54mm Romans v Germans

 

The last few weeks have seen a bit more boardgame playing... mainly Eclipse which is an excellent 4X space game.  It reminded me a lot of the computer game Stellaris.  We played it with 3 players and then with 6 which made for very different games but both really enjoyable (especially since I won!!)

This weeks game was a change with my friend Anthony's fantastic 54mm Roman and German figures and using the Portable Wargames Rules.

The German commander

I'd used these rules for the recent participation game at Salute so the mechanics were familiar  but this time units had strength points rather than  the 'sudden death' option we'd used to speed up the game at Salute.

German cavalry in the wood

The battlefield was an open plain (the Teutoburger forest was clearly suffering from over deforestation!) so no chance of my Germans skulking in the forest, and both sides ignored any attempts at subtlety and charged at each other.  On one flank the cavalry spent several turns fighting ineffectively in the small wood on the flank.  Eventually the Roman cavalry broke off and turned instead on a German infantry warband which was merrily slaughtering Roman archers, but this proved its undoing as the Germans pursued them and eventually wiped them out.  

The cavalry clash in the forest

The Roman commander

In the centre it was more of a slog... the Romans had the advantage of being tougher (with an extra strength point) but the Germans were faster and had a bonus if they charged.  The Germans were able to use this speed to their advantage, turning the Roman flank and rolling up the legions.  There will be questions asked back in Rome!!

The rules are ideal for an evening game and remind me of a cross between Command and Colours and DBA.  The figures (a variety of makes and conversions) were really lovely and looked great!