Late Republican Rome vs The Pontic Kingdom

Three wars were fought between Rome and Pontus under Mithridates VI. This gave me a good setting for a historical match up that I had most of the troops for (the rest were filled in by imposters). About 1100 points each and played solo. The armies in march order:

 

Pontus

 

Field commander CiC, FC and Troop commander subordinate generals. Early Armenian Ally TC.

3 x 8 bases units of Pikemen, heavy foot, drilled, average, protected

6 Light Foot Spearmen; undrilled average, unprotected, light spear, javelins

6 LF archers, undrilled average, unprotected bow

8 Galatians, HF undrilled average protected, Impact Foot, Swordsmen

4 Heavy Cavalry, armoured superior undrilled, LS, Sw

4 Sarmatian Cv, armoured superior undrilled, Lance, Sw

2 x 4 Imitation legions, armoured, average, IF, Sw

8 Spearmen medium foot, protected, average, undrilled, LS

2 x 8 Therophoroi, MF, protected average drilled, offensive spear

8 Archers, MF, unprotected average undrilled bow

4 light cavalry, Light Horse, average unprotected undrilled LS, Jvs

2 x 2 Scythed chariots, average, undrilled

2 x 4 allied Cataphracts, superior, undrilled heavily armoured, L, Sw

4 allied Horse archers, LH average, undrilled, bow.

 

An army that has always struck me as a mish mash of parts that you’ll struggle to get to work together. The pike phalanx is solid but there’s not enough of them. The rest of the foot are numerous certainly but won’t want to take on legionaries frontally. The allied cataphracts and a couple of decent cavalry units in the main army look impressive, but how will they co-ordinate with the rest of the army? The scythed chariots might be more liability than benefit! And everything wants to get stuck in, so there’s every chance of them running off here there and everywhere.

 

Rome

 

8, 8, 6 and 4 base units of HF superior armoured drilled legionaries, IF, Skilled Swordsmen

2 x 6 Velites, LF protected average drilled, LS, Jvs

6 Cretan LF, superior, unprotected, bow

4 more superior legion as above

4 Heavy Cv, armoured, superior, LS, Sw

4 Syrian horse archers, LH, average unprotected undrilled Bow

2 x 8 Thracian Foot, MF, protected, average, undrilled. Heavy Weapon.

4 Light Cavalry, LH, average, undrilled, LS, Jvs

2 x 4 Legion, as above but elite

 

Essentially 38 bases of really tough legions plus a supporting cast. Very, very tough frontally but quite a narrow army – it needs to ensure the legionaries chop through the enemy before the enemy is able to outflank them. Ideally it wants to fight on a narrow frontage.

Terrain and Deployment

Pontus chose to invade the Roman empire in agricultural terrain, hoping for wide open spaces. The Romans wanted the opposite and tried to find a secure flank. Both succeeded, or failed if you will. The Romans got some handy difficult going to secure one flank but the remainder of the table was really too wide for comfort. On the other hand the Pontics would ideally have liked more room for manoeuvre but at least they should be able to get at the Roman auxiliary troops.

The Pontic Left

The Pontic Right

The Pontic Centre

Roman centre and left

Roman right. There's another LH unit on the other side of the hill

The Romans would like to close with the legions as soon as possible. Their light foot is better and more numerous so should be able to push the Pontic skirmishers back.  They have a problem on their extreme left – their cavalry won’t be able to stand up to the Sarmatians and Pontic cavalry combined. So the legions will move forward and echelon to the left to face down the threat. The Pontics respond by moving their tough mounted wing further right and moving the phalanx over as well. This does mean that the Thracians on the Roman right have to crab over a bit to keep in touch with the legions, and have held back to delay the fight. The Pontic army has opportunities here, their troops facing the Thracians are tough enough to take them on, especially if the scythed chariots can do some damage.

Here's the state of play after turn 2. 

