Drusus' Campaign against the Germans

The following battle took place at Castle's Games and Gifts in Northern Colorado Springs, Co on October 9^th 2008.

This time, I want to shake things up a little. So I came up with a little scenario inspired by the battle of the Sambre during Caesar's conquest of Gaul. The reason I set this action in Germany is because my barbarian army includes a large number of Thracians, Illirians and other more easterly tribes than just Gaul or Britons. So the conflict will take place there in Pannonia during Drusus's final campaign in 9BC.

The Setup

The Campaign is going well, the Germans have been defeated a few times already. Drusus is hoping to strike a final blow at the Barbarians very soon.

Drusus just ordered his cohorts to lift camp early one morning. As the legionnaires are still getting organized, Gariarius and his army surges forward out of the woods.A pitch battle is about to start.

Deployment

1. The German player(s) setup the Roman forces within 12 inches of the Roman's table edge but within 12 inches of each sides, with the exception of any characters and their accompanying units.
2. The German general set up all their units within one move of their table edge (their M value, skirmishers can use their double M value).
3. The Roman player then makes a Leadership test of each of his units. Each unit that passes the test can be moved by up to one march move (double M) in any direction (as long as they are in The general may only assist ONE unit on this check.
4. The Roman general sets up his characters and any accompanying unit.
5. The Roman general can change the facing of all of his units.
6. The Germans get the first turn.

The Battle

David took command of the Germans while Fred "give me what has the least amount of cavalry" took the Romans.

(Viewed from the German lines) German Deployment from left to right: One unit of light cavalry in front of the noble cavalry. Then the escaped slaves, the fanatics, one unit of warriors with the shaman and another unit of warriors. The Romans were scattered: one cohort, the archers, the equites, another cohort, more archers and the last of the legionnaires. Fred was able to move two of his cohorts and one of his archer units for deployment. I must say this, once the two armies were deployed, the Romans looked seriously outnumbered, but still having seen the might of the legions before, I was really interested in seeing what would happen.

Turn 1: The Germans surged forward (as expected). Fred charged his Equites with Drusus against the light cavalry, but his charge failed by half-an-inch! Disaster! On the right, fire from the archers managed to break the light cavalry.

Turn 2: The German light cavalry withdraws, giving way to the heavy cavalry who takes the turn to reform. Skirmishers, light cavalry and noble cavalry pepper the Equites with javelin, inflicting a few loses. The fleeing light cavalry on the right rallies. The rest of the German army keeps moving forward.

The Roman Equites charged the Noble Cavalry while the Romans keep maneuvering and adopt the Testudo with most of their cohorts. The Romans fail to break the noble cavalry, but the light cavalry flees off the board.

Turn 3: The light cavalry decides to charge the equites (on the flank). The rest of the Germans surge forward. The Barbarian cavalry inflict minor damage on the Equites, but Drusus and his men hold strong.

The Romans charge one of their cohorts into the skirmishers, destroying them pretty easily. Intense javelin fire kill a number of slingers but fails to disperse them. Drusus and the equites take one more casualty and are hunted down by the noble cavalry. Seeing their beloved general cut down, two of the cohorts loose their stubborn and one unit of archers decides to leave. This does not bode well for the Romans.

Turn 4: The Germans's now bring their might to bear on the Romans. The Fanatics and one unit of warriors charged the center while the last 2 units were just too far away. The Romans failed to win combat due to abysmal dice rolls. The number of ranks prevailed and the Roman fled off the board. The testudo held strong in the face of missile fire. On the left, the noble cavalry and the cohort counter-pursued each other. The mass of pilum broke the will of the nobles who headed home. Things looked bleak for the Romans.

The Romans used their "Dirty Roman Tricks" to charge and disperse the remaining skirmishers. Meanwhile the sole Cohort charged the shaman-led warriors hoping to break them. Though the Germans suffered massive losses, the hatred of the shaman led the barbarians to hold firm.

Turn 5: The Germans spent most of this turn maneuvering to place themselves within charge range. The Cohort managed to kill the Shaman, but failed to break the barbarians.

On the Roman's turn, with only 2 units left on the board, Fred charged the light cavalry and dispersed them without too much effort. However, his other cohort lost heart and were cut down by the warrior, angry at the death of their shaman.

Turn 6: There still were 4 units of 20+ warriors on the table faced with 1 (still stubborn) cohort. Again, the Barbarians had to spend the round maneuvering to put themselves in charging positions. The cohort used more Roman tricks, charged and dispersed one unit of warriors.

Turn 7: Again, the Barbarians had to spend the round maneuvering to put themselves in charging positions. The cohort used more Roman tricks, charged the unit of fanatics led by the warlord. The Romans succeeded in breaking the no-longer frenzied fanatics but failed to catch and destroy them.

Turn 8: The Romans got charged in the flank (due to their failed pursuit of the Fanatics). They held strong (thanks to their stubborn). The fanatics rallied. This left the Romans in a sandwich between three units of Germans. On their turn, the Romans failed to break the Germans and broke themselves (but did not get caught by the pursuing barbarians).

Outcome Notes

At the end, the Warlord David still had a veritable horde of three 20+ warriors at his disposal. The battle field belonged to him. One of those units did not even engage in melee because it had to move forward or maneuver every round!

Things of note.

1. The biggest turning point in the battle happened on Turn 1 when Fred's Equites' failed to charge. A successful charge could've changed the face of this game.
2. David was pretty lucky with many of his Ld 5 checks, the one time when rolling poorly helped him!
3. Overall dice rolling was pretty bad...
4. Fred's streak of ending the game without cavalry is intact.
5. Massive amounts of barbarians are awesome!
6. As in real-life, Drusus died in battle.
7. Dirty Roman Tricks are great... giving a general a lot of versatility on the battle field.

The Armies

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