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.

How on Earth Did that Happen II?

A year or so ago I discovered to my own astonishment that I owned about three times as much stuff for 15mm WW2 as I thought I did.  Today, it was the turn of the 6mm Romans, when I was fairly surprised to see that I had completed 7 Legions worth of figures, with a few regular auxiliaries (i.e. enough to put together another legion or two).  The army is organized so that one base of 36 legionaries represents a cohort or so (at 1:14 figure:man ratio).  I am actually blaming Peter for much of this.  He 'accidentally' sent me a few more than I had ordered and I was going to give them back...but they were whispering "paint me, paint me" and what could I do?  So I bought them too for my toy soldier box.  It has become apparent though that I need a few more tribunes and so on to command this lot...

I suppose that unlike the 15mm WW2 there is a reasonable chance I will get most of this onto the tabletop in a few games.  All being well I am hoping to get my Gallic War campaign kicked off quite soon.

The vast majority of the figures are from Baccus 6mm, but with a few of the auxiliaries from Rapier for a little variety.

The full force arrayed.

The column on the left

The central column

The column on the right

Another massed shot

Legion I

Legion II

Legion III

Legion IV

Legion V

Legion VI

Legion VII

Regular auxiliaries

Balearic slingers and Eastern archers

 I have noticed taking these shots that my well-trodden gaming mat resembles Waterloo more at the end of the battle rather than the beginning - all the static grass and flock seems to have been squished into the caulk or rubbed off!  So next job is to make the mat look a bit more green and grassy again.

Battle of Bryn Troelleg - A Polemos SPQR Refight

The latest issue of Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy (101) contains a re-done version of a classic old Don Featherstone scenario, the Battle of Plattsville in Henry Hyde's "Tabletop Tactics" column.  The scenario has been neatened and adapted to suit three periods: ancients, horse-and-musket and WW2.  For this re-fight, I have taken the ancients version and set it in the first century AD, with a Roman Legion pushing into Wales and about to run into some unexpected opposition...

The Scenario:

WSS has a map of the action on its website for download.  The scenario consists of two forces - in this case, a Roman Legion with some extra units attached and a large Celtic warband - approaching to contest possession of a small village in a wooded valley.

One change that I made was to make both the advance guards advance along the road until they spotted each other: an advantage of solo play!  This would slightly change the character of the game, since both sides would have to fight off the line of march.

The Forces:

Imperial Romans:

Commander: Marcus Drusus (Average)

2 bases of Cavalry (Formed Armoured Veteran-Elite)
2 bases of Light Horse (Unformed Trained)
2 bases of Skirmishers (Unformed Trained bow-armed)

XIII Legion
Commander Quintus Flavius (Average)
8 bases of Legionaries (Formed Armoured Trained)
2 bases of Archers (Formed Trained bow-armed)

Silurian Warband:

Commander: King Cynwrig (Average)

2 bases of Chariots (Unformed Trained-Elite)
2 bases of Light Horse (Unformed Trained)
2 bases of Skirmishers (Unformed Trained javelinmen)
2 bases of Skirmishers (Unformed Trained slings)
8 bases of Tribal Warriors (Unformed Trained)

So the advantage is definitely with the Romans, but the difference is not insurmountable.

Each side was led by an advanced guard of 4 bases (2 skirmishers, 2 close-order foot troops), with the remaining forces following c.30 minutes (6 moves) behind.

Readers of the article will notice that I have double the number of units compared to the original.

The Battle:

The valley of Bryn Troelleg

A closer look at the village

Bryn gwyrdd, bounded on one side by the stream and a thin belt of woodland on the other

The Battle:

The Romans and Silurians advance, Romans from the bottom and Silurians from the top.

A closer look at the Silurians.  The King, idiosyncratic chap that he is, prefers to ride on horseback rather than in his royal chariot.

The Roman column just reaching the curve in the road when it spots the Silurian slingers in the distance...

King Cynwrig is first to get into position, hurrying his men into position on the hill; Flavius leads his legionaries through the woods and up the slope (bottom)

The battle developing as the main bodies of each force arrive.  Silurian and Numidian horsemen approach the village from opposite sides,

Whilst the Legionaries continue their slow advance...

Suddenly King Cynwrig orders his foot warriors to charge!  Full of fight, they run screaming down the hill towards the wavering Romans...

With their King fighting amongst them, some of the Celtic warriors push a legionary cohort back down the slope into the woods; however, Flavius inspires the other cohort to defy the odds and push back the Silurians

Numidian light cavalry in a very advantageous position - which they resolutely ignore, preferring to harrass the local cattle and women

Drusus orders his horsemen to charge the Silurian chariotry; his archers are now blocking the bridge

Flavius and his legionary cohort defeat and slaughter the Silurian warriors after pushing them back up the slope

But the King and his men have routed the other leading legionary cohort!

Drusus and his cavalry get the better of the Silurian chariots after close, hard fighting...

More Roman Cohorts advance towards the victorious Silurian warriors

Having seen off the charioteers, the cavalry are then attacked by the tribal foot warriors holding Bryn y cwningod across the stream.  Defying the odds again somewhat, the Romans hold on, Drusus narrowly escaping harm to his person too.

The Roman legionaries push the Silurian warriors back through the woods.  The Silurians are more effective fighters than the legionaries, so the battle is slow and bloody.

The Roman cavalry turn the tables and defeat the Silurian warriors on the far bank of the stream

The Silurian foot begins to break...

More Roman legionaries advance through the belt of woods on the slope of Bryn gwyrdd; whilst harrassed by the Silurian skirmishers, although to no great effect

The position: the Silurian left flank has been turned and they are hastily attempting to restore the line...

But as this closer view shows, the Roman legionaries have finally defeated the Silurians in the woods (bottom-right) and Flavius has already got a cohort into the centre of the hill, so there is no place for the Silurians to "hinge" their new line

The Roman legionaries pant up the hill and catch the Silurian skirmishers..

Killing many of them

The King himself leads another charge of his foot warriors: the Roman cavalry get distinctly the worse of it, and are in danger of breaking: Drusus again narrowly escapes with his life and liberty...

However the Silurian centre is in deep trouble...

And at that point, Silurian resistance collapses and it is every man for himself.  The King and most of his horsemen and charioteers have escaped, but nearly a third of his foot warriors and slingers have fallen.

An overhead shot: the regular lines nicely show the position of the Roman legionaries and cavalry!

The King escapes and Drusus counts himself lucky to be both alive and free (right), as his legionaries come up to relieve him.

Game Notes: A hard-fought game, and one in which a combination of some advantages in army composition and a couple of particularly luck dice rolls spelled victory for the Romans.  Perhaps the distribution of terrain slightly helped the Romans too: woods are not great for the Romans, but watercourses are difficult for everyone and it is slow going getting across them in Polemos: SPQR (although no-one failed the crocodile test in this game!).

 I don't think anything occurred which was that unreasonable, a testimony to the rules.  This was actually the third game of this scenario I played: the first two I took no pictures of but played the first with Polemos: SPQR, the second with DBA.  I have commented on the differences in play between the two many times so I won't re-iterate them, but it was noticeable how much longer that the SPQR games took: more than twice as long on average.  Some of that is extra fuss in the rules (the command and movement mechanisms are slightly more complicated) but much of it, particularly in scenarios with plenty of terrain, is that troops spend a lot of time not moving: they are reforming from disruptive terrain, or reforming having been disorganized, or are trying but failing to get up the gumption to charge.  Troops not doing stuff from command limitations are roughly similar in both games.  Funnily enough, the troops spend a lot more time in combat in DBA: it is much less decisive than in Polemos, since there is typically a clear progression in the latter that the side losing a round of combat will become progressively more likely to lose the next one. 

Figures by Baccus and Rapier, buildings by Timecast.