Romans Defend Idols Against Crusade

    My Roman legionaries moment of glory - 5 Warrior infantry repel the charge of 8 mounted knights

We had 9 players at our August monthly Saga game day at Guardtower East. Jenny graciously bowed out as the extra person, which allowed my Republican Romans to take the field at second time. This time, we were matched against the black-robed crusaders of Lee P's Milites Christi. I encouraged players to try out one of the scenarios we will be using in the upcoming Advance the Colors Saga Tournament (Oct. 8). Two groups of players chose Wrath of the Gods, a scenario designed by Joe M of the Northern Tempest Saga Podcast. I apologize if this is a nuts and bolts analysis of Saga game mechanics - so, if you're not interested in Saga, you may want to skim this report!

    'Wrath of the Gods' scenario involves players trying to seize control of 3 pagan idols on the board

In this scenario, players are attempting to control one of three objective markers in the center third of the board. If they have a unit within Very Short (2") distance and there are no enemy within Short (4") of them, they may force the opponent to remove 1 figure per objective marker controlled. These count as losses and the game is scored with Massacre Points. I had recently created a bunch of appropriate objective markers for the pagan idols that the scenario encourages you to use. My favorite were the tree idols made using the Enchanted Tree Stumps from Bad Squiddo Games.

    Two tables played 'Wrath of the Gods' - Lee and I in front and Bob B and Mike S in the back

The first marker goes dead center of the board, and each player places another. Both Lee and I placed our markers as close to our side (just past 12" Long distance) of our board edge, and moved up to the markers with our first turn movement. I had a quandary on how to take the battle to Lee, though. I knew he had one unit of Warrior crossbowmen and a mercenary unit of Turcopoles. So, once again, my Republican Romans were up against a warband with significant shooting capability. I view that as the chief weakness of the battle board, though after Game 2 with them, I think there are some other vulnerabilities. I decided to make a strong push in the center with 3-4 infantry units. My Velites were my only shooting unit, and I was worried about a long range charge against them by Lee's 8-man, Hospitaller knights. So, I moved them forward then into the heavy cover of the ruins in my center half of the board.

    View from the Roman side at the end of our Turn 1, making a general advance towards the objectives

I deployed my big 8-man unit of Roman legionaries on the far right to contest Lee's control of the objective marker closest to him. It was a waste of time and resources, though. After moving them up on the first turn, I never moved them the rest of the way to get within Short of his Hospitaller foot sergeants that had seized the objective. Otherwise, it was a steady advance by my Roman legion. Lee responded with a similar advance, but also proved that his shooting was going to be something I would have to worry about. In one shot with his crossbowmen, he killed three figures of a six-man unit (one Saga dice down already!). His Turcopoles also shot down another legionary from the unit which had moved up to contest the center objective. In my five, supposedly 50% chance saving rolls, l had made only one roll. Sigh. I sometimes wonder why my Romans even wear armor??

    Each of us seized our closest objective on Turn 1 - here my legionaries defend one pagan idol

I did have a slight edge in this scenario as the Milites Christi are not allowed to take any Levy troops in their list. So, when I forced him to lose figures with the Wrath of the Gods, he was losing Warriors while I would be losing Levy (until he eliminated that unit on turn 3!). On my Turn 2, I brought my Levy out of the rocky area, tempting his knights to charge. Meanwhile, I advanced to control the center pagan idol, and would hold it for a couple turns. I left my board loaded up with defensive abilities for his counter-thrust, which I had a good feeling was coming on his half of the turn.

    I kept pushing forward with my legionaries, reaching the center page tree idol and controlling it, too

Luckily for me, this time his shooting did little damage. He planned to make up for that, though, with the charge of his knights -- two full points of mounted hearthguard against one unit of 5 Warriors. Slam dunk, right? However, this was the strength of the Romans (supposedly). I had played Exhortation at the start of his half of the turn, giving all my units within Long distance of my Roman Consul warlord two bonus dice (either attack or defense) in melee. I also had queued up three melee abilities on my board. I closed ranks, but still would roll 9 attack dice and receive 6 bonus dice. This combat would prove to be my high water mark for die rolling for the whole game, though! The five Roman legionaries shrugged off more than a dozen hits from his knights. Lee had played a number of dice on his Orison battle board ability, too, allowing him to shrug off our hits, as well. Neither side suffered casualties, so his knight recoiled.

