Greeks Go Mad in Switzerland Part 3
With no-one prepared to visit "Nutters All Night Disco" with me this time, I'm relatively sober by the time I have to play Riccardo Marchesi with list #59, Tullian Roman.
Tullian Roman is an army with Spears - (S) & (O), but regular, so it is likely to be smaller than mine - maybe I can do some broad sweeping moves and exploit the flanks.....! however this plan falls to pieces fairly soon, as the terrain falls with an absolute mountain range on my right - I panic, as clearly "Plan A" may not be appropriate - it's going to have to be "Plan B" with 3 and 4 deep spears, all 4 commands on table, head-to-head slogging straight down the middle. Great - maybe I should have got drunker last night ?
On my left we have a definate advantage - I have 8 Thessalian LH
(O), 16 Sp (O), and support from another command. Riccardo has, erm, nothing. He
is forced to redeploy the cavalry from the CinC's command from their position in
reserve behind the center of the line to counter this threat. My game plan is
already developing - delay combat in the middle a bit, until my spearmen have
swept away the Cv(O), and then roll up the flank - it's already
starting to work, and the Romans have to thin out their spears at the end to
counter my flank attack - seeing that generals are in the front line, I decide
to crash into combat, hopefully to reduce the Roman pip dice. The two battle
lines clash, I have the advantage at the end - and of course, my 2 ranks deep
spearmen with overlaps are killed immediately by a 6-1 from the Romans !
Over on my right again it is only the hills that are protecting
the Roman flank - plus a few Ps (O). With massive weight of numbers, we throw
our Ps(I) 
into
the fray, in a wide sweeping maneuver - which the Romans respond to by
redeploying their Ax(I).....again from the CinC's command, who are now in 3
discrete blocks - cavalry on the far left, 6 spearmen holding the line in the
middle, and auxilia (I) on the far left. No Command & Control problems there
then eh ?
The battle lines shove and push, and both sides slowly sustain casualties. We have a stalemate on the right, and on the left pip drought stops my drive to shove the cavalry off table.
At this point I seize upon a totally brilliant stratagem - subsequently referred to as "Plan C". In a rare stroke of genius I roll a 6-1 against a double overlapped Spear Superior General (S) in the middle of the Roman lines. Ooops!
Of course, this being the only way the Romans can realistically lose a command, the following pip dice prove fatal, and the command breaks. It is a catastrophe ! What else could go wrong? Well, maybe the demoralized command could be the one protecting the flanks of the CinC's 6 spearmen ? Oh, go on then...if you must !
After this it is a mater of time - can I get enough of the other commands before time runs out? The Romans fight a valiant rearguard action, the Cavalry general survives many risky moments, unable to recoil, fighting his way out of them all - the demoralized command hangs on valiantly, and the Ps(O) and Auxilia on the right give a good hiding to my Ps (I) - but finally, in a frantic last few bounds (made much more exciting by the random whistle-stop finish), the Romans finally, finally collapse !
3-0 to me - and we are in the lead !!!
