Patrician Irish in Italia

I was also a member of the Wild Geese team and competed in the Classical
Book 2 period. I brought a Patrician Roman army as I had never used Romans
before and I wanted to bring a regular army with some quality troops
(Kindly lent to me by Timus Madeleyus – Roman guru of the Munster Wargames
Society).

My list was Eastern, 3 commands, and as follows:
Foot Cmd: 1xReg Cv(O) C-in-C, 4xReg Bd(O), 12xIrr Ax(S), 6xReg Ps(O) 27 ME
Mounted Cmd: 1xReg LH(S) SG, 2xReg Kn(X), 8xReg Lh(S), 2xIrr Ax(S), 4xIrr
Ps(S) 24 ME
Mixed Cmd: 1xReg Cv(O) SG, 2xReg Kn(F), 6xReg Lh(S), 6xReg Ax(S), 2xIrr Ps
(S), 4xReg Ps(O) 27 ME
Baggage Cmd: 6xReg Bge(F)

With low aggression, compact frontage and high manoeuvrability my plan was
to defend and utilise terrain to reduce frontage and secure flanks. The Ax
(S) and Blade would protect a flank and fight foot opponents whilst the Lh
(S) (a troop type not numerous in this period) would target other mounted
en masse or outflank.

Game 1 V Stefano Grombi (Patrician Roman)
Civil War in Rome!

Stefano defended and the majority of terrain fell on Stefano’s back edge.
The only piece to impact play was a ½ FE RH which fell mid-right on the
table on Stefano’s side. His 3 commands consisted of (in summary) C1) Ax(S)
& Ps; C2) Bd(O), Ax(S) plus a single Kn(F) C3) Mounted - Kn(X) and Lh(O).

Stefano deployed his army in the order above with the middle command behind
the ½ RH. I deployed my Foot command on the left, Mixed command in middle
(lined up with the RH) and Mounted on the right. My plan was to hold off
Stefano’s foot and pick on his mounted.

Stefano advanced all commands in his opening bounds, taking the RH and with
the intention of swamping my Foot Command with his 2 foot commands.
Similarly I advanced all my mounted on his mounted lining up my Kn(X) and
(F) with his Kn(X) and my Lh(S) with his Lh(O) to get max benefit. The
race was on!

The mounted were in combat on the right flank within three bounds. The
light horse lottery ensued with my Lh(S) gradually gaining the upper hand.
However Stefano’s Kn(X) managed to inflict some casualties on my Knights
and were now facing tasty Lh(S)! On the left, my march blockers failed to
slow Stefano sufficiently and his Blades drove into my Ax(S), and started
to gain the upper hand. His solitary Kn(F) was also in the front line and
after a couple of ineffectual combats began to QK Ax(S). He began to
outflank my Foot and as this was my low pip command I was limited in
response.

In bound 6, I disheartened Stefano’s mounted command and broke it the
following bound. However my mounted had taken lots of attrition and my
Mounted command became disheartened with a last ditch combat loss by a
disheartened Lh(O)! The Kn(X) in Stefano’s broken command were intact so he
held these in subsequent bounds slowing me from getting on his middle
command’s flank and from redeploying quickly to assist my precarious Foot
on the left.

My Foot command was in dire straits. Without support, Stefano broke them –
with the two ME penalty breaking my other disheartened command and army.

A bloody battle. 19-6 to Stefano. Intense, aggressive, high octane game
with a very competent and gracious opponent. The contrasting emotional
reaction of the regular Italian player when rolling ‘1’s or ‘6’’s in
critical combats was worth the trip alone :)

Game 2 V Fabrizio Barrato (Syracusan)
The Brilliant Pyrrhus from Syracuse attacked Rome with a three command
army.

C1 was a large 31ME command consisting 4 Kn(F) wedges (incl CNC); 2 El(O);
12 Pk(O) & Ps; C2 was a small 18 ME Rgo command consisting of Ax(S), Ax(O),
Ps, plus Cv(O); C3 was another large (30ME?) command with mainly Sp(O) and
Sp(I).

I defended and Fabrizio put down a Sea on my left flank to reduce the
table. I utilised terrain to the max, the key pieces being a BUA on my
base edge between the Sea and table middle, a ½ SF to the right of the BUA
near to the centre line and a GH on my right flank again near centre line.

Fabrizio doubled me and had to deploy first. He placed C1 on the left of
the SF, lined up with my BUA, C2 aimed at the SF and the C3 Spear on the
right. I deployed Foot behind the SF (with some troops in the BUA covering
my left); Mixed straddling the SF and GH and Mounted on the Right.

In his initial bounds, Fabrizio, moved his Knights for the gap between the
BUA and SF to get around my flank and sent one of his El into the SF to
support his middle command; C2 advanced into the SF with its Mounted
elements on the edge. C3 expanded its Sp(O) and advanced - leaving Sp(I)
in reserve.

In my initial bounds I countered Fabrizio’s middle command with my Foot
command in the SF (leaving Bd in reserve at rear – had deployed them poorly
at the start!) where I had overlaps and deeper ranks; The Psiloi & Ax(S) in
the BUA created a TZ between the 2 element wide gap between it and the SF
which protected the left flank of my foot command. The Ax(S) in my Mixed
Command supported the fight in the SF whilst the mounted elements lined up
with Cv(O) and Spear in two ranks. My final Mounted command also lined up
against the Spear (Kn in 2nd rank) and 4 of them broke off to outflank the
Spear.

