This was the first game as part of a campaign based on the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD.
Tony had the task of coordinating the campaign and this first battle was to have taken place as the first Roman Legion advanced northwards from the Kent coast.
Tony and Chris took command of the Brits and James and myself the Romans. The terrain had a slope crossing left to right and the Romans entered the battlefield over a saddle hill. This slowed the Roman deployment and advance sufficiently for the Ancient British army to be able to advance from their original deployment zone to the top of the slope. Here the warrior hordes and missile troops took up position.
The Roman legionary units formed a line ready to attack up the slope but our plans were hampered by the javelins hurled from the British light chariots, cavalry and skirmishers occupying the top of the slope. In frustration we sent 3 units of Roman cavalry to the right and 3 to the left wing. Unfortunately, British skirmishing units had already taken up position facing the Roman left which was covered by 2 small areas of woodland – not ideal cavalry terrain. And on the other wing James’s Roman cavalry found itself confronted with units of British slingers with more light cavalry lurking behind.
Excellent shooting from the Brits made a mess of the attempts by the Roman legionaries to advance in the centre. The Roman archer units had been deployed on the Roman left so could give only limited shooting support to the centre. They did however act as an antidote to the British light cavalry on the right and could out-shoot the British slinger units if they advanced down the slope.
My 3 units of Roman cavalry on the left were struggling to hold their ground against the javelins of the skirmishers and I had little choice but to sacrifice some auxiliary spear units to keep these quick footed irritations away from my precious cavalry!
The Roman units in the centre were by this point down quite a few stands. Their shield wall was unbroken but there was little point in staying put any longer and suffering more losses to missiles and so we tried a general advance in the centre and right. This resulted in a shooting match in which James began to whittle down British slinger and warrior units, and at last some of our legionary finally got into hand-t-hand contact with the British warrior hordes.
The hand-to-hand combats were preceded by some pretty poor throwing from the pilum armed units and the resulting combats were a very even affair with losses accumulating on both sides. The Roman shield wall began to break-up and despite some Roman advances in the centre the Brits recoiled, recovered from disruption and came back for more! Some legionary units became isolated and were quickly swamped by hordes of warriors.
At last, an opportunity presented itself for James’s Roman cavalry on the right to attack and inflict some useful punishment on the British left wing. This was however in contrast to the poor performance of my Roman cavalry on the other wing which were pushed back by repeated attacks by British warriors and skirmishers.
It had taken till this point of the game for 2 Roman field ballista units to finally arrive behind the centre having crossed over the saddle hill. By pulling our hard-pressed legionary units back into a shield wall in front of the newly deployed ballista units James and I established a strong defensive position. The 2 sides had effectively separated from each other and had time to ‘lick their wounds.’
Game time was now pressing and so the game was concluded with the Brits choosing to withdraw from the field. In terms of losses this was certainly a marginal win for the Ancient Britons who had succeeded in giving the Roman invaders a bloody nose!
Report written by Paul K.
