A walk in the park, a.k.a. the Battle of Teutoburg Forest

Today we played a re-fight of the battle of Teutoburg Forest 9 AD, where three Roman legions commanded by Varus were ambushed by German tribesmen led by Arminius (a traitorous ex-Roman auxilia commander). The scenario was from the Hail Caesar supplement "Germania".

It's an ambush!

"Join the army they said! See the world they said!"

Deployment for both sides was semi-randomized. The Germans had the first turn, on which much depended. The wildly hooting hairy savages stormed from the forest upon the hapless Romans, who were advancing in very vulnerable columns without flank guard. The Romans got lucky, for the discipline of the German army failed and the Germans failed to launch a simultaneous attack against the length of the Roman column. The Germans facing the centre of the Roman column launched their assault too soon and drove back three Roman units with great losses. In contrast, the German units facing the head and tail of the column generally failed to close with the Romans.

The Germans facing the centre of the Roman column spring their ambush too soon.

Roman raw recruits give a good account of themselves

The centre of the Roman column is in dire straits - retreating in disorder and with heavy loss from the German onslaught.

The German's hesitation gave the Romans time to reorganize their line. The rearguard of the army turned to face the attacking barbarians. At the head of the Roman column chaos reigned. A few Roman units were caught unawares and pushed back with great losses, while Varus himself led a unit of auxilia cavalry and some freshly recruited legionnaires in a counter-attack that brought the rest time to reorganize. The situation was most tense in the centre, where the German's initial assault had cloven into the Romans and left them very vulnerable. Lady luck smiled on the Romans in the centre, since the Germans failed to attack them when they were most vulnerable (failed command roll). Obviously the Germans were more preoccupied with looting the dead than with pressing their advantage.

Roman rearguard have ample time to form into a battle line

After valiantly holding up the Germans, Varus and his auxiliary cavalry are destroyed

On turn 3, the situation was still far from good for the Romans, though steadily getting better. The Romans were getting their lines in order and the Germans started to lose steam. The Germans opposing the Roman rearguard finally got their act together and assaulted the Romans, only to get a bloody nose. At the head of the column things continued as hot as ever, with things turning sour for the Romans. The Roman vanguard had fared remarkably well so far, but the German numbers started to tell and in quick succession, the unit of auxilia cavalry and a unit of legionnaires were routed.

Combat erupts at the end of the line

The Germans facing the Roman rearguard are quickly routed

Another legionary unit is routed at the van of the army

With the Roman vanguard in tatters, the Romans concentrated in rescuing their centre. One unit of legionaries was deployed in a square formation to protect the flank of the remaining, reorganizing units. The Germans attacked and were repulsed in the centre. The unit in square was hard pressed, but managed to hold the barbarian onslaught. This gave enough time for the Roman rearguard to mop up barbarian resistance at the end of the column and for the centre to regroup. The Roman rearguard then engaged the German centre, which freed the Roman centre units to wheel and attack the Germans at the head of the column.

A unit of legionaries forms square to protect the flank of the regrouping centre

Battlefield around turn 4

Roman counter-attack mops up the Germans

The German unit facing the Roman square was easily mopped up and the Romans could now advance in one front to relieve their beleaguered vanguard. This was not enough to save Varus or one of the legionary units at the head of the column, who were slaughtered by the German cavalry.

This was the German's last success. The legion-strength force of Romans (4 units), advancing in close order, was too much for the Germans. Two German units led by Arminius himself were routed and, with that, the remnants of the Germans abandoned the field.

Turn 5 - Roman vanguard collapsing

Roman centre rushes to aid the beleaguered vanguard

Arminius and the remnants of the German horde are put to flight by the combined assault of the legions

All three German "divisions" had been broken by the end of the game, while only the Roman vanguard was broken (at the very end of the game). Most of the Roman units were quite worn down, yet operational. After a steep uphill climb, the disaster had been averted and turned into a glorious Roman victory!

