my skirmishing line and approached the Roman cavalry; the distinctive smell of the camels was too much for the horses and this created considerable disruption to the ranks of heavy cavalry.

At this point the enemy disposition was a little clearer. Some of my Peltast units had taken advantage of a gap in the enemy front and penetrated in to their rear on the left side of the phalanx. In the enemy rear were columns of extra heavy cavalry waiting their opportunity to strike. To counter this menace, I moved one third of my heavy cavalry away from the camels and across the map to cover the gap in the center and another third of the heavy cavalry can be seen moving behind the legionaries seeking to take up position on the right where a flanking assault on the phalanx may become possible.

The uneven advance of the phalanx caused its units to loose cohesion and the solid wall of steel spikes was no more. Gaps began to appear and the chance for my legionaries to dart in and attack the pike men from the rear. To do this I had to commit more legionaries to pin down the phalangite advance accepting even more casualties to gain a victory.

Turn 8 is shown below. The pike units are now becoming isolated and easy pickings for my more numerous legionaries. A few pike units have started to rout. My reserve of legionaries and heavy cavalry moving to the right of the map are out of view on this screenshot.



On the left, my light infantry have finally overwhelmed the enemy chariots and their camelry are exhausted. I ordered in small units of heavy cavalry to support the fight where possible. The battle was at last swinging back in favor of the Romans after a very worrying period where the Hellenistic phalanx appeared to steamroller over everything in front of it.

By turn 11, the Hellenistic army was in tatters as seen in the Victory Status below. The phalanx had disintegrated although isolated units fought on. The real question was – ‘why did the enemy extra heavy cavalry fail to mount a charge?’. My friend later admitted he struggled to move them in to Line formation for the charge and had to commit them piecemeal to stop my marauding Peltasts. I doubt I will be so fortunate next time.



Turn 12 was the end for the Hellenistic army, losses had mounted too high and their army routed from the field. This was a tough battle for the Romans and a close run thing. Facing a strong phalanx is never easy.

The game was played by e-mail usually passing a turn on to your opponent each day. The ‘we-go’ system means you have two e-mail battle files to address per turn of the game. One will be the time you send out orders and the other is watching the simultaneous action unfold. Each e-mail phase will take around 15 minutes to address when playing a table top battle such as this with 7500 points per army. Larger battles will take longer but many scenarios provided with the game are less than 10,000 points per army. So in total this battle took me 12 turns x 2 x 15 minutes = 6 hours of fun spread over 4 weeks. If I had been playing the computer AI then the battle would have been concluded within 3 hours or one night.