Mortem et Gloriam - Game 29 - 2019/04/20

Hello!

After a month or so after CanCon 2019, I participated in another Mortem et Gloriam tournament. This time it was organized by Andrew in Campbelltown near Sydney. Luckily for me, there were a few players from Canberra planning to attend as well. Dean was kind enough to offer me a lift to and from Campbelltown. The journey definitely passed faster when discussing all things related to Mortem et Gloriam!

The tournament was organized at the shop called Hall of Heroes. It was open format and armies had to be at 10,000 points per side. There were 15 players attending and there was an interesting mix of armies present. 

In my first game I played against Early Imperial Roman army, commanded by Tony. It was the first game of Mortem et Gloriam for Tony, although he is a very experienced wargamer. it just happened to be the first opportunity for him to try a new system. Here are the details of the army Tony brought to the event:

Early Imperial Roman - Army List

The army had a lot of small units but interestingly, the breaking point of 5, only one better than my own army. I guess those superior Legionaries are not cheap! Romans had more infantry TuG's but fewer cavalry elements. In terms of SuG's the difference was smaller, with Romans having one more unit of Archers. 

Ideal situation would be for my Phalangites to fight against Auxilia, as they have slight advantage over these units. But even against Superior Legionaries the Phalanx may still prevail due to deeper formation. If in addition I could use the numerical superiority in the cavalry units and catch Roman cavalry in the open, there could be a good chance to win.

That was, of course, just a preliminary idea, before the terrain set up.

Here is the army list I used in this tournament for reference:

 

Pre-battle

With the same number of cards per each army we did not really expect any side to out-scout the other by much. As to the terrain, we ended up with Mountains on the secure flank and quite a few pieces of rough going areas. Majority of these were concentrated in top right corner (looking from my point of view). 

Deployment

Early Seleucid vs Early Imperial Roman

Deployment of the Armies.

During the deployment phase I could see already that my initial plan needs to be changed. All the Auxilia (or Legionaries as I marked them on the map, as opposed to Superior Legionaries), were deployed in Loose formation in rough going terrain. It meant I could not reach these units with my Palangites.

In addition, Tony deployed his army in the corner and it meant I had to march some of my infantry from center left towards the right flank. Not impossible but not ideal either. 

Tony was invading payer in this game.

Romans - Turn 1

Turn 1 - Sequence of Actions

Phalangites begin their long walk.

Seeing their enemies deployed on their right flank, Phalangites wheeled their formation towards the Romans and begun the long walk. Legionaries did not move much, only shifted a bit forward. Auxilia occupied the forest in the middle, while one of the units on the flank moved towards another piece of difficult terrain.

Cautious infantry maneuvers.

Seleucids - Turn 2

Turn 2 - Sequence of Actions

Slowly getting closer.

Seleucid army continued their advance but the Phalangites on the left were a bit slow in catching up with their companions on the right. In the meantime, cavalry units on the flanks made some attempts to outmaneuver the enemy. However, Roman units kept the distance and stayed in the protective terrain.

Advance continues.

Romans - Turn 3

Turn 3 - Sequence of Actions

Thracians lead the way.

The cavalry units on the flanks started chasing enemy mounted skirmishers while infantry in the middle made another attempt to close the distance to the enemy. Clearly, the commander of the left group of Phalangites was just mediocre general, not up to the task as the infantry was advancing at a really slow pace.

In such circumstances, it was up to Thracians and Cretans to lead the way. These were also the only units that could attempt to shift Roman Auxilia from the forest.

First skirmishes.

Seleucids - Turn 4

Turn 4 - Sequence of Actions.

Small success on the left flank.

Selecudis noted a small success on the left flank where enemy skirmishers were not withdrawing fast enough. First, Tarentine Cavalry caught horse archers and pinned them down. Scythian mercenaries used the opportunity to move to the flank of the engaged Romans. The plan was, obviously, to join the fight soon. Second, Roman archers did not make it to the woods and were run down by the Line Cavalry. 

The cavalry on the right attempted to do the same but this time enemy horse archers avoided the pursuers. 

That, unfortunately, opened a gap and some Roman Legionaries marched into it, with the clear intention to outflank the Phalangites shortly after.

A few brief fights erupted, with both Tarentines and Thracians inflicting some damage upon their enemies. However, they had no opportunity to continue as both armies were forced to disengage to fight another day.

Disengage!

After-battle

Many thank to Tony for a game! 4 turns (almost!) played during the first ever game in the new system is definitely a good achievement, so well done!

Unfortunately, we run out of time and were not able to complete the turn, in particular melee phase. However, even if we did it would not result in something dramatic. Only two units from each side were in a fight and it was not a guarantee that in any of these fights one side would break the opponent yet. Hence, the result of the game was 3 to Seleucids and 2 to Romans.

I certainly did not properly anticipate the way Tony would deploy his army. As a result I had half of my force too far from the enemy. Second mistake was to allocate Mediocre commander to Phalanx on the left. I really needed better cards to move them as a block and at a double. That combined with the fact that my Army Commader was only competent and had a few units of his own to take care meant that I had no extra cards to spare. As a result, Phalangites often had to move one by one rather than a block in order to move at all. 

Interestingly, the competent commander who was responsible for the cavalry on the left also had troubles in moving his units. I certainly need to address this issue because it is troublesome that relatively small army with 4 commanders still has problems in executing maneuvers. But for the remainder of the tournament I had to deal with it with the tools I had.

Thanks for reading!