TTS AAR: Romans vs Sumerians
/With lockdown back upon us and Daughter #1’s boyfriend back at University, my only potential opponent for a battle was Daughter #2. A little bit of gentle arm-twisting persuaded her to abandon the questionable delights of K-Pop YouTube videos and join me in the wargaming room for a game of To The Strongest.
I wanted to use two of my newest armies: the Sumerians and the Marian Romans. I politely gave her the choice, thinking she was bound to go for the Sumerians with their exciting four-onager chariots, axemen etc, but instead she chose the more space-invader like Romans. I felt a little disappointed here, as I’d wanted to play them, especially as I know hoe good they are. Competitive Dad? Well, you have to take your victories where you can!
Both sides deployed. The Sumerians looked their usual impressive selves: the blocks of citizen spearmen supported by light infantry; the aforementioned chariots; and three units of axemen or archers.
The Romans, under the so-called Beardless Pro-Consul, looked a little ragged by comparison, which just shows that appearances can be deceptive:
The Game
Both sides opened the battle by advancing forward smartly.
In the centre, my heavy chariots headed straight for the oncoming Romans, hoping to hit them whilst they were deployed with gaps in their battle line. Apparently not all my chariot units were equally keen on getting stuck in, so there were holes in my line too, but I didn’t think this was a problem as I reckoned that being mounted meant that any stragglers would catch up fast.
On my right flank, some equites saggiarii tried to sneak past my flank, but were blocked and eventually destroyed by my lights:
On my left, however, two units of Gallic Cavalry had a bit more room to play with, getting past my flank, and causing me (along with some Cretan archers) huge problems for the rest of the battle.
Note the Gallic horse right out on the right of the picture. They have got past my flank and forced me to deploy my reserve to face them.
Back to the centre, and the two lines came together with a mighty crash. Unfortunately, the mighty crash mostly involved smashing chariots as, using their excellent manoeuvrability, the Roman legionaries snapped into an unbroken and pilum-toting line of heavy infantry. Who new Daughter #2 knew what she was doing!
I pulled back in an attempt to re-organise but, of course, this just gave the Romans a chance to reorganise themselves and to then slam forward once more, again using their quality and agility to always be in the right place at the right time with the right units. I tell you, if you can’t get round the flank of the Romans (which I had singularly failed to do) then you are in big trouble: the Roman mincing machine makes, er, mincemeat out of anything it faces!
Here’s a series of pictures showing what happened in the centre:
I did have a couple of light units pushing past the Roman left flank but all that happened was that one double cohort of legionaries swung neatly sideways to face them, and without the help of the other light unit (who had been previously occupied in finishing off the horse archers) I was not going to get anywhere anytime soon.
But it was on my left flank that I was most in trouble.
I had managed to get my reserve into play in order to head off one lot of Gauls from rolling me up but, just at the critical moment, luck deserted me, and two of my brigades drew consecutive Aces at the start of their activations.
This left me unable to get anything done, and the Gauls closed in, hitting my blocking force from both front and back:
And that, really, was that: my left collapsed, my centre crumpled and I haemorrhaged coins faster than you can say “bloody Romans”!
Aftermath
A great game of To The Strongest despite my somewhat embarrassing defeat! Showcased how good the Romans can be in a straight up fight where their flanks are safe.
