After Action Report - A Romans and Britons Encounter Battle

The figures came out again for another ancients battle at the weekend.  Unusually we have stuck with the same period of history for a 5th month in a row!  Both Ian, my regular opponent, and I are reading the same historical books at the same time.  The Penguin classics of 'The Gallic Wars' and 'The Civil Wars' have proved very inspirational.  The Caesarian Armies are still coming along and nearing completion so the Imperial Romans came out again - and that's no bad thing either!

We decided to go for an encounter battle.  The objective being the destruction of the opposing enemy army.  The key features of the battlefield gravitated towards the centre which encouraged swift movement (always helpful when time is limited!).

I'm using a mapping software programme for this map - I'm pleased to have discovered how to save it to my pictures file (note to self - select 'export' to blog pictures file and save as JPEG!). However, I cannot fathom out how to label the map yet with this software so I shall save that treat for another time.

The large green blob is the key feature - a large hill.  There is a road running from East to North bypassing the hill and between two areas of marshland.  Woods are dotted about.

It will suffice to say that the British Tribes are situated to the West (Blue) and the Romans are to the East (Red).  Infantry Divisional symbols are shown but the armies broke down into 3 x brigades each side (forming the division).  Cavalry, Chariots and Scorpions also added to the discomfort of the foot-sloggers.

Ian and I both diced for command ratings.  Ian's Roman General was an excellent 9 with both Brigade Commanders a sound 8.

My Britons suffered some bad dice luck with command ratings.  My general was 7, with one Brigade commander a 7 and fortunately my cavalry/chariot brigade commander an 8 (phew!).

We diced to see who went first and the Romans won 6-1.  My dice seemed to have been cursed by the Roman priests!

This photo can hopefully be orientated to the map.  Note the hill, road and marshes to the North.  My Britons have deployed to the west.

We used Hail Caesar rules for this game.  I have plans to use 'To the Strongest' for my current painting project (10mm Caesarians) (one Legion nearly painted already- hurrah!)

Anyway, I digress...

Game Turn One saw the Romans make a general advance.  The Britons started to suffer straight away from their poor command ratings and my orders didn't reach any of my troops - so no movement for me!

Game Turn Two saw the Romans advancing all across the board.  This was looking bad for me already! I managed to deploy my chariots and cavalry on my right wing.  I saw Ian deploying his cavalry down the road at the North of the board but I didn't want to be distracted by them.  My mobile brigade deployed at the southern end and aimed for the Roman Auxiliary Brigade.  I needed to hit his lighter units before his Legionaries deploying in the centre did the real damage.

Game Turn Three saw the Romans drawing ever closer and I was only just getting on to the board with my tribal infantry. You can see Ian's cavalry taking a wide sweep to the North on the road.  I really want to take that hill and not be diverted by cavalry from my objective.  Ian was deploying skirmishing archers and Scorpions onto the hill on this game turn.  Even the Legion had secured the southern end of the hill - a worrying development.  My tribesmen had ignored their orders for too long and it looked like I was going to get boxed in.

British Cavalry and Chariots about to make a triple move charge against the Auxiliaries 

Drawing in towards my centre. A solid mass of Legionaries 

 My British tribesmen.  Looking scary but refusing orders to advance!

 A view from the north of the Roman Cavalry heading at speed along the road in column

A view from behind the Roman lines - note one of the British tribes angled against the threat of the cavalry.  Please ignore the undercoated in black Roman General.  We needed another commander and this one is still not finished!

At least something's moving for the Britons!  A triple move charge crashes into the Auxiliaries 

The British cavalry push back the opposing Auxiliary unit and follows-up!  First melee success to the Britons!  After the initial inactivity from poor command rolls this was an unexpected success!

Game Turn Four saw the Romans mostly static put putting pila and scorpion bolts down range.  The British cavalry force beat back the Roman Auxiliaries again, who go off the table and are thus broken as a unit.  Things are looking up!

Game Turn Five and Six, however, changes things!

The Legion are content to halt and block my tribesmen in. The reason for this holding action becomes clear soon enough! 

 The Auxiliary cavalry gain a triple move and form into battle line and charge my flank. I have little choice but divert troops from my centre to shore up this flank or my tribesmen will be surrounded

Game Turn Six sees the Roman Legion spot the crucial moment of the battle.  Both of the Britons flanks are under pressure and the centre has to be weakened to fight on the flanks.  The Legion charge! 

