25th April, Northamptonshire

BATTLEDAY 'PLUS' ... Double DBA

Building upon the experiences of the BattleDay itself, I respun the set up used at Hammerhead with some variations as a 'Double DBA' scenario.

(the Telamon table: the apparent 'ravine' on this side of the table is not there for game purposes)

The Gauls are in the centre, of course, with a reserve army in the middle and engagement lines facing both ways.   Unusually, the Romans are effectively in a race to gain the laurels: whichever of them does the most damage to the Gallic front lines with be the army that fights out the decisive endgame.  The less effective Roman will see his army withdraw when the engagement battle is concluded.

It worked very well, although it may have been a little too generous to the Gauls.

Armies 

Gauls: the army baggage was placed on a hill (left, in the picture above)

Engagement lines ... 2 x Cav, 4 x WWg, 6 x 4Wb (one of the WWg was a command post - General for the force) ... deployed as a line facing each direction with 3 Wb flanked on each end by a WWg.

The cavalry were deployed on the hill (opposite to the hill secured by the defended baggage)

Note: the chariots have been replaced by WWgs following how Polybius describes their use at this battle ... Their wagons and chariots they stationed at the extremity of either wing and collected their booty on one of the neighbouring hills with a protecting force round it. (see the text cap 28)  ... this worked very well and is 'food for thought' re how we depict Celtic chariots.

Reserve lines: 4Wb Gen; 9 x 4Wb; 2 x Cv (deployed back-to-back)

Romans:

Papus: 4Bd Gen; 2 x Sp; 4 x 4Bd; 2 x Ps; 1 x 3 Ax; 1 x Cv; 1 x Art

Regulus:  Cv Gen; 2 x Sp; 4 x 4Bd; 2 x Ps; 1 x 3Ax; 2 x Cv

(so a consular army each, based around a core of 2 Triarii, 4 Principes/Hastati and 2 Velites ... Papus with a foot general and a bolt-shooter, Regulus with a mounted general and a 2nd cavalry element).

The Roman baggage was off table in both cases.

The table was pretty much as depicted - the 'cavalry' hill was gentle, the 'baggage' hill was bad going to anyone trying to attack the camp (to simulate it being protected).

(Double DBA Telamon: the Gauls screen Regulus's force while attacking Papus)

Unlike his historical character, in this battle Regulus was slow to get engaged.  The Gauls took this opportunity and threw a screen against Regulus whilst attacking Papus more aggressively.  As a consequence, there was no real cavalry battle on the hill opposite the camp.

The Romans won the fierce fight, but not without damage.

Papus was the more successful so fought the decisive reserve battle against the remaining Gauls.  The Romans had won by 1 element (engagement armies result was 4:3 to Rome) but Papus had lost 2 elements in the process so fought with 10 remaining + 1 from Regulus (as the margin of victory in the opening phase).   The Gauls had lost only 1 from their reserve lines at this point ... so the showdown would be 11 vs 11.

(endgame: 10 Romans under Papus close with 11 Gauls - and in the background, 1 Cavalry from Regulus comes up in support)

So a remarkably 'fair' fight, although the cavalry element from Regulus was floating around the Gallic rear so looked quite dangerous.

The Gauls therefore got stuck into the Romans as quickly as their Pips allowed  ... and rolled high enough on the dice to get a series of 'quick kill' wins in hand-to-hand combat, breaking the Romans virtually with their first charge.

(endgame: the Roman line disintegrates under a fierce warband charge) ..

A rare win to the Gauls.  As you would expect, the game was completed within a couple of hours.

Tactically, in this game, the Gauls achieved their breakout, fighting Regulus to a standstill, then breaking Papus with the charge.

Historically, of course, there is still another Roman army mobilised, so there would still be a lot left for the Gauls to do to escape the Telamon pocket.

Very much a simplified version of Telamon, of course, but the players seemed broadly satisfied with how we had represented the events of 225 BC.

I hope to get one more variant out of this rich narrative.

DBA Gauls