The Forest Road: Turn IV

Situation after three turns

The start-of-turn-event die lands as a 5, which allows me to swop the position of any two unengaged and adjacent Roman units (but not the commander) that are in command range. This is particularly useless this turn as the only two units that qualify are both units of archers!

I begin the movement phase by moving the archers that are adjacent to my commander into the nearby trees. I then move the commander three hexes to the right, so he is away from the Dacian cavalry and within command range of the Roman cavalry, and I withdraw the forward archers a hex.

The Dacian archers move back diagonally to their right to be alongside the swordsmen.

My leading cavalry are engaged in combat, but I move the other unit forwards diagonally left two hexes, from where it charge-attacks the Dacian horsemen at the foot of East Hill. My cavalry would normally require 8+, but there is a -1 modifier for being on higher ground, and I roll exactly the 7 required, meaning the Dacian unit falls back two hexes. My men are still within command range, and I choose for them not to advance into the hex vacated by the Dacians

Now it is the turn of the five units of Dacian cavalry to activate. The furthest-forward unit advances two hexes, contacting my rearward archers, but it cannot charge-attack as cavalry cannot charge into trees. The next unit engages my forward legion, and the third unit advances two hexes. Finally, the fourth unit (the furthest-back cavalry cannot move as they have already retreated this turn) advances a hex, and then diagonally to its left to charge-attack my rearward cavalry. Normally 8+ would be needed, but there are +1 modifiers for being on lower ground and for attacking from rocky ground, so the AI's score of 8 is not enough for a hit.

My Praetorians advance diagonally left to contact the leading Dacian cavalry.

The Dacian swordsmen advance a hex, perhaps emboldened by the presence of friendly archers.

My forward legion is engaged, but I roll three dice for the second legion (it is out of command range), getting 4, 3, 1, which is good enough as I want the unit to advance a hex further into the big wood. The third legion rolls 5, 2, 2, which is also good, as, consulting the compass at the bottom-right of the map, it means the unit can advance diagonally right into the wood.

The falxmen want to retire diagonally to their left, but the way is blocked by a friendly unit of warriors, who choose to advance and contact the legion that just moved up through the big wood.

A lot of blood could be spilt in the attack phase