Britannia Campaign: Turn 5 - 16th Legion v The Catuvellauni

 I will start with an overview of the campaign situation:

Turn 5: 20th Legion returns to Londinium having pacified the Cantii. In the west. the 2nd Legion moves on the Dobunni tribe who immediately declare themselves as allies of Rome.

In the midlands, the 16th Legion seeks to clear the way for the 9th Legion who are tasked with capturing Mona. The Catuvellauni tribe are expected to be allies and it therefore comes as some surprise to the 16th when they find the warbands arrayed for battle.

The Romans on the left anchor their flanks on a small pond (top of photo) which is impassable to all, and a marsh which is only passable by skirmishers.

The Catuvellauni tribe on the right have their warbands and chariots positioned in the centre with cavalry and some skirmishers on their flanks.

Most terrain is clear and all woods are passable.

Continued -

Legionaries brace as the warbands approach. Artillery deployed on a small hill begin to take casualties among the advancing chariots.

On the Roman left flank, Briton horse attempt to outflank the. A little worrying for the outnumbered auxiliaries and cavalry tasked with holding that flank.

On the Roman right a similar situation with chariots and light horse hoping to overlap them.

So far so good for the Roman left as they hold the initial charge but trouble develops as light horse pass around the pond to overlap them.

The situation gets worse as the melees continue the flanking light horse swirl around a Roman cavalry unit.

On the Roman right javelins are thrown by chariots and light horse before they charge in. Several Roman units receive demoralisation markers but hold the line.

Over in the centre warbands pile in rocking the Legionaries on their heels who struggle to absorb the ferocity of the charge.

A moment of danger arrives for the Romans in the centre when an entire Roman cohort (2 bases) are pushed back and are close to breaking pursued by warbands. The CinC arrives to intervene if necessary.

The situation on the Roman right is doing nothing for Roman nerves as they lose a unit of light horse and a Battavian cavalry unit to Briton light horse (bottom right).

The Roman left's position had become precarious with a cavalry unit destroyed by the enveloping light horse. Another cavalry unit is close to breaking necessitating the intervention of the sub-commander to stiffen their resolve.

The auxiliary cohort holding the left of legion successfully held a warband charge. In the bottom left of the photo, two archer units move to shore up the left flank.

The bravery of the Roman sub-commander cost him his life and failed to prevent the loss of the remaining cavalry units on this flank. It was now down to the auxiliary cohort to hold on until reinforcements arrived.

The auxiliaries succeeded in holding the medium horse and fortunately for them, the Catuvellauni morale clock was down to 6 limiting their ability to bring more units into the fray. Most notably the light horse. 

At the bottom of the photo, another auxiliary cohort is embroiled in a tussle with warbands and now has the upper hand being able to turn a flank.

In the centre, the legionaries had decisively seen off many of the warband charges but one in particularl had broken the Roman line (lower middle of photo). 

One of the last Roman reserve units was rushed towards the warband engaging the flank of a cohort who were only just holding on.

On the Roman right flank warbands joined the light horse breaking through the Roman line. As on the opposite flank it was primarily down to the auxiliary units to hold on. For them though no reinforcements would be forthcoming. The Battavian spear unit was fighting both to front and flank.

The Battavians were successful in repelling one light horse unit and now turned to their flank to deal with the second.

The Romans have now stabilised having recovered from the shock of losing their sub-commander with their morale clock at 7 (the number of activations allowed). The Catuvellauni though are down to 5 on their clock making it increasingly difficult to take advantage of any breakthroughs.

On the Roman left the auxiliary units have performed well largely cancelling out the threat on this flank. Archers and a unit of legionaries have positioned themselves to prevent any overlapping of the Roman centre (bottom left).

An example of the difficulty for the Britons in the Roman centre being their inability to capitalise on the breaking of the Roman line. The latter have been able to feed in reinforcements and overturn the warbands.

The Roman right is still precarious however. An entire legionary cohort has been lost and the single base of Battavian spears fights valiantly on stalling the Catuvellauni light horse.

At the end of this turn the Catuvellauni morale clock fell to 4 which piled on more problems for their chieftain. Principally increasing demoralisation across his tribe.

The Catuvellauni light horse desperately attempt to eliminate those pesky Battavians. Piling into their flank should do the trick, but no! Once again they win the melee inflicting a DMZ on the lead unit.

A short distance away from the Battavians two warbands attempt to turn the flank of the Roman centre but fail to make an impression.

The Catuvellauni morale clock has now fallen to 2 and with everything falling apart, the Chieftain throws himself into the fray intending to inflict as much damage as possible before the end arrives. It proved to be a futile effort leading to the total loss of the warband to which he was attached. He survived a fate check and galloped off to another unit in order to provide suitable 'inspiration'.

The Catuvellauni flank attack on the Roman left peters out with insufficient activations to make any meaningful challenge. 

The end came with the Catuvellauni morale clock quickly hitting 0. They managed to eliminate one more legionary base before the game concluded.

The pacification of the Catuvellauni tribe came at a high cost for the 16th Legion with 11 bases in total lost. 6 bases returned for the campaign leaving a total of 5 lost, 2 of which constituted an entire legionary cohort. The surviving spears of an auxiliary equitata remained to provide a Catuvellauni garrison.

Another tick for the Age of Hannibal rules which provided for an exciting game. I particularly like the morale clock system which degrades the ability of a commander to control his force as it counts down. 

As in the first game, the initial impact of tribal warband charges along with threats to the flanks provide for heart-stopping moments for the Romans. So long as they can maintain their line it is difficult for the warbands to prevail. There was a stage early in the melee phases where I believed the legionaries were about to be rolled over, with particular danger looming on the flanks. Heroic stands by various auxiliary units saved the day. 

During campaign turn 6, the Dobunni tribe declared themselves allies to Rome on the approach of the 2nd Legion. On the Welsh border the Cornovii tribe did likewise as the 9th Legion advanced towards its target of Mona.

The 16th Legion were not so lucky. Having pacified the Catuvellauni they were immediately despatched to deal with an Iceni rebellion. The battered 16th would once again have to prove their worth and teach the Iceni the wisdom of succumbing to Rome rule.

I intend to use Age of Hannibal rules again for this game before considering alternative rulesets.