Hail Caesar: Romans Vs. Greeks

The Gweeks took on the Wwwomans at the RGMB for the first time.  I revelled in my fully painted Roman army, although I soon started to wonder about ways of making them appear brighter on the table top – buts that’s for another time.  Red had expanded his Greeks substantially, and he commanded two of the three divisions, with Michael the third.  With nobody handy to help me push models around I commanded all three of my divisions.

We devised a simply scenario where the divisions arrived randomly, and then adapted/messed about with it to make it balance during the opening phases of the game.  Reds enthusiasm for a river saw the Greeks starting from one side, and the Romans from the more open other side.  The Romans were quick in arriving, with Tribune Maximus Gittus and his legionaries taking up a right side, and Tribune Farquaad and his larger Legionary force to their left.  With the Greeks massing on the other side of the river I took advantage of some excellent command rolls to race the legionaries forward with the intention of blocking the two bridges and denying the enemy their superior numbers in an open field.

This plan went well until Tribune Gittus and his Legionaries got it all wrong; their attempt at blocking the right hand bridge resulting in first the fourth cohort, then the fifth cohort, and finally a unit of slingers all fleeing in the same turn from the same Hoplite taxi!  With this major loss, and the Greeks flooding across the river,  things looked bad for the Romans.  I threw the large 1^st Cohort in against the left bridge, supported by the 2^nd and 3^rd cohorts of legionaries, and drove off a Hoplite taxi, but took severe casualties  in doing so. 

My general raced the auxiliary division forward, hoping to stem the tide of Greeks on the right, but the action only cost me an auxiliary cavalry squadron in return for a second Hoplite taxi.  The auxiliaries took heavy casualties, and were forced back, while on my left Tribune Farquaads Legionaries were being pushed back by an ever increasing number of Greeks.  The final straw was the eventual arrival of the last third (!) of the Greeks army, as Michael finally passed a command roll!  At this point, and with time upon us, I conceded the field.