302 Baetis River (80 BC)

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Pete and I decided to play the Sertonius campaign, 4 games in a row, countering the number of banners overall.

Baetis River is the first.

I got the Romans. Pete learnt a lesson about putting light infantry into the battle line. He used a Line Command to move all of this main line forward. I used a Counter attack to move mediums and warriors into contact. He evaded with his lights as much as he could, but a couple were pinned with other units blocking retreats and died. This allowed me to advance and battle again against his heavies.

Pete's dice abandoned him. they were just bad. His heavies killed one of my mediums, but then both died. I spent the rest of the game rounding up light infantry to win 6-2. A four flag advantage to me. This was gunna be easy! well, not so.......

Played this yesterday as the Sertorian side against a regular opponent - King Billy's 14 yo son.

Both sides exchanged missle fire and slowly manoeuvred their troops to get into a good position. Roman Ranged Fire was more telling and eventually forced the Sertorian slingers and archers from the field (2-1).
The Sertorians keep plugging away and used the cavalry to clear their side of the Baetis River to start outflanking the Roman line. (2-2)
That started a slide in fortune for the Sertorians as the Roman legion and warriors started to cut through the left of the Sertorian line like a knife through butter taking out the Lusitanian levies (Auxilia and archers)(5-2).

Sertorius saw the importance of intervention and moved his heavies into the line to hammer the Roman cohorts. Heavy losses for both sides made the game a much closer affair (5-4) and victory finally came to the Sertorians after the heavy infantry took out a Roman cohort and leader in one combat. A narrow win!

Played as Sertorius. First thing you realize is that the roman infantry is much better. At first we just skirmished a bit with our flank light units and then he advanced. My light troops were just basically "in the way" and essentially proved to be quite useless except as delaying forces. I unleashed sertorius and his legions to halt his infantry, and at first that was quite effective defeating 2 medium infantry but I got swarmed by those wrriors (very deadly units) and both heavies died. Luckily Sertorius escaped into the light infantry masses. Sertorius *does* have a cavalry advantage but wielding it was a pain since they are so far back and behind a river. I did manage to bring in my light cav with mounted charge and routed some bows and got behind his line. The romans had difficulty moving up their infantry due to excellent sertorian light infantry rolls and evades. Over time the warriors and finally the unnamed roman general were brought down ending in a 6-4 in favor of Sertorius.

Vittoria Sertoriana 6-5. All'inizio della battaglia i frombolieri e arcieri su entrambi i fianchi sertoriani tempestano di colpi le unità romane ottenendo qualche successo sui Warriors. Come prevedibile i romani avanzano su tutta la linea centrale usando i pilum prima della mischia. Sertorio ordina ai suoi leggeri di fare spazio affinchè sia le truppe pesanti che gli auxilia di Herrennius possano combattere. Nella lotta che segue i sertoriani perdono entrambe le unità pesanti e lo stesso Sertorio cade sul campo. Ma il sacrificio non è stato invano. Tutto il centro romano è in scompiglio. In pochi istanti gli auxilia sertoriani prima recuperano le perdite e poi contrattaccano la fanteria media romana. Incredibilmente, la vittoria vai ai sertoriani quando l'ordine "Oscurate il cielo" elimina i resti di un'unità romana e uccide il loro comandante in capo Lucio Fufidio.

6-5 for my Sertorians. With the advantage of a Line Command and a couple of Move-Fire-Moves, Sertorius did a flanking on the Roman right, cut off several units retreat and got about 4 Roman units before they got their revenge with a Warrior charge followed by a Double Time of Medium Infantry in the centre. With it tied 5-5, I managed to take a 1-point heavy infantry led by Sertorius and a couple of light units to cut off a single Roman medium foot and do enough damage combined by a retreat to kill it. The next turn the Roman would have played Clash of Shields, which likely would have won the game for him, so very much a near-run thing. Fun and evenly matched scenario, although it looks like the Romans have the advantage based on all that medium foot. I never even moved or fired any of my forces on the other side of the river, just kept going forward with the flanking on the Roman right and getting behind his lines, and bringing up the heavy foot to help counter the Roman charges.