This is a reprint of an episode from the original Courier Magazine series. I had to scan and convert the text from jpg versions and corrected the obvious spelling errors. Remember, these were done before computers were commonly available. Hope you like it. They were what got me interested in ancients wargaming a long, long time ago.

THE CHRONICLE OF MAXIMUS GLUTUS, BOOK IV
in which Maximus Glutus finally defeats Sexto Hermaphrocomedie

Cast: M.Glutus - Dick Bryant; S. Hermaphrocomedie - Arnold Hendrick

After his generally dismal record in the previous year, Maximus Glutus resolved to renew the war with the east with fresh vigor and new tactics. Glutus brought over the green XXIV Legion, some of them even lacking metal armor, and a host of auxiliary slingers. These he drilled in rapid-maneuver tactics, including one where the left flank centuries of a cohort ran behind the center and reformed on the right, to allow the cohort to move sideways faster than it could normally march forward. With these and other maneuvers he planned to defeat the previously invincible phalanxes, if his traditional light cavalry - heavy cavalry combination, which he generally led, failed him.

The first engagements against the Seleucids, under the greatest general of the east, Ginicles Maglo, were encouraging. The Romans performed well, but Glutus found himself continually carried from the field, and the battle lost. He made too good a target to Maglo's levy archers! Despairing of victory against the champion Ginicles, he took ship, forced the Hellespont, and landed in Bithyania, challenging the Ponts under Sexto Hermaphrocomedie. His inveterate enemy was soon on the march against him.
At trepza ridge in the Anatolian highlands, the armies of Pontus and Rome finally met. Glutus led elements of his brand new XXI Legion, using the novel tactic of attaching 250 auxiliary slingers to each 500-man cohort, to support them with missile fire, and protect them from enemy missiles. Predictably, he personally led a force of Maximan household heavy cavalry covered by some Numidian light horse. Sexto, short on phalangites, had made up the difference with the best of the Pontic horse, 250-man formations of combination archers and javelinmen.

A cavalry general by disposition, Sexto naturally engaged the Roman horse first. As the Numidian lights galloped onto the ridge, he was not surprised to observe one of his light horse units charge into it, while another on the far flank spun into column and charged their flank. However, he was surprised to see Glutus himself leading his heavy horse forward to support the Numidians, striking the flankers in the flank. The resulting melee eventually caused the center Pontic horse unit to chase the Numidians off the battlefield, and in such an enthusiastic fashion that by best estimates they would not arrive until late afternoon (ed note: the WRG rules require units that leave the battlefield, often a result of winning a melee, to dice for their return). Meanwhile, the heavy horse had naturally defeated the right flank Ponts. As they pursued them, the ever alert Sexto charged into their flank with a paltry 160 javelinmen. Sexto joined the javelinmen himself, since by attaching himself to the infantry, he could avoid being carried away by the pursuit (further note: since the commander is light cavalry, the chances are good that he will follow the routing heavies right off the battlefield, and of course have to dice for return).

Meanwhile, the Pontic infantry climbed the ridge in their heavy armor. The Romans were busy maneuvering on the other side, attempting to get their cohorts in position for a combined attack on the phalanx. The Pontic light horse was doing triple duty, charging various sub-units of slingers in turn, driving them behind the covering Roman heavy foot. The slingers, with their shields, proved more than a match for the Pontic archers, who were deprived of their longer range advantage by the ridge. However, the slingers were unable to stand up to the horse, and evaded behind the legionnaires (who the light horse declined to fight, being unable to stand up to them). Once behind the legionnaires, the slingers were useless, since they had no indirect fire ability. Alas, there were three units of slingers, but only one of light horse. It was only a matter of time before the bolts cut down the horsemen, driving them from the field.



Maximus Glutus himself had avoided the disaster that had overtaken his heavy horse. After a considerable pursuit of the Pontic light horse, which much to Sexto's disgust failed to carry him from the battlefield, he turned about. Overweight or not, when Glutus observed the inviting rear of Sexto and javelinmen, he literally flew into battle. Sexto was obliged to flee for his life. Un-fortunately, he was caught among the routing javelinmen, and could not use his superior speed to escape. Glutus and bodyguard spent the rest of the morning in pursuit, and after hacking down most of the javelinmen, and some of Sexto's bodyguard, managed to capture Sexto's hat. Feigning a wound, rolling under a bush, and quickly changing into the clothes of a camp follower, the ever androgynous Sexto managed to effect a timely escape from certain death. Glutus, however, was well pleased with capturing his adversary‘s famous hat.