The Roman legions crabbing to their left while the cavalry redeploys. The Armenian horse archers are pinning a unit of disrupted velites in place

The Pontic and Armenian cavalry shadow the Roman move to the flank

Pontic LF evade away from Velites and Cretans as the phalanx comes up 

In the centre, a legion stares down Theurophoroi and Galatians

On the Roman right the Thracians look on nervously as the Syrian horse archers try to shoot down the scythed chariots. There are a lot of Pontic troops coming their way.

The skirmish battle resolved itself when the Velites rallied. With the help of a charge by one of the legions. The Pontic skirmishers gave way. The Armenian horse archers dallied too much and were caught while evading by the Velites, breaking immediately. They fled through a pike unit, which would have been a problem if the legion had been closer, but as it is the pikes soon recovered. Here's the situation at the end of turn 4.

 

The Pontc horse have completed their redeployment, and their pikes are coming up as the legions close the gap.

The Velites and Cretans advance to snipe at the Phalanx and Theurophoroi, hoping to tempt a rash charge.

The horse archers have not deterred the chariots, but in charging to clear them away the chariot line has become ragged. The Thracians try to tempt them into attacking piecemeal. To their left, a legion looks to take on the Galatians.

By turn 6 the lines have closed. By and large, the Pontics have done well to resist the temptation to charge the Roman skirmishers and have gone in as a solid line.

Crunch. two feet of mayhem

Mounted charge in on the legions

Pikes and Theurophoroi charge the legions

Theurophoroi and Galatians into a superior legion

One chariot unit has hit the Thracians doing damage and was then removed, the second now charges in

In previous versions of the rules, you'd then have an hour's long dull grind of dice rolling. Version 3 is a lot quicker. Impact is a lot more bloody, fighting generals are more at risk and morale crumbles more quickly. So, after the Pontic and Roman 6th turns we have:

The Pontic cavalry have done well to hold their own, both they and the elite legion facing them are disrupted. The Sarmatians are much less happy, half their number dead and disrupted. And the elite legion facing them untouched. The Armenian cataphracts against the superior legion has been messy. The Armenian general is dead, and the cataphracts are all disrupted. Fortunately for them the Romans are in an even worse state. The general has gone down, they've lost three bases and are fragmented.

Less carnage here. The pikes are steady, though the unit in the distance has lost a couple of bases and is overlapped as the Theurophoroi have broken. Oh, and the general fighting with the pike died as well. Three generals down, five to go!

In fact both units of Theurophoroi have run for it - they really didn't stand up to the legion at all well.

In the background, the superior legion, having shrugged off the Theurophoroi, are beating up the Galatians, who are now fragmented. The Thracian unit to the left of shot have recovered to steady. The guys on the right are less happy, The scythed chariots have taken two bases off and disrupted them and the imitation legions are in charge range.

Turn 7 and the Armenian cataphracts break through the legion opposite, but the Sarmatian and Pontic cavalry have broken.

The Armenian cataphracts break through, but too late to save the rest of the Pontic cavalry

Legion and Phalanx locked in combat

Trading blows: the Galatians and one of the imitation legions have legged it. But one Thracian unit couldn't take the charge of the imitation legions (and the fourth general of the game died in the pursuit) and another is fragmented

In turn 8 the Thracians break when the imitation legion charge them in the rear. The Armenian cataphract units both manage to turn. Legion and phalanx grind each other some more.

Turn nine and the battle ends. 

The flank threat of the cataphracts was enough to break two of the legions. However the third legion breaks it's opposing pike. It disrupted when the other legion broke and then charged without orders into the Pontic spearmen in the rear. The Pontic CiC pitched into the fight in a desperate effort to save the day and was cut down (the only remaining generals were 2 Romans and one Pontic)

Way our on the disregarded Roman right their light horse break their Pontic counterparts

 and the Pontic army breaks.

Quite a close battle in the end. The Romans lost three legions and both the Thracian units so 10 attrition points out of the required 13. Pikes and legions were evenly matched and the Armenian cataphracts fought very well. The Scythed chariots softened the Thracians up well. However the rest of the Pontic army couldn't really cope with the legions  frontally and paid the price.