There is a tournament coming up, so that means its time to test out some ideas. 365BC to 25 BC is the list restriction. Time to delve into my Brain Palace and think of something truly cunning....
Firstly, the bad guys. Elite Cataphracts are the shizzle, really only fearing pike and elephants in period always a solid choice. Light cavalry command to be annoying and finally a Death Star of elephants and 1/2 sword/bow, with some cavalry bow support. This is quite the shooty death star. I want to make some joke about the medium cavalry being tie fighters... nothing is coming that seems clever. So, cataphracts and elephants hit and hit hard. Light horse and cavalry make sure nothing gets round the flanks. Am STILL not sold on the 1/2 sword/bow with the elephants (checks list). Ahh, they are compulsory.... okay move on.
I proudly announced that I would be running Christian Nubian. My opposition, slowly and with small words, explained that they were some 575 years OUTSIDE of the list restrictions and the big clue is that I was running something from the dark ages.... hmmm... he makes good points. Crap. It is game three, have had a few drinks so I just grab an army that was ready to go. Triumvirate Roman! (sigh) I have not had a lot of success with this concept, but let me break it down for you. Whole lot of armoured impact mediocre foot, three elites for a little bit of kick. The elephant is to keep enemy cavalry at bay and I would consider dropping it out of the line and making it a reserve if only infantry was in front of the command. The heavy cavalry is there to support, hunt flanks and fill gaps. Light cavalry command to hopefully slow a flank of the enemy while the legions get busy.
Elite cataphracts.
Bottom of turn one. Romans have moved forward and the Kushan have redeployed their bow cavalry right across.
Six units that the Romans armour doesn't help against. Elephants and the more heavily armoured cataphracts.
Elite cataphract vs mediocre elephant. The elephant is +3 up on contact. (cataphract is -1 down to 0 due to really not likening the elephant). Even elite vs mediocre + 3 is hard to ignore. The cats don't want this fight. It also gives the legionaries either side of the elephant a chance (fear of elephants affects adjacents units)
Some shooting to start of preceding's. The Romans get the worse of it.
Yup, thats mediocre heavy foot in a field in front of an elephant.... (sigh)
The Kushan see no reason to charge and are content to just shoot away.
Heavy roman cavalry charges into Kushan mediums in the West. Roman foot charge medium cavalry it holds, I get all excited and send the elephant into support. Removing the elephant screen scaring the cataphracts. It will be fine. In the East a Roman light blocks the ZoC of the Kushan medium allowing the heavy foot to slide move and wheel into a flanking position.
Cataphracts charge! Elephants charge! In the far East a medium foot turns and charges and the bloody Roman heavy still has his back toe in the field and is disadvantaged. The combats go appalling. 10 combats. Romans win one, draw two and I don't want to talk about the rest. I suppose I shouldn't complain, was done and/or mediocre in many of them. Some sunshine as the enemy elephant takes two hits in the field.
Things are.... not good......
Roman Elephant charges elite cataphract and blows straight through. Another enemy elephant is pulled down. That ends the good news for the round. The Roman legionaries are being chewed up!
This is bad... really bad....
Somehow I have managed to get my elephant to far away from his light foot. He takes a shooting hit and is ZoC' by enemy lights. In the West the Kushans lose a cavalry and withdraw the rest from the fight. In the South West Roman and Kushan lights duke it out with thrown weapons, the Romans come off decidedly worse. The Roman line in the East can no longer be called a line, is now groups of scattered legionaries waiting for the cold, cold embrace of death.
Its that moment. EVERYTHING CHARGE! That can charge (The Romans need a miracle at this point and have very little to loose). Lights in the South, elephant in the North. It does not go well. The elephant is routed by the nasty lights and routs through both friendly foot and enemy cataphract. The Romans are so flanked in the East that there only hope is the enemy General doesn't roll enough pips to hit the Romans everywhere.
Kushan roll crappy pips! So can only pull off half their flank charges... so winning result for the Romans! however, with the death of a light horse in the South what flank charges occur is enough to convince the Romans that Italy would be a lovely place this time of year and they break and head home!
So.... poor list choices lost me the game. Yup, thats what happened. I mean you could make an argument that getting mediocre heavy troops engaged in combat in a field was not the wisest tactical choice. Or sending the elephant off to support some heavy foot fighting cavalry may have been exactly what my opponent wanted, but my takeaway is that the list if poo and no one could ever win with it....
I played badly with some questionable decisions at the start. What makes it so bad is that the Romans got to attack. There was no reason to go near the field. The only real threat in the Kushan army was the cataphracts. The elephant with a heavy foot each side makes a bee line for them, the rest of the army stays out of the bad terrain and fights anything it can find confidently. The other big mistake was not always keeping one (should really be two) light foot always able to jump in front or to the side of stampy. Oh well. Least there is some left over rum to console myself with.
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