The Forest Road: Turn III: Attack Phase

This could get rather interesting

Roman archers have an initiative value of 1, so they attack first. I start with the extreme-right unit, which shoots at the Dacian cavalry by East Hill, needing a challenging  9+, but I roll 3. The archers next to them shoot at the same target, coming just short with 8. My other archers shoot at the cavalry bearing down on them, and also come up agonisingly short by rolling 8.

My leading cavalry attack the warriors in rocky ground on East Hill, needing 6+. There are no modifiers - rocky ground only gives a +1 modifier when an attack is launched from it - and I roll 10, easily eliminating the Dacian unit  the first unit of this scenario to be routed. My cavalry are out of command range, and so advance into the vacated hex, whether I like it or not (cavalry advancing in this way cannot charge-attack).

Next to attack is my furthest-forward, and very isolated, legion. It would need 7+ against falxmen, and 6+ against warriors, but an attack on the latter would carry a +1 modifier as the warriors are in trees, so I choose to attack the falxmen, rolling a disappointing 5.

The falxmen counterattack, needing 6+, but with a +1 modifier for attacking into trees. However, this is cancelled out by a -1 modifier, thanks to the presence of the warriors, and 6 is rolled, forcing my men to retreat two hexes. The first retreat is straight back, but the second is diagonally right, keeping the legionaries in the wood, but putting them very close to two units of Dacian cavalry.

The warriors on East Hill attack my cavalry in the rocky ground, needing 8+, but rolling a miserable 2.

First blood to the Romans, but the massed Dacian cavalry look threatening