Field of Glory Wargaming at Britcon 2009 - Sunny Manchester 2009
As nigh fell across the gloomy urban sprawl that was a wet Manchester afternoon in August, I lurched onto the top table against the FoG world's new "Phil" - and a rather outrageous Italian Ostrogoth army - creating history as the 4th of 4 not entirely unfeasible matchups for the Dominate Romans (if you accept early and late period civil wars as viable) The Ostrogothic list is available here
Pictures of Gothic Cavalry from my Ancients Photo Directory
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The Ostrogoths had already established a reputation due to their extreme and cunning plan - a flank march, ambush and a camp deployed fairly far forwards - which was by now known to everyone in the competition. Having said that, the table was pretty bare and although the left hand side was favorite for the main attack, there was still a chance of a the army being weighted towards the right as well. With the deployment order and sequence it meant a good chunk of my army had gone down before it was 100% sure the battle would be fought on my left - and with my vulnerable-in-the-open auxilia at the head of my march order I had still opted to place a few of them on my right.
The game started as my Roman LH swiftly moved to discover the obvious ambush in the embuscade
The ostentatious Ostrogothic ambush ambled out of the forest as legionaries legged it at legendary speeds towards them, hoping to pin the priapic lancers back into the waiting woods and crush them cohesively before any support could arrive opportunely from the flank.
Yet more outrageous Ostrogoths boiled out of the steaming cauldron of confusion that was the wild, wild wood.
The Roman army flailed around like a flatulent firework as they sought to redeploy rapidly to face the forthcoming threat from the flank-heavy and opportunistic Ostrogoths. Sneaky skirmishers brandished their barbarian bows at the ruminating Romans as they sought shamelessly to protect and prevent the pouncing praetorians from rolling up the left of the original and outstanding Ostrogothinc deployment.
The legions laddishly lunged forward, not lackadaisical for a moment. Big bold and beautiful battle was bound to bring itself on in a brilliant flash of bashing of bonces - and soon!
Te initial impact of the obdurate Ostrogoths shook the steadfast Soldiery of Rome to their roots! But they withheld the wild wall of wicked raiders and dug in defiantly to deny the obsessed Ostrogoths an occasional opportunity to cause disruption.
Elsewhere, careering columns of cavalry were clattering down the Roman Road but the matchup in the middle continued coherently and cared not a jot about the onrushing Ostrogoth hordes! The legendary legions were locally gaining the upper hand and throwing the tired horsemen horribly back into the waiting woods.
Right on the cue the clever and cunning cavalry of the Galloping Gothic General arrived advantageously across the appallingly anemic ambling stream at the absolute edge of the battlefield, and quickly and quixotically added their admirable advantage to the amazing attack amassing on Roman Left.
The Romans reacted righteously but the slingers in particular wriggled under the really rough role the rotten Roman regent had allocated them. The Ostrogoths charged in omnipotent and rolled really well as the slingers rolled really rough dice to be caught in the middle of a mass of two multiple mutually exclusive evades and pursuits.
Soon combat was coherent across a cubic cubit of coterminous terrain! The Roman legions had failed foolishly to find a final solution to the Ostrogoths in the thick forest and now faced a fearsome battle for their futures as they feared for their flanks !
Units of Romans were no longer routing, they were ripped from reality and removed to return to the carrying case carried by the concerned commander as they generally were eviscerated due to being unable to evade!
Unsure whether they were being used as a unusual offering to the unctious Roman Gods or simply being asked to die where they stood to help deliver the despairing Dominates from a devastating defeat, the angry auxilia did their best to avoid abject abandonment of their positions.
Ostrogoths were forming an octagonal opportunity as they omnivorously opened up the reeling Roman army from the rear.....
The legions delivered a desperate defense of their dominions as at last some
Gothinc goons went gracelessly to their graves in the green woods. 
A new line was being nailed to the natural landscape as the luckless Legionaries laid their plans to reform like Romans and repel the odious Ostrogoths at another line in the baize.
In a flash of fury and fire the fierce horsemen hurried hence .
But despite all these tactical setbacks, the revised Roman line stood stationary as friends fled and were fried in front of their very eyes.
With a huge hurrah the objectionable Ostrogoths took the opportunity to fling
themselves optimistically against yet another line of obdurate Romans. 
Elsewhere, a more normal game was happening, as the Romans had pushed inexorably forward and had started to catch the delaying force the Ostrogoths had cast out near their camp. At last the Romans were racking up some points here.
This time the terrible tribe of hairy horsemen found less luck as they legged it towards the long line of legendary legionaries.
With the clock creeping closer to the close of the competitive combats for the day, the riled romans discovered a devastating disruptive development as they were charged in the flank by dastardly demonic dodging diddly little javelinmen in the deepest dark depths of the deeply disrupting forest (which is apparently allowed in the rules).
But after a right battering, the reeling Romans remained in play, and the observant Ostrogoths opinioned that whilst they had obligingly organised a spectacular spanking the rather more rigorous (and numerous) Romans had still 10 units out of 15 left, and with the opposing Ostrogithic losses lying at a little less spectacular 2 or 3 units (including the camp) it was only a marginally meaningful 12-8 victory for the outstanding Ostrogoths.
Post Match Summary
As
Caesar, I'm rather elated to find out that we only lost that one 12-8. It felt
rather painful (and not just because of the use of excessive alliteration in the
after action report) but ultimately yet another thumbs up for the theory of
having more troops than your enemy.
The decisive element was I feel the early (as in first turn) arrival of the Ostrogothic flank march. Without this arriving so soon I felt we coudl have bottled up the large force coming down the road with our light horse for a few turns at least, giving me time to both redeploy the bulk of my army to face the threat, and also beat the two isolated units who were hiding in the wood in one of the most well telegraphed ambushes since Lake Trasimene. If the flank march had pitched up a little later things wudl have been a bit more balanced - and maybe we could have nicked a win.
Eventually though, sheer weight of numbers told - and we are still in the pack at teh top of the leader board well placed going into the final round of games, which is nice.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
The
run comes to a well deserved end.
You said at the beginning that you kind guessed the Ostrogoth plan, yet you still were going to have to redeploy to deal with it?
Play that one past me again?
To be honest, what saved your bacon here was your own staggering incompetence in getting your units into such a massive log jam that they were in nearly all cases simply removed from the table as there was literally nowhere for them to rout each time they broke. Now, its technically I suppose "a plan" but it's hardly a good one is it?
Far better would have been if you'd refused the obvious flank, and then planned to swing round to fight in a solid line with you best troops from the start - kind of what you ended up doing by default once the rabble in front of them had been swept away I suppose. But not really something you can take credit for.
Lets see how the next game goes then ?
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