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. 

Second Battle of the Boudica Campaign

26 Oct 19
This was the second battle in the Boudica Campaign. It was a much bigger battle with four players, each commanding two commands, with each army being 204 point To the Strongest armies.  We used the new TtS lists which give the Britons battle chariots rather than light chariots.  From my understanding of the period the chariots should maybe act more like dragoons, taking warriors to the enemy's lines and providing an escape route if it all goes wrong.  One the whole the addition of chariots is a great improvement to the army lists.

For those of you unfamiliar with the period this battle was a major defeat for the Romans.

"The victorious enemy met Petilius Cerialis, commander of the ninth legion,..., routed his troops, and destroyed all his infantry. Cerialis escaped with some cavalry into the camp, and was saved by its fortifications. After this defeat, Catus Decianus fled to Gaul."


The scenario for this battle called for a Flank march by Britons. (The campaign rules can be downloaded here.)


This was a big battle fought on a big table.

The British left command was entirely mounted troops.  Two light cavalry units and two chariot units. There roll was to tie up the Roman right.

The British centre, warriors and slingers, supported by light cavalry and chariots, were to press forward slowly. Wearing the Roman's down with their numerical advantage over the Romans in missile troops.

The British right flank, fanatical warriors, was the flank march.  Their role was to surprise the Romans and attack the unprotected Roman flank.

It was a good plan but... the Romans refused to be drawn off their defensive position and turn after turn the flanking force refused to advance on the Romans.  Curse those cards!  

(BTW: These are 15mm figures. We just use small cards :). )
The centres engaged. The Brits, showing the IX Legion the traditional British sign for victory!

However as the fight progressed the Warriors were ground down by the Legions. British warriors are the same point cost as Roman legions but can't stand up to them toe to toe. The Roman's better saves keep them in the fight and although the warriors have three hits once they are disordered they start to loose the fight.

Alas we were unable to fight the battle to it's conclusion but at the time we stopped the Romans were winning 6VP to 2VP. I had forgotten that two of the generals were new to TtS and explaining the rules (and general chatting) took longer that I had expected. Next ...the final battle. Who will have victory? Roma or the Iceni?

Boudica Campaign

07 Sep 19

I'm relatively new to "To The Strongest" (TtS) and up to now I've been playing with various substitute figures while I get the feel for the rules and various armies.    After a lot of painting and basing I've build up both early Imperial Romans and Ancient British armies.  (I've also created Sarmatian army for a future Dacian/Sarmatian wars with Rome project.)

I decided to start off as I mean to go on and dive straight into a linked battle style campaign as opposed to one off encounter battles.  Rather than a complicated system of off table map manoeuvres and supply management, the campaign is a series of linked battles intended so that each can be played with any number of points/players.  There is in a minor bonus to the loosing side to give them a boost in the next battle.

The campaign rules can be downloaded here.

The first Battle
Coordinating a number of players proved a challenge due to holidays etc, so I decided to kick off the campaign  with a 1:1 battle with my friend John.  The battle was fought on his large 12' by 4' table, so with 10cm boxes the battlefield was 24 boxes wide. No secure flanks! Just how it should be.

The forces on each side were 4 commands with a total of 170pts each.

Romans	British
Praefectus castrorums - Tulius Octopus 3 Veteran  Legionaries cohorts,  1 veteran Bowmen  and a camp with Camp servants. 1st Tribuni  4 Cohorts of Legionaries. 2nd Tribuni  2 auxiliaries & 1 veteran cavalry. 3rd Tribuni 2 auxiliaries & 1 veteran cavalry.	Iceni Chieftain - Eóin Dalta 2 fanatical bands of warriors 3 bands of warriors 1 band of sling armed youths and a camp with Camp followers. Iceni Scouts 4 light cavalry Trinovantes Chieftain 5 bands of warriors 1 band of sling armed youths Trinovantes Scouts 4 light chariots

The scenario called for an ambush by the British which means each Roman unit had to test to see if it was disordered. Almost the whole roman command turned out to be disordered.

The British advanced but the cowardly Trinovanties warriors held back fearful of the Romans.

Despite being disordered the Romans advanced planning to deal with the Iceni warriors before the Trinovanties  found their nerve, intending to address their order as they advanced.

The Trinovanties light chariots were maned by braver warriors than their foot and charged recklessly across the battle field, flanking and enveloping the Roman right wing.  I was amazed to see 4 light chariots destroy 3 roman units for the lose of just  2 chariot units.

