The Gallic War: Battle of Octodorum (Battle 1)

58BCE: The Battle of Octodorum

I finally managed to get my Gallic War campaign refight kicked off!  I will write about the issues at the bottom of this post, but for now, I will get into the campaign itself...

Caesar, as might have been expected, seized the initiative.  Marching at the head of his Legions (X and XI), he approached from the South, whilst sending a further two Legions (VII & XIV) on a separate route to the West going through the territory of the friendly Allobroges tribe.

The chiefs of the Helvetii massed to meet the advancing forces of Caesar, hoping to eliminate the two legions before the Roman forces could be reunited.

The Romans:

General: Julius Caesar (Inspiring, Steady)

X Legion: Commander Marcus (Inspiring, Cautious), 6 bases of Veteran Legionaries (Armoured), 1 base of Trained Slingers, 1 base of Trained Cavalry, 1 base of Artillery
XI Legion: Commander Sextus (Average, Steady), 6 bases of Trained Legionaries (Armoured), 1 base of Trained Slingers, 1 base of Trained Cavalry, 1 base of Artillery
VII Legion:  Commander Flavius (Average, Cautious), 6 bases of Trained Legionaries (Armoured), 1 base of Trained Slingers, 1 base of Trained Cavalry, 1 base of Artillery
XIV Legion: Commander Quintus (Inspiring, Rash), 6 bases of Trained Legionaries (Armoured), 1 base of Trained Slingers, 1 base of Trained Cavalry, 1 base of Artillery

The Gauls:

Leader of the Helvetii: Abudos (Raw, Rash)

Helvetii (1): Mandutos (Average, Cautious), 4 bases of Raw Tribal Foot, 2 bases of Trained/Elite Cavalry 
Helvetii (2): Lostri (Average, Cautious), 4 bases of Raw Tribal Foot, 2 bases of Trained/Elite Cavalry
Helvetii (3): Sacrapo (Average, Cautious), 4 bases of Raw Tribal Foot, 2 bases of Trained/Elite Cavalry

Rules used were Polemos SPQR:

The Set-Up:

The Romans approach from the South

The massed Helvetii tribal foot occupy the hill opposite the Roman Left

A group of Tribal Foot guard a small settlement, with a small reserve of Cavalry in the centre

The majority of the Helvetii Cavalry on their left

XI Legion on the Roman Right

X Legion on the Left (with Caesar accompanying them)

The Battle:

Caesar beings the attack by moving up the XI Legion towards the settlement.  The Roman Cavalry move up to guard the flank on the right.

Abudos has only two basic strategies open to him: try and defeat the outnumbered Romans quickly, or try and hold off nearly double the number of Romans when the Roman reinforcements arrive. He opts for the former and commands his warriors to advance...X Legion manouevres slightly to face them

XI Legion continues its advance towards the settlement...

The Helvetii continue their advance down the slope, preparing to charge...

The Helvetii warriors charge home, with some disorder in the Roman ranks...

The left of X Legion is pushed back by the ferocity of the Helvetii's charge but the centre holds.

The right-hand cohorts start pushing back the Helvetii

Meanwhile XI Legion has taken the settlement after a short, sharp fight.  The Gallic cavalry move up to join the fight (right)

The Gallic Cavalry charge, although the lefthand elements refuse to charge (centre-right)

The large-scale infantry melee on the Roman Left continues, with the Romans gaining the ascendancy.

The Helvetii attempt to regain the settlement by forcing back XI Legion.

X Legion causing heavy losses to the Helvetic foot, although the Legion's attached slingers have been killed or driven off.

Despite the odds, the Gallic cavalry push back their opponents...

The rightforward cohort of XI Legion under severe pressure from Helvetic horsemen...the foot warriors are making less impression

Just at this moment, VII and XIV Legions arrive on the Helvetii's right flank

A legion in battle array

And another

The Gallic cavalry reserve, caught in the flank by the Roman Cavalry, break and flee from the hill!

The fleeing Gallic cavalry become intermingled with fleeing foot warriors (centre)

The Romans have cleared out the area around the settlement

And despite suffering heavy casualties, the right-hand cohorts of XI Legion did manage to push back the Gallic cavalry

And the other Gallic cavalry, having routed one group of Roman cavalry, were hit whilst pursuing and are routed in their turn...

The position at the end of the battle: the Roman Right is largely clear of enemies except for some remaining Cavalry; the Roman Left has broken the majority of the foot warriors, who are unable to escape, although some of the warriors were able to flee to the front and avoid the Roman pincer.

Game Notes: Quite easy for the Romans in the end, although there were a couple of moments when it looked as if it might go the other way: a charge of Tribal Foot in depth is genuinely dangerous in Polemos: SPQR, whereas in the other Ancient-period rules I play, DBA and Ancient&Medieval Wargaming, the 'Warband' needs to be a bit more lucky.  Cavalry is also a little bit more effective in a straight charge than you might expect.  Most of the Polemos rules reward aggression and this set is no different - basically, when you get bonuses for attacking, it pays to attack!  Because X Legion were Veteran they just about held on: a Raw legion would have been toast in these circumstances.
Followers of this blog will know I have done a lot of tests and a lot of thinking about this campaign.  I have finally stopped fiddling, decided to use Polemos: SPQR as the tactical rules set.  Although a little more complicated and fussy than the other sets it has that extra period specificity which I want. I will write a separate post on how the campaign rules work and how the conversions to and from the tactical battles work.

Figures and buildings by Baccus 6mm.