Romans versus Ostrogothic federation in the 5th Century (San Angelo). This is a long one - apologies if it is long winded!

Hey everyone,

Today a fellow gamer here in San Angelo and I went at each other with Ostrogoths (supported by Huns, Alemani, and renegade Gauls) on one side and Late Romans on the other.  The narrative featured defense of a town, but the objective was to route the enemy.  I designed both forces as a kind of introduction to Warhammer Ancient Battles, so the game was pretty vanilla, and ended up as a straight up class between the battle lines.  Lots of fun, though, and I liked the way the sides looked all drawn out.  What follows is a brief AAR with some notes on how the game unfolded.  WAB doesn't focus as much on characters, of course, so the points tend to go pretty far.  This was 1800 point, but the vanilla troops made these points go a bit further than normal, perhaps.

The battle lines drawn, Romans on the right and Goths on the left.  Skirmishers defended and threatened the town, and the Gothic Cavalry lined up to try to scatter the Roman light troops and Scorpios, which held the Roman left flank (lower frame).

Ostrogothic medium cavalry begin their assault on the Roman left (going for the Scorpios).

The Gothic center with the renegade Gauls held in reserve.

Roman light troops held the town, supported by the villagers, who were led by one veteran Pedes troop (infantryman).

Roman Heavy Cavalry - these promised much paint to the Gothic left flank, as their movement promised iniative on the charge, and their armor makes them very difficult to kill.

The forces approach each other.  Here we see the Gothic warlord, supported by his comitatus (bodyguard), charging at the Roman heavy infantry in the Roman center.

The Roman heavy charge, attack, and inflict casualties, but cannot break the formed unit of Goths, especially because they are lead by a Priestess to Wotan, who inspires high morale and vigor in the Gothic foot.

Roman light Cav charge to throw their javelins, but against the Gothic front the casualties that they inflict don't cause enough damage to stop the momentum.  The priestess threatens with a crow and a skull from the front rank.

The Scorpios slay and route the Germanic light Cavalry, but the Medium cavalry makes it to the flank of the Roman left, preparing to charge the scorpios despite sustaining casuyalties.

And they charge in, blowing through the Roman archers and then carrying through to the scorpios.

Then the lines clash in earnest, Germanic aggression matched against Roman stoicism and a stiff upper lip.  At this point the mechanics of the game have encouraged what the authors take to be the historical truth of this kind of battle.  If the Germanic charge can hit hard enough, then the Roman line can fail, but the Romans are better trained and better equipped, so they stand a good chance of weathering the storm.  Michael did a great job of positioning his general so and army banner so that a large portion of his center gained leadership and morale bonuses from its pesence.

Closeup of the clash of the lines - play Conan soundtrack here.

Unfortunately, Wotan came through and despite good placement, Michael couldn't seem to roll very well.  In fact, his rolls were exactly opposite of what they needed to be:  low "to hit" and "to wound" rolls, and extremely high leadership rolls (e.g. failing two shots at a 9- on two dice, then failing two shots at an 8-).  How could the Romans stand when Boethius's teachings of the Christain God are played out so fully on the field? (Boethius demonstrates in the Consolatione de Philosophia that the world is ruled by chance, this is God's will, and it serves the completely good ends for which God works).

The rest of the Roman lines crumbles, also the victim of unlucky dice rolling.

The Roman flight, pursued by the Goths in the center.  The end of the game came with the agreement that the Goths had taken the day.  In truth, we were out of time, and the Romans could still have rallied and come back.  Their general was still alive, and they hadn't lost very many men, despite their breaking.  So a nominal victory for the Goths, but it could have gone the other way had we played the game to conclusion.  Lots of fun, though, and it was really great to play a game with Michael (whom IMS is really happy to find in San Angelo), and to get out all of these minis, some of whom hadn't swung a sword in anger until today.