    The 'one that got away'...15 shots against Armor 4 mounted knights result in only 2 casualties!

On my next turn, I decided to go after those knights with shooting. Mounted hearthguard are 4 vs. shooting, but armor 5 in melee.  So, I moved up my Levy and took two javelin throws with them. In addition, another 6-man unit of legionaries tossed their pila (3 more shots) and charged in. I rolled 15 shots at a 50% chance to hit (7.5 hits, right?). We killed just two knights with the shooting instead of the four we should have, and two more in melee. His unit of 8 was down to 4, but my 6-man unit failed every single save and was eliminated. My streaky/bad die rolling with the Romans was continuing and would keep it up all game.

    Lee's one that didn't 'get away' - his Hospitaller knights prepare to charge and wipe out my Velites

With the eliminated legionary unit, the Velites received a second fatigue. Of course, on his next turn, his knights charged and totally destroyed that Levy unit. Despite inflicting 1-2 casualties on Lee through Wrath of the Gods every turn, I began to feel that my army was  coming out on the wrong end of the casualty exchange. His shooting was wearing my legionary units down, and more importantly, I was not capitalizing on my attacks where I had the advantage. With the missed flubbed shooting turn and my charge that killed only two figures, I felt I was losing. However, during his half of the turn, I counted up the casualties. To my surprise, we stayed surprisingly close all game. 

    Romans are stubborn, and keep up the pressure. My Triarii (right) cutting down his crossbowmen

I sent my legionaries in against his knight unit, which had been whittled down to 2 figures. I played "Pilum," and an extra dice in combat bonus. This time, our javelins finally struck home and both knights fell! On the next turn, I brought my Triarii hearth guard forward and charged into his crossbow unit. We ended up killing all but two. Things were finally getting better, it seemed. At this stage, I might even be ahead, I felt. 

    Hospitallers don't give up either - his Turcopoles mercenaries ride down a battered legionary unit

Lee still had his warlord and mercenary Turcopoles, and they both charged home next turn to redress the odds. My dice deserted me again and his warlord not only completely destroyed the Triarii, the Turcopoles also wiped out the remnants of the legionary unit next to the center objective. This set up my turn 6, though, and I felt I knew a way to seal the win. His warlord was Exhausted, meaning one more casualty would eliminate him. I set up my remaining Saga dice and prepared to see my legions through to victory.

    Another vicious, hard-fought battle was Mike's Jomsvikings clash with Dan N's Poles

However, it was not to be. Lee received an urgent text from his wife and had to pack up and leave right away to take care of a family matter. We didn't have time to count up points. So, sadly, this hard-fought game had to be called with no winner and no loser. I think I could have pulled out a victory by eliminating both his warlord and the remaining two crossbowmen. However, the dice had not been kind to my Romans this game, except for a couple of instances where our saves were good. So, my final strike could have fallen flat. Equally, Lee could have turned the tables in his half of the 6th turn. We'll never know, though. 

    Poles and Jomsvikings batter each other in this brutal, 23-23 tie in Clash of Warlords

After the game, I reflected again on the Republican Roman battle board and warband. We covered this faction in depth on the most recent Saga Ohio podcast. Three other Republican Roman players and myself analyzed the board in a great conversation. As I expressed in that podcast, I don't know if the Romans have a "Plan B" if getting to grips in melee is not successful. In the beginning, I thought loading up on defense dice and letting the enemy wear itself out in fruitless attacks would be a winning strategy. After two games, I'm not so sure. 