Deprived of leadership at a crucial moment, their covering cavalry driven away, the
phalangites desperately tried to save the situation. To their left the supporting heavy infantry spread out in a long single line frustrating legionaries and slingers alike. To their right, however, the archers were unable to stop more than the slingers. As a result, the phalangites were struck in the front and the flank by legionaries covered by slingers. Disorganized, the phalanx was cut to pieces. The Pontic army disintegrated, and Glutus had won an overwhelming victory.

Book V: a Clean Roman Victory

October 7th, 2010 Loaded all the photos and diagrams. Only took two evenings to do. A big improvement on the first book. Am slowly learning how best to do these. It takes awhile to get all the photos and pictures in the right place. If you are interested in doing the cartoons for this blog, please contact me as I am certainly no artist and it takes a lot of effort to draw them. I know what I want to show, just am not very good at it. Looking for something like the style of the original Courier cartoons . Guess I have to go back and upload Book IV or wait until I get done writing Book VI. Mitch

Cast: Roman Genral:Minimus Gluteus- Chuck Monson, Roman Right Flank: Adamius Gruntus-Adam Workland,
Pontic General: Mitchradates- Mitch Berdinka
Rules: Game was conducted at the 2008 Dragonflight Game convention in Bellevue Washington using a play test version of the TACTICA II (T-2) Ancients rules. T-2 has been in development by Art Conliffe and it appears they will publish in the very near future.

Beginnings:
After his defeat at the Battle of Discordium, it was some time before Minimus was able raise two more Legions for his interminable campaign against the Ponts. The Senate was growing weary of his continuing requests for monetary support and he was advised that in no uncertain terms that he had better produce results this time or he would find himself in one of the penal Legions fighting naked barbarians somewhere in the far northern regions of Gaul. By exaggerating the threat of Pontic terrorists and appealing to public sentiment by freely handing out little yellow ribbons that said, “Support the Troops”, Minimus was finally able to induce the Senate to finance his campaign. It was that or his offering of lucrative army contracts to businesses owned by key Senate member that did the trick. At any rate, nine months after his last fiasco, he was on his way again to the Eastern Empire.
Minimus sailed to Ilium in Asia Minor to meet up with one of his Legions being assembled there. Its commander, Adamius Gruntus was a young and upcoming leader. Minimus knowing the Ponts would throw anything and everything at him, wanted a co-commander who was versatile in fighting a variety of opponents. Adamius bragged he could defeat any enemy and then went into a long dissertation on his many victories. By the time Adamius got around mentioning trolls, goblins and orcs Minimums had tuned out the conversation paying more attention to some passing serving girls. It wouldn’t have made any difference as beggars can’t be choosy and with Minimus’s reputation he felt extremely lucky to get any help at all.
They next sailed to Byzantium in Thrace to pick up the 2nd Legion. It was Minimus’s intention to then disembark at Diospolis on the North coast of Bithynia to pick up some allied troops before heading inland to Galatia where there was a decent road leading into the Pontic Empire. Unfortunately (or fortunately as it ended up) a storm caught his fleet unawares and carried them eastward. When the weather finally settled down, the Romans found themselves just off shore of Abonuteichos on the north central coast of Paphlagonia. This country was situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Galatia by a prolongation of the Bithynian mountain range. The Paphlagonians, long resentful of Pontic domination, readily received the Romans as liberators and cheered them heartily as Minimus’s troops quickly overcame the local Pontic garrison. Minumus was well pleased with himself for having by-passed the major Pontic armies and arriving only a few weeks march away from the Pontic Capital at Amasia. Although entirely the result of blind luck, Minimus did not hesitate a moment before sending messengers back to Rome to proclaim his great Strategic maneuver and getting his army moving along the coast road toward the Pontic border hoping to catch his nemesis opponents unawares.
News of the Romans landing in Paphlagonia, however, quickly reached the Pontic throne. Normally the Ponts with the Cicilian pirate allies would have had plenty of advance notice of the Roman movements. Their slipping by in the storm had caught the Ponts completely unprepared. Having dealt with Minimus previously however, they knew that his usual indecisiveness would give them time to react. Therefore all available troops were organized, levies called up and by appealing to Armenian and Thracian allies, enough troops were raised to confront the Romans before they could approach Pontus proper. To command this impromptu organization of available troops, an old retired General then living in Sinope in the northeastern corner of Paphlagonia was called. Although really an engineer more familiar with sieges and naval battles, Mitchradates was induced into taking command of the Pontic forces by an appeal to his patriotism and the explanation that he needed only to delay the Romans until the more experienced Pontic forces could be brought up. Mitchradates reluctantly agreed somewhat due to his intense hatred of anything Roman, partly due to a subtle threat of massive taxation of his retirement assets, but mostly because he was just plain tired of being bossed around by his wife who had a never ending list of chores for him to do.

