Roxolani vs Middle Imperal Romans

In this game I used my beloved Sarmatians. I did a lot of tinkering on the list, trying an all mounted version. The main problem is that I had to renounce to IHdO and to baggage, a tough decision. My opponent used a middle imperial roman army.

I attacked and set up two paved roads to have a flat battlefield. My opponent was not lucky with the terrain. This was the table

Expecting a rigid defence on the right, I flank marched a small IKnF corps there. My plan was to attack along the right and roll the enemy line. I wanted to avoid to engage roman BdX. The Pretorian corps was a tough nut, and lose my CiC corps, that was very large but also quite brittle, could cost me the game.

The enemy army had two very big infantry corps at 30ME each, and a small 12ME cavalry reserve. Break one infantry command would bring the roman army near the breaking point, so focus aganust one enemy corps was a good plan.

The Roman assigned the lowest pip dice to the pretorians, and this was positive for me. My opponent was going to play a very static defence.

The flank march enterd on turn 2. Sarmatians are always eager to attack!! Roman artillery fire was annoying so I charged as fast as possible, planning to not use any feigned flight. The roman extreme right was held by three psiloi in a rough area. Should I be able to kill them, the enemy flank would be opened.

The Alan charge fixed the roman line while I tried to advance around it

At the game start I repositioned the CiC ILhF to screen the knights from BdX. This created a gap in my line. It was a risky manouver, but also a sort of bait to make roman come forward and spend pips. The Bd in front of the gap were from the corps under attack, and should be the Sarmatians be able to commit some IKnF from CiC corps in the fight, it would be good.

The roman legionary corpswas fully engaged now. It had higher pip dice, but was a bit disordered.

After some combat turns the Sarmatian reserve was finally committed and this raised the losses suffered by both armies !! Roman legion corps was broken and the sarmatian reserve disheartened

The roman cavalry corps was attacked by two sides and destroyed: 24-1 for the Roxolani

Terrain did not help Romans, but let the enemy so much initiative is deadly. A push from the pretorian corps would have helped. The Bua could have been positioned forward, to cover the left flank and help an advance there.