The battle of Via Cassia - 391bc

Sunday afternoon; ideal for a game.

In an effort to have time for other things, but get maximum numbers of men on the table I set a game of Armati with Chris. Republican Romans versus Gauls; a grand total of about 450 figures.

Opening deployments - conducted by drawing maps, Chris managed to deploy his elephants wisely to face my cavalry, and thanks to some very decent advice from me (it was only his second game with these rules) formed a conventional but very handy centre. Being Celtic I had no alternative but to form big long lines...

Those Gallic masses:
Tight bodies of Romans:

Opening moves; the Celts rushed forwards, whilst the Romans addressed their flanks.

Turn two and Gallic skirmishers gave the Roman velites a bloody nose in the woods.

Turn three; the Celtic hordes smash on the wall of Roman shields. The had no success. But time was being bought to exploit the huge gap in his defenses that Chris had left...

Several units of Celts are lost, but a crucial Roman unit is lost on the flank, is it too late that Chris has realised he is being enveloped?

Arrrgh! the second line, including slaves, old men and women, goes in.

The Elephants charge into the cavalry. unfortunately for them their approach was badly harried by Celtic skirmishers. They then got flanked by the same. They lasted only seconds in battle.
Celtic cavalry tried to exploit the loss of the Elephants, and an Allied Latin unit fell on the far left, but the centre held firm in a massive melee.

And ultimately it was a comfortable win for Rome.

This was a big game, core armies plus 40 points of bonus troops. Nevertheless, because of the swift and reasonably believable game engine of Armati, it was all over within 2 hours. One of the reasons I like this set of rules. Their great for moving lots of models around, and yet getting a result (or two) within the sort of length a club night allows.

On the downside, Armati don't cater for anything other than stand up fights. But if you are not aiming to run a campaign, or small scale actions, they are just the job!