Second Test

I am still pondering an Ancient Britons against Romans campaign, and an idea is slowly forming, as a result of my ferreting in my library of books about Roman Britain. The problem is that most things about the Roman invasion are unknown, and more or less everything about the situation in Britain in, say, 40 AD is totally unknown. This does give a great deal of scope, of course, for the wargamer’s imagination, but aside from the fact that the invasion happened and was successful, and that there was at least one battle which the Romans won, the framework for a campaign is largely missing.

Still, nothing daunted, I reckoned that quite a lot of the purpose behind the Roman invasion was an intervention in local politics. There was unspecified unrest in the client kingdoms of Britain from around 40 AD. Given that there was also a Roman garrison of some sort in Fishbourne at the time (again, largely unspecified), there was some sort of Roman interest at stake, probably in trade. There is also a hint, although no more than that, that Caractacus was trying to extend his kingdom west, against other tribes.

Quite what all this means is, of course, open to speculation. But my wargamer imagination came up with an Ancient Briton clash, between the expansionist Green tribe (so named, imaginatively, after their dice colour) and the defending Reds. A bit of scribbling came up with a card draw system for the forces involved, as well as for ambushes.

The draw gave the Greens four tribal foot bases, four chariots, two light horse, and two skirmishers, while the Reds had five tribal foot, two skirmishers, three light horse, and two chariots. The Reds also had a number of potential ambush sites, given by the location of the playing cards on the table.

The picture shows the game after a few moves. The first potential ambush, from the rough going in the centre, has been triggered, but no ambush was found. The skirmisher base was there in deployment. The light troops are engaging in the centre, as seen, with skirmishers, light horse, and chariots all in the mix on both sides.

The aim of the Greens, to the left, was to sweep away the light troops on the other side and then assault the enemy tribal foot. The aim of the Reds was to skirmish manfully and hope the ambushes would do the trick. The final coup de grace, as it were, is to be administered by the tribal foot. This might seem to be a bit dependent on ambushes, and it is, but my vague idea was that I was playing the Greens.

As the lines closed, a number of things happened. The Greens detached their skirmishers from protecting the tribal foot and added their firepower to the skirmishing. This had its effect in routing one of the Red light horse bases, although one base of Green skirmishers also suffered. The Green chariots were suffering a bit from their Red counterparts. On the Green right, the ambush has been sprung with an extra three Red bases of light horse cantering into the fray. They have cantered a bit far, however, due to a lack of Red tempo to deploy them.

The ambushing light horse ran into deep trouble as they were charged by the Green light horse. Light horse and skirmishers can indeed charge under these rules, so long as it is either other light troops or flanks. This was both. As you can see, two of the Red light horse are already fleeing, and the other will not be far behind.

In the distance, you can see that the Red skirmish line is under pressure. Some of the bases have become disordered and are hence ‘fixed’. The base, which is shaken (green markers), will shortly rout. The other, which is disordered (lost its orders), is about to be contacted by the Green tribal foot and also routed. This is due to a lack of tempo for Red, which was a problem for them throughout the game.

The picture above shows the disintegration of the Red skirmish line on their right, as the rest of the light horse flee. The exchange between the chariots has more or less died down at this point, while the Green light horse has finished off the ambushers in the left foreground. Both sides paused to take breath here, and both general plans became ‘time to bring the infantry up’. Tempo lack meant that the Red troops were slow to respond.

The end of the game came when the Green tribal foot caught a base of Red chariots and routed them. The Reds had sprung their final two ambushes and come up with two bases of skirmishers in the village on the far side, but they were too late to affect the action. The tribal foot block had been, it seems, deployed too far from the action to make much difference, although a final burst of tempo points meant that most Red units were active. It was, however, too little, too late, and even with the increase of Reb bases due to the ambushes, a withdraw morale was thrown.

Well, that was interesting, and it is still a learning curve with this army. The skirmishing can go on for quite a long time and drains a lot of tempo (if you have the points). It can also be fairly destructive of your skirmishing troops. It also seems that having the tribal foot close behind your skirmish line is a good thing, as they can exploit any disruption your skirmishers have inflicted and, as with the Green skirmishers in this wargame, also provide a solid base for them to hide behind if things go pear-shaped.

The random army generation seemed to work quite nicely, and the ambush system threw up a few curveballs, as it should. The major problems the Reds had were the misplacement of their tribal foot and a lack of tempo points to control the skirmish battle. On the other hand, if they had managed to deploy the ambushing light horse, the outlook for the Green skirmish line might have been a bit bleaker.

Still, I am iterating towards some sort of campaign. A map might be necessary, at least an abstract one, and some rules on how to provoke the wrath of Rome...