Photo 1 Roman General Minimus giving orders to his subordinate Legion Commander, Adamius Gruntus

So by the time the Romans had gotten themselves organized and moving toward the Pontic border, Mitchradates was on his way west to meet them with a motley array of substandard Pontic troops. Eventually the opposing forces ran into each other just outside a small village known as Dragonium. It was called this not for any history of dragons, but mainly for the scent the local wine tended to give ones breath from drinking it. Fortunately for both sides, the rush to deployment took place so quick there was no time to sample the local brews. That would have to wait until after the battle.
Deployments:(See Figure 1)
The plain of battle outside Dragonium was almost completely level. There was a small hill in the center of the field that lay slightly more toward the Pontic side. On each end of the field were small woods. The one on the Pontic left (South Side of field) was larger and centered exactly between the Pontic and Roman lines. The smaller woods on the North side of the field lay completely on the Pontic side of the field. There was also another small hill and woods a bit further from the Pontic Right, but it would have little effect on the battle other than narrowing the field.

Figure 1: Initial Dispositions


Mitchradates placed his doubtful phalanxes in the center, hoping to take what advantage the small hill offered there to his substandard troops. On their right he placed the Bastarnae and Galatian warbands. To the left of the pike blocks were the ever useless Scythed Chariots which he backed up with some imitation legionnaires, fully expecting the chariots to live up to their usual ineptness. To the left of the chariots and making up the extreme left of his main battleline, was a unit of Armenian Cataphracts which he hoped would be able to overpower the Roman Cohorts by the force of their charge. Mitchradates placed the bulk of his cavalry on the left flank where there was ample room to maneuver. He had however, only one unit of Pontic Heavy horse, the rest being a mixture of Scythian, Thracian and Pontic Light Cavalry. On his right Flank, he placed his two Light Infantry units to make use of the woods and a lone unit of Scythian Light Horse on the extreme right.

Minimus dithered trying to figure out a plan of attack while the Ponts deployed. Finally, not liking the looks of the ferocious looking cataphracts there, he told Adamius Gruntus to take the right flank, admonishing him to not let himself get flanked. He gave Gruntus most of the cavalry while keeping two units of Light Horse and two Auxilia units for his left flank. Even Minimus with his limited intellect, could see the woods on his left would not be beneficial for cavalry. So the Romans deployed in the usual fashion, infantry in the middle and lights and cavalry on the flanks. Minimus took the left of the Roman Line and Gruntus the right.

Opening Moves:
Mitchradates, never one to hesitate, got his Ponts moving first, hoping to take and hold what terrain features there were to his front. The Ponts advanced quickly and were soon halfway across the field of battle before Minimus took notice. The Pontic lights seized the woods on the right and advanced to within javelin range on the left. The Scythians on the left flank advanced to take on the Gaulic lights while the Scythian horse archers on the right attempted to get around the woods. Minimus finally aware of the Ponts bearing down upon his troops, ordered his Auxilia forward to meet the enemy in the woods and he sent a unit of Paeonian light horse to counter the Scythians. The Roman Infantry line did not advance, but the rear cohorts marched up to reinforce the forward ones as they deployed into line. Gruntus meanwhile dispatched the Gaulic light horse to melee the Scythians, but was very cautious about moving up the rest of his troops.

Photo 2 The Roman Generals, deep in thought

The entire Roman right was soon fully engaged by the aggressive Mitchradates. The Cataphracts crashed into the reinforced 1st Cohort but failed to make any impression with their impetuous charge. Likewise the scythed chariots plunged into two reinforced Cohorts, but failed to intimidate the Romans in any fashion with their flashing blades. The Pontic Ex-Slave and Brazen Shield Phalanxes advanced into a line of three reinforced Cohorts while the remaining Phalanx occupied the crest of the hill and vainly tried to coax the Romans to advance up the hill by making obscene gestures and taunts at them. Mitchradates held his warbands back in and echelon formation knowing their effectiveness against the well trained Cohorts was doubtful. Minumus however, seeing easy targets for his trained legionnaires advanced his left flank Cohorts to engage the warbands. And so with the exception of the phalanx on the hill and the Roman Cohorts taking insults from them below, both armies were now fully engaged.