This is where things went wrong on the British right (the south on the map).  The chariots were beaten off in melee and this was followed by the cavalry being made to retreat disorganised (ubiquitous cotton wool) as they were charged in their rear and unable to turn to meet the threat.  The retreat move could not be completed because their was a battery of scorpions I had been hoping to charge to kill easily.  Alas as the retreat was blocked by them, my unit disintegrated. So the fortunes of war changed so rapidly.

The victorious Roman cavalry prepare to charge another unit 

 Another view of the action in the centre

 I couldn't get the tribesmen to charge up the hill due to poor dice rolls and disorganising fire.  The Romans did a great job of pinning the troops down while I had to pull back supporting units to prepare to receive cavalry from the flank 

Two tribes take on three legionary cohorts - the end is nigh!

At this point I conceded the game.  Both flanks had caved in and the Legion had bided their time, squeezing in the centre until they finally added their weight. As I weakened my centre to push out to protect the flanks the charge was always going to succeed.  I could see the situation developing but there was little I could do to change anything.  The end was inevitable.  Ian had fought a textbook action and the victory for his Roman's was total!

All in all a very enjoyable game.  This was especially pleasing as the previous two games had thrown up quirks.  I haven't written those games up but the improvements have been implemented into my copy of the rules.  

One of those games did involve a river crossing where neither of us could get our troops to find the fords in the river by pulling out a sequence of just two playing cards (one beating the other).  In the end our troops just stood on their respective banks and hurled stuff at each other as they just could not cross.  Amusing but not the best outcome for an ancients game.  This was just really really unlucky and not a reflection on the rules.

The other odd game threw up a rules quirk.  When shooting at an enemy in Hail Caesar, 6's on a D6's cause a throw to be taken on a Break Test chart.  This threw up an extreme case where a fresh fanatic warband was stopped in its tracks by a tiny skirmish unit of archers who made them retreat (without inflicting a single casualty!).  This seemed to both of us to be very unsatisfactory and I searched on the internet to see if anyone else had modified the rule on this.  I was very happy indeed to find this:

http://blenheimtoberlin.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/black-powder-modified-hail-caesar-break.html

Bill's solution is absolutely perfect! I use this table now instead.  Disorder is caused by 6's on D6s (like Black Powder) but break tests are now only thrown if the hit unit is already wobbly with shaken morale when it is shot up. What a great solution and it played really well too! The only difference to this sheet we have made is that we do count the difference in casualties between the two sides in melee as deductions from the break test throw of 2D6.

This will be the last game until April and I will still be happy to get the Roman's out again next time as they always look great on the table. Maybe the Caesarians will be ready...!

Anglo-Saxon Fyrd

Time has been horribly short for wargaming, painting or blogging in recent months.  I've not even been able to keep up with reading some of my favourite blogs of late so I must apologise for my absence in posting on the excellent work of others.  This shortage of time will get worse until about April when a course I am doing comes to an end - hurrah!

I have some game reports to write up but these are always time-heavy to type up so I shall add a few pics of recently painted units.  This time it is the Dark Age Warrior set from Gripping Beast.  These are plastic figures and assemble very nicely indeed.   You may notice a few of the Gripping Beast metal figures in the ranks too, just to fill in gaps.

I have also used a few heads from the Wargames Factory Saxon Thegns set.  The Thegns set seems to be a lot better than the early offerings from Wargames Factory, though they really annoyingly have only a few helmeted heads for the chain-mail clad bodies (surely if a warrior can afford a mail shirt and sword he will buy himself a helmet!).  The set does have some heads in Phrygian caps so it is these which I have trimmed to fit to add variety to my Anglo-Saxon Fyrd.

For gaming purposes these fellows will have a front rank consisting of Thegns and Huscarls with factors leaning towards the fighting strengths of these troops until stamina loss and casualties lead them to lean on the Fyrd who will then use their factors until they win or break!

I have only a few more units and command to paint up before I can have my first 'proper' game with my Anglo-Saxon and Norman armies.  It has only taken me 21 years to get this far with my Dark Ages collection.  This spring/summer WILL be the time another collection reaches 'playable' status. Thank goodness (and about time too!).

Roman Command Stand

The Roman General was painted up about 15 years ago and  I thought he was well over due being put onto a decent base.

Having been attached by himself to a single piece of card all those years ago, I decided to add a mounted Legate to the stand to lend an extra sense of authority.   So there is something like 15 years painting time between these two.  Some areas have been freshened up on the General in more recent years.  If I remember, I originally painted the cloak with an enamel but it looked decidedly faded so was later painted in a richer acrylic.

