Britannia Campaign: Turn 6 - 16th Legion v The Iceni

 

The 16th Legion have retraced their steps to deal with the Iceni rebellion which is the setting of the next battle, again using the Age of Hannibal rules.

The Iceni have the initiative and will be the attackers. Only skirmishers can pass through marshes and the lake is impassable. 

The Iceni have a particularly high proportion of light units (skirmishers and light horse) along with chariots. Their lieutenant is placed in command of the light horse, chariots and medium horse on the left. They are tasked with pinning the Roman legionary cohorts while the warbands under the direct command of the chieftain seek to punch through the Roman left, a mix of legionaries and auxiliaries.

Good news for the Romans, their lieutenant has arrived sober!

Continued -

Orbats

The Iceni light horse and chariots approach the Roman right flank, so far having escaped any serious casualties from the Roman scorpios.

In the centre, Iceni slingers and javelinmen are spotted moving through the marsh. A Roman scorpio battery chances a shot without success.

On the Roman left a mass of javelinmen and slingers close on the Roman line who have taken up position along the banks of a stream (gives them a bonus in combat). An archer cohort with longer range scores a early success inflicting one DMZ marker on a skirmisher base.

Focusing on the Roman left, Iceni skirmishers spend a couple of turns softening up the Romans with the latter responding with their archers. As soon as the warbands move into charge range they launch themselves across the stream. 

The Roman line struggles to hold in the face of the ferocious charge. An entire legionary cohort and an auxiliary base are pushed back heavily demoralised. Worse was to come with the complete loss of an archer base, the victorious warband occupying the vacated space and displaying some measure of discipline by passing a rally test. This prevents them having to recklessly pursue the defeated archers.

In the centre, chariots emerge from the woods and medium cavalry swing into view. A Battavian horse base along with a Roman cavalry base are rushed to cover the flank of the legionaries with the latter driving off a chariot unit. The scorpios are pulled back to safety having proved rather ineffectual.

The Romans enjoyed early success repulsing the first chariot charges with one being destroyed.

Roman fortune quickly changed when a legionary base on their left flank was destroyed by charging Iceni cavalry enabling the victorious Britons to swing around into the flank of a neighbouring legionaries. 

To the right of the central line, a Roman cavalry base was caught and destroyed by another Iceni cavalry unit. The Iceni medium cavalry was proving highly effective!

Worse was to come when a chariot unit succeeded in breaking a legionary base and was only stopped by a Battavian horse unit (bottom right). 

After an initial wobble, the Roman legionaries occupying their right flank charged the unsuspecting light horse and chariots who had moved too close in their enthusiasm to launch their javelins. Although it did not go all their way, the Romans succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the Iceni, particularly their chariots.

Realising it would have been suicidal to continue, the Iceni lieutenant pulled back his light horse and reformed them.

The Roman morale clock had now been reduced to 6 compared to 7 for the Iceni. A worrying time for the Romans!

A determined effort by the Roman lieutenant succeeded in stabilising their line on the left flank, throwing back several warbands across the stream. One warband within their line has yet to be dealt with however.

Seeing that many of the warbands that had been thrown back are in a shaky state, the lieutenant orders the entire line to attack. As the auxiliaries and legionaries storm across the stream the lieutenant joins the remaining archers as they engage the intruding Iceni warband (middle left).

The gamble pays off and the archers succeed in destroying the warband. The main attack has crossed the stream and engaging the warbands on the opposite bank.

A lone warband that had destroyed a legionary base launched an uncontrolled charge towards a nearby Battavian spear unit where it was held for another round of melee.

In the centre the Romans quickly regained control destroying an Iceni cavalry unit and preventing a second from rolling up the legionary flank. 

The Battavian cavalry continued their tussle with the Iceni chariots gradually getting the upper hand.

The Battavians finally despatched the chariots and immediately charged into the rear of an Iceni horse that had been threatening the legionary flank in the centre. The Iceni fought tenaciously before meeting its destruction.

The turn of fortune against the Iceni was reflected in its morale clock having dropped to 4 triggering 25% of its surviving units suffering from demoralisation. The Roman morale clock had remained at 6!

On the Roman left flank, the charging Roman units steamrollered the demoralised warbands destroying them utterly including several skirmisher units. The Iceni chieftain joined 2 warbands still in good order and sought to exploit the weakness in the centre of the Roman line. One warband ploughed into the archer unit while the other swung around into a legionary base. The archers, encouraged by their lieutenant who had joined them, destroyed their warband opponent and wounding the chieftain in the process. 

The second warband fought into a second round of melee with the legionaries before it too was destroyed.

A rare moment of success for the Iceni. The Battavian spearmen were struggling against the impetuous warband who was joined by a skirmisher unit striking the Battavian flank. The Battavians appeared to be getting the upper hand before failing spectacularly eliminating them from the battlefield.

This did not prevent the Iceni morale clock from dropping to 2 triggering numerous demoralised surviving units. Their unreliable lieutenant decided it was time to leave abandoning the already demoralised light horse on their left flank.

This now the situation on the Iceni left with all their light horse units in a vulnerable state. The Roman CinC orders his legionaries to advancing seeing an opportunity to finish them off.

The end quickly arrives with most Iceni units wiped out.

The centre now only had 1 skirmisher unit remaining.

The trigger for the collapse of the Iceni occurred on the Roman right. The Iceni light horse elected to stand and launch their javelins at the advancing legionaries which had little effect before the clash came. In one turn the light horse were completely wiped out.

This signalled the end of the battle with the 16th Legion enjoying a comprehensive victory losing only 6 bases in total, 3 of which will return to the ranks.

It is now the Briton turn 7 which sees the Cornovii tribe, having declared itself an ally of Rome, suffer a change of heart and rebel. This immediately challenges the 9th Legion which had been in the process of advancing further towards Mona.

This then will be the next battle of the campaign. It is my intention to park Age of Hannibal and give another ruleset a test.