Romanes eunt domus... A Clash of Spears Skirmish!

 

 SOLDIERS OF ROME, DEFEND THE CONSUL'S ASPARAGUS WITH YOUR LIVES!

It is the year 242 BC, somewhere in Northern Italy, and Centurion Gaius Stultus Asinus has been assigned to transport the Consul Atticus Sabinianus' supply of asparagus safely through enemy held territory to the legionary camp set up just to the east of the River Adige. The supplies must get through at all costs or a terrible fate worse than death awaits Gaius and his tiny band of warriors.

Unfortunately, two local Gallic chieftains, Taxidermus and Cadracticus, have heard about the supply convoy crossing their lands and have made a pact to relieve the Roman invaders of their asparagus, no matter what the cost! Just after dawn, the two sides encounter each other between the river and the forest and the battle for the asparagus begins...

Gaius stationed his senior troops, the Principes, along side the supply wagon with orders to defend the vegetables to the death.

Meanwhile, Taxidermus and Cadracticus hurried their Juves forward to cause as many casualties as possible with their massed javelin fire. In the centre, Gaius sent his Velites forward and ordered his Cretan archers to engage the Juves to their front.

The Roman velites got the upper hand against Taxidermus' Juves, who suffered casualties and were forced back.

The crucial part of this encounter came when the Celts stalled and were unable to react to the velites, who gambled a third action which led to the Juves passing six fatigue points and ultimately running from the battlefield.

In turn two, Taxidermus pushed his slingers forward supported by a group of warriors. On the left, Cadracticus sent his warriors forward, screened by his group of Juves.

The Gallic warriors hurled themselves into the Principes, who steadfastly waited to receive them in close order.

The Principes pushed back the Celts, who were beginning to suffer from the fatal effects of fatigue.

The advantage swings from one side to the other, but casualties begin to mount in the gallic ranks.

Fatigue rocketed out of control and the Gallic warriors were soon approaching breaking point.

Facing the superior training of the Principes proved too much for the Gallic warriors and, after an uncompromising fight, with no quarter given, they succumbed to fatigue and fled, leaving the slingers dangerously exposed to the victorious Romans.

With all the attention of the Roman command focussed on the fight between the Principes and their Gallic opponents, Taxidermus had pushed his warriors forward and they crashed into the Roman velites, recovering from their javelin fight with the Gallic Juves.

Before suffering too much damage, the velites used their skirmish specialist trait to escape the clutches of the Gallic warriors, allowing the awaiting Hastati room to engage the exposed Celts.

The Hastati broke from their closed ranks and hurled a volley of pila into the ranks of the Gallic warriors. However, driven on by the captivating aroma of the asparagus, the Celts drove themselves fanatically into the fray until they wilted under the ceaseless pressure of the enemy.

As the desperate hand-to-hand struggle continued, the Celts were repeatedly pushed back until both sides had used all three of their actions.

 With the Romans winning the initiative in Turn 5, the Hastati were able to finish off their opponents and the struggle was over. The Gallic commanders withdrew their few remaining followers and the asparagus was left in the secure grasp of Gaius and his trusty legionaries.

Gaius Stultus Asinus breathes a huge sigh of relief as he continues his journey with his precious cargo. In the end, he lost just two of his velites, while the Celts suffered twenty-five casualties in their attempt to wrest the asparagus from the hands of the dreaded invader.

MILITUM BELLA PARVA

Ioannis Macenronikas

Surprisingly for the festive period, I have somehow managed to add two new units to my Clash of Spears Republican Romans. I don't usually get the opportunity to paint much over Christmas, but this year I've found the odd little bits of time here and there and suddenly, here they are! Both units are skirmish infantry, which don't add a huge number of points to your warband total, but the Romans are now up to 800+ points (or will be when I finish my second Leader!)

After their last outing against the Syracusans, it was pretty obvious that the Romans lacked a little distance hitting power and a unit of Cretan Archers seemed to be about the only option available. Cretan Archers appear in a number of Clash lists, so painting these up enables them to be used in other forces when they are not drawing denarii from the Roman pay chest. 

In the Clash of Spears lists, Cretans are classed as "rare" and that is reflected by their lack of availability to buy in the shops! The only ones I could find in 28mm were from Warlord Games and, as usual, their figures look like they've been recruited from the local primary school compared to the Victrix figures, which make up the rest of my Roman warband. In an attempt to boost their stature a little, I based them with an additional layer of MDF board between figure and circular base and then attempted to cover up the "platform" when I added the basing material. Sadly, they still look somewhat bijou when standing side by side with their Latin allies, but when deployed as a unit on the table top, they don't draw too much attention to themselves and, however slight they maybe, they will give the Romans that much needed firepower.

Warlord's Cretan Archers are cast in metal and cost £13.50 for 8 figures (as of December 2021) in a variety of poses. Apart from being short, they also appear a little flat and it took quite a lot of file work to get them ready for painting but, as nobody else seems to sell them, needs must where the Devil drives!

As you can see from the Clashculator stat sheet above, the Cretans have a number of traits. Skirmish Specialist gives them a +1 save from missiles and a free Reaction at 4" from an approaching enemy unit (although they still need to pass the Reaction Test). The "Aimed Shot" trait allows them to re-roll for shots that miss the target. The addition of a buckler gives them a +1 to saves in melee but, if they ever get into that situation then it's probably not going to save them from the inevitable disaster!

Including the Cretans in the Roman warband is not quite straightforward, as their "Rare" status impacts upon what you need to have in your force to keep it as a "Muster Warband". I also have some Roman Cavalry waiting on the painting table, but, as they are classed as "Rare" as well, including both units tips the warband into the "Ad Hoc" category, so another unit of Hastati would be required to retain the balance.

As well as the archers, I have also added a second unit of Velites to the Republican warband. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I really love these Victrix figures; you only get a couple of body poses on the sprue but, with a variety of arm positions and an assortment of heads, a unit of 6 figures have lots of skirmish type variation.

For this set of figures, I only used bare or helmeted heads as my plan was to mix these up with the first six I painted to make two new units! Thankfully, I remembered which shade of red I had used on the shields of the first group so that these guys could fit in alongside the earlier figures.

With all twelve Velites painted and based, it was a matter of sharing them out into two groups, with an even spread of figure types...

My first Clash of Spears game for 2022 should be the week after next, as the next ten days or so are all about wielding much bigger brushes as we decorate our living and dining rooms! That first game will involve all my 800 point or so of Romans pitted against my Celts, who haven't had a run out for some time now... so looking forward to it!