Third(fourth?) battle,15mm.

Crustinuts has broken with tradition and has marched into the Arverni territory in the middle of winter,hoping to defeat Litelmix,and end the Gallic revolution quickly.

Top photo shows the terrain map,and the moves hoping to be done by the auxiliary troops,who are looking for a bridge that deserters from Litelmix,has informed them of.Bottom photo shows board before any movement.

The battle for the bridge is about to begin!!

Both sides ordered their flank cavalry to engage,supported by infantry,whilst the main troops stood and watched,awaiting the outcome of the Bridge battle!

The aux. troops eventually won the battle and drove the warbands off the board-the smoke signal was lit,and the main bodies moved into contact-but what of the flanks?

Well,both flanks saw the aux. infantry wiped out,but also the Gallic cavalry were wiped out!What a tussle! This left the Roman cavalry free to threaten any forward movement by the Gauls!!

Top photo shows the main lines advancing onto each other,bottom photo shows the Roman threat,which was taking place on both flanks.Litelmix has sent his third line of "Youths" (of very little fighting ability) to hold up the Aux. troops under Arsolius,who are now threatening the Gallic rear.

Top shows the "Youths" getting "knocked about" by the Aux. troops-bottom shows the first lines engaged,with the Gallic second line being slaughtered by the flanking troops!!-this is brilliant stuff(I think!)

In the top photo the Gauls have been "pila'd"(is that a word?) and are now being treat to the "Gladius shuffle" which they did not like!!-bottom photo shows the warbands being dispersed by the Roman cavalry-this was the end of the battle!

About to be surrounded,the Arverni army ceased to exist!But.......................

Litelmix managed to escape and fled Northwards to seek the protection of his distant relative,the king of the CARNUTES tribe,Pickenmix(they don't get any better do they?)

However Crustinuts and Arsolius went into winter quarters to plan the next campaign which would have to be against the Carnutes tribe in Northern Gaul.

 

15mm Second battle-day two!

Following on from my last battle(Romans vs Gauls) the Romans had retreated to their camp,and the Gauls to their town. A re-think of tactics was required from the Roman commander,who had neglected to use his fire-power (archery and artillery) in the previous battle . He decided to "lure" the Gauls waiting in the hills onto his archers etc. by sending a weak force out to confront them,then to retire(it's good being retired!) shoot at the following Gauls and then counter-attack!!

Top photo shows the extended camp of the Romans-bottom shows the weak force sent to "lure" the Gauls.which has worked perfectly-they are being shot at by archers and ballistas,and taking lots of casualties-hurrah!!

The counter-attack-again 100% successful,the Gauls being totally wiped-out-another hurrah!!

Now for the Legion to attack the town,whilst the auxiliaries guard the flanks.................

Two shots of the Legion advancing in testudo formation-the waiting Allobroges tribe must be shaking in their boots!!(although they are not showing it!!)

Top photo shows the first line of defences being attacked,Romans still in testudo,bottom photo shows the actual struggle for the wall-it must be said at this point that the legion was "roughly handled" by the Gauls,and without the help of the reserve cohorts and the auxiliary troops,they would have been beaten!

The first line defenders have been slaughtered,and the Romans have once again adopted the testudo formation to advance up the steep hill to take the second line of defences-this was thrilling stuff!

Top photo shows the struggle for the second line of defences,but the Gauls were out-flanked both right and left,and the town was eventually taken-bottom photo!

This was,in my mind,an epic battle lasting 16 moves in total.

Crustinuts(Roman commander) retired to his camp to await reinforcements from Rome and Spain,but his plan was not to wait for the Spring to start another season of campaigning,but to do what was un-thinkable,and attack the Arverni tribe led by a descendant of the famous Vercingetorix,in the Winter. The Averni tribe is led by a strong warrior king called,wait for it,

LITELMIX!!(I know,I know!) so my next battle will take place on the Arverni tribe's border,at a place called the "Stone Gates" in the snow-should be good.

