“Probably the most one sided game I've played to date”.*

That game was a great fun! Phil and I lined up with our Early Roman Imperial 800 point Army against Simon and Mark who fielded a later Macedonian pike army. True to form we lost the initiative. Despite this under the new rules Simon handed the choice of terrain back to us. After much discussion we opted for a hilly battlefield terrain. During the terrain placement Simon rolled all odd numbers so all the terrain pieces ended up on our side of the table. This dictated our set up, allowing the Legions to set up between terrain pieces.

Battle kicked off in the usual way we have lined up our heavy foot opposite one and other in preparation for the pike and legions units to mix it up. The medium foot set up on the left flank with some cavalry and light horse.  I noticed Simon placed some Cretan archers on my far right flank positioned to attempt to take the high ground. I felt it was important not to allow him take this high ground so because it would overlook my the main battle line of legions commanded by Phil. Using horse archers I charged them up the hill on to the high ground which not only deterred this Cretans from advancing on the high ground but it also gained the attention of a battle group of superior cavalry.          

On the far left we found ourselves outnumbered 2-1 on cavalry battle groups. I felt this could have got a little sticky at some point if my superior cavalry got flanked. Nevertheless, Mark opted for the direct approach and steamed in with both his cavalry units. Two to one he must have thought he'd have me. I survived the impact well getting the better of it on the right. In the following melee with two dice against four I got two hits to nil which on the cohesion roles dropped Mark's cavalry two levels. This was bad luck on his part. 

After lousing up my deployment of Numidian light horse and running them backwards and forwards in my usual manner. I let my medium foot form up into the battle line. All that was left for me to do was to march forward. 

While the legions matched up against. Simon's massed Macedonian pike for a slogging match which were basically evens. After the impact the roman medium foot found themselves with an advantage. In a couple of round the protected Macedonians broke and headed for the hills. This freed up Phil’s forth legion to create an overlap on the left of Simon's pike block and my pursuing auxiliary foot broke off their pursuit to hit the disordered pikes in their flank. Considering the number of disorder markers the pike had this was the end of the game, marking the most emphatic victory to date by winning six points to nil, (unadjusted for army size).

*Mark's remark after the game over email.