The Roman left followed the battle plan and broke the Iceni Cavalry and the slingers, driving them back and killing three out of four.

The centre was where the battle was going to be won or lost.
The Roman veterans destroyed the Iceni warriors.  However the overall battle was close. The Romans had 2 VP left and the British 3 VP.  The Romans had a three cohorts try to destroy one  double disordered warrior warbands but failed every time.

The Trinovanties shamed by the fearlessness of their light chariots charged across the battle field and slammed into the Romans with little to no effect.  

The victory looked to be Roman but then one of the light chariot units slipped around the woods and into the flank of a disordered veteran legion and rode Rome's finest into the ground.  

VICTORY for the British!!!  17 VP taken  to 14 VP lost

After Action Report by Tulius Octopus, Roman Commander

We was robbed...I was distracted trying to buy tickets for the circus and allowed myself to get over confident.  Those British Light chariots and cavalry were far more dangerous than I expected.  A more compact formation with stronger flanks would have been a better formation.

The Ninth legion are on their way north and will crush the British in the next battle!.

The Game

It was a fun battle.  I was commander of the defeated legions and my friend John the victorious British.  It was a very close battle with both of us just needing to destroy one unit to gain victory.  It was the first time we remembered to check for Generals as casualties and the loss of the Roman commanded on the right wing was a blow.  I made a mistake in the rules telling John that Light troops could not charge the front of formed heavy troops but allowing him to charge the front of disordered heavy troops.  To be honest I don't think it would have changed the result of the battle. His light troops were running rings around my flanks.

The Warriors did seem weak compared to the Roman legionaries but we have a few more battles to test this theory.

The next battle is the encirclement of the IX legion and the Romans will have 3 extra heroes.

15mm Ancient Britons

July 2019
15mm Ancient Britons

My Romans need some Celts to fight if I am to run my Iceni uprising campaign.  I have about 200pts so more than enough for a few 4-hand battles (or maybe 6-hand).  Here are a few, but far from all, of the Britons.

15mm Romans

July 2019
My 15mm Roman Army for TTS is coming along.  A typical game of TTS is about 130pts per side and I now have about 160pts of Romans so I have a few options.  There are another 4 units for Roman legionaries primed and awaiting painting plus 5 units of Auxiliaries. That should take me up to 250pts or so.  More than enough for a 4 player game.

I have an idea for a campaign consisting of a series of linked battles based on the rise of the Iceni in 60AD, perfect for my 1st Century Romans.

I took a few snaps for my own pleasure not intending to publish them but here they are:

This is not the whole of the Roman force.  I went with rectangular bases for my generals and maybe in retrospect should have done round but.. what the heck they will attached better.

TTS Learning the Rules and why Warriors are not Good in Woods

May 2019
I've played about 3-4 solo games of "To the Strongest" the Ancients rules from the Big Red Bat. The rules play quickly and well, which is what I want from a set these days.  I've played three games with opponents and this was the third.

As I'm trying out a variety of armies before committing myself, I played this battle with my friend John using on 15mm Orcs and Lizards pretending to be Ancient Britons and Imperial Romans.

It was a cluttered battlefield which favoured the agile Romans as opposed to the unwieldy warbands of British warriors. The Romans refused their right flank and the Britons piled light cavalry on that flank thinking to roll around the Roman flank.

However one of the features of TTS is the army is split down into commands and once a command fails an order no more orders may be give to the units in that command.  The British Warrior warbands kept failing to act on orders due to being in the wood and then rough ground.  John could have moved the cavalry first but wanted to get his main force rolling.  Getting his warbands stuck in the woods severely slowed down his plan to flank the Romans.

This allowed the Roman to attack the centre in force.

Orders in TTS are issued by pulling playing cards, with an Ace being an automatic fail.  John had three commands and …

This battle was the most one sided I have fought in TTS.  My Romans couldn't do any wrong, always following orders and saving in combat.  John's Ancient British, couldn't  follow the simplest orders. In the end the Romans won 11v3.  One of the lessons this battle reinforced was that it is too easy to become focused on one unit and forget about the other units and the over all command.  All I'm hoping is I haven't put my opponent off the rules.  The next battle will by with 15mm Romans and Ancient British models and I expect John to give me a thorough drubbing.