This was the first appearance at the club for the Dacian army pitted against their historical enemy, Imperial Rome. We deliberately kept the central area of the table clear of terrain features with a few hills and forested areas relegated to the table edges. This was to enable the 2 armies to clash head-on to test out the army stats for both armies. James took generalship of the Imperial Romans and Tony the Dacians, whilst Chris and I watched from the side-lines throwing in advice to the players, often of questionable value!
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James deployed first and moved first which gave Tony the opportunity to deploy second and respond to the Roman deployment. The Roman line started the advance forward with the Legionaries in the centre and auxiliary spears, archers and cavalry on either wing. Tony deployed his Dacian warriors into 6 stand warrior hordes concentrated in the centre and right wing. All the Dacian light cavalry were concentrated on Tony’s left wing with the 2 Sarmation heavy cavalry units in reserve behind the centre.
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Tony wasted no time in attacking the right wing of the Romans with all his Dacian light cavalry which inflicted early casualties and recoiled the auxiliary units. This had the effect of bending back the Roman battle line and exposing the end of the line of central legionaries. This cavalry attack was followed-up by Dacian hordes hitting the centre of the Roman line. The Legionaries proved their toughness and bounced the warriors back which enabled the Roman line to advance further in the next tactical movement phase.
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The Roman legionaries throwing their pilum on contact was presenting the Dacian warriors with a major challenge, but as a single use weapon once these were thrown the 6 stand hordes did start to hold their own against their Roman opponents. The local battles on either wing were beginning to favour the more mobile Dacians, but the Romans still had plenty of auxiliary units in reserve to commit when and where they were needed.
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James had 4 units of Roman cavalry in reserve behind his embattled left wing and as Dacian pressure increased it would be a question of when this cavalry charge would take place. Much opinion and advice was expressed from the non-playing ‘game observers’ over when the cavalry should be committed. With the excellent Sarmation cavalry lurking behind, the anticipated cavalry battle could decided the game.
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The Roman Legionary units in the centre were gaining the upper-hand against their Dacian warrior opponents and in response Tony moved his hordes of warriors armed with two-handed falx into the fight. The Roman auxiliaries on the Roman right finally through back the Dacian light cavalry units which had been inflicting so much punishment. Casualties by this stage of the game had started to thin the opposing lines and as the Roman cavalry with a certain amount encouragement from myself charged home. Tony, on reflection thought they had gone in to early, and I think he was right, because the Sarmations held their ground and so did the Dacian warrior hordes.
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The Roman battle line started to come apart on the left which gave the Dacians the opportunity to use their greater speed and mobility. Some key hand-to-hand combats favoured the Dacians and with the Roman cavalry pulled away from the centre and locked in combat the tactical options for the Romans were extremely limited. James recognised this and after some notable local victories which still failed to improve the overall situation for the Romans he awarded the game to Tony’s Dacians.
Game Analysis
The Dacians gained the initial advantage at the beginning of the game, which was reversed by James’s Romans which gained the upper-hand in the middle part of the encounter. However, when the Roman line began to thin, Tony’s Dacians took advantage of the opportunity to target and pick off the more isolated Roman units. The final Dacian win was extremely marginal as both armies had been massively reduced to a fraction of their original size.
