Age of Hannibal - Roman Legions v's Celts

 

This was the first battle I have fought using the AoH rules.  I've always been a fan of Little Wars TV and their simple rule systems.  My opponent Paul Smith has a long term interest in wargaming Ancients and was an ideal opponent with whom to try the rules.

Scenario

The Scenario was set around 1AD with an Imperial Rome force on a punitive expedition against Nervian celts.  As it was our first battle we used 1200pt armies.  Observation: Although the rules were written with 6mm figures in mind we used 15mm based on 40mmx30mm.  The difference in figure and base scale didn't seem to have any noticeable impact on the game.

Downloads: Scenario, Roman Army & Celtic Army

Battlefield

The battlefield was a lightly wooded valley with a stream running through the middle.  There was a  Roman marching camp on one side and the objective of the Roman Punitive raid was a Celtic village surrounded by fields. Observation: As I didn't want to take playing time from the battle, I generated the terrain as per the rules but set up for both sides.

The Romans set up with their legions in the centre with a strong auxiliary force on their right flank and cavalry on their left.  The Celts placed their warbands in the centre with circling chariots and light troops on their left flank.

The forces advanced with the Romans taking up defensive positions along the stream and on hills. Observation: The rules place limits on the number of separate forces that can be moved based on the Army's moral and command cohesion.  At this stage of the battle this was no a problem in any way. The movement distances and speed of getting through a turn were both good for a 6'x4' table.  Missile fire was an annoyance to advancing troops but not battle winning.  This felt right for the period.

The battle in the centre was a bloody melee.  The aggressive first charges of the Celts were powerful but the discipline of the Romans gave them the advantage in longer fights. Observation: Once formation became broken up in melee the command and control of units became much more challenging.  It was much more difficult to keep the battle lines in formation. 

As the light failed it became obvious that both armies had fought each other to a stop.  Given more time the Romans would probably have won but as they failed to capture the Celtic village, it was a minor victory to the Celts but at a huge price in tribesmen.  

Observation: As the armies became smaller and generals were only able to lead small numbers of troops into combat it became very hard to cause enough casualties to lower the opposing army's moral.  This may have been our inexperience or that we were fighting with small forces.

Overall

It was a fun game.  I enjoyed that  each base is a unit in it's own right.  The rules were easy to pickup and play.  The game was not super fast but neither was it slow, especially for a first game.  It was nice to play a game which as a strong roll for light troops as well as for the heavier troop types.  Although I'm a keen fan of To the Strongest, I'll play these rules again, especially for periods up to the early Roman Empire.