Lots of bloody fighting commenced! In the SF Fabrizio’s Ax fought a losing
battle against a larger group of superior opponents. They held initially
(the Elephant from C1 assisting their cause) however they disheartened
after 5 rounds of combat (after also losing some Cv to Kn(X)). On my left
the Kn(F) wedges found themselves in threat zones and found it difficult to
manoeuvre. They eventually got through this as individual elements and
began to kill some Ax(S) and Ps - but in doing so left flank and rear edges
vulnerable. On my right the Spear were holding their own but were fighting
on two fronts which meant some of the line was in single rank. The Kn(F)
came through the Lh(S) in these cases and began to punch holes in the line.

Fabrizio’s middle command broke after bound 7 exposing his Spear command’s
flank. He moved his Pike from C1 to counter this (taking out a Kn(X) in
the process) but it was too late. The Spear were now outflanked, being hit
in the rear and casualties began to mount. On the left flank the Knight
and Elephant efforts disheartened my foot command however in doing so
Pyrrhus himself was killed by being hit in the rear by a Ps (O) – causing
command issues. The C3 spear broke the bound after disheartening – taking
the army.

I lost 10% casualties plus a disheartened command: 22-3 to the Romans.
This was another hard fought game and many thanks to Fabrizio who played in
a great spirit and was lots of fun. Many thanks Fabrizio for the beer – a
fantastic perk to have in the Milan club !!

Game 3 V Dave Houston (Alexandrian Macedonian)

After a wonderful meal on Saturday night (Thanks for organising Paolo P and
for the menu translation Luciano!) both myself and Dave were led hopelessly
astray by Richard Darby (Beware of anyone who owns a pub in Copenhagen and
names it ‘The Lord Nelson’ !!). I think we finished up in the hotel bar at
5am so we were more than a little fragile on Sunday morning.

I defended. Dave placed a 2 ME DH between my back edge and the table
centre. I placed a BUA to the right of this on a road, a RH alongside it
and a couple of ½ ME DgO’s on my right. The terrain was formidable for me
to defend and we both agreed on a draw at the outset.

We did play a very nice friendly game anyway which Dave won losing one
command in the process.

13-12 to Dave

Game 4 V Marco Guarnieri (Alexandrian Imperial)

Another afternoon against another Brilliant general – this time Alexander
with three commands.

C1 was 29ME with 5 Kn(F) (incl SG); 3 Lh(F), 4 Sp(O); 8 Ax(S) & Ps; C2 was
a 21 ME command consisting of 16 Pk(O) (incl SG) & Ps; C3 was a 27ME
command consisting 5 Kn(F) (incl CNC); 4 Lh(O); 8 Pk(S) & Ps;

I defended again. Key pieces of terrain were a ½ FE DH protecting my Left
Flank and a BUA on back edge middle. Marco also placed a 1 FE RgO
straddling the halfway line on the left side of the table which helped me.

I deployed first. Foot command aimed to charge into the RgO; Mixed Cmd
foot supporting these with Mounted in column and Ps(S) in line on edge of
BUA; Mounted Command deployed in column on open right flank. Marco deployed
C1 on the edge of the Rg(O) in a line – Ax(S) facing Ax(S); C2 next (facing
open terrain) and C3 in line on the right with Psiloi in front.

In my initial bounds I sent my Foot Command forward into the rough to fight
the less numerous Alexandrian Auxila. My Ps(S) moved out of the BUA to
face an oncoming Pike block. My Lh(S) from my mixed command got good pips
and moved to the right to face the mounted of Marco’s C3 frontally. My
Mounted Lh(S) command (High Pip) manoeuvred all way over to the right flank
and lined up facing Marcos flank and rear on the right.

Marco moved his C1 Auxilia one base depth into the rough to fight me. In
our initial combats we incorrectly applied the ‘S’ rule causing a casualty
to Marco. Gregg Mann spotted this, got Lorenzo to clarify, and we replaced
the much maligned Ax(S) - and saved us from messing up the game. In the
Centre Command Marco hesitated with his Pike block after an initial move
forward as he did not want to commit to fighting the Ps(S) who had some
flank support from Kn(X). On the right Marco split his Knight force – to
fight my two mounted commands.

The Ax(S) fights continued back and forth for a number of bounds however my
greater numbers again began to take their toll on the Alexandrians. The
Centre was a stalemate. On the right I charged Marco on two flanks. On
the combats facing the side edge I took an element or two and in the
counter charge Marco evened this up. However he was now stretched and
overlapped and I had a big Pip dice to come. This allowed me to get
favourable positions and in the next four combats Marco rolled â 1,2,1,2
not good against superior troops!
The frontal fight took a similar vein. Marco utilised a Brilliant stroke
in a Kn(F) vrs Lh(S) combat but 6:5 meant the Lh only fled – a key turning
point which also brought Alexander into danger.

C3 was now very precarious and broke in the next bound. This disheartened
C1, which broke a bound later.

25-0 to me. Some awful dice rolls from Marco but magnanimous in defeat he
bought me a coffee and we discussed the pros and cons of DBMM!

That’s the lot from me! A most enjoyable competition. Well run, great
venue, wonderful city, great hosts. I knew it would be !! Many thanks to
Lorenzo and all the players for making the event special.

Tony Bergin