Republican Romans vs. Graeculi
Roman vs. Graeculi
Due to a recent move, work, and other things beyond my control, I have not been able to get any saga gaming or painting in. The paints and supplies have been boxed away somewhere. In the hidden stuff was a Republican Roman army that had yet to be assembled. I had purchased some models from Victrix and Relic Miniatures a while ago but hadn’t even assembled them. Then the move.
I had dug out my airbrush and supplies to work on some Ordenstat models and saw the Victrix models. I decided to look at the Victrix models and board. It had been so long that I had kind of forgotten how I intended to play them. Curiosity got the better of me and I started cutting out pieces and before long had assembled 6 Hastati warriors. Didn’t take too long. I thought, “Maybe I’ll do 6 per day and see out it goes”. Two days later the army was assembled.
Without painting them, I wanted to test out the army. I had enough figures left to add some Triarii or some more Hastati and I wanted to play test the configuration of the army first. Victrix models are nice, but adding 1 unit means buying a box of a bunch. I needed to have a better idea of what I wanted before I assembled the remaining figures.
The roman Warband was composed of
Warlord on horse
1x4 Hearthguard
4x6 warriors (3pts)
1x12 levy
1 unit Cretan Archers
I was against a Graeculi Warband (Epirote)
Warlord on Horse
2x5 hearthguard on horse
3 units of warriors (not sure how many were in each) with sarissas (phalanx)
1 unit 12 levy javelin
We played the scenario out of the back of the rule book, just a straight-up clash of warlords. He had placed two large pieces of terrain in his back area attempting to eliminate them as an option for me to place. I placed the ruins about L away from my back line near the center, then a forest on my next turn. He moved the ruins back M, so I placed the rocky ground in front of it S away. This left a fairly narrow corridor down the center of the board.
He rolled the deployment where all your units are M away from each other. So, on the first turn, every unit used maneuvers to form up, and not much happened. On the second turn, I advanced the Warband after setting up the configuration. I had moved my levy S behind a unit of 6 warriors with the intention of using QUINCUNX and PILUM. I moved the Cretan Archer from the ruins and into the rocky ground. They gained one fatigue but now I had his front line in range.
Turn 3 was exciting as both of us unleashed the armies. He pulled an unexpected move. He advanced a unit of 5 hearth guards on horses up to my left flank. I had moved my Triarii adjacent to the Cretan archer as a deterrent. On the first turn, I place a rare on AD TRIARIOS REDISSE to deter any attacks on the Hearthguard. It worked; they were never attacked despite sitting on the front line the whole game. On this turn, the opponent turned away from the Triarii and charged into the Cretan Archers in rock ground. I may have deterred him too much. Despite the 2 fatigues he had, he killed one archer but I killed one Hearthguard and his unit had to retreat S.
On my turn 3, I moved the Triarii in front of the Cretan Archers to shield them from the Hearthguard. Next, I pulled the combination/maneuver that I have been wanting to try. I played QUINCUNX. I activated the levy to move M+S and through the warrior Maniple unit. Now they were in front and had LOS on the opponent’s front line and they were all in range. Rolled six dice which resulted in a few casualties. Now I moved the maniple unit through the levy. The unit was about 1” from the opponent’s front line. I played PILUM, which gave me a shooting activation, then a charge activation without fatigue. I received 1 fatigue after the shooting activation so I went into the melee with 1 fatigue. After the melee, I was down to 4 warriors and his unit was down to 2. He had to withdraw. This completely took him by surprise and was effective. His unit was a large unit 8 or 10 figures, but the maneuver reduced the unit to two figures and eliminated a saga dice. Effective for a unit of 6 warriors.
However, now I was concerned with defense. How would the Rep Roman Warband hold up to a wave of attacks on the next turn?
