162 BC the Battle at Labia exterior

I was recruited by some Gauls, played by Peter, and some Spanish Gauls, played by Jack, with my newly painted Greeks, (2 Athenians phalanges in this case) to help against the united forces of the Mid republican Senatus Populusque Romanorum, witch were played by Bart and some later addition of Marian Legionaires(??) to confuse the historically inclined to the maximum. Which were played and catered by Angus, later Derek would join in and share the command. All in 28mm and using the late but great "To the strongest" rule set.

Ab initio, it was a fairly plane deployment with the stronger cavalry at Barts and Jack side. In the centre Peter and Angus were opposing each other and I was set against Derek with his Numidian light cavalry and some auxiliary barbarii. Our plan included to block Angus and Derek and set all hope into Jack to fight Barts Roman cavalry. While Jack did do an amazing job in defending our flank the victory was elusive for a long time as both generals were deeply invested and locked in a bloody seesaw fight. He later succeeded and emptied the roman morale coin stack to zero.

While Angus "performed" as usual his favourite kagemushian stratagem and did nothing a mountain would not do. Etiam, Derek couldn‘t, for lack of good cards and fortune, set a foot into my half of the table, I felt the urge to throw the caution out of the window and advance and attack! 

To my astonishment my newly recruited Greek mercenarii (I was even running out of basing sand ... again) performed well and killed off some Nubian Horses and a Gallic Heavy Cavalry, which cost Derek two coins (TTS: units killed reduce the morale level measured in coins) and added to the Roman demise! So we can safely say Fortuna (or better Tyche) favet fortibus.

While I still have my reservations as to what the ruleset would be a choice for me personally and trying to play the Pelepponnesian or Corinthian wars is questionable - nevertheless I was enjoying the game.

Athenian mercenary in the pay of barbarians - oh tempora, oh mores!

The gallic centre

Jack‘s Spaniard flank

Barts Roman Cavalry

... and his (earlier) Infantry

the complete set up

Light Cavalry advances

the centre fight was around some forrest ... 

meanwhile the cavalry battle on the other side was in full swing 

Blood chaos and a lot of horse meat ...

while the roman centre was meditating

The greek Hoplites getting restless

and advance to the hill

Self-fulfilling prophesy of the roman player to lose two coins

Hoplites might be outdated

but still had their teeth

even with the help of other units from the centre Derek just drew aces ...

so that we know now: new units not performing well at their premiere...

... is just superstition.