The Romans kicked off their 2nd round games with a middle stage game (see filebase) against a Gallic Helvetti alliance. The hairy backsided barbarians had invaded Roman territory . The Romans sent the consul Ludicrus Maximus with a Roman/Spanish force to see off the said hairy backsided ones.
The forces lined up in an open plain flanked by a couple of hills. The barbarians elected to keep a reserve force of chariots and cavalry for a flank march and sent the rest of their forces hurtling at the Roman/Spanish forces. The Gauls adopted their famous 'steamroller ' formation. It had failed repeatedly but that didn't stop them using it again, their leader clearly feeling he needed warriors around him to actually kill the enemy given his dire track record in melee.
The steamroller hit the first unit of Hastati and broke them. Then they ran into the unit of Principes and broke them. Each broken unit rallied but only in time to be steamrollered once again until all the Romans facing him had been swept from the board. The gallic fanatics had a tougher time of it but held on (just) .
The Spanish cavalry attempted to charge and break Helvetti fanatics and did but after several rounds of combat by which time the Helvetti were pushing forward elsewhere on the battlefield and the flanking force had arrived.
There were protestations from the Romans about a lack of support from the Spanish allies as the last of the maniples was swept from the field but it was all too late by then and the Gallic Helvetti alliance was free to rampage through Roman territory. The steamroller formation and an elite unit of Helvetti slingers (old, infirm, children and woman or given they are Old Glory they may have been men in dresses) who rallied and shot repeatedly at the cavalry causing several casualties were the elite formations of the hairy backsided force.