Roman Right Victorious but leaderless: ( See Figure 2)
On the South side of the field, the Roman cavalry and light infantry proved more than a match for the Pontic horse. The Scythian light horse archers could not stand up to the ferociousness of the Gaulic horsemen and soon routed. A unit a Thracian light horse sent to support the Scythians was met by a unit of Roman Heavy cavalry and also soon routed. The Gauls pursued and were met by the Pontic light horse who wheeled into them. Now Adamius who seemed distracted during this whole affair, for some reason sent the victorious Roman Heavy horse wheeling up to support the Gauls but became they entangled behind the Gauls allowing the Pontic Heavy cavalry to wheel into their flank. Meanwhile the remaining Thracian Light horse advanced to charge some Roman Auxilia who had moved up past their skirmishers. The Auxilia readily beat off the Thracians who routed off the field. They then moved up to assist the Roman heavy horse who were having a hard time with the Ponts. It was too late however, as the Roman Cavalry not liking being attacked on the side, broke and fled to the rear. The Pontic horse found itself being attacked from the side and due to mounting casualties soon broke. The Gauls ignoring the loss of the Roman heavies, finally overcame the Pontic Light horse. During this whole time the Pontic Cataphracts had been deeply engaged with two cohorts. The Romans eventually proved too much for them and they broke just as the Pontic lights ran, leaving the Romans in sole possession of this end of the battlefield.


Figure 2: Demise of the Pontic Left in 8 turns.

Unfortunately at this time Adamius Gruntus was no where to be found. The Romans sat idly around relishing their victory until Minimus noticing the apparent lack of movement, road over to investigate. Locating Adamius' headquarters, he inquired into the whereabouts of the young leader, but they could only shake their heads and stated that he was shouting something about the Call of Cthulhu and then rode off to the South not to be seen again. Minimus quickly gave them orders to attack the open Pontic left flank and then rode off to deal with his own legion.

Photo 3 Cavalry Melee on Pontic Left Flank


The Roman Left disintegrates:(See Figure 3)

The Ponts had better luck on their right flank. The two light infantry units quickly seized the woods while the Scythians circled around them to the right. Minimus sent his two Auxilia units forward to contest the woods but after a long fight the Ponts were victorious. The larger Pontic light infantry not having full cover advantage of the woods, suffered more casualties and decided they had had enough at the same time the Roman Auxilia broke. One unit of Paeonian Light cavalry sent against the Scythians has no stomach for the fight and quickly broke. The Scythians pursued and the remaining Paeonian horse unit wheeled and charged them. After a fairly short fight they exhausted each other and retreated off the field leaving Mitchradates' Thurephoroi in sole possession of this side of the battlefield. They started to advance to help the main battleline but by now it was too late. Events had reached a critical stage there and the battle was soon over.

Figure 3 Roman Left disintegrates in 8 turns


Photo 4 View from Roman Left.

Resolution in the middle: (See Figure 4)
Mitchradates had doubts about his hastily gathered army being able to contend with the well trained Romans. These doubts would prove to be correct however the usual ineptness of the Roman leadership would allow him to survive. As stated previously, the Ponts had aggressively advanced to the center of the battlefield. The Romans deployed and reinforced the forward line of cohorts with those of the second and met the Ponts in the middle. Only on Minimus’s side of the field did the cohorts not advance preferring instead to endure the unending tirade of insults from the pikemen on the hill.

Figure4 : Resolution in the middle

Minimus’s thinking was that a terrain advantage is of no advantage to the enemy if you refuse to fight him there. At any rate, after the usual skirmishing was done, the whole Roman battle line was engaged except for 4 cohorts of the 1st Legion sitting at the bottom of the hill.

On Gruntus’s side of the fields the scythed chariots went charging into four cohorts but failed to make any serious impact. The legionnaires simply stepped aside and pelted the chariots with pilum. What was left of them turned around and fled. Mitchradates, expecting just such an event had backed them up with Imitation Legionnaires which he had kept a safe distance back so they wouldn’t be affected by the route. The Romans reformed ranks and quickly advanced upon their imitation opponents. There was now a period of time in which both sides slugged it out while the resolution of the flanks was going on. In general, the Ponts seemed to take the worst of it, the Gods favoring the Romans today. Mitchradates knew he had to break several Roman cohorts in order to survive and one of his best fighting units was sitting idly on the hill. He therefore ordered them forward and with a ferocious cry they slammed into Minimus’s cohorts.



The Brazen Shields, the best Pontic Phalanx unit eventually routed the two cohorts in front of them. They advanced and wheeled into Minimus’s lead cohort already engaged with the other phalanx that had come down the hill. Mitchradates hoped the combined attack would overwhelm the Romans but it was too late. On the Pontic left, the cataphracts finally broke after a long fight with two cohorts. The Imitation Legionaries and the Ex-Slave Phalanx soon followed. Before his phalanxes could do any serious damage the Basternae on the Pontic right also broke. Mitchradates saw that with his whole left gone and a hole on his right, further struggle was useless. He sounded the retreat hoping to save what he could of his remaining troops.


