Slave Revolt Vs Beja

Woo Hoo! Slave Revolt on the table! Am excited. Got two games on the weekend and always have to make the tough decision of who gets the right up. Not today!

No bow, no four legged creatures to confuse you, just a swarm of the unwashed masses to drown your opponent in a see of bodies! Okay, so I like this list. Note naming of commanders. Many people at the meet, got this joke. I feel that I am not young, but had to admit that I have never seen the movie (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4NKu-KFIuMI) I will remedy this I promise... I feel I have failed as a wargamer somehow. Where was I?

Right Corps I. Gladiators that fear only cataphracts in period. Rock hard. Heavy foot that can stand up, or at least take a while to die. Unarmed slaves.... So the hope is they do a little something before shuffling off to the great slave pen in the sky. The impetuous is what makes them tick here. Vs anything with two legs there is always the chance that furious charge kicks and at four points a troop, its not bad value. Mediocre levy.... for 2 points you army is bigger and they can maybe stop lights from sacking the camp? What is this last entry?! A cavalry unit! Already mistakes have been made. I suppose this allows some mobility, but i don't rate the inclusion and would have taken more heavy foot.

Corps II Commanded by the other Spartacus... cool. Lot of impetuous stuff.

Corps III Tiny command. Exactly four units so it fits into an ambush marker... cunning. Its probably not enough to clear rough terrain, but might be a surprise for someone.

Camels! With some controllable impact cavalry. I love this list. It sings due to the terrain choices. You either fight the camels in their home town, or give over the initiative to a fast moving impact cavalry force. It suffers from horrific command and control issues. I always seem to end up with camels going everywhere (there is a sentence)

So I got over excited and missed two full turns. Not much happened. Camels won the inative roll and elect to defend in the desert. Brush and dunes fall perfectly (Line center to the Eastern Board edge.) Only wrinkle was a gentle hill taken by the slaves early on. I dub this land Place I will NEVER go, and hope the Slaves enjoy their time there.

The Slaves third command is not on table. I did not spend the time adding up the forces, but it couldn't be a huge command, and unlikely to have cavalry. So the two light horse in the East have been tasked with slowing a flank march.

To be fair. I don't envy the slaves position here. The impetuous characteristic so many of their troops have, doesn't apply here. That being said, the camel part of being a camel i pretty useless too. (He says as he flies through the dunes at a rapid rate of knots.... hooves).

So here is the conundrum. The camels (and horses) really want to fight levy. They don't want to fight the heavy foot, and they REALLY don't want to fight the gladiators. Have highlighted the front line troops we are interested in. The other issue is just getting flanked. I am 24 strong to his... well longer. If he can absorb or hold, the camels get flanked. So camels are looking for that line of levy in the North. The rest of th force wants to pin the Slaves down to slow movement/.

The Camels have proven to be too fast and the Slaves are in real risk of trouble in the East.

Slaves come off the hill and start pushing in the West. There are simply too many to engage and the Camels need to win in the East.

Camel charge in North. Four battles Camels win the all by 3 or more, furious charge takes care of the rest. The dream for the Slaves wasn't a win (okay, thats not true, or course they wanted four 6-1s their way), but to break up the camel line. What they didn't need was a perfect line of camels in complete control now in their back line.

In the West the non-elite, non-heavy cavalry heads South. While its still not a great war for the heavies, they are Elite and can withdraw. So let the slaves come to us, if it goes well, hang around, goes poor withdraw!

Medium cavalry can protect the flanks.

Salves attack! Its a mixed bag as you would expect when you are at evens in most battles. In fact six cohesion markers went down, three each.

Camels turn.... why are they staying combat? WHY?!

Instead of withdrawing to the safety of the dunes to repair and refuel they sit their and get pounded. Five camel combats, they loose four (to be fair they are down in all of them). The only one they win is the hard flanked gladiator on the end of the line. I had a plan.... what happened?!

In the West the cavalry doesn't with draw either. This one made sense. The break between heavy sword units is being held by a levy (who gets charged) and the cavalry elite included general is so close to routing his opponent. It might cost me a heavy cavalry, but there is no second line, once through its a party.

Medium cavalry moves up... okay so I willing to sacrifice them as well for the breakthrough (they need to protect the flank).

Slaves turn... is there good eating on a camel? Cause there is plenty of meat to go around.

In the West slaves charge non-elite, non armoured cavalry. The Cavalry doesn't die! and the heavies break through! I can save my mediums! The camels out numbered and left to die by an uncaring general.. well die. The hard flank gladiator and medium slave cavalry also rout.

Camels turn. So the plan to save the mediums... well it involved me rolling what would technically be called ALL THE PIPs for an ordinary general. He does not roll all the pips and the General decides that getting his butt out of trouble and flank charging a heavy slave is more important than those medium cavalry guys that nobody really liked anyway.

Everywhere else it is flank attack after flank attack and the remaining camels are having a field day.

Up North women and children rush to defend the camp and ... well manage it. With one stand managing a draw. The other stand got to go home earlier.....

There is not much left of the slaves, and being impetuous really limits any quick redeployment. Was more a case of trying to face the camel force and get ready for the charges. Or it would have been, the camp that is seconds away from being sacked breaks the Slaves so we called it there.

The flank march never turned up. Those two lights in the East just hang out there waiting for a date that never turned up... can relate.

Okay. Two things from this game. The Slaves should have pushed in the West. The hill was great, but was obvious I was never going anywhere near it. If they got on the front foot from turn one the could have turned the battlefield 90 degrees and threaten the heavy cavalry. That corps has only lost one of its heavy sword stands and the heavy cavalry command have lost half of its fighting force.

For me.... I look at the pics and can't for the life of me work out why I didn't disengage, even with the worst pip roll I could have gotten the line of camels out. The flank charge against the gladiators would still have happened (different command) and arguably would have been a better fight. Wiat (maths) not arguable! Would have been a better fight and included furious charge. ARGHGAHS Four camels died for nothing. I actually can't work out what I did with the pips, did I try to rally?

This is the sorta dumb unforced error that costs you games. Otherwise, good game and enjoyed the camel action (that sentence needs work)