    Earlier in their match, the Jomsvikings on left close with the Polish battleline

Perhaps another big vulnerability is whether an army that relying on mostly Warrior infantry can roll enough "Common" Saga dice to be able to move and maneuver its army? Some of the better abilities on the board also require Rare dice. In both my games, I have failed to roll Rare dice on most of my turns. In fact, I think I rolled a Rare on only two of six turns against Bob's Age of Invasions Romans. I know I rolled them on only one of my five turns against Lee. So, that's three of eleven rolls with no equivalent "6" on a Saga dice for an army that generates seven dice when fresh. Crucially, if the Republican Roman player rolls no Rares and instead mostly Uncommons instead of Commons (as I did at least a couple of turns in each game), they are severely handicapped. So, at this stage, I think the jury is out on the effectiveness of this army. 

    Joe D (L) teaches his friend Bob how to play Saga in a Viking vs. Viking battle

Perhaps even more key, I am simply not having a lot of fun with this army. Loading up defensive abilities to blunt an enemy's attacks is not the most exciting part of a game of Saga. Their ability to launch offensive melees is also not overwhelming. Since most of their battle board abilities are Melee oriented, and if they really aren't that great in melee, uhmmm...what can they do?? I think I will give the army one more try, though. If third time is not a charm and I am not having a lot of fun with these guys, it is likely they will go on the shelf except for Age of Hannibal type events.

    Bob B's Byzantine army takes control of the center objective in his 'Wrath of the Gods' match

Elsewhere, my game with Lee was definitely NOT the only close game. In our four games that day, three games were ties (counting mine as a tie). Here are the results from our game day:

• Dan N's Poles tied against Mike H's Jomsvikings in Clash of Warlords, 23-23.
• Lee P's Milites Christi tied against Mike D's Republican Romans in Wrath of the Gods (unknown score).
• Bob B's Byzantines defeated Mike S's Milites Christi in Wrath of the Gods, 56-8.
• Joe D's Vikings tied Bob's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, 29-30.

    Byzantine and Knightly cavalry struggle for control of one of the objectives on the flanks

Both boards that played Wrath of the Gods said they enjoyed it, so looks like we have a fun scenario lined up in October for the Advance the Colors tournament. I hope folks can make it out for this event! 

    Vikings vs. Vikings in a Clash of Warlords, somewhere in Scandinavia

First Test of Battle for the Republic's Legionaries

    My new Republican Roman Saga army faced a stiff first test in a civil war against Late Romans

I had to skip our Saga game day in June, so I was really looking forward to July’s game day at the Guardtower East. I hadn’t played Saga in awhile, and was eager to roll some dice and try out my new Republican Roman army. We had 10 players show up, another good thing, as it meant I wouldn’t be “odd man out." Once we were sure we had everyone, I let folks choose their matchups. I ended up squaring off against veteran Ancients gamer Bob B, who I always have close, gripping matches with. This one would prove no exception.
    

    My Roman army hides in the shadow of gentle hill, trying to avoid 2 bolt-shooters behind the bog

Bob was fielding his Age of Invasions Romans, so we had a civil war, of sorts. My Republican Roman list is quite different, though. Most of my faction’s advanced Saga abilities are usable only by the heart of the army, the legionaries. In fact, only ONE of the 10 abilities does not specify which of your units can use it. They go from being as permissive as “Infantry” (two abilities), to as restrictive as Hearthguard defenders. Most abilities specify as being usable only by Maniple units, which are Roman warrior or hearthguard  infantry in units originally of eight figures or less.

    Facing off against the Republican legion in the center are a large unit of legionaries & cataphracts

So, the Roman battle board pushes its players to use small units of legionary infantry. I conformed to this historical list building and had four units of 6-man warrior Hastati or Princeps infantry and one unit of 8 figures. I also had one unit of 4 Triarii (hearthguard foot), and one of 12 levy javelinmen known as Velites. There were no mounted troops in this army. Instead, only lots of plodding heavy foot.

    As historically, the Roman Velites skirmishers screen the advance the army against missile fire

Examining the advanced abilities revealed they have excellent defensive capabilities. However, crucially those defensive abilities work ONLY in melee. Their anti-shooting abilities were weak, being limited to one ability which was usable only by Maniples. So, what did Bob field with his variety of Romans? LOTS of shooting capability! The Age of Invasions Romans are known for their ability to field a manuballista, or artillery bolt shooter. Most players take the ballista, but Bob decided to up the ante and fielded two! In addition, he fielded his legionary foot in two large, 10-man units to take advantage of the Plumbatae ability. This represents the small javelins thrown by late Roman legionaries. Plumbatae allow Romans to fire 1:1 with these, which means he’d be rolling 10 attack dice on his shots with them.

