The Battle of Petra, Summer 360 AD

Hyspos, near Petra. 12th August, 360 AD

Valamir looked over his men as they formed up for battle. Many of his men were tired, or sported wounds from the hard fighting trying to take the city of Petra, some miles to their rear. Now his forces were faced with the prospect of a hostile city to their rear and the field army of the Goths closing from ahead of them. 

Across the plain, he could see dust clouds and banners as the Goths moved into battle formation. Clearly they intended to force the issue today. Valamir approached one of the formations of heavy cavalry, signalling for the battle horn to be sounded. As the sound rippled across the ranks of Hun troops it was joined by drums, more horns and battle cries. An answering bellow came from the Gothic forces, brass trumpets mixed in with the cries. Sliding his helmet on, Valamir grimaced. He and his men had beaten the Goths before, he prayed to the Gods that today would be no different.

This was the first battle of our Caucasian campaign, fought between my Goths and Joe's Huns. The Goths were attacking the Hunnic forces besieging the Goth controlled city of Petra, a coastal city in arable terrain.

The Goth forces consisted of:

The General (Rank 2) with a bodyguard of 15 Heavy Cavalry (B Class)
3 Units of 15 Noble Cavalry (B Class Medium Cavalry)
4 Units of 30 Warriors (C Class Medium Infantry)
2 Units of 12 Light Javelinmen (D Class Light Infantry)
2 Units of 12 Light Archers (D Class Light Infantry)

The Huns forces (after losses incurred besieging Petra):

The General (Rank 3)
4 Units of 10 Heavy Cavalry (B Class)
2 Units of 10 Light Cavalry (B Class)
1 Unit of 15 Light Cavalry (C Class)

All troops on both sides were Irregulars.

As the defender, Joe got to set the terrain, which resulted in a very sparse table allowing him maximum mobility for his cavalry. I chose to attack from the most open end of the table, with hills to the Hun's rear. Due to a miscalculation on the part of the referee (me!), the table was a bit too large. Future battles will be more reasonably sized so that terrain can play some part in the games!

The procedure we're using for the battles is that each side will draw a deployment on a map before deploying. The attacker may then chose if he wishes to force a battle with those deployments. If he declines, both sides re-draw their deployments (if they wish). The attacker may decline twice, but must either fight on the third deployment or withdraw, conceding defeat. When the attacker decides to press the issue, the defender may either accept battle or withdraw, conceding defeat.

When both sides deployed for the first time, the Goths had their archers and a single warrior band on their far left flank, a unit of noble cavalry in the centre, their javelinmen with three units of warriors in close support to their right, with the two remaining units of noble cavalry ahead of the general and his bodyguard. On the Hun right, there were two units of heavy cavalry and one of B class light cavalry, with a distinct break in their centre and a left flank force of two units of heavy cavalry flanked with the light cavalry forming the extreme left wing of their forces.

Dawn rises over the field of battle with the armies fully deployed

Both the Goths and Huns were happy to engage in battle with these deployments, so we proceeded. My plan with the Goths was to lure the Hun heavy cavalry on my right into my infantry, then grind them down by sheer weight of numbers, while my central cavalry regiment, one of the right flank regiments and my general and his bodyguard closed in from either side and crushed them, hopefully taking the fight out of the Huns and killing their general to boot. My left flank units were effectively a sacrificial goat, I was hoping they'd hold the Hun forces on that flank or at least that the Hun forces would go out of control and pursue the remnants of my troops far enough that they'd be effectively out of the battle. My last unit of Noble Cavalry on the right flank was to drive back the Hun horse archers and allow me to crush the Hun heavies.

 <Joe's plan would go here but he claims barbarians can't write>

After a couple of turns of tentative movement and some desultory bow-fire, a series of charges were declared as the armies closed. On the Goth left, all three of the Hun cavalry units declared charges against the Goth unit nearest them. Astoundingly, the two units who should have charged the Goth Light Archers both failed their morale checks and failed to charge, while the central heavy unit charged home against the warriors in the centre. On the right, the rightmost Noble cavalry regiment charged at the Hunnic horse archers, driving them back, but losing several men to Hun arrows for their pains. The Goth unit that had taken losses to Hun arrow fire was charged by a Hunnic heavy cavalry unit, so they countercharged. Finally a Hun heavy cavalry unit with the general attached charged at a unit of javelinmen, who retired behind a nearby warrior unit. Unfortunately, they were panicked by the charging cavalry and broke. The cavalry charge smashed into the warriors, who stood firm.

The armies close in under a hail of arrows

The Hun's smash into the Goths and brutal fighting ensues on the right flank.

Astoundingly two units of Hun cavalry cannot brig themselves to run down some light infantry

Arrows were traded to some small effect by the archers and Hun cavalry units, inflicting minor losses. Meanwhile, the Goths proceeded to lose all the combats, with their left-most warrior unit being driven back, suffering only minor losses. The combat with Hun heavy cavalry cost the Goths two figures of medium cavalry, although a kill was inflicted in return. Finally on the right, despite inflicting some losses, the Goth warriors facing the charge of the Hun general and his men were beaten, and their morale began to collapse.

The next turn saw the Goth's fortunes worsen. On the left, although the Hun light cavalry was prevented from advancing by a poor morale result, the uncommitted Hun heavy cavalry unit was able to contact the light archers from the rear as they were evading. The Goth general was forced to charge the remaining Hun light cavalry or face a constant barrage of arrows. Other Goth units attempted to close in on the Hun general, but none could reach in time to aid their bretheren already engaged. The Goth infantry on the left flank collapsed after under the pressure, and the archers understandably joined them in routing. In the centre, the already weakened infantry collapsed after another bad round of fighting. The Goth cavalry fought on valiantly, but were still being beaten, taking heavy losses in the process.

The Goth right just before it collapses into rout.

The knock-on effects of the units routing precipitated a general collapse of the Gothic forces. One infantry unit in particular warrants special mention, as what started off as a -2 morale modifier ended up after a spectacular run of 7 1's on a d6 being a -16 modifier, resulting in a collapse from steady to routing (and a fair bit further too!).

The end on the left.

At this point, with my army in tatters, I conceeded the match and Joe was gracious enough to accept with no further turns (if a player concedes, their opponent can either accept, ending the battle immediately or refuse, causing the battle to last another d3 turns), partially in order to catch a train and partially as I was in a position to potentially inflict more losses on some of his heavy cavalry, which he felt he may need in future battles.

Closing Thoughts

Ian:

Overall, I think my initial plan was reasonable. Given the higher mobility of the Huns, I was always going to have to rely on luring Joe into attacking where I wanted him to and then being lucky and taking him out. I could have perhaps done with Joe's deployment being more cooperative to the plan, but allowing him the chance to redeploy while he had such a powerful force facing my holding force on the left would likely have done more harm good. I probably over-estimated the ability of my infantry, being used to having B Class Heavy Infantry in most of my previous games. The plan may have succeeded had I used my cavalry to pin the Hun heavies and then mobbed the infantry in.

While I would like to blame bad dice rolls for my eventual defeat (and they definitely didn't help matters), Joe played his forces well. Aside from his general charging into my central trap, his forces were engaging consistently with a local advantage in combat power, despite me having a slight points lead overall. That said, had my infantry managed to hold the Hun assault for a turn more I may well have been able to swamp Joe's general and pull some kind of victory from the battle. Alas, it was not to be, but the Gothic people will not fade away just yet.

Joe:

Barbarians don't write Gargh!

Final Scores:

Joe gets 3 VP for the win, neither side achieved enough points destroyed or a sufficient lead points destroyed to get any bonus VPs (the Goths being 11 points short of snatching a consolation VP).

Valamir smiled grimly as he watched the Goth horde retreating over the hills, back up into the mountains. Across the field, his men were dispatching any Gothic survivors or wounded they could find, collection loot and bringing their own wounded and dead back to camp for proper treatment. The battle had gone their way, even if he had, for a moment, felt he had charged headlong into a Goth trap. Still, it was a reassuring omen for the invasion of these lands that the Huns could still instill such fear in the Goths. Heralds were already braying news of the Gothic defeat and displaying heads to the defenders of Petra, so it was likely soon that the city would capitulate, giving his men yet more plunder.

One victory and one city taken in these new lands.

'May they be the first of many' prayed Valamir silently.