Game 1
It had to be done! Pitting 2 warrior horde based armies against each other would certainly amount to a chaotic engagement. The Dacians had the advantage of slightly stronger infantry armed with the one and 2 handed falx which caused so many problems for Emperor Trajan’s Roman army and his invasion of Dacia. Plus the Dacian army had 2 units of Sarmation heavy cavalry for which the Ancient Brits had no equivalent. However the Britons did have plenty of light chariots and light cavalry and because of the relative points cost, more warriors.
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We let the dice decide who had which army, first deployment and first move. Tony and James took control of the Ancient Brits and Chris and myself the Dacians. The Brits moved first and quickly closed the gap, deployed a shooting line and sent hordes of warriors towards the flanks of the Dacians. The terrain had an open centre but small areas of woodland and a few small hills which soon became the focus of the British advance.
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Our Dacians were able to deploy in a long line between 2 of the aforementioned areas of woodland and we put 2 units of skirmishers into the woodland on our left flank. We conceded possession of a 4 hex hill on our right to avoid our line being extended forward but kept control of an adjacent hill. The Brits were confronted with a very formidable Dacian line and so they stopped their advance and James attacked Chris’s Dacians with British chariots and light cavalry. At the same time the missile troops of both sides lined up in the middle for a shooting match.
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Soon the missile units were depleted and the opposing massed hordes smashed into each other in the centre. Despite the Dacians slight advantage in hand-to-hand combat the Brits held their own. Both sides then looked to the battle on either wing between the chariots, cavalry and skirmishers in an attempt to gain some advantage. Again this was a pretty even match with James’s British chariots evading contact with Chris’s Dacian warriors, proffering to throw javelins.
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A battle of attrition continued for a couple of rounds of combat until the space created through the loss of warrior hordes, from both sides, allowed the Sarmation cavalry to enter the fray and tilt the balance in favour of the Dacians. Once these 2 heavy cavalry units made their presence felt the Brits started to lose ground and units very quickly. After a very bruising round of hand-to-hand combat for the Britons the Dacians gained an unchallengeable advantage. With still over an hour of ‘play time’ left on this club night we decided to set up for another game.
Game 2
We quickly set up for another game and Chris and James swapped sides. Again, both armies charged across the table, this time meeting further towards the middle which did negate the terrain advantage which the Dacians had enjoyed in the first game. The missile troops this time chose to target the warrior hordes than each other. This resulted in a good number of warriors, Dacian and British recoiling disrupted and marked the beginning of what is best described as organised chaous.
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James and Chris managed to keep their units more organised as Chris’s British warriors captured the woodland on the Dacian right and forced James to pull back and establish a rather effective defensive line with his Dacian light cavalry which held against the stronger British hordes. This bought time for 2 units of Dacian falxmen to come across in support.
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In the centre the Dacians lost a general along with a unit of warriors and the British warriors pushed back 2 units of Dacian archers disrupting them. This success prevented the Sarmation heavy cavalry from lending their weight to the chaotic battle in the centre of the table. Tony, used the British chariots and light cavalry to really good effect through shooting causing the loss of 2 more Dacian warrior hordes through having nowhere to recoil, trapped and eliminated by British zones of control.
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I felt that our Dacians were beginning to lose the game as losses mounted. Thankfully, the excellent performance of James’s cavalry aided by the arrival of the Falxmen reversed Chris’s advance causing the disruption of 2 generals. This enabled the falxmen to turn their attention to a unit of Gaisetai fanatics and stop their progress. The mayhem in the middle continued if rather ‘thinned out’ as so many units had left the table.
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Time was beginning to run out so we reluctantly had to bring this second game to a halt. Taking stock of the state of play I think a draw would be a fair verdict, but all credit must be given to the Brits who in this game made their numbers count against the slightly better quality of their Dacian opponents. The Sarmation cavalry, although still on the table, had been ‘managed’ rather well by the Brits unlike in the first game.
Games analysis
The first game was a decisive Dacian win aided by a strong defensive position and the decisive charge of the Sarmation heavy cavalry. In the second game however, the Ancient Britons used their speed and numbers to inflict considerable losses on the Dacians and were perhaps only beaten by lack of time left to conclude the game. They certainly might have won if the game had continued.
