Last Stand  


The Background

The 25th of September 2004 we played a last stand scenario (p82 of the WAB rulebook) at the "Murphy's Heroes" gaming club. The only reason for choosing this scenario was that we had 3 gamers with 2000pts armies. A Late Roman army, an imperial Roman army and a Carthaginian army. With thanks to René van den Assem (late Romans and defender) and Geert H. (Imperial Romans and attacker, joined by my Carthaginian army).

 


The Battle

The Setup

Quite fast the surrounding armies launched a massive attack up the hill.

 

Standing Strong

The defender had the advantage that he was situated on top of a hill. Also, in this scenario, his leadership is increased by +1 for all units. And just in time we realized that he could shoot with massed archery on a hill. The defender also had the shieldwall rule.

All things above made is very difficult to get the upper hand in the combats the attackers (Geert & Richard) launched against him.

The battle formed into 4 different combats on all 4 sides of the hill.

The defender prepares for the impact.

The Roman cavalry clashed into each other on one side of the hill, where the elephant also tried to join the combat. In the end the heavy Roman imperial cavalry even fled the table.

 

Roman auxiliaries start their charge!

On the other end of the table 3 Spanish cavalry units came under heavy fire from the massed archery situated on the hill. They decided not to wait too long and attacked. One unit was repelled, but the other was victorious in the end when their countrymen attacked the defending unit in the rear.

 

(EIR in red   -   Late Romans in blue   -   Carthaginians in orange)

The Carthaginians had a very difficult time against the light infantry they were fighting in their centre. The Celtic and Punic infantry was unable to penetrate here and beaten severely. The Phalanx of the Carthaginians had trouble manoeuvring towards the enemy.

An impression of the bitter fighting.

The Carthaginian elephant attacked his own troops after its usual Stampede move. Nothing new here .... This was not good news for the allies of the Carthaginians. A bitter struggle at the imperial Roman side ended into defeat for one of the Roman units after it was trampled upon by the elephant.

The imperial Romans were just getting ready to finish their future counterparts when the time was up. 


The Result

We played 5 rounds. Though we did not count victory points we concluded that it was more or less a draw, but a moral victory for the defender René.


 

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