    The Velites place themselves between the bolt shooters and the heavy infantry, taking casualties

So, my number one goal would be to not have my heavy foot shot to pieces as we closed with his battleline.  Bob was 1st player, and surprisingly, placed a large, gentle hill in the center right of the battlefield. I had already been planning on playing a hill to block the line of sight of his ballistae, so deployed a large steep hill in the left center. This gave me two tall pieces of terrain to hide behind, at least on my initial advance. Next, Bob placed a marsh towards his center. With three pieces placed already on the board, I could eschew placing another one and instead move one of his. I chose to scoot his bog towards his baseline so he couldn’t hide the ballistae behind it. Bob’s last name IS Boggs, so he placed a second marsh on his left for his ballistae to hide behind, after all. Our battlefield was now set.

    Bob's cataphracts open the melee portion of the battle, hurling back a unit of legionaries

In the Clash of Warlords scenario, the 1st player deploys half his troops. Then the 2nd player deploys his entire army, followed by the 1st player setting up his remaining troops. Luckily, Bob deployed both his ballistae in the first half - behind the marsh, as I’d suspected. Unfortunately, their 24” range on a 4’x3’ battlefield would allow the artillery to shoot just about anywhere they wanted that was not blocked by the hills. Now, I could have sat back on my baseline, out of his range, and said, “Come get me!” There are Saga players who would do this. My number one goal, though, is to have fun. That would NOT be a fun game. So, I bunched up my army in the shadow of the gentle hill, preparing to march down the valley between the two hills. Bob deployed one of his large legionary units near his baseline opposite the valley, backed up by a 6-man unit of mounted cataphracts. Cataphract armored cavalry is an excellent troop type added in the Age of Invasions book. They are slower in “Moves” (but not “Charges”) than traditional mounted hearthguards. However, they are one better armor class. This would be a key point as my Velites javelinmen would try to harass them through a good half the game.

    Late and Republican Romans charge and countercharge, while another tries to circle the steep hill

In Republican Roman legionary tactics, the Velites are the screen - deployed out front of the heavy infantry to absorb enemy missile fire. That would be their job in the opening phases of this game, too. They absorbed volleys from both ballistas and one of Plumbatae from the enemy legions. When they were reduced from 12 to six figures, I scurried them away from the center and screening role and onto the slopes of the steep hill. They would remain out of range of the ballistae for the remainder of the game — barely. However, they would toss javelins from the slopes at the enemy horsemen whenever they got a chance.

    Bob's left wing finally arrives with a thundering charge by barbarian cavalry Foederati

Speaking of those cataphracts, Bob opened up the hand-to-hand portion of our battle with a charge from them against one of my small units of legionaries. A wily general, Bob had noticed I had queued up two abilities (Close Formation and Tenacious) which grant me attack or defense dice when outnumbered by the enemy. It’s the whole reason that many Republican Roman Saga players go with 6-figure units. However, his cataphracts were also six figures, which meant I couldn’t really use either of those. I was taking advantage every turn of Exhortation, which gives every friendly unit in melee within a Long distance of my warlord two bonus defense or attack dice. Once again, NOT against shooting, which was where Bob would do at least half of his damage in this game. I was finding that our late Roman cousins were NOT a good matchup for my Republican Romans!

    A Roman saying says that a battle is a grim one when the Triarii veterans have to enter the fray

Bob’s charge shattered my legionary unit, who recoiled away onto the hill slopes where the cavalry would be unlikely to follow. However, this finally brought two of Bob’s units (the legionaries and the cataphracts) in range of my legionaries’ charges. Up to this point in the game, we were suffering the casualties and the late Romans were the ones dishing them out. I launched a very disappointing charge against his big legionary unit (13 dice causing only two casualties). This established a new theme for the second half of the game: Bob’s saving rolls. To this point, I had been rolling above average saving rolls against his shooting. However, Bob would prove to roll incredibly well in melee saves. His shooting may be subpar, his melee rolls were about average, but he shone all game in saving rolls.