Closing thoughts

Despite the end result, this game was quite tight. I got lucky with the Romans since failed German activations enabled me to reorganize my central and rear-guard units. Once these entered the game in a "straight up" fight with Germans, I managed to mop up the German divisions one by one.

It's nice to play these kinds of historical scenarios and this one definitely had a character and narrative of its own. However, I do think that the scenario could be better balanced in favour of the Germans (and more clearly structured in general). In particular, the special rule allowing Romans to bring back their destroyed legionary units at half strength allowed me in one instance to slow the German onslaught long enough to regroup the rest of my army. That said, all in all a fun and unique game.

Hail Caesar: The battle of Pydna 168 BC

I had the chance to try out Hail Caesar the other night. There's an ongoing campaign at the club and one of the Roman generals was unable to attend due to being off campaigning somewhere in Germania (work trip). I was eager to step in and quickly set to planning a scenario. My opponent played Macedonians, so I settled on a re-fight of the battle of Pydna 168 BC.

The battle pitched two relatively even armies against each other. We played using the historical OOBs (using the Legio Wargames site plus Adrian Goldsworthy's book for reference), with each miniature representing approximately 250 men, for a total of 140 figures or 35.000 men per side. Almost all the Romans used in this game come from my collection, which I've painted nearly ten years ago but played with only rarely. Although the miniatures are early imperial legionaries, in this game they are fielded as republican Romans (a gap of some 200 years).

The night before the game there was a rare lunar eclipse, which turned the moon red. This nicely set the mood, as the actual battle was also preceded by an eclipse, which seemed to terrify the Greeks. As the Roman player, I took this as a good omen.

An ominous eclipse

Historically, both sides were willing to fight at Pydna, but the battle begun in a confused fashion as the forward sentries got into a skirmish for control of a runaway mule! The battle soon escalated as both sides rushed to get their battle lines in order.

Battle starts as the forward detachments wrest for control of the runaway mule

Except for the forward sentries, both armies would march onto the table to simulate the confused start of the battle. The Macedonians had three divisions - a light division composed of skirmishers, the main body composed of phalangites and a cavalry division. The skirmishers took the right flank while the cavalry marched on the left. The Romans fielded two divisions of legionaries (each representing two legions), plus a large conglomerate division of skirmishers, cavalry and a few elephants. The Roman legions deployed to the right of the river (centre of the board) whilst the skirmishers were on the right flank. Each legion was deployed in a historical Triplex Acies -formation (chequerboard).

The armies rush to deploy

Two legions advancing in Triplex Acies formation. The white crested guys in the back are triarii

A Roman scholar is at hand to record the battle and embellish the story where needed

Roman cavalry race ahead

The first few turns saw the Macedonians advancing spasmodically. The divisions had a hard time manoeuvring and the skirmishers in particular seemed reluctant to close with the enemy. Meanwhile, the Romans advanced gracefully and rapidly, with only the large patches of difficult ground slowing the legionaries. The result was that the Romans had advanced halfway up the length of the table and got their battle line in order before the Macedonians had got anywhere.

Macedonians deploy from column to line of battle

Bad elephant! Put the legionary down!

The Macedonians react to the outflanking Roman cavalry

While the main bodies were advancing, the skirmishers on the other side of the river were fighting their own private war. The Roman skirmishers made a good show of themselves, but they were being gradually worn down by the more numerous enemy.

Skirmishers fight on the "far" side of the river

As the armies began to close upon one another, the Macedonians drew their left wing cavalry back and arched their infantry as shown in the photograph below. Apparently, the Macedonians were concerned about their flank and wished to avoid envelopment. This suited the Romans just fine. My tactic was to push my skirmishers as far forward as possible to tie down half of the phalangites while I would strike hard and fast on the Macedonian right with both legions.

Armies square off - soon the lines will meet

However, the Macedonians started rolling good commands just before the Romans were in a position to strike. The Macedonians extended their line to protect their flank and, with great luck, rushed their skirmishers forward to outflank the legionaries.