Photo 5: End of the Battle

Fortunately for the Ponts, Gruntus was no where to be found and Minumus seeing an apparent victory, was too dumbfounded to order a pursuit. It was not something he was used to, winning that is. So as the Romans reorganized and looted the dead and wounded, Mitchradates was able to extract most of his best troops and with the rest of the retreating rabble, made his way back into Pontus. Gruntus’s cavalry who could have easily wiped out the survivors decided that without their leader to motivate them, that they had done enough for the day and headed back to camp to enjoy some of that fine Paphlagonian “dragon” wine.

Aftermath:
Mitchradates fully expected the worst from the Pontic high command, but was surprised to find himself treated as a hero. Seems he had never been expected to win, just delay the Romans. In the time it took for him to return to Pontus, intelligence reports indicated the Romans were totally disorganized and hadn’t moved much beyond the site of the battle. The Pontic armies had now been repositioned to counter any Roman move into Pontus and the next battle would see good quality phalangites go up against the Romans. Mitchradates was thanked for his efforts and paid handsomely for saving the empire. He decided to go back into retirement rather than accept another command, but at least now he could afford to pay someone to do the wife’s “honey do” list of chores for him.
Minimus spent some time reorganizing his troops, gathering reinforcements and filling out endless paperwork. A thorough report of the battle was required by the Roman Senate before they would authorize any more funds or troops. Most of the victory had been due to the Legion of the missing Gruntus who had managed to destroy the whole Pontic left flank. After giving it some thought, Minimus decided to do the only thing a Roman could do in such a situation. He took all the credit himself emphasizing the extra effort he made once his subordinate commander disappeared. He again however, found himself in somewhat of a pickle despite the victory. Gruntus had important friends in Rome and some suspicions were raised regarding the cause of his unusual disappearance. By being careful to not disparage the missing commander in his reports and forwarding the remains of Gruntus' back pay to his high ranking family members in Rome, Minimus was able to alleviate the accusations. After a few weeks, it was all sorted out and Minimus marched toward Pontus for what he hoped would be the final battle in the war.
The Paphlagonians soon found Roman taxes to be as onerous as Pontic ones with the exception that with the Ponts, at least they didn’t have to learn to speak Latin. In memory of his victory they erected a small monument which summed up their attitude toward Minimus. It was engraved with the words "Veni, vidi, cessī". (“He came, He saw, He left.”)
Notes on the game:
This game was unusual in that it wasn’t even close. Most of our TACTICA II games are a lot more even where the game could go either way and is decided in the outcome of a final melee. In our last game, the Romans were one point over breakpoint, the Ponts just two short. In another game, both sides went over breakpoint, but the Romans had the higher percentage of losses, so were declared the losers. In the Battle of Dragonium, it came down to the Romans just rolling better dice. The Gods evidently favored the Romans this day. Of the four Pontic units that had a chance of getting “Impetus” against the opponents they charged, not one Roman unit failed to make their morale roll. Impetus would have given the Ponts extra dice in the first round of melee. Although several Roman cohorts were close to breaking at the end, only two Roman cohorts routed in the whole game. Roman Legions are always tough to break, and they were played well by Minimus (aka. Chuck Monson) but this game was out of the ordinary.
To break the Roman legions the Ponts had to use their best troops (the Phalanxes) to knock off as many cohorts as possible. Cohorts are tough. Unlike other units which normally break at two third casualties, for cohorts you must kill every one of the SOBs. A single cohort is only eight figures but they can reinforce one another so now you have to kill 16 of the buggers. In the case of the enlarged 1st Cohort, it’s 24 figures if it is reinforced. Offsetting this to some extent is the Legion Breakpoint rule which says the whole Legion breaks when about two thirds of its figures are killed. This includes figures killed in unbroken cohorts that are still on the table. So the Legions are tough, but not unbeatable. The phalanxes will usually get depth bonus against them, but that doesn’t help much if you roll bad with the extra dice.
Mitchradates realized his mistake too late in leaving one of his best units idle on the hill while the Roman Cohorts were piecemeal routing the rest of his army around him. By the time he got it into action, the Ponts were already near breakpoint. The disappearance of Adamius Gruntus (aka. Adam Workland) during the last part of the game, allowed poetic license to let Mitchradates survive and perhaps come back in a later game. Minimus however, will continue to have a difficult time regardless of whether he wins or loses.