Gloria Romae

Another week, another Saga: Age of Invasions battle between the Romans and the Ostrogoths. This time though, I was playing against a different player, and I was playing the Romans. So I hoped that I could use the tactics that had been used against me, to take the Romans to victory again.

For the Romans, I went for:

• Warlord (on foot)
• Infantry Hearthguard
• Warriors Spearmen x2
• Warrior Archers
• Levy Spearmen
• Levy Javelin x½
• Manuballista

With the terrain layout, I setup around some rough ground, which provided low cover, which meant that my Manuballista could shoot over it, and hopefully had a fire arc to cover the centre of the table.

In hindsight, I should have placed another woods in my area, and placed the bulk of my army in there. That would have limited line of sight for my manuballista, but made it very difficult for the Ostrogoths on their horse to attack (movement and charges cut to short, plus gain a fatigue whenever they ended movement in uneven ground).

The Ostrogoths I was facing had some Cataphracts – really well armoured cavalry. They only had a move distance of M instead of L (something we both forgot in the first turn, so they’d been doing some galloping around which they shouldn’t have), but had an armour v shooting of 5 rather than 4. Since I didn’t do much shooting against them, I don’t think this really gave them much advantage.

The Ostrogoth warband I was facing consisted of the following:

• Warlord Cataphract
• Hearthguard Cataphracts x2
• Warriors Horse x3
• Levy Archers

The Goths were first player, and we were playing a simple Clash of Warlords, so I got to roll 3 saga dice at the start and put that on my battleboard. I went for some defence options, and then we went into the game proper.

Turn 1

The Goths made use of manoeuvre, moving their warlord across the table to use We Obey on their archers. They moved forward, and did some shooting against my levy in the rough ground, but got zero kills.

They then moved a unit of Cataphracts (using L rather than M) into position to charge my Warriors, using Resolve to make a final charge. My warriors closed ranks, and uses Limes for extra defensive bonuses. We both got two kills – which was a win for the Romans from a points perspective (two hearthguards versus two warriors). The cataphracts fell back, now exhausted.

The Romans moved their Javelin back in the rough ground, allowing my Warlord to We Obey the Manuballista. We aimed for the archers in the woods, getting 4 hits and 2 kills.

My archers then surprised the Goths by using Combined Arms to allow their archers to shoot through my infantry unit at the nearby Cataphracts. We got another kill, taking the unit down to one.

My plan had been to fall back towards the rough ground. The deployment meant we had to be Short away from the table edge, so I hadn’t been able to put everyone in the corner like I’d wanted. I’d wanted to use manouevre to get people back, but now an enemy unit was close, I’d need to spend Saga dice to activate everyone. I didn’t have the dice for that, so I was left defending the open ground.

Turn 2

At this point he Goths started to move the rest of their units into position, mostly using manouevre to do this. Their archers tried shooting again, and once again got no kills.

It was now time for the next wave of Goths to assault the Roman lines. Their warriors charged forward, managing to get 3 kills and only taking a single casualty themselves, even though the Romans closed ranks. We were forced back.

A second unit of hearthguards charged by other warriors. They used Immunity, we used Limes and Scutus. We both scored a pathetic zero kills. At least that part of my line was holding.

The Romans used their manuballista again, killing another two archers. Using a mix of my archers and Plubatæ we tried to wittle down the nearby cavalry units, but got only a single kill.

Turn 3

Both of us used our Order abilities this turn. The Goths used Feud against my unit of warriors guarding the rear of my formation, and I used Fœdus (Orders/Reaction) to target their Archers and unit of Cataphracts so that they would gain extra fatigue if their shot or were in melee.

The single Cataphract figure was moved out of the way. This actually survived until the end of the game. I really wanted to kill it off and deprive the Goths of a saga die, but there were always other more pressing targets. With an armour of 5 versus shooting, they’d be tough to take down as well.

Then it was Resolve, moving two units in for an attack where I couldn’t make use of their fatigue (of which they had quite a bit).

We traded blows, with the Goths having some luck on their side. Both units of Roman warriors were driven back, exposing my archers. But it wasn’t entirely without loss for the Goths.

This left the Roman hearthguard a clear line to the now battered and exhausted unit of Goth cavalry though. It seemed like a good opportunity to go on the offensive, so I charged forward. However, I forgot to use Rally Cry, in order to replenish my Imputus.

Imputus is a resource that Romans get, which ranges between zero and four. It is used to power some of the battleboard abilities, with the more imputus you have making the abilities more powerful. I was down to zero after this attack, which was bad management on my part. Meaning that some of the battleboard abilities that I had dice on I couldn’t use.

But I managed to kill two horsemen without taking any losses myself, even though they used Immunity to cancel two kills. After the fight, they were still exhausted as well.

I used Plumbatæ to no effect, and also charged my warriors against their full unit of warriors – and we both got no kills.

At least my manuballista managed to kill another two archers. This was good, but I was really hoping to get that unit down to fewer than six figures so that the Goths would lose a saga die. At only two kills each turn, it was taking way too long.

Turn 4

A this point, we noticed that most of the other games at the club were packing away, so this would be the last turn. I used Rally Cry as an Order/Reaction to get some Imputus back, and then the Romans used Feud against my warriors again.

The full unit of warriors charged against my unit of 5, getting 3 kills against my one. This was not good.

The second unit of warriors (consisting of only 3 horsemen) charged by unit of 4 hearthguard. I figured that things should go well for me here, but both units were wiped out completely. This was now looking very bad for the Romans.

The Goth Cataphracts then charged my archers, killing six of them, but too kill casualties themselves.

This left my line broken, and my warlord exposed.

However, at this point we needed to finish the game and pack away – with no time for the Romans to take their half of the turn.

So, with the action advantage to the Goths (4 turns as opposed to only 3 Roman turns) we counted up massacre points – and it was 13 to both of us. So a draw!

My plan, if I’d had another turn, would have been to charge their exhausted hearthguard with my Warlord. This probably would have resulted in some kills on the Goth hearthguard and hopefully just fatigue on my Warlord. If I’d also been able to manuballista the archers, and taken another one or two kills there, then it would have been a (narrow) Roman victory.

At least, that’s the story that the Romans are going to tell!