Then the Macedonians launched their attack. Several phalanxes on the Roman right went on a wild goose chase by charging the evading Roman skirmishers. Two more phalanxes charged the elephant and legionaries. Things seemed to be going well for the Romans, as the elephant held its own and the legionaries retired in good order after inflicting some casualties.

The idea with the Triplex Acies formation of the Romans is to wear the enemy down with small detachments, outflank them and launch counter charges so that a local numerical superiority can be gained. I did all these things and the lead phalanx seemed screwed. Then the dice gods abandoned me. Somehow, the phalanx, which we both had written off as gone, managed not only to repel my attackers but to rout several of my units to boot! The Macedonians pressed their advantage and casualties continued to mount on both sides. After a valiant defence, my elephant plus some skirmishers in the centre were routed in whilst defending the rough ground.

Macedonians rush forward

The legionaries retire in good order, ready for a counter-attack

Melee rages in the centre. The Romans gain numerical superiority over the phalangites...

... but are repulsed

On the Roman right flank the phalangites try to catch the Roman skirmishers

The Roman left flank charges the thureophoroi hoping for a quick success

The silver lining of the debacle was that the Macedonians now had their formations dispersed and some of them were stuck in the rough ground. The Romans could be counted on to seize these opportunities and soon I had legionaries and skirmishers attacking the flanks of numerous phalanxes. In quick succession, several phalanxes were routed.

Finally, caught in the flank, the lead phalanx is routed

Success breeds success and two more phalanx are taken in the flank

Whilst the fight was raging in the centre, I had another problem to contend with. The Macedonian skirmishers were continuously peppering my flank guard with shooting from multiple directions. I tried to resolve the issue by driving them off, but failed to fight well enough to drive off the enemy's thureophoroi. As the skirmishers were getting bolder, I was forced to throw in first one and then another unit. Soon I was fighting for my life just to hold the Macedonians at bay.

The Roman left is crumbling

Stem the tide!

Meanwhile, things on the right flank were continuing favourably for the Romans. The cavalry clashed on the extreme right flank, with the Macedonians coming off worse and nearly having their whole division routed. My skirmishers were running rings around three phalanxes and peppering them with shot from all sides. This was mostly just a stalling action to keep the enemy infantry away from the centre, but casualties were beginning to accumulated dangerously for the Macedonians.

Roman right flank on turn 7

The fighting in the centre continued as vehemently as ever, although dusk was falling fast. The few remaining units of one of my legions were finally routed. The general of my army, consul Aemilus Paullus was seen fleeing the field with the last survivors. The other legion, commanded by Scipio Nasica, had plenty of fight left though, and proceeded to rout another phalanx before the growing dark forced the armies to separate. With that, the game came to an end (turn 7).

Both sides had suffered heavy casualties. Macedonian casualties were in the range of 30% whereas the Romans had lost about 50% of their force. The Romans still had plenty of cavalry and skirmishers to cover their retreat, but there was no hiding the fact that the Republic had been solidly defeated.

One more phalanx is routed before the fighting comes to an end

Endgame

The game was certainly fun and dramatic. Despite the loss, I think that my tactics were pretty sound. Things seemed to be going well for me when I had half of the phalangites tied down with my skirmishers. However, when push came to shove my luck seemed to run out and I kept rolling badly. I lost despite the fact that I faced only half the enemy's line infantry with almost all of mine.

Things started to look up once the Macedonian formation became dispersed and I could use my numerous small units to charge their flanks. It was nice to see how this worked, as this was pretty much how the Roman formation was meant to function and why they managed to win the historical battle of Pydna. That said, I was left with the feeling that the Macedonian phalanx is a bit too tough in the game. The formation seemed to have all the advantages but none of the disadvantages (poor manoeuvrability, over-concentration of force, weak flanks) that it historically had. Despite these grudging remarks, I think the scenario worked out nicely and represented a plausible alternate history of the actual battle.