Wednesday, 13 March 2013

Summer 44 AD, The First battle of Londinium

As the battle is set near the town of Londinium, and the Tamsesis swamps, we placed a swamp-type terrain, dead trees, swamp, rocky hills and so on.


It was a "normal" fight so we deployed at max 12ps. We throw dices and my romans will have the first turn.

Order of Battle:

Roman Army (2 divisions):
Left Flank: 
Aulus Plautius
2 medium legio cohors
1 large auxiliary sagitarii cohors
1 medium auxiliary alae
1 XS engineers unit

Right flank:
Subordonate General
2 medium legio cohors
1 medium light artillery cohors
1 medium batavii auxiliary cohors
1 small skirmishers slingers

Briton Army (2 divisions):
Left flank:
Togodumnos
1 medium fanatics warband
1 large warband
1 medium warband
1 medium light chariots unit
1 small skirmishers javeliners unit

Right Flank:
Caritax
1 medium fanatics warband
1 medium royal guard unit
1 small light cavalry
1 medium light chariots unit 
1 small skirmishers bowmen unit

The Battle:

The barbarian mass was impressive and for turn 1 and 2, I decided to wait and shoot with my missiles units, the slingers move in front of the large warband. But at first, I was too short and none of my missile units made a hit. The turn 2 see some casualties inflicted to the large warband and one unit of fanatics.


The britons move and prepare to charge repulsing the slingers unit before them.

The turn 3 see the uncontrolled charge of one unit of fanatics on my left flanck. Caritax failed to get any others orders so the fanatics engage the auxiliary alae but stand alone isolated from their allies...
The fight will be swift and deadly, the alae suffering 5 hits and the fanatics 3, but the alae was forced to move out of the table. The fanatics loose their command test and go chasing the poor auxiliary out of the table too!


The sagitarii cohors halt the ennemy royal guard charge by a rain of death, and nearly alone stood firm on the left. A small unit of briton javeliner charge them (at first in support of the royal guard, but then alone...) and were swiftly put to death by the syrians archers.


Turn 4 see a blunder as the batavii auxiliary unit standing at my right, turns back and flees out of the field. Cowards! At this point, my two flanks were exposed and the barbarian haven't charged yet ! The poor light artillery unit which is now alone will die soon...
As predicted the charge of the briton was reckless and the shock was hard, a cohors is forced to fall back suffering hard wounds, and my light artillery was butchered...




Turn 5 Caritax again failed to give orders and as consequence his units suffered again from the archers.
My right flank is now wiped and hoppefully the two remaining cohors are engaged sparing them a divisional break test.


Turn 6 see the heroic standing of the syrian sagitarii cohors which stand against the royal guard and some light cavalry, they are forced to retreat but inflicted heavy casuaties to their ennemies. To save my right flank  I played a strategic card (rapid reformation) and move 2 fresh cohors (from the left flanck) to charge flank of the barbarian. Chariots and barbarians are forced to retreat but stood firm, Aulus Plautius lead the charge as this is the only way to save the day...




Turn 7 see one of my cohors be broken (and butchered) by the fanatics, as the 2 cohors led by Aulus Plautius inflicted great losses of the ennemy (the large unit suffered 14 hits, the light chariots 6!) but the gods were with them and they do not break... with only 1 unit remaining, my right collapsed and the battle was over...





Aulus Plautius give orders to fall back as the night began to fall. The exhausted but victorious barbarians keep the ground. 

The losses count will say I lost 4CUs, and britons loose only 2CUs. Indeed a dark day for Rome, Plautius retreat to Durovernum, thinking this invasion will not be an easy thing ... 


At the end of this first Turn, the south East of Britain has fallen, as had Calleva. But the main briton army keeps control of Londinium and so of the road of Camulodunum. Soon the Emperor will ask Plautius how the invasion goes, and how far he is from Camulodunum, the capital city of the Catuvelauni...

A new battle plan is needed, and some harsh disciplinary mesures too! 





4 comments:

  1. I dont remenber you taking notes during the game. Soooo scary....

    Next time I ll work on the ligth to get best result on the photos.

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  2. What a battle!
    I must admit that it was a great time. Lead an army of this size is not easy. As said Lucius, one of the main interests of HC is the notion of commands and orders. This is especially true when you are a briton general. When creating the campaign a year ago, Roro had suggested that Britons have a cd point less than their mediterranean counterparts, representing the difference between a professional army and an army composed of hostile tribes. In addition, an optional rule proposes that the Briton generals have a +1 bonus on attack orders but a penalty of 1 for any other order, to represent the fact that holding a band of barbarians is not easy. For example, the druid Caritax has a cd of 6 for most of his orders ... You understand why he has done nothing during the battle.
    That said, an assault of Britons in HC is fabulous. You run powerful waves on shield walls, creating gaps, engulfing cohorts. Your troops quickly exhausted and must often retreat to return helped by further support (You are Neptune playing with the ocean).
    In short, a real pleasure. I still thank my two friends, Bastien and Ben for their help and Lucius for his pics (I'm sure that Didier will love this game).
    Forward to the next Roro ! Winter comes ...

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