    Bob's sole remaining cataphract won him the game with his heroic saving rolls against all odds

For several turns, we traded charges, Bob chewing up my small legionary units (always softening them up with their Plumbatae missile attack). I was simply not doing enough in return on my counter-strikes, though. He was winning the war of attrition. The Velites were slowly but surely whittling down the enemy horsemen with their javelins. I thought the cataphracts would finally be eliminated when they charged my Trairii. I rolled four casualties in melee against their two remaining horsemen. In Saga, you save against melee hits only on a 5 or 6 (1/3 chance). So, how many of those four hits did Bob save? Three of four — 75% of them!

    We had 10 players show up for our July Saga game day fielding 9 different types of armies

Still, when he charged in his mounted general to finish off one of my legionary units, I thought I had a way of winning the game. If I could kill that last cataphract, its loss would inflict a fatigue on three of his units, including his general. I could then charge in my fresh, 8-man legionary unit against his general  and hopefully kill him, too (as he would have two fatigues). How did it work out? Bob proceeded to roll a half dozen saving rolls in a row for the lone cataphract, effectively clinching his victory.

    Jenny's war wagon in her Eastern Princes army takes a historical opponent in Dan's Poles

When we counted up the points, it would have been a Draw if I had killed that last cataphract. However, since I couldn’t take him out, Bob eked out a victory. We both agreed that that horseman would be awarded medals and honors for his heroic stand. I had lost, but honestly, I felt I did as best I could with a brand new army and a matchup that was disadvantageous. Whereas before I felt that the Republican Romans were somewhat weak against enemy shooting, I think this game confirmed it is worse than I thought. They are highly vulnerable to enemy shooting. I think I am going to have to rethink my army composition against “Shooty” armies. It may be time to hire some mercenary Cretan archers or even recruit another unit of Velites. With an armor of 4 and my small unit sizes, I can foresee bad things happening against our missile-rich Numidian, Carthaginian, and Spanish enemies in the Age of Hannibal book. And that doesn’t even factor in all of the ahistorical Shooty armies like my own Moors. Or the Irish. Yikes!

    Dan's Polish knights resplendent in their individual medieval heraldry triumphed over their foes

Still, solving tactical puzzles is one of the strengths of Saga as a game. I will have to figure out a way to overcome that, just as the actual Roman generals did two millennia ago when they conquered the Mediterranean and built an empire.

Here were the results of the games from our July Saga game day:

• Bob B's Romans (AOI) defeated Mike D's Rep. Romans in Clash of Warlords, 16-11
• Andy S's Rep. Romans defeated Mike C's Jomsvikings in Battle of Heroes, 10-0
• Lee P's Milites Christi defeated Tyler P's Irish in Battle of Heroes, 23-13
• Dan N's Poles defeated Jenny T's Eastern Princes in Clash of Warlords, 16-12
• Mike S's Vikings defeated Tom G's Welsh in Clash of Warlords, 19-11
• (Rematch) Tom G's Welsh tied Mike S's Vikings in Clash of Warlords, 22-22 

Viva Roma - Republican Roman army

    My newest painted Saga army - Republican Romans - is a milestone on several levels

Forty-three years ago, I was a 16-year-old kid playing role-playing games once a week at a city recreation center. I made a trip across town on a bus to the one and only game store in town that catered to these different kind of games. It was called The Soldier Shop, and it was an eye-opening experience walking up and down its aisles. I am fairly sure I bought some miniatures for our fantasy role playing games, but on one of the trips, I also picked up a set of rules for ancient miniature battles. I read through them and was like, "Wow! You can fight with whole armies?"

    This was my first army I had ever sent off to someone to be painted, and Ted did a great job on them!

None of my friends were interested in that, but I picked up a few packs of 15mm Heritage Miniatures Republican Romans. I put a note in our little newsletter one of the members of our role-playing group cranked out intermittently, seeing if anyone else was interested. Larry Connor, now sadly passed, called me up and said he also owned the same rules. Slowly, I began painting my first-ever miniature army under his coaching.

