the art(f) of navarone !

Game 2 found me ducking for cover as chunks of last nights memory came crashing down from the ceiling and onto my shoulders like the torrential tropical downpour outside.

I was playing a Late Roman army under the command of ("GG") Panos - good news, he had also been out with us last night!  Bad news, he had gone home before the liqueurs.... and as a measure of the extent of the session, co-organizer Paris had still not turned up (in fact had probably not woken up!)..

The enemy list was this:

Wb(O) are not normally the worlds scariest troop type, but set against my Sp (I) they started to look very clever indeed. And with my army also relying on WWg and DBE Bw (X), the Roman artillery fast were also definitely at the upper end of the evolutionary scale. To minimize the number of both on table I had opted for list 2 

This time I was together enough to draw a map:

The Roman deployment left my knight heavy command with a lot to do, and my spearmen against some unexpected warband (O) as well ! Yoiks! 

The Roman squishy stuff was hidden well to the back in a area of rough going. My plan was to get a couple of knights through my spear formation to menace the warband, and push forwards relentlessly on both flanks as neither had too much to actually stop me, although they could retreat quite effectively!!

The Romans also decided their pin and punch tactic needed to rely on the 6 Regular Bw (O), who redeployed to counter my bow advance on the left

Lh(I) manfully interpose themselves between artillery and potentially dead war wagons..

The warband were hit, and pushed back the initial knight attack, but as the warband stepped forward the lone Hd(S) making up a 3rd rank on the warband's left was left stranded - and with the Roman general overlooking the need to hold him, he they gathered up his dirty washing (yes....) and charged forward, bursting through the warband and causing them to scatter and break formation as they rushed towards my lines. 

This created the opportunity my knights had been waiting for, and the warband command was fragmented, clattered by a knight and then damaged significantly before it got near the spearmen. 

On the left my heavyweight knights have pushed forwards into almost certain doom, but knowing they can probably take the losses and are anyways pretty hard compared to what they are facing, I risk it anyway as in the process they are forcing the Roman LH back and protecting the flank of my spear block from harm. On the left my bowmen wheel gracefully round to start to pound the Roman auxiliary archers.

My spearmen prepare to kill off the remnants of the warband - with favorable odds - as the washing-line wielding hordes push their comrades on to certain death 

With the warband command broken, but with my knights exploding against the more maneuverable Roman LH the game then fragmented. The more contemporary Italians were a command up, and chasing the final elements to tip the game over into a major victory, but the knight command was also on its last legs, with artillery playing "Hunt the WWg" AND "Hunt the Bw(X)". The Roman bowmen had taken a pasting, and soon the least few archers were running for their lives to avoid being shot and having the ignominy of being the casualties to break their command.

Both sides were now charging towards baggage - my bowmen were shooting the Romans, and the Roman LH were closing in on mine deployed near the village, with the game end time also fast approaching. 

Seeking the final casualty to break the Roman army, a lone Lh(I) took on  Roman LH(O), pinning him against the hordes of Italian peasants cheering on their now dead noblemen - of course, we lost tragically, and the Kn command was broken! Into the last bound we raced, and at the death the rampant Italian  bowmen shot flaming arrows into the Roman camp - a third tent was aflame! The game was over, 9-1 to the Italian Communists, answering the age old question of whether in Civ 3 the Republic IS a less effective form of government in times of war than communism !

Onto the 3rd game !