The Forum

In this campaign game Tim and Chris’s British confronted the Roman force commanded by Joe and myself. In this scenario the terrain would prove to be the key factor in the fortunes of both sides. Antony, a player from another club game chose and placed the terrain pieces. The Roman army was short of missile troops as compared to the British force which included a plentiful contingent of slingers, javelin armed light cavalry and chariots. However, the Romans had 2 units of field ballista and perhaps more importantly, plenty of cover in the form of woods and a rather useful scattering of small hills and escarpments which could offer useful protection from missiles.
Joe and I used the first move of the game to quickly advance towards the central wooded areas – our plan was to deprive the Brits of the opportunity of shooting and attacking from the cover of the woods. This task was allocated to the centrally deployed legionary units. The ballista and 3 units of auxiliary archers advanced to take up position on and in front of a 4 hex hill. Joe then held this position in anticipation of the advance of Tim’s chariots and warriors against the left wing of our Roman force. On the extreme right wing I positioned the Roman heavy cavalry along with a unit of skirmishers and light cavalry.
Chris and Tim chose to advance slowly and cautiously across the width of the table. This gave our Romans the opportunity to reach the central woodland, deploy and form a shield wall just outside the wood line. Tim’s British chariots to posed too much of a threat to Joe’s left wing in terms of a potential flanking move to risk any further advance. The Roman cavalry on the right waited for Chris to advance his slingers and warriors before slipping away to take up position behind the central legionaries, and in so doing act as a mobile reserve.
Joe and I had planned to advance in the centre with the legionaries and try and divide the Brits in two so that Tim and Chris could not support each other. However, as the opposing units got engaged the generally good shooting from the Brits and the stubbornness of their warriors in the centre soon stopped the Roman central advance. By concentrating their shooting the British missile troops soon started to win the battle of attrition and the first 2 units of Roman legionaries landed in the casualty tray!
The removal of the Roman cavalry from the right gave Chris’s slingers and warriors some ground to cover in trying to catch-up with their opponents. This bought more time for the Roman attack to make progress through the central woodland. Here the Brits simply pulled back and again the British missile units were able to shoot the Roman centre from both wings.
Casualties accelerated quickly for both sides as Chris’s warriors and fanatics charged into the centre right of the Roman line. Here the sheer weight of numbers initially favoured the Brits, but when we committed our Roman cavalry reserve to the fight along with 2 generals they were pushed back causing lots of disruption and significant casualties.
Joe had by now accepted the fact that Tim wasn’t going to advance into ballista range and decided to advance his Roman archers to offer some support to the embattled legionaries in the centre. This meant advancing into relatively open ground which created the opportunity for Tim’s British chariots to finally enter the fight. Unfortunately for our Romans this proved very effective and this time it was the auxiliary spear and archers which went to the casualty tray.
An overview of the battle at this point would would reveal a Roman advance in the centre and left and a fighting retreat on the right. The fighting retreat on the right had caused severe losses for both sides and only the Roman cavalry reserve had prevented a British outflanking move. In the centre the Roman legionaries had successfully advanced three quarters of the way across the table but had been so severely mauled that no further advance was possible. They were subsequently successfully charged by Tim’s Brits and started to be pushed back.
Both armies were by this stage of the game pretty much exhausted. The Brits had lost many units of warriors but still had significant numbers of missile troops on the table. The Roman legionary units had suffered badly but the 3 units of heavy cavalry, a unit of light cavalry and skirmishers were still available to pounce on any British breakthrough now that the opposing lines had ‘thinned.’ The Brits made the last tactical move of the game hampered to some extent by command and control issues with their warrior hordes. Despite this Tim was able to inflict the final casualties of the game on the Roman legionaries.
Game Analysis
This was always going to be a tough game for the Romans who suffered steady attrition from British missile shooting throughout. The casualty count would give a victory to the Brits but Joe and I were pretty pleased with the way our Romans had performed. The terrain had helped us advance, gain and relinquish ground as necessary thanks to Antony’s terrain selection.