I came on in the same old way; I died in the same old way.

The first thing to do is to congratulate Simon on a masterful whipping of my Imperial Romans legions with his Macedonians last night. He played very well and exercised control over the key areas of the table which gave him a deserved 26-2 victory.

While being rattled home on the tube my thoughts turned to the mistakes I made and ultimately, I learned nothing from my loss to his Pyrrhic army earlier in the year.   

 

It all began to go wrong because of my poor deployment.  The key error I made was I spread my force out to thinly. My centre was weak only comprising of two battle groups of Medium Foot giving Simon’s Lancers a tasty target from the offset.

On the right flank my legions were formed up against Simon’s Pike keeping one and other in check. Late in the game with no other option the legions on that flank to charge, and although one battle group had success against Thracian medium foot who stubbornly refused to move for Simon. The other Legion was overwhelmed by the phalanx of pike.  

     

The left flank where the opening exchanges took place was the stalemate of light horse countering each other with a series of wheels and manoeuvres that contestants on “Strictly Come Wargameing” would have been proud of. Nevertheless, all the fancy hoof-work in the world could not correct the miss matches created of light horse against light horse who cancelled each other out and where lost on poor dice roles.

The miss-match of Lancers charging Auxilia, who stood up well, but the outcome was always painfully enviable.

And the disaster that was the right flank where my poor deployment squandered my finest troops forcing me to loose them in an all or nothing charge into ordered pikes in the open. This ultimately leaves the result up to the dice gods, who don’t seem to favour me currently.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If I had to play the game again this evening I would deploy differently. I would attempt to keep my light horse away from Simon’s light horse I would pack my Legions in the centre with archers has rear support I would use the Auxilia to threaten his light horse.  

My Artillery bolt shooters came along for the battle but they decided against fighting, opting to have a picnic on a gentle hill instead!

In closing a note of thanks is due to Gordon, Tamsin and Andy whose help and advise on the rules were invaluable.