    I touched up both general figures with extra details, and the standard bearers were painted by me

That is world's away from the current gaming scene, but there was an interesting convergence. For Ancients, I play Saga now instead of Wargames Research Group rules (my entry into the field). I recently bought figures for those same Republican Romans more than a year ago when Saga released Age of Hannibal. Still, as months passed, the army seemed to get no closer to the front of the painting queue. I decided to do something I had never done before. I sent the miniatures off to be painted by someone else, paying them $220 to do so. For years, I would say that I would never do that. I enjoy the painting part of the hobby too much, and besides, I'm too much of a cheapskate! 

    Ted did a great job on the cavalry, too - though I did add in the shield design in micron pens

However, I decided to break new ground and do that mainly because of the painter: Ted Bender. One of our board members in HMGS Great Lakes, Ted recently retired from his job and was essentially painting full-time. I thought I could throw a little business his way. Plus, it seemed a perfect fit. My very first army I ever painted was Republican Romans. The first army I paid Ted to paint was Republican Romans (though 28mm, not 15mm). A weird convergence, 43 years in the making, and now those Romans are ready to take the field.

    Ted used shield decals I'd provided for the legionaries and they turned out great, I think!

I do have to be honest. I touched up both the foot warlord and mounted warlord figures. I wanted them to be a little more ornate and their armor a little more fancy. And then it hit me: I hadn't sent away any standard bearers (mainly because I didn't own any). Crap! There was no way I was going to put my Roman warlords on their own bases. I normally have 2-3 figures on my Saga warlords' bases (and often dogs or some other pet, as well). Meticulously, I went through my unpainted 28mm Ancient and Dark Age figures looking for something I could convert into a Roman standard bearer. I found some 28mm Navigator Greek Hoplites in linen cuirass. They would be easy to convert to standard bearers! Plus, both warlord figures were also wearing linen armor. Perfect!

    My 'jazzing up' of the warlord was adding details to the linen armor and a pattern to the cloak

So, technically this army is not entirely painted by someone else. Still, for all intents and purposes, it is. The Romans also fulfill that vow I'd made to eventually use shield decals for my "next" army. Ted is a whizz at using shield decals, so I purchased a variety of ones to match the Gripping Beast figures and sent them away with the miniatures. The funny thing is, I tried to use the leftovers that Ted sent back on the standard bearers (who I had given extra Roman shields I had). I STILL can't seem to get the knack of shield decals and gave up. I even watched a YouTube video on applying waterslide decals. Fail!

    For my veteran Trairii legionaries, I used the kneeling figures and switched to wire spears

But hey, in one fell swoop my Republican Roman Saga army was done! I did have to base and flock the army, of course. That was a fairly big undertaking, but I was determined to do it all at once. I used my normal method, painting the edges of the base first, then painting the base with a 50/50 mix of white glue and brown paint. The stand is then dipped in fine brown ballast. After drying, I dab the top of the base with 50/50 white glue and water. I sprinkle on Woodland Scenics blended Turf. The next step is to put the first clearcoat spray using Testor's Dullcoate. 

    The 'Levy' of a Republican Roman army are the javelin-armed youths known as velites

Once dry, I dab the turf with three irregular shapes of full strength white glue. I sprinkle it with Woodland Scenics blended grass. I add a couple tufts that I buy at the local hobby stores, and the base is ready for its final spraying of Dullcoate. And the legion is ready to take the field now. Perhaps now, all these decades later, my imagination is jaded and not as fired as that 16-year-old's was when he commanded his first Roman legion. Still, I look forward to taking the field with my Romans. It is still my favorite civilization from History to read about. Hopefully, the legion's battles will write new sagas of wargaming that bring back some of that spark I got from painting my first Romans all those years ago.

    The other half of the Velites, which are normally depicted with animal headdresses

    More 'Hastati' or 'Principes' legionaries carrying the heavy throwing weapon called a pilum

    I organized my legionaries in groups of six with one leftover group of eight

    There are a LOT of legionaries in a Roman army!