As outlined last week, I took the OHW scenario 3 from the book and adjusted it slightly to make it look a bit more like the Second Legions assault across the River Medway under the command of future Roman emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus (Vespasian)
A reminder of the OHW scenario map
The full battle map above, the section represented in my game below. (kinda!)
The river is from a 10mm terrain sheet by "Paperboys" here https://peterspaperboys.com/collections/10mm-scale/products/general-10mm-terrain that I bought as a download pdf for the princely sum of £2. This is actually printed about double size, as I thought the original was a bit more like a stream than a river, even for 10mm figures. I printed off the standard sized one too, as well as the roads that are another part of the range. If you are gaming in 10mm I would recommend checking out the various terrain sheets they have available, they all look pretty good and are extremely well priced by the standards of our age! (see 17th century buildings below, for example)
Now, back to tonight's game!
Legio II Augusta in all its 10mm glory.
The Batavian auxiliary infantry who will make a flank attack via the ford (bottom left in the first image of the game)
British Light Infantry skirmishers line the Medway, backed by heavy infantry
The reserve HI on the hill in the river bend
The end of turn one as the Romans advance towards the Medway.
Noting the approaching enemy, the British reserve moves off the hill.
Legio II sits in position, just out of range of the British skirmishers, as they wait for the Batavians to get into position. Once the latter crossed at the ford, I rolled a D6 to see if they had been spotted by the British - a 6 on the first turn, 5 and 6 on the second, and so on, until the Brits succeeded the test.
The Batavians close in on their secret crossing point
With the Auxiliary infantry across the Medway (above) Vespasian's legionary's advance! I adjusted Peters rules, to allow the Romans to cross the river at half speed, as obviously, that is what historians believe occurred.
In these rules, there is no "ganging up" with supports to have two or even three units attacking one - so my mental ruling was that the Britons had to be pushed back by the Romans before any of the three supporting cohorts were allowed to exit the Medway.
The initial assault falls upon the lightly armed skirmishers, who had failed in turns three and four to cause any casualties on the legionaries with their javelins and slings.
Legate Vespasian observes the action at close quarters.
By the end of turn six, both skirmish units had accumulated five or six hits, but inflicted virtually nothing on the veteran heavy infantry of Legio II Augusta in their lorica segmentata armour and carrying their large scutum shields.
The LI fell back through their supporting heavy infantry colleagues, and the fight on the riverbank continued, as the Batavians moved up on the Britons left flank. But finally, their presence was noted, and a unit of the heavy infantry reserve hastily turned to confront them! (the Britons rolled a 4)
The legionary's go about their grim business with their razor-sharp gladii
In turn nine, the Britons engaged the Batavian auxiliaries, whilst the bloodletting along the northern bank of the Medway continued. Despite suffering mounting casualties, the Britons doggedly continued to contest the river.
But in turn ten, the rightmost British heavy infantry failed their morale check and fell back. Immediately, the one remaining, uncommitted unit of warriors moved forward to take on the weary Roman infantry.
But things were about to start collapsing for the British commander, as the steady accumulation of casualties on all his infantry began to take its toll. In turn eleven, the first British unit disintegrated, leaving a gap for two supporting cohorts of legionaries to cross the river. Meanwhile, the Batavians, although suffering as badly as their opponents in the melee, just managed to pass their morale check
Turn twelve saw the climax of the battle, and the collapse of the British resistance. In quick succession, one infantry unit failed its morale and fell back before the merciless Romans short swords, then two more units completely collapsed under the legionary's onslaught.
As the Legio II troops poured across the Medway on turn thirteen, a third unit of Britons were obliterated, and the battle was over. Their leaders called on the few remaining skirmishers and infantry to fall back, and the Romans had successfully forced a crossing of the strategic river line.
The victorious legate, Titus Flavius Vespasianus (ignore the IX on the standard, just pretend it says II!)
I really enjoyed this game, the rules worked well (I remembered them all this time!) and the result mirrored what we believe actually happened in AD 43. Once again, the scenario/rules did what they say on the packet - the timing on the first and last images of the game indicate it lasted just under an hour!
To end tonight's post, I laid out some of the Paper Boys scenery, to give you an idea of what it looks like. It's obviously not as aesthetically pleasing as full on 10mm scale 3d terrain pieces would be - but for my small 29" square table with paint smeared baize cloth, it looks fine, in my opinion. Above are most of the "large" river pieces.
And given something is better than nothing, it's an improvement on what I had available previously! Above, some of the road pieces - I have more of this than I am likely to ever need - buts that's ok - better too much than not enough!
Final picture has the original size "small" river pieces on show, along with the roads again. I printed all this terrain out at work on a colour printer, cut it out then stuck it to stiff card with "Liquid Nails" glue and standard PVA. I also created the "fork" in the stream, which with it all being paper was incredibly easy to achieve, and does not look half bad, even if I do say so myself!
I am off to Julians on Friday after work, all things being equal, for an RCW/BoB based game, so should be another AAR and bunch of pics posted over the weekend. Until then, thanks for visiting and extra special thanks to everyone who leaves a comment!
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