#1 Scenario: Holding Action - the battle concludes

See earlier posts for scenario context; scenario rules; orders of battle; and the course of events up to turn 11...

Turn 12

The Roman auxilia blocking the western road close with the approaching column, limiting its room for manoeuvre. Death and glory is the idea.

Disaster for the Roman legionaries! As expected they mop up the final archer base, but the engaged legion takes a wound which breaks it, and the knock on effects are; removing a base from the legion to their right; breaking the single-base legion immediately to their left; and causing a wound to the legion to the left again. An expensive victory! The Roman blocking position now looks to have unraveled, although the saving grace is that the forward Goths are not quite in a position to exploit it yet, and the heroic auxilia on the road are preventing further reinforcements coming up quickly.

A unit of Roman auxilia comes down from the E hill to assist their pals fighting on the lower slopes. The Goth lancers are broken, the Roman equites manage to survive, and after a brief pursuit they fall in behind the other equites unit trying to withdraw back between the hills.

The Goths start trying to gather their forces into a coherent mass ready for the final push against the SE corner hill lines.

The Roman light cavalry have now re-organised themselves, sitting on the top of the E hill and providing flank protection for the auxilia. At least this is one place where the Roman defences are still on a sound footing.

Turn 13

Two units of Goth rear column warriors charge the heroic auxilia on the road. The auxilia break one of them, and take no casualties themselves.

The Goths begin to form a new line of forces ready to chase the remaining Roman legionaries back up and over the S hill – two units of warriors, two of light javelin inf, the remaining unit of Alan light cavalry, and one unit of tribal archers.

The Roman legionaries pull back onto the S hill, trying to delay the inevitable.

The Roman auxilia pulls back onto the E hill, lining up again with the other auxilia.

The Roman equites fall back through the gap in the hills and turn around. The road is still guarded, but their left flank is worrisome.

The Roman left flank general is running around the edge of the board, leaving his heroic auxilia to their fate and intending to take personal command of the light cavalry on the extreme right.

The goths facing the solidly defended E hill are cautious. The remaining lancers hold back, allowing archers and light javelinmen to move up to cover their left. The lancers want to charge down the road, not onto the rough hill!

Turn 14

The heroic auxilia on the W road continues their single-handed war of attrition, wounding the warrior unit they remain engaged with. Further warrior units are trying to come up in support, but the fight being on the road is a hindrance.

Meanwhile the forward part of the Goth forces are now reasonably organised and attempting to land the final blows. Time is beginning to look short, so they cannot simply wait for the S hill to be overrun. Especially since the warriors need to change to loose formation to make any sort of real progress there.

The Goths crowd forward around the edge of the S hill, and missile fire removes the single-base legion. The one remaining legion keeps pulling back, limiting the Goths’ speed of advance.

Goth archers and javelinmen push forward nervously towards the E hill, and the Roman light cavalry come down, taking a small risk in order to be able to return fire.

The goth lancers push forward along the road, not quite ready to charge through the gap until something comes up that can protect their left flank from the auxilia on the hill.

The Roman equites continue pulling back and re-organising, ready to face the lancers when they attack.

Turn 15

The heroic auxilia on the W road continue their lone rampage, breaking another unit of warriors and charging heedlessly towards the remaining column. Only 8 more units to go and they can have a tea break!

The Goth warriors decide they don’t want the hassle of getting into loose formation, so it is left to the archer and light troops to advance and try to remove the still falling back Roman legion. The massed missile fire inflicts a wound.

Both unit of Roman light can take a wound, inflicting one on the Goth javelinmen in return, and retreat up the hill as the Goths continue to press forward. A lack of good command cards hinder their organisation – one unit now has its back to the enemy and cannot shoot.

The Roman auxilia come down off the E hill. They have a choice between sitting back and soon coming under unreturnable bow fire, or trying to get into action and make the Goth archers regret their hand-to-hand inferiority. With the equites forming up on the road again to keep the lancers honest, the auxilia commander goes for the bold option. His orders do not emphasise saving lives at the expense of failing in the objective!

Turn 16

The last Roman legion is dispersed and Goth light forces continue off the other side of the S hill. The archers turn left toward to road, intending to intervene against the defending equites.

There is now a second Roman general running along the S edge of the map, this one however has no more troops to try to rejoin.

The Goth warriors still are not in loose formation, so instead start to turn 90 degrees left and march around the edge of the hill. One unit turns now, the other waits to admire how they do it.

The Roman light cavalry re-organises itself atop the E hill, and both units have their wounds cured (no command range restrictions in this scenario).

The Goth lancers were still not ready to attack, so the Romans take the initiative. The undamaged equites unit and the auxilia charge; one unit of auxilia helps out against the lancers at some personal risk, the other smacks into a unit of archers. Fortuna rewards the bold apparently; at cost of one wound on the equites, a base of lancers and a base of archers are removed. Both C-in-C’s are fighting in the front line here – there isn’t anything else for them to move, and this could be the decisive moment with not much time remaining.

Turn 17

Finally the heroic Roman auxilia on the W road run out of steam. But they leave a column of massed Goth warriors who have contributed little to the actual cause and have no time now to do so.

The Goth archers on the S hill charge down into the flank of the equites engaged with the lancers. A further wound removes a base of equites, but the lancers are broken, the archers to their immediate left are broken, and two units of auxilia swarm forward in firm possession of the road.

Roman light cavalry chase away the javelinmen on the extreme Gothic left, leaving one unit of archers high and dry. A second unit of javelinmen comes up nervously in support.

Turn 18

The Goth cause now looks hopeless, a combination of too little time and too few advanced units to clear away the remaining defenders and push on down the road in meaningful force.

But is this a final twist?

The Roman equites engaged in the flank cannot get turned, and the other equites unit fails to come to their support. One breaks in the melee, the other is carried away with it (or was it fire from the Alans who are now surging around the southern flank of the hill?)

One base of auxilia is lost to javelin fire from the lone unit of warriors in position to threaten the roadblock.

Finis

At this point I concluded it was time to call it.

The Romans have achieved their primary aim of delaying the Gothic column, but suffered extremely heavy casualties in doing so (note: no automatic army break effects, another scenario rule), losing some brownie points.

The remaining Gothic forces will be able to get off the table eventually, but they have taken a lot of casualties and it will still take some time to get a co-ordinated force moving onward to their next battle; some way further along the road, against a better prepared and fully fortified Roman force holding the pass through the main mountain chain. Not a palatable proposition!

Overall therefore, a moderate Roman victory.

Conclusions / food for thought

Is it better for the Romans to just pull everybody back and man the hill lines in the SE corner? Possibly, but that would allow the Goths to try to get forward and organised quicker and more effectively. I feel that some sort of harassment is necessary. And vital to make an interesting game!

Should the Goths have been more cautious at the start, getting more forces on the table and off the road before pushing forward? The remaining lancers could have done with getting into a position of influence earlier, and leaving them behind on the road didn’t help when the rear party finally started arriving – suddenly they had to moved to the detriment of activity on the front lines. As it turned out the Goth forward push put the Romans under serious pressure but didn’t quite have the strength, or follow up support, it needed. Perhaps a case of more haste, less speed (ultimately).

Were the Romans wise to come off the hills? There was always a chance they would not make it back and end up fighting Goth reinforcements in the open. On balance though I think yes. They had some bad luck with the dice at critical moments and lost of lot of casualties I was not expecting (the heroic auxilia on the W road then made up for that, but I’m not sure how much difference that flourish made to the overall outcome). Even so they occupied Gothic attention and reduced their forces enough, limiting their ability to carry out the final assault in an effective fashion.

So that leads me to conclude that the Goths were not justified in pushing quite so aggressively up the road, expecting the Romans to stand off them. Stronger masking forces from the advance units were needed to allow the push up the road, by elements from further back in the column. Where to attack ultimately depends on exactly how the Romans are deployed in defence, and the terrain will still make it challenging.

#1 Scenario: Holding Action - the battle begins

Turns 1-4

To begin with, the only Romans apparent are the light cavalry in the NW rough ground, in front of the forest; and two units of auxilia on the crest of the far E hill.

Goth advance body march along the road, warriors in front, lancer cavalry will be following on slightly behind. They can’t all come on immediately (and the cavalry are going to take some time to get into action and as it turns out will never do so as a co-ordinated force).

Roman light cavalry observing from the rough ground north of the road attract attention – one unit of lancer cavalry extricates itself from the seething mass on the road and gets in their face ready to chase them away. But not before they manage to get in some effective shooting at the column of warriors passing.

The 4 units of Goth warriors in the van continue rapidly along the road, not seeing anything to worry them unduly with the light cavalry now being taken care of.

One of the two units of Roman auxilia appears on the crest of the SW hill, just to give the Goths something else to think about, a threat to their other flank if they push along the road too carelessly.

The two units of Roman equites are being very active, sallying out from the gap in the hills and advancing rapidly astride the road, preparing to harass and delay the Goth warriors.

The Goth right flank guard arrives, but it will be a while before it can get into action.

Ditto the other two units of Goth lancer cavalry, which are on the road but a sizeable gap has opened up between them and the warriors ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turns 5-6

The lead Goth lancer cavalry are chasing the two units of Roman light cavalry back through the rough ground to the north of the road, but have taken a wound in the process.

The Goth warriors on the road have to decide what to do about the threat of the Roman equites ahead, and the auxilia on the SW hill, who may soon be in a position to threaten their flank. Being in a column is not helpful at this point! One unit charges the equites, and they skirmish away. (Although this would be a favourable match up, their orders are not to risk getting pinned down and potentially overwhelmed. The Goths OTOH have plenty of cheap units to burn if required.) Another unit of warriors backs up the first along the road, and the two behind deploy off to the right and move to mask the threat of the auxilia on the hill.

A second unit of auxilia appears on the hill, and the Goths stop just short. They are matched in numbers here, and overmatched in quality. Plus they are in close formation and the hills are all rough, so need some preparation to even think about attempting to launch an optimistic attack. Their job is simply to keep the Romans from interdicting movement along the road.

With warriors from the advance group facing off against the hill, the right flank guard’s most obvious route to employment is blocked. With two units of lancer cavalry failing to advance along the road (their officers will be taken to task later for their lack of urgency!), the right flank guard passes behind the warriors masking the hill with the intention of deploying further forward.

The Goth left flank guard makes an appearance, with a unit of Alans in the lead and racing to try to catch up and give support to the lancers way ahead in the rough.

Turns 7-8

The Roman light cavalry is chased right back out of the rough ground and disturbs the villagers sheep and goats beside the marsh. I didn’t anticipate they would be in the action when I placed them there! The lancers doing the chasing are still hindered by the rough, but now have support in the form of the right flank guard Alans coming up on their right, and also a second unit of Alans from the on the left of the forces of the right flank guard as they come rapidly through the middle.

The Roman light cavalry now find themselves in danger of being either outflanked, or trapped up against the marsh and adjoining walled village (the inhabitants not being in the mood to open the gates with Goths marauding just behind! The two units separate slightly to try to inhibit outlanking by the Alans, taking the shooting pressure slightly off the lancers (still carrying that one wound received several turns earlier).

The lead two units of warriors on the road are continuing to force back the skirmishing equites, and seeking to prevent them from redeploying in direct support of their light cavalry colleagues, but both Warrior units are now carrying a wound and hoping for meaningful support themselves before they find themselves in serious trouble,

The auxilia on the SW hill are not content to be simply masked out of the game, and advance down the forward slope to get into range. Will the Goths respond? There isn’t much in a position to give immediate support, some light javelinmen from the right flank guard will have to do.

The lagging two units of Goth lancers finally get moving again, advancing to cross the open ground between road and N rough, but are still a long way back from relevance.

This does at least allow space for the first 4 units of warriors from the rear column, who have just belatedly arrived, to start arriving on table along the road.

The Roman legions now decide to make their presence known, appearing on the ridge of the centre S hill, also in loose formation in the rough. This location is probably not a massive surprise to the Goth commander!

Turns 9-10

The chasing Goth lancers burst clear of the rough finally, and chase the N-most unit of Roman light cavalry away (having repositioned they can now evade along the edge of the village). This leaves the second Roman light cavalry somewhat exposed, now with lancers well behind their flank – they seem to be running out of options.

However, the Goths perhaps overpress – one unit of Alans go gung-ho, charge the isolated Roman light cavalry, and are immediately broken. Whoops! That eases the pressure a little.

Although not for long. The gap on the Goth side is filled by the lagging two units of lancers, now in charge range of the light cavalry.

The two units of Roman auxilia change to close formation and charge off the SW hill, into the two units of masking warriors (who are somewhat supported by light javelin fire). This helps to offset the quality advantage of the auxilia – the result of the charge is indecisive, each side taking a wound to one of their units. And in the melee phase the auxilia fare even worse, doing no damage whilst losing a base in their unwounded unit. These Goths clearly ate their weetabix this morning.

The forward Goths on the road are a bit more cautious now with the legions having appeared to their immediate S. One unit of warriors continues to advance more slowly against the equites, with a unit of archers from the right flank guard coming up on their left in support. The second unit of warriors and the second unit of archers turn right to mitigate against any threat from the legionaries who might advance down off the hill. The Goth formations are getting rather messy and intermingled at this point!

Turn 11

A lot of action suddenly!

Two units of Goth warriors from the rear column press forward past the fight on the SW hill, while the road is clear.

Meanwhile the auxilia/warriors fight is carnage. The single base auxilia unit is broken. The wounded auxilia unit takes another wound and loses a base so is hanging on by a thread. But one unit of warriors is also broken and also carries away their colleagues. The end result is a single base of auxilia in a large open space, rushing forward and planting themselves firmly on the road. Not a friend in sight (their general had already bravely moved back to avoid any potential trouble!) and the remaining 10 units of the Goth rear column coming towards them. A heroic stand is called for…

Goth lancers continue to press forward and the “isolated” Roman light cavalry manage to make their escape back to Roman lines on the E hill, moving to link up with the other light cavalry unit which has now moved back past the village.

The Goth left guard archers and light javelinmen push forward towards the village and E hill, in support of the lancers.

The forward unit of Goth warriors on the road finally breaks due to equites javelins, but the equites have misjudged their line of retreat and are struggling to keep away from the lancers, who are in turn perhaps too aggressive in the process. A unit of lancers catches a unit of equites against the lower slopes of the E hill, and a confused fight develops. The equites lose a base but cause a wound to the lancers.

Roman legionaries advance off the S central hill to engage the feeble blocking force of one warrior and one archer unit. This is a fight the Romans expect to win, and indeed they break the warriors and remove a base from the archers. But the cost is heavy – the two legions engaged each lose a base themselves. Nevertheless, there is now a worrying gap in the Goth forces, which the lead units of the rear column are just arriving in time to try to plug.