Both figures are from the 28mm Foundry Imperial Roman range

I seem to be painting two scales of Romans at the moment.  Having just read Julius Caesar's 'Gallic Wars' I'm now reading his 'Civil War'.  This has (as probably expected!) enthused me with the Caesarian Roman period.  I've started this range in 10mm while I carry on with the Imperial Romans in 28mm.  My plan is to use Simon Miller's 'To the Strongest' rules with huge 10mm armies so that I can play massive battles in a sensible amount of time.

Of course this plan is likely to go awry as my regular wargaming opponent, Ian, has several painted cohorts of 28mm Foundry Caesarian Romans freshly painted and they look stunning.  There must be a latin-named medical condition for anyone painting up 3 x Roman armies at the same time!  I shall hold off doing so for as long as possible!

Suetonius Paulinus

Here is the Roman responsible for defeating Boudicca; Gaius Suetonius Paulinus.

This is a Wargames Foundry model I have had for a number of years and every so often I have pulled the set from out of the press-lock bag, looked at, desired to paint it up and yet was slightly too daunted by knowing that it was going to be one of those 'best effort' figures.  Many times I opted instead to paint units en-masse knowing I could spend the same time painting multiples of figures for the time it would take to do this one.

As I am in a 'Roman' historical frame of mind currently, and enthused by several superb Roman vs Britons wargames of late, I knew that it was about time I had a commander on a proper command stand to command my Legions.

In the event, painting was an absolute joy.  The black undercoat provided shadow for those difficult to get at areas like gaps between pteruges.  I wouldn't go as far as saying that the figures virtually painted themselves, but it was a lot quicker than I imagined and before I knew it, I was trying to find the right composition of the vignette on the base with the figures happily painted and varnished.

Paints used were predominantly from the Foundry Triad range.  Since buying a set of these last year I haven't looked back - I think they are superb paints and I will be getting a lot more of them.  I also used Vallejo and Games Workshop paints (esp Mithral Silver for metal highlights).

 I have gone for a softer shade for the edging of the base.  I'm starting to think that black/dark brown edging might detract from the figures and pull the eye towards the frame as it were, rather than allow focus on the figure.  I might be over-thinking this.  I used Vallejo 'English Uniform' for the edging on this base and I feel the softer edge does allow the figures to be the focus.

 A chap who has had better days than this one!

And a few close ups of the main man himself

Inspired by painting this command stand, I have painted a few others in the last few weeks, all of them being a lot of fun to paint.    Painting time is going to be restricted by other commitments over the next couple of months, however I have saved pics of the other completed projects which I will post up as time allows.

Big Harry Scutum's Holding Action

In this battle a Roman vexillatio of 3 x cohorts of Roman legion under the command of Maximus Horatio Scutum (known to the Britons as 'Big Harry') has to fight a holding action whilst awaiting reinforcments.

Maximus Horatio (Big Harry) Scutum says: 'Oi, I haven't even had my tea yet!'

I was the commander of the Romans this month as I had commanded the great lime-washed in the previous game.  Ian commanded the Britons.

Scenario

The Roman raiding detachment of 3 x cohorts has found that their punitive raid on the local tribal villages of the Catuvellauni is not going to plan.  The last few villages have been deserted and as the Romans form up in a clearing they are aware of the sound of drumming of shields and the racket of horns being blown in the woodline opposite them.  The drumming and hornblasts grow louder and the legionaries look around nervously as the noise reaches a crescendo.  Maximus Horatio Scutum, the experienced vexillatio commander reacts quickly - sending off riders down both directions of the military road to summon local reinforcements.  Will the reinforcements come in time to prevent their destruction?

Rules used are 'Hail Caesar'.

My first effort at making a map. This was done with Powerpoint - hopefully one day I'll use the software which I found with the 100 page manual but in the meantime this will do!

Roman's Briefing
You have 3 veteran cohorts as well as a battery of scorpions.  You know there are local auxiliary detachments nearby who can help they will be thrown for from game turn 2.  They will arrive on an escalating role equal or below the game turn number.  ie. 1,2,3 on  D6 in game turn 3, 12,3,4 on game turn 4 so by game turn 6 they will arrive. You don't, however, know the strength of the reinforcements or from which direction they will come from. Big Harry Scutum has a command grade of 8.

Briton's Briefing
Wipe them out.  Turn the tables on the punitive raiding force and defeat them before the reinforcements overwhelm your own forces, Of course you can take on the reinforcements and beat them too.  Should you decide to withdraw your army at any stage with no broken brigades a draw can be claimed.

You have 3 x Brigades:

Brigade 1:   2 x Warband units, 1 x Slinger unit   Commander graded a solid 8.

Brigade 2:  1 x Cavalry unit, 1 x Chariot unit.  Commander graded a solid 8

Brigade 3:  2 x Warband units, 1 x Fanatic (naked!) Warband.  Commander graded an excellent 9

Hopefully this relates to the map clearly enough. This is taken from the left side f the board (left side of map.  Road and hill should assist orientation

Game Turn 1

The Britons deployed their forces from out of the woodline (Ian's edge of the board).  The Roman vexillatio stayed put and put down Scorpion fire.  The bolts tore into the chariot unit causing them to test and making the unit hold their ground.  Any units held up were going to be very helpful for the Romans in staving the Britons off until reinforcements arrived.  No reinforcement throw permitted in this turn though!

Scary noisy buggers with much lime-washed hair

Game Turn 2

The Britons advance their right wing, presumably to allow all their units to hit at once.  The fire of the Scorpion battery scythes into a unit of warband, halting them for the next turn in confusion.

Maximus Horatio (Big Harry) Scutum directs his men to the Military Road

'Watch your left!'

Scorpion fire rips through shields and warband alike

Game Turn 3

The Britons advanced across the board, slowly and for them, steadily.  The Britons left warband brigade was delayed by the tree copse which it had to negotiate.  To allow room for being pushed back. Big Harry Scutum ordered his men to advance up to the military road.  This would also assist in allowing reinforcements to reach them quicker.  A round of pila are launched at the Briton's light cavalry who allowed themselves to get too close.  The pila force the cavalry to retreat.  The Legion commander thought this a satisfactory outcome - so far the whole British tribe was failing against his small vexillatio.  The reinforcement throw was not so good however.

'Prepare Pila!'

Game Turn 4

An advance to contact is made as a Catuvellauni warband charge the Scorpions who had been so troublesome in the early game turns.  The Scorpions and crews are completely destroyed.  The charge of the chariots is beaten off and they pull back together with their supports.  The throw for reinforcements is again a fail - needing anything but 5 or 6 the Romans throw a 6!

The demise of the excellent Scorpions

The courageous charge of the chariots as they are bloodily repelled

Game Turn 5

The battle is now desperate. The Romans had hoped to have bought enough time to gain assistance from their reinforcements before a general engagement took place.  The full weight of the warband attacks now pin the legionaries along their line.  One cohort is pushed back but on the plus side one warband is completely broken. Casualties stack up everywhere with units reaching shaken status up and down the line.  The Roman vexillatio has held magnificently and surely the reinforcements will arrive now to save the day.  Anything but a 6 will lead to their arrival.  The throw is a......6!

 The battle is desperate as the Romans hold on for their lives

...and they are fighting well - a warband bounces back in disorder 

...But the weight of the unrelenting attacks takes it's toll.  The red cohort is forced back, disordered.  The line starts to waver!  

Maximus tries to keep the orange cohort in line

'Hold them....Hooooold them!!!!' The legion are pushed back.

Game Turn 6

The chariots rally and charge back into the fray.  The wavering red Roman cohort  break and flee. The yellow legion which had done so well are forced back.  The orange cohort fights bravely on winning their combat but warbands are now steaming in from their flank.

Oh good news...The reinforcements now automatically arrive...but alas too late. The reinforcements are two units of auxiliary foot and one of cavalry, not enough to repel the Britons - not on their own anyway.

Outflanked! The brave yellow cohort has a horde of warband steaming in on its flank!

An overhead view of the impending disaster

Desperate fighting, but breaking point is moments away...

Here they come - right in from the side

'This is just like the film '" Bridge Too Far"...we are XXX Corps and we get there just in time....oh hang on....!'  

The field clears as the Romans break

And there the game ended.  It really was an excellent game which we both really enjoyed.  The Romans clung on so well and appeared to actually look like winning the game on their own for a few minutes!  Alas they were whittled down in the end until they broke.  If only the reinforcements could have arrived sooner!  Though whether they were strong enough to take on the warband we can only guess.

The rules gave a superb game.  The legionaries are a hard target to break when attacked frontally and only broke when all the factors stacked up against them. The previous game got me back into the Hail Caesar frame of mind and it flowed much more quickly this time.  A few less units this time also meant that I could focus on the detail of fewer actions rather than too many complicated actions. 

All in all - fantastic fun! I am currently painting up the magnificent Foundry 'Gaius Suetonius Paulinus' set hopefully in time for the next game.