The Forum

This was the second battle in which the Roman force was given the task of defending the settlement of Reading. The terrain was very open around the ‘town’ which had a road or rather a trade route running across its frontage and a junction from this led through Reading to the Roman table edge. Chris, Tony and James took command of the British attacking force and Joe and I the Roman defenders. This very open terrain in the centre would present our Roman’s with a major problem when dealing with the mobility and missile power of the Brits, and so, we worked out a battle plan which would hopefully compensate for our limitations.
We deployed all our Roman legionary units inside Reading and directly to the left and right of the settlement stretching all the way to the table edge on the right. Their front protected to by a 4 hex escarpment on the right and an area of woodland straddling the road leading into the settlement. To the left was the wide expanse of open ground punctuated in the centre by a 4 hex hill on which we deployed the 2 units of ballista with the 3 units of Auxiliary archers in front. The Brits deployed along the trade route across the whole width of the table with the chariots and skirmishers on their right and the slingers and light cavalry on the far left facing the Roman legionaries in Reading and Behind the 4 hex escarpment. The mass of the British warrior hordes and fanatics were located in the centre of their deployment zone.
The Brits first move saw them quickly move their missile units forward on the left and right flanks. In response Joe sent a Roman auxiliary spear unit to claim control of the 4 hex escarpment staying below the crest to avoid becoming a missile target. He then formed the legionaries into a shield wall behind. The first part of our defensive plan was in place, but to the left of Reading where most of our auxiliary units were deployed was always going to be the most vulnerable and it was here we kept the bulk of our reserves – we were determined that the Brits would not take Reading!
Tony’s slingers and javelin armed cavalry soon pelted the end of Joe’s legionary line with missiles but only managed to force a recoil. On the other wing James sent his chariots and skirmishers to attack the 4 hex wood in which I had positioned a unit of auxiliary spears supported by a couple of skirmish units. Meanwhile the bulk of the British warriors held position in the centre while their mobile missile units did their ‘softening-up’ operation on the Roman left. The 3 Roman cavalry units were positioned behind the wood and all these troops were hopefully able to draw more British units away from directly attacking Reading.
A number of game turns passed in which the missile units of both sides inflicted limited casualties on each other but caused plenty of disruption, recoils, evades and a few flee moves. We used this time to extend the legionary shield wall further to the left of Reading, now that Joe and I were convinced that there was no intention to attack to the front or the right of the settlement. Our primary mission was to hold the town at all costs and we already believed that we could do this even with over an hour of playing time still available.
However, with the mass of the British force now concentrated against the left which consisted primarily of auxiliary units we new we were in for a tough fight. James used his chariots supported by warrior hordes to get behind our 4 hex wood and destroyed a unit of Roman light cavalry, heavy cavalry and 2 units of auxiliary spears. The left wing of the Roman army was soon in a state of collapse. We bought time to sort out our defence by sacrificing a unit of legionaries in the centre. The central mass of British warriors soon surrounded and demolished this unit but in doing so this slowed down their central advance.
By now it had become obvious to Joe and I that the Brits had given up any intention of trying to capture Reading and were content to try and destroy as many Roman auxiliary units on the left as they could. We were not going to commit any more legionary units into this fight on the left – their mission was to stay put and defend the town! In the last tactical move of the game the British hordes finally attacked in the centre but were stopped by stubborn Roman shield wall to the left of the town. In the end despite the loss of many auxiliary units on the left and far greater Roman losses than Brits, Reading stood firm defended on all sides by all but one of the original units of legionaries.
Game Analysis
As a stand alone game, in terms of losses, this was a Roman defeat. However, as part of a campaign the British task was to re-capture Reading from the Romans. This they failed to achieve and didn’t really make a serious effort to do. The Brits were content to dispatch Roman auxiliary units to the casualty tray, which left the core of the Roman force intact and still in control of the town and the ground the surrounding ground.

Written by Paul K.