Turn 4
I had EXHORTATION and CLOSE FORMATION up on the board with a rare. I had moved my warlord up into a pocket. The Triarii and Cretan Archer were within M on the left of my warlord and the Maniple and Levy unit were within M on the right. EXHORTATION allows two dice for each melee if a unit is within M of the warlord. These dice can be either defense or attack. I put this ability to the test. First, the maniples were charged by a unit of levy…zero casualties for the maniples. I didn’t close ranks and used two defense dice. Second, the unit was charged by their warlord. I closed ranks, gained two defense dice, and played CLOSED FORMATION with a rare. The opponent played my fatigue and one ability, not sure which, and rolled 12 hits! I thought the unit was a goner. I had only gained two more dice since his warlord did not outnumber my unit. So, I had 4 extra defense dice. I rolled the dice in three groups, two groups of six for the 12 hits and the four extra gained defense dice. The first 6 defense dice got two cancels but I got to reroll 1’s and 2’s. Total 4 cancels after rerolls. The next six dice resulted in 4 cancels as well with rerolls. I had 4 defense dice left and roll four more cancels. Total 12 cancels. Amazing. There was definitely luck involved. On the last reroll I rolled double sixes, also I was canceling on 4’s since I closed ranks which helped. If I hadn’t closed ranks, the unit would have been wiped out.
On my turn, I got aggressive with the Triarii and charged the HG unit. I was 4 vs. 4 figures. He had 2 fatigues and I didn’t. In this turn, I decided to test the offensive powers of the board. The melee of HG vs. HG resulted in 1 casualty for me and the unit being wiped out for him after I lowered his armor to 3. Now I focused on the warrior front line. I activated the Cretan Archers to shoot twice resulting in a few casualties. I followed with a PILUM activation. The PILUM shooting didn’t get any hits, but the charge was coupled with TENACIOUS. He had 8 warriors and I had 4 but we were both rolling 8 dice. Lucky defense rolls on my part resulted in his withdrawal. Not earth-shattering, but his unit had to retreat S. To end the turn, I played QUINCUNX to move two units of warriors up with the warlord. I was amazed at how fast the Roman faction is. Both units were in the melee for the next turn.
Turn 5
He made some more attacks on the warrior unit and then made a surprise move and charge warlord to warlord through a 1” gap between units. It was a legit move. However, he had one fatigue but played an ability giving the warlord Resilience 2. Neither warlord died and his warlord withdrew.
Now I was able to shoot the warlord to exhaust him and attack using a 6 warrior unit and GLADIUS. Finally, I killed the warlord.
Final Thoughts
I was impressed with the QUINCUNX / PILUM combination with a maniple warrior unit and a levy unit. It puts out 9 shooting dice before the melee and costs 2 dice, a common and uncommon. It also covers a lot of distance for those dice. With certain factions, it may be better to use 2 units of levy just for this combination rather than the Cretan Archers. The combination may not work as well the second time since the opponent will probably see it coming. Time it when the opponent’s board is not prepared, it still may work. Another option is to pair with a unit of Triarii and have AD TRIARIOS REDISSE loaded. After the levy moves forward and shoots, move the Triarii in front and dare them to attack. I may consider having CLOSED FORMATION or TENACIOUS loaded as well. Between closing ranks and losing 4 dice, and gaining 4 dice with TENACIOUS the unit would be durable and strike reasonably hard. Add 3 auto hits with AD TRIARIOS REDISSE and now the unit would be durable and really strike hard if charged. I want to try this some time to see how well it works.
AD TRIARIOS REDISSE itself really deterred the opponent from attacking the HG. With other factions that are more offensive, it may not be as strong of a deterrent. In this game, I never got to play it since they were never charged, even while they sat on the front line for most of the game.
I played EXHORTATION a couple of times. I like abilities that grant 2 dice here and there. It adds up quickly. It is expensive, but I got more defense dice from this ability than CLOSE FORMATION. It’s versatile since it grants either defense or attack dice and can be used on your turn or the opponent’s turn. I played LEGION once. I had placed a rare there to remove two fatigues. It seems like it will be situational. I am not sure if the value was there. The rare could have been used on CLOSE FORMATION or GLADIUS. It would be worth it if you can remove three fatigues but removing only two fatigues is more situational. In this case, it was probably worth it since the units were going into a melee during that turn.
I have been sitting on this faction for a while. Waffling between adding new units to old warbands, painting the Saracens, or diving into the AoH. Originally, I purchased the army and book without knowing much about the Roman board. I just like Roman history and Byzantine Faction in AoC. After looking at the board I thought I would enjoy some of the other factions more. After playing them, that’s not the case with the AoH Republican Romans. The board seemed simple, but not so much now. It reminds me of Nach Osteen and the Ordensstaats Faction. It seems simple but there is a lot you can do with it hidden away. I made a few mistakes in this game. Like forgetting the Triarii were maniples. I could have played an ability on them. But that learning a new board. I will move the faction forward in the painting slot now. It will be fun learning how to play the Republican Romans.