Warmaster Ancients Campaign - Battle Report 1: Greeks vs Rome!

The build-up:

The Greek General issues a Conquest order to his first army, the target - Rome!
Roman Response - immediate mobilization of the first Legion, and a counter Conquest order (*) against the Greeks.

Battle is met on barren ground (**), somewhere inland of the Adriatic.
The field has one small hill (10VPs), one small patch of woods (10VPs) and a large patch of broken ground.

(*) - Why counter Conquest order? In order to move an army, a Conquest or Campaign order (and a target) must be given. A Conquest order is a challenge to battle. An army can only move once per period, so to show the Roman army has having moved, it is given a Conquest order.

(**) - When battles are fought and the hex type is not known, a random roll is made. Each type has a different chart for terrain. In this case the hex type was 'Wastes', so very little terrain would feature for this battle. In addition any terrain that was randomly generated would not be worth much in terms of Victory points. There is not much worth in a patch of rocks in a relatively barren landscape.




The two armies meet across a largely barren wasteland. The only features of note are a small section of woodland and a small hill, each barely worth anything in VPs.

View from the Roman side.

The Greek view of the field.

The Greeks take to the battle in an extended order unsure as to where the Romans would deploy, given a large piece of dense terrain almost Roman centre.
A large cavalry contingent form the Greek middle.

The Romans choose to deploy completely on the left flank. The Legions take centre, with cavalry on the far wing and skirmishers centre.

The initial turns of the battle see very little action. Each commander unable to spur their force into taking the initiative. Eventually a battalion of Hoplites with Peltast support edge forward.

The Roman Light Cavalry move quickly to engage the unsupported Greek battalion. A hail of javelins and arrows forces the Peltasts to flee which in turn causes disruption to the Hoplites behind them.
Roman Heavy Cavalry and the Triari begin their flank push.

With the battle now underway, the Greek General orders his line forward. The Roman Light Cavalry sensing the danger withdraw.
The Roman Legions deploy into line while a unit of Roman Heavy Cavalry, seeing a full battalion of Greek Hoplites move out of position due to a misunderstood order, thunders down the left flank to attack!

The Roman Heavy Cavalry hits into the Hoplites flank. The fighting is fierce but despite the superior numbers of the Greeks, the positioning makes it difficult for the Hoplites to bring their full weight to the combat.

The Greek advance takes it to the middle of the table while the Romans try to reform from the effects of shooting and fall-back orders.
One block of cavalry moves a little ahead of the infantry. The Romans see an opportunity to bring an end to the battle...

Soon after this photo, the 3 units of Roman Light Cavalry charged the front and flank of the Greek Cavalry and won the combat that followed. Rather than risking further loses, the Greeks withdrew.
Roman Victory!