Battle report from Masterton Marauders
At the club today we had an 800ap DBMM battle. The Dacians and the Kush teamed up to push back the Roman expansion in 299ad
The Romans set up a defensive line behind an extensive range if caltrops. They also intended to set up behind a river but their map must have been wrong.
The invading Dacians and Kush were eager to get to the Romans and deployed and moved first.
From right to left they deployed a small lh(f) command, the main Dacian warband command (67 me), a smallish lh and kn(x) command, the main cataphract command (28me), ax and elephants, small lh(o).
Opposite was a solid line of bd with ps support, ax(s) and a 2 cavalry groups.
The battle was pretty straightforward, the Dacians ran forward, climbing over the caltrops, and bashed away against the Roman line. They tried to extend their line on the right flank but ended up staying in column and running into the far right Roman element in column. The commander couldn't get his orders through. A similar attempt on the left also failed. The Elephants took ages to get into position on the left flank.
The Dacian attack over the caltrops started slowly but they finally got into their stride in the 5th round of battle, breaking many holes in the Roman line. The Romans started to throw in their reserves and bringing troops over from their right flank. Cheered on by the Kush, the Dacians just carried on and soon they could see the baggage in the distance before them.
After a quick discussion the Kush lh on the right flank went in to support and put more pressure on. Mistake.
They were pushed back and then the Roman cavalry came through and punished them. They were soon disheartened and when they broke soon after this disheartened the Dacian command. No longer impetuous, the Dacian advance stalled but not after they had broken the 2nd Roman command and disheartened the 1st (going from Roman left to right).
Keen to finish off the Dacians, the 3rd Roman command advanced through the caltrops to engage the warband that were in a column trying to deploy into line. Several were killed but it exposed the Romans to a counter charge from the Kush cataphracts.
With the Dacians broken, the Kush lh broken, and 2/4 Roman commands broken it all came down to a fairly minor skirmish on the Roman left and the cataphract counter charge.
The Kush general died to a psiloi leaving the Dacian / Kush within half an ME of breaking but the cataphracts had done enough and the Romans broke.
Overall the game took 5 hours with 2 players on each side.
ments
All Comments
Andrew Crampton
Awesome report. Thanks for taking the time to write it up
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| Terrain and Dacian/Kush deployment |
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| Jim deploying Romans |
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| A lh has just seen to a Roman artillery |
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| All those poker chips mark broken Romans |
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| Dacian right |
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| Dacian trying to redeploy but not understanding the orders |
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| Whats left on the right flank with mutual breaking |
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| Come on elephants, move you ar**s |
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| Romans busy digging in |
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| The final position |
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| Dacians move forward wbilst the Kush cheer them on |
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| The cataphract countercharge |
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| Warband scrambling over the caltrops |
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| The Dacian have broken through |
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| Elephant trying to break the line |
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