Yesterday my good friend Mike came around to put the new Sally 4th Early Imperial Romans through there paces. The Legionaries are part of a large range of models in the pipeline covering Rome’s wars and her enemies. The models are 28mm metal miniatures, designed by Iain Lovecraft and available on Kickstarter (ending today)!

Buck Surdu, author of Wars of Orcs & Dwarves had kindly put together some Army Lists for using Early Imperial Romans and Early Germans with the game. You can download the lists here. Don’t be put off by the name of the rules, they give a great historical game for ancients and medieval periods.

We used the Random Terrain System, detailed in a previous post (click here to take a look) to layout the battlefield. This produced a very plausible landscape with a river valley winding between some hills on the Romans right flank and a large forest and marshes on the Roman’s left. The game mat, roads, rivers, forest bases and swamps are all part of the ‘For the Glory of Rome’ kickstarter. They are all printed on fabric that nicely blends with the game mats.

The Romans fielded four units of Roman Legionaries supported by a Scorpion Bolt Thrower, and a unit of Auxilia Archers and Cavalry.

The Romans deployed from column of march, from the road end. The battle was very much all about if they could manage to form a battle line before the German masses were upon them. It was very much touch and go, mainly due to a lethargic Roman cavalry unit that just would not get out of the way.

The Auxiliary Archers, positioned on the left flank were characterised as ‘Blind’, which reduced there marksmanship. They however still performed rather well. They were positioned in front of the marsh so they could get a number of shots in while the Germans slowly waded through the marsh. Unfortunately for them, the Germans facing them were ‘Zealous’ meaning that they reacted to being fired on by charging. The Archers held there own in melee and eventually the Germans were routing back across the marsh.

Just in time, The Roman Cohorts turn into line and brace for impact.

The Cohort on the right, fights bravely but when reduced to a single stand, eventually routed.

The Germans also took heavy losses and rout through there supports, causing some ‘Disorder’.

After a long time marching into position, the Roman Scorpion is eventually deployed and starts firing.

Although much mauled, the Roman line held and a narrow victory was declared.

28mm Romans & Terrain are all available as part of the ‘For the Glory of Rome’ Kickstarter, click here to take a look.