Final 10mm Battle of Medway AD43 Solo Game - OHW Scenario 7

 I have to admit to being a bit behind schedule this week - Wargame Wednesday didn't happen, but fortunately, Thurs 6 Feb is a public holiday here and I took annual leave for Friday 7, to make it into a four-day weekend-yay!

The relevance of this is, I got the solo game played after lunch today. I thought OHW scenario number 7 could work well for the final Roman assault on the British army of Togodumnus and Caratacus, at which the former died.

Not sure the balances work all that well sometimes, with 6 units per side, but once again, from what little we actually know, a historical result.

Needless to say, the Red army are the Britons on this occasion, with the Romans executing the flank attack on their hilltop position. The Britons army comprised three units of heavy infantry and three of skirmishers, the Romans two auxiliary infantry and four veteran heavy infantry - the legionaries.

The Britons deployed on the large hill

The four flanking veteran heavy infantry on the Britons left flank.

Turns 1 (above) and 2 (below) were simply periods of movement by both sides - two units of British skirmishers headed forwards to contest the passage of the auxiliary infantry. Meanwhile, the four veteran units close in on the Britons flank.

On turn 3, VHI II made contact with the left most of the British skirmisher units, putting 4 hits on them, