Gallic War Campaign Battle 4: The Revolt of the Treveri

Battle Four: The Revolt of the Treveri (57 BC)

The next battle in the campaign was quite a surprise.  After a string of defeats, Ariovistus resorted to diplomacy to gain an advantage: in this case, persuading the Treveri who had initially fought with him, then defected to the Romans when their homeland was occupied, to defect back!  They agreed to do so, immediately attacking the IX Legion which had been supporting them in the previous battle.

The Romans have been caught by surprise by this sudden change of allegiance but have just had enough warning to form a line of battle to meet the oncoming onslaught...

The Forces:

 

Romans:

IX Legion

Commander: Geta (Inspiring, Steady)

2 bases Veteran Legionaries, 4 bases Trained Legionaries, 1 base Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained Skirmishers

Gauls (Treveri):

Commander: Casso (Average, Cautious)

Tribe 1:

1 base Veteran/Elite Cavalry, 1 base Veteran Tribal Foot, 3 bases Raw Tribal Foot, 1 base Raw Skirmishers

 

Tribe 2: Sano (Average, Cautious)

1 base Trained/Elite Cavalry, 2 bases Raw Tribal Foot, 1 base Raw Skirmishers

The Set-Up:

The IX Legion has formed in the low ground, as the Treveri warriors appear on the hills

Casso decides to lead his elite horsemen in person

Sano meanwhile leads the host of Treveri foot warriors

Another view

Whilst the Treveri youth have been sent to harass the Roman right flank

Geta has deployed his main body in the centre, with his veteran cohorts and horsemen in support; his skirmishers guard one flank

A closer look

The Battle:

Given the situation, the Gauls have nothing to gain by waiting, so Casso launches his warriors into the attack!

The Gauls close in upon the Romans

Geta manoeuvres to protect his left...

Whilst seizing the initiative and launching his own charge in the centre!  The leading Gallic warriors fall to the volley of Roman pila...

The leading Treveri foot warriors have all been killed or have fled or have been pushed back up the hill

The Gallic Horsemen rout and hunt down the Roman slingers (right); the Roman Legionaries look on impassively (left)

The Gallic warriors do not give up easily, despite their heavy losses, going back into the fray against the Roman Legionaries in the centre

The veteran Roman legionaries on the left flank waver as they receive the brunt of the Gallic horsemen's charge (left)

The youth of the Treveri harass the Roman artillery and reserves whilst the main fight rages in the centre

The veteran legionaries grimly hang on (left), whilst the victorious Gallic Horsemen try to rally from their charge (centre)

The Romans in the centre are under severe pressure from the renewed attack of the Gauls; both Geta and Casso are in the thick of the fighting (right)

The overall position - the Roman left is under severe pressure, the centre is witnessing some intensive hand-to-hand fighting but on balance the Romans still have the upper hand, whilst on the right, the Roman artillery is proving more than a match for the Treveri's javelinmen

The Roman legionaries under cavalry attack are slowly losing both ground and heart (left); the Roman cavalry cannot be persuaded to charge the disordered Gallic cavalry...who are in turn resisting their commanders' efforts to restore some order

The Roman artillery is proving remarkably accurate!

The advantage in the centre has tilted irrevocably to the Romans: more Treveri warriors are in flight, fleeing over the hill (top-centre)

Some of the Treveri youth cannot bear to face more Roman missiles and run for the hills too

The last Treveri foot warriors join the flight

The Roman cavalry win the race too launch their charge before the Gallic horsemen can reform, and they are soon driven off too

Casso breaks and slaughters the flanking Roman cohort, but too late to change the fortunes of the battle...

Game Result:

The Treveri tribes have largely been destroyed as a military force, with only some of their horsemen and skirmishers left intact: but their direct casualties amount to nearly 40% of their force, with the same again fled and wandering.  The Roman casualties have been severe too, approaching 25%.  Surprisingly, despite being in the thick of the fighting, all of the leaders survived the battle and escaped being taken prisoner.

Game Notes:

A smaller but very exciting battle. The key moment in the game happened quite early on: a combination of winning the Tempo at the right moment and then getting a decent break allowed Geta to charge the advancing Treveri host, rather than the other way around.  As Gallic foot warriors are most effective in the first flush of fighting in the Polemos: SPQR rules, this removed the sting from the Gallic advance.  The Gallic cavalry was effective but suffered from not rallying at all after their initial victory, so were unable to exploit and were eventually vulnerable to the Roman counter-attack.  The Roman artillery was surprisingly effective, the Gallic skirmishers typically ineffective.  

The way that the Army morale rules work makes some sizes of armies distinctly more tough than others. A c.10-base army is distinctly tougher than a c.20-base one, relative to its size because the assumption of armies in approximately 20-bases chunks is baked into the morale loss levels.  With this in mind, it may have been better if I had used a different multiplier to generate the scenario forces.  So far, I have been equating 1 campaign Strength Point as equivalent to 1000 troops (more or less); so a maximum 4SP Roman Legion would have about 4000 men (doesn't seem too out of kilter with campaign strength forces), plus it makes the maths easier than assuming a 1250-man SP.  But it could be taken up to 1500 men (making a full-strength legion 6000 men), or I could do that for smaller battles, making a base roughly 333 men, so this battle would have been 13 bases against 15.

The overall scenario was a delight to me, since the narrative was entirely generated by the campaign rules' mechanisms, but could have led to a genuine 'Eagle of the Ninth' scenario!  Unfortunately for my sense of romanticism, the Romans had a bit of luck and pulled this one out of the bag - but IX Legion is weaker now, and looking distinctly exposed by itself in Belgium...

Figures mainly by Baccus 6mm, with a couple of Rapier Miniatures there too.  Rules were Polemos: SPQR.

Gallic War Campaign Battle 3: The Battle of Five Hills

The Battle of Five Hills: 58BC ended with the Romans having had rather the better of the previous years' campaigning.  However, Ariovistus was in a position to attack the edge of the Roman-controlled area and thus launched an attack on his erstwhile allies, the Treveri, who had defected to the Roman over the winter in order to save their tribal lands and families.  These new-found Roman allies were supported by the IX Legion.  

Ariovistus had dived his forces to attack from two directions - a strategy which would be likely to deliver a crushing success if it worked out well, but risked his forces being defeated in detail.  His own army would pin the Gallo-Romans before the flank attack came in on their left, hopefully sweeping all before them...

 The Forces:

 Gallo-Romans:

Commander: Geta (Inspiring, Steady)

 

IX Legion: 6 bases Trained Legionaries, 1 base Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained Skirmishers, 1 base Artillery 

1st Treveri Contingent: Samo (Average, Steady) 4 bases Raw Tribal Foot, 1 base Trained/Elite Cavalry, 1 base Raw Skirmishers

2nd Treveri Contingent: Lukotorix (Poor, Rash) 2 bases Raw Tribal Foot, 1 base Trained/Elite Cavalry, 1 base Raw Skirmishers

 

Germans:

 

Commander: Ariovistus (Inspiring, Steady)

 

Ariovistus' Warband: 4 bases Trained Tribal Foot, 1 base Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained Skirmishers

German Infantry: Filibert (Average, Cautious) 4 bases Trained Tribal Foot, 1 base Trained Cavalry, 1 base Trained Skirmishers

 

Reinforcements:

German Infantry: Adalgard (Average, Cautious), 4 bases Trained Tribal Foot, 2 bases Trained Cavalry
German Cavalry: Widald (Average, Rash), 4 bases Trained Cavalry 

 

The reinforcements would arrive on the Gallo-Roman Left flank on the first German phase after the first in which the Germans roll a '6'.

 

The Set-up:

Ariovistus' men (bottom) face the Romans (top-left) and Treveri (top-centre and right)

The Roman IX Legion ready for battle, its light infantry on its flank (left) and its horsemen in reserve (top)

A closer look at the legionaries

The Treveri's warriors on foot and mounted in the centre

The skirmishers face off on the far wing.

Another shot of the battlefield (Except the Gallic skirmishers, off to the left) from behind the Gallo-Roman lines.

And another shot.

 

The Battle: (I am missing a few photographs right at the start of the battle).  In essence, the Romans and Gallic Cavalry took the offensive, hoping to destroy Ariovistus' smaller forces before his reinforcements arrived and turned the tide of the battle.  The Gallic Infantry also attacked but in echelon, in order to provide some more flank protection against the arrival of Adalgard and Widald).

Filibert leads the German horsemen against the legionaries

Ariovistus leads the German infantry forward, knowing that tactical offence plays to the strength of his warriors, even if grand-tactically he is defending.

The lines meet - the Gallic warriors led by Samo charge into Ariovistus' host, the Germans being distinctly shaken by the ferocity of the Gauls' charge

The legionaries hold firm against the German cavalry

The Romans relieve the first cohort which has been under a lot of pressure (centre-right), whilst Filibert is killed in combat with the central cohort.

The front ranks of the German tribal warriors have suffered severely under the swords of the Gallic horsemen as they broke and routed...

The German infantry fall back under severe pressure from Samo's horsemen...

Obviously disheartened by the loss of their chieftain, Filibert's horsemen ride for the rear...

Fearing the tides of battle are turning against him, Ariovistus seizes the initiative and launches a direct assault into the IX Legion...

Inspired by the example of his ferocity and skill, the German warriors cut the left-hand Roman cohort of IX Legion into pieces...

Samo's cavalry have the clear upper-hand against the remainder of the German infantry however...

The echeloned Gallic foot was adancing when, despite the odds, the remaining German foot warriors launched a charge, despite the 3-to-1 odds against them!  This was not only arrogance however - taking advantage of the slopes, they knew that they must gain time for Adalgard's troops to arrive, otherwise defeat was almost certain...

The Gauls overcome the shock of their initial losses and gain the upper hand against the now vastly outnumbered Germans...

Both sides made slow work of defeating their respective enemies: the rear cohort was pushed back but not defeated by Ariovistus' men, whilst the remaining German horsemen defied all the odds against the Legionaries...(left)

Samo's cavalry see off the last of the German foot warriors opposing them...

The last German warriors on the centre-right valiantly hold on too...

The Gallic skirmishers start to get the better of their German adversaries on the far flank

The few remaining German warriors on the centre-right give way and start running!

The last remaining German cavalry do likewise (bottom-left); Ariovistus has triumphed, but now finds himself almost surrounded!

A closer look

The legionaries give way, and disorder the Roman horsemen behind them too

However, Geta has turned the remainder of IX Legion around and is attacking Ariovistus' warband in the rear - this can only go one way...

The German warriors with Ariovistus in the thick of them cause heavy casualties to the Roman horsemen, but the warriors behind them, attacked in the rear by the legionaries, have fled - the remainder form a circle and prepare to sell their lives dearly...

The position at the end of the battle - the German last stand is on the hill (bottom-left)

Game Notes: A very interesting battle.  Ariovistus was on the strategic offensive (to destroy the Gallo-Roman in its advanced position), the grand tactical defensive (because Geta calculated his best chance was to destroy Ariovistus before his flank attack arrived) and the local offensive (because soldiers in SPQR generally, and tribal armies particularly, function a lot better when attacking).  Of course, ultimately the battle was decided by the German flanking attack simply not arriving, but even in the course of the battle, there were a couple of moments when it might have gone the other way.  Ariovistus' attack worked, but it took much longer than it should have done due to skilful Roman resistance; Samo's attack was not lucky to have broken the leading German foot warriors but was very lucky to break the second line so quickly - that could have, and maybe should have, gone the other way.

 

The Polemos SPQR rules generally worked fine.  I think this battle worked better than the two previous ones since I had reduced somewhat the amount of cavalry available to both sides.  The only query I had was about the concept of 'groups' which are one of the basic elements of the game.  The rule is:

"Groups of bases are formed when bases touch, side to side or front of the rear base to the rear of the front base.  Any base in such contact with another is counted as being in a group with it, unless the base is shaken or halted as a result of a combat outcome.  Groups may be formed of several ranks.  Within a rank, the troop types must be the same'.

This implies that:

a shaken base can never be part of a group.

a group might, or might not, retain its integrity as a result of combat outcomes.

I don't think it is always clear when troops recoil or break which troops should follow up and pursue and which shouldn't.  As written it seems that flanking support units follow up recoiled units but rear support units don't; but all units which took part in a charge (whether they made contact or supported) will pursue if the target base routs.  If so, I would disagree with the first part, since the factors in close combat imply that the rear support units are pushing forward with the forward troops.

 

Figures by Baccus 6mm.

The Gallic War: 58BC

The Gallic War - 58BC:

The Gallic War starts with Caesar's Legions in position in Transalpine Gaul, ready to attack.  The Allobroges & Volcae have already allied with him, but he is opposed by the Helvetii in Switzerland.  Ariovistus and his large force of German warriors, his implacable opponents, lie across the Rhine...

 

 

The campaign began with Caesar attacking the Helvetii with four legions.  Ariovistus meanwhile persuased the Treveri just across the Rhine to ally with his cause.  Caesar's attack with c.16000 soldiers led to the Battle of Octodorum and the crushing of the Helvetii's 9000.  For the loss of nearly 1000 of his men, Caesar's victory and subsequent operations led to the control of the Helvetii's tribal areas.  He then moved two legions west to support the Allobroges, following this up with a campaign against the Boii, who were overwhelmed without much of a battle.  Lacking a force in a position to directly oppose the Romans, Ariovistus encouraged his Gallic supporters to concentrate on partisan warfare, attacking convoys and local Roman supporters.  Annoying though this was, Caesar concentrated on using force to bring the Gauls to heel, turning his attention to the Aedui, which followed a similar pattern to that of the Boii, although the Aedui resisted with much greater ferocity, the Romans losing 4000 men in two months of intense if localized warfare. In the end however, the resistance of the Aedui collapsed too.

 

In the North-East meanwhile, the Treveri attacked their neutral neighbours, the Leuci, breaking their resistance and forcing them into alliance, although not without suffering in the local skirmishes and raiding.

This was followed by a break in the fighting as both sides tried to recruit new strength. Caesar persuaded the Treveri's south-western neighbours, the Mandubii, to join him, whilst secret emmisaries from Ariovistus travelled to South-West Gaul and persuaded the Cardurci to fall in with the Germans and against their neighbours, the Volcae.

Caesar then ordered a combined Roman and Mandubii force to invade the lands of the Treveri; the Treveri quickly returned from the lands of the Leuci to defend it, whilst being joined by Ariovistus and six thousand German warriors.  A very hard fought battle occurred (the Battle of Porta Silva Carbonaria) which resulted in the Germans and the Treveri being forced to retreat.  The Romans and the Mandubii lost c.2000 men, whilst Ariovistus and his allies lost roughly double that and were forced to retreat into the territory of the vanquished Leuci.

The harvest this year was fair.  All the tribes returned to their homes, with the Leuci joining the Germans, the Boii, Helvetii and Aedui joining the Romans.  All the Romans returned home, except IX Legion which remained in the Treveri's territory in order to protect it from a sudden attack by the Germans in the spring.  Ariovistus and one o fhis contingents remaineed in the Leuci's area, the remainder returned across the Rhine.  The Romans and Germans were able to reinforce all their legions and contingents back to full strength - in addition, Caesar received an additional legion (the XIIIth).

 

Game Notes: Going smoothly so far...the Romans have definitely had the best of the year, a combination of aggression and luck paying off and leading them to controlling a good chunk of central and eastern Gaul.  Ariovistus' position is by no means hopeless but his gains have been relatively minor so far.

 

(n.b. The boardgame Caesar's Gallic War is being used as the engine for this campaign).

 

Hobby Update 2nd October 2020

 Hobby Update:

I haven't done a lot of painting recently, but I have bought and painted a few Soviet infantry and T34s from the 2d6 Wargaming range.  They are very nice models, somewhere in the middle of the Heroics & Ros - Baccus - GHQ style triangle.   As ever, my painting doesn't quite do them justice, but hopefully you get the idea - these are at the stage before the final wash.  Along with the riflemen, machine gunners and SMG-armed troops, I have some Commissars and flag-bearers, some female snipers, a couple of anti-tank rifle teams, and some command and mortar teams (male and female).  I am hoping that they do some more codes in the range, I am looking forward to fielding a few more in due course.

T34s & Soviet infantry

The infantry

SMG-armed infantry

LMG teams

Riflemen

Mortars, signallers, nurses

Polemos Ruse de Guerre Clarifications

Ruse de Guerre Clarifications:

 

I asked Polemos Ruse de Guerre author Glenn Pearce his permission to put the following clarifications up on the site.  I think I have some more somewhere, when/if I find them, or he makes more, I will add to this post.  I have also included my notes on playing Ruse de Guerre solo at the bottom.

You can't double up on a single action. You can never voluntarily move twice. You can only move once.

You need 1 TP just to be able to rally your entire command. You then need another TP to give each individual base a plus 3 on the dice roll. So yes, 4TP will allow you to rally 3 bases and each one gets a plus 3 on the dice roll.

Manhandle non-firing artillery with a force 1BW. So, if you manhandle a non-firing artillery piece the entire force can also move 1BW as long as they are all touching. This includes a massed battery. The manhandle rule exits simply to show how they can be moved alone or with a force.

All movement is straight with an allowance of one wheel up to 1BW at any point in the movement.

An attacking force can't break up. As soon as contact is made with the enemy the entire force stops.

The Ruse de Guerre Tempo Phase - Playing Solitaire

 

Polemos Ruse de Guerre has a slightly more involved Tempo Bidding process than its stablemates.  There is another step where the players decide if the turn is going to be a relatively high or relatively low tempo turn.  I do it as follows:

 

1 - Decide for each side whether they would prefer low or high tempo turns.  You could decide each turn but I keep it the same for the entire game.  Typically the defender will prefer low tempo and the attacker high tempo.

 

e.g. Ney is attacking Craufurd at the Coa and wants to move as rapidly as possible.  The French will therefore prefer higher tempo, the Anglo-Portuguese the lower.

 

2 - Roll a d10 for each side.  The side with the higher score chooses which of the dice to use.

 

e.g. Ney rolls '4', Craufurd rolls '7'.  Craufurd prefers a low tempo environment, therefore 4 is added to each side's basic tempo points.

 

2a - If necessary to differentiate between the quality of the C-in-Cs, I would add in extra points here.

 

3 - Each side has a base 5 tempo points, to which 4 are added for a total of 9.  Each side randomly bids, using a dice which will generate a tempo bid that can get as close as possible to, but not exceed the base number of tempo points: in this case, a d8 for each side.

 

e.g. Ney rolls '6', Craufurd rolls '2'.  Ney gets the tempo, bidding 6 from 9, and then adding 2 for winning the tempo for a total of 5 tempo points.