Monday night Jan 5th.
The Guals came in numbers to put an end to Caesar and his puny Ronams.
Ed, Mark, Bob & Chris slathered themselves in woad and began chewing on their shield rims
Erik & I watched with disinterest as the filthy vermin worked themselves in a frenzy and removed our scuta from their leather cases.
PRE GAME
The Romans had Julius Caesar (an inspired commander) and 2 troop commanders
6 legions, 5 regular and a veteran (the tenth!),
a small (4 base) BG of Gallic Allied cavalry
a 6 base BG of Spanish Scutarii
and a useless BG of skirmishers (4 bases)
But 1 legion and the cavalry had to start off the board. The rest had to deploy within 12" of the river.
The Gauls had
Boduognatus (chieftain of the Nervii & field commander) and 2 troop commanders.
5 Groups of 10 base warbands
1 BG of Soldurii (6 bases)
1 unit of Noble Gallic cav (6 bases)
1 unit of Regular cavalry (6 bases)
2 units of skirmishers (8 bases)
1 unit of slingers (6 bases)
The Gauls got to deploy after our set up and made the most out of it.
SET UP
The Romans deployed along the River Front. The Veteran tenth anchoring the end of the left flank and the rest of the Legions in a line angling away from the river with our right flank terminating on a low hill defened by the Spanish Auxilia. We had gaps in our line but close enough to keep a big warband from slipping between two legions
The Gauls deployed densely (the table was 5 X 7 which did not leave a lot of room for deployment. Heavy blocks of infantry all very close to the river and ready to assault. Here are the highlights I noticed.
* All skirmishing units opposed my Left flank (where my elite unit was) promising to pepper me all day with missiles from the river & daring me to cross
* Strongest cavalry on the Gallic Right flank (which gave it the most room to flank the Romans)
* Soldurii & regular cavalry on the Gallic left flank.
EARLY GAME
The Gauls pressed close in a hurry. Ed's javelins rained down on the Roman Left while the rest of the warbands advanced quickly to cross the Sabis. The sound of catterwauling and spearshafts on shield faces was deafening. The Romans moved to the river's edge to hold the position, shook out a few units and waited, like veterans, for the battle to be joined. Ed's fire-hardened sticks scored a lot of early hits eventually disrupting the regular legion on our left. All our legions waited, having no interest in crossing the disordering stream in the face of so many Gauls. On our right Erik watched the warbands double time closer and closer.
The battle was joined in the center unexpectedly as warchief Bob tried in vain to hold back his frenzied tribes. His troops poured across the river and met the Romans on the bank. Even though the Gauls didn't win the initial onslaught, they held their ground and their cohesion and kept on fighting.
At this point the Gallic left had crossed the river and Erik surged forward to meet them as they came forward hoping to bottleneck them as the advanced. On the Roman Left I could do little but form testudo and weather Ed's storm of darts and slingstones.
The Romans committed the reserve legion to moving quickly up the central road and the allied cavalry to race towards our left flank to meet Ed's thundering Noble Cavalry.
The fight between Bob's unruly mob and the Romans was short and sweet. The Romans better armor and swordsmanship matched against Bob's horrific dice rolling led to a quick degradation of the Gallic center. The Gauls broke after failing two morale checks and the Romans, smelling blood had to follow, splashing into the creek and disordering themselves. The rout was a blessing in disguise. The disordered Romans smashed into a second Gallic warband on the opposite bank and were trapped fighting in an unfavorable position.
Roman legion caught in the river and losing (for now!)
MID GAME
The Romans were in good position at the midway point of the game.
Our left flank was in a stalemate resisting all incoming missile fire (and rallying back when we became disrupted) Ed's cavalry was flanking around but was slowed crossing the river.
Our center was winning despite unfavorable odds. The legion that had pursued into the river had become disrupted in the impact phase but Bob's dice were truly abysmal and despite numbers and position being in his favor he managed to lose and rout again! At this point there were calls for the dice to be smashed on the altar of bad luck.
(fleeing Gauls!)
On the Roman Right the legions and Spanish Scutarii threw back the first wave of barbarians with relative ease, but Mark and Chris were slipping their cavalry around for a flank attack and the barbarian soldurii (crack noble infantry) were coming up in support.
At mid game the Romans had a definite point lead, three barbarian warbands were in rout, but the tactical situation was not good. Both Roman flanks were being turned and there was little to stop it from happening.
LATE GAME
The tide begins to turn.
On the right flank. . .The Soldurii were disrupted when a Gallic warband routed through them, but despite this the hit the legion at the end of the Roman right hard and the cavalry moved into position for a flank attack.
The combined effort of a Roman legion and the Spanish broke yet another warband but their triumph was short lived. The Soldurii (along with cavalry support broke the rightmost legion and smashed into the Spanish. meanwhile the cavalry chased down and destroyed the fleeing Romans. The sight of this disheartened the Spanish who also broke and routed through the Roman skirmishers which fragmented them.
Caesar was alone with one legion that he shifted to meet the Soldurii. Both units collided and it promised to be a bloody fight.
In the center. The Romans had control. One legion began to move to the right to lend aid to the beleaguered Julius Caesar and the other began to shift left to take the last Gallic warband in the flank.
On the left flank. Ed's mounted nobles smashed into the smaller band of Allied cav and in a single turn routed them. leaving a strong unit of cavalry free to roam behind Roman lines.
Ed's last warband chose to die gloriously and assaulted across the river, throwing itself on the two waiting legions. Despite losing all combats Ed rolled some miraculous morale tests and managed to keep the unit alive and fighting.
END GAME
Time had run out but the outcome of the game was hanging in the balance. 4 Gallic warbands had routed. giving the 8 out of 11 points towards their rout total. The Romans had three units routing and a fragmented unit giving us 7 out of 9 points towards our rout total.
The Roman center was solid and was moving to help the right flank.
The Roman left would break Ed's warband but still had to deal with the noble cavalry and would probably remained neutralized as the horsemen danced around them.
The right flank battle would have been glorious. Caesar rallying his rankers against the cream of the Gallic army as the Gallic cavalry closed in for a flank attack.
Would the Center legion arrive in time?
Could Caesar's luck hold?
In my eyes the game was a stalemate with interesting tactical decisions developing as the game progressed.
--
"Hige sceal
pe heardra, heorte
pe cenre, mod sceal
pe mare
pe ure maegen lytlao"
"Will shall be the sterner, heart the bolder, and spirit the greater as our strength lessens."
-English Proverb