15mm Second battle.

These solo games with my 15mm Roman and Gallic armies are getting better and better and,dare I say it, more sophisticated and realistic.Over the week-end I fought what I thought would be a fairly straightforward game with the Romans attacking a Gallic stronghold,defended by the Allobroges tribe-was I wrong!!

To make life more exciting I "hid" Gallic infantry and cavalry in the hills,using a simple system of 5 bits of paper(one for each hill) with 3 of them having Gauls on them and 2 with no troops-so I didn't know where the Gauls would be until the hills were investigated by my cavalry and Aux. infantry.

This is the terrain I fought over,with the town at the top.All hills are marked ABCDE.

I "shuffled" the bits of paper,and allocated one to each hill,and the game started.

Top photo shows the view from the Town,bottom shows the Legion in testudo formation,whilst the Aux. troops on each flank investigate the hills!!-so far so good.

Aaaarh!-6 warbands swept down from hill E,whooping and hollering-but were met with stout resolve by the Aux. troops,who gave them a right old thrashing,and moved onto hill D-also alive with Gauls-and after an heroic struggle beat them too! The left flank Auxiliairies had nothing to do as both hills A and B were devoid of Gauls!!-The legion was advancing steadfastly until they were level with hillC,and then they were attacked,and forced into a defensive formation,again,with the help of the Auxiliaries on the right, a massive melee developed........

Top photo shows the legion about to march past hill C,bottom shows the Gauls "exposing" themselves (ooh er!) and the legion and Aux. troops preparing to fight them off!

The melee is developing into an all consuming "brawl" which the Gauls were winning-they were probably on the same pills as Robbie Roddis!!-the legion was taking lots of casualties,which Crustinuts(the Roman commander) didn't want at this stage in the campaign.However flank pressure from the Aux. troops began to tell,and the Gauls were now suffering casualties which Spandex (the Gallic commander) couldn't take if he was to defend his town-so both Commanders decided to sound the re-call,and retire (it's good being retired!) to their respective camps(which the Romans have built,large enough to contain all their remaining troops!)Note that the Legion is now out of testudo formation!

As the Romans retired(aw, shut up!!) they were screened by the LF Aux troops who kept up an "arrow storm" to keep the Gauls from coming over the walls and attacking their rear.

All was now set for a second battle,the next day-watch this space!!!

Testudo!

My next battle with my 15mm stuff will involve an attack on a defended town,so I will need my Roman troops to be in a testudo formation-however,I don't have any testudos!-so what to do?

Well,me being me, and a POP(Poor Old Pensioner) I will have to make some,using card,which I carefully measured and scored,folded and marked it with 10mm squares to represent the shields.

Top photo shows the effect I was going for-simple but effective,bottom photo shows the production line in action.

One finished testudo-card was coloured with a felt-tip pen,and a dot of gold paint to represent the shield boss did the trick(I know the shields should be over-lapped,but my artistic ability doesn't stretch that far!!)

All ten complete,and ready to go-BUT,a problem arose-5 of the cohorts have standard bearers and the standard would stop the testudo from fitting properly,so what to do???.............

Simply cut a "notch" into the card,and hey presto,it fits!!-how will they look in action?

Not too bad!

Now onto another pressing problem!-I found during the game I had earlier this week,that I had to move lots and lots of tiny bases,which could lead to damage,so what to do?

Make movement trays of course!Measured card and 10mm front strip(to stop the figures from sliding off!)......................

Measured,cut and stuck-just need a bit of flock to complete them.................

Job complete,what do they look like with 2 bases of figures on them?

It's bloody good being retired!-lots of time to "fanny about" doing important wargames projects.

My next 15mm battle will be fought this week,unless Boris makes it illegal to have any form of fun!-by the way,if you hadn't realised,today is only 3 months to Christmas Eve!!-Happy Xmas!