Defending the Limes - Game 2 vs Early Armenian
The second game was against an early Armenian army using the late period options, with IKnF. Terrain would be important, because, apart the heavy cavalry, armenian can field an impressive number of light horse and auxilia. In theory they can both outflank enemy and attack through bad terrain.
As defender I deployed both infantry corps in the center, with flanks protected by the difficult going. The CiC corps was behind them, ready to manouver where needed.
The Armenian had two allied Kn corps aimed at my infantry, The CiC set to outflank my position, and finally a huge auxilia corps to attack the village. I Manouvered the reserve to cope with the enemy right wing. The game could be decided by the speed of the armenian infantry advance through the Bua, a position that could ruin my defensive line
The roman infantry was deployed in an echeloned formation to have more overlap against charging knights. In the meantime the ArtF started to bombard the enemy to make him attack before the infantry could sweep through the village. It worked.
The clash was terrible. For three rounds the armenian charged killing no enemy, and for three times my countercharge versus the overlapped enemy KnF were unsuccessful. I was very afraid of this, I Missed so many opportunities and it was just a matter of time before roman line was pierced. In the meantime armenian Ax kept advancing very slowly, due low pips.
Finally a hole appeared in the enemy line, and armenian corps started to take casualties
The cavalry combat on the right hill was more bloody. Armenian suffered a lot of losses, but not before having pierced two times the roman cavalry line. I was four elements down.
The Armenian infantry was still away when both armenian allied corps suddenly broke.
After several turns of pip crisis, the romans could finally organize a coordinated attack and break the weakened armenian CiC corps. 25-0
The armenian plan was sound, but poorly coordinated due awful pips for the infantry corps. The repeated kn charges against the roman infantry were not lucky and lacking any outflanking against the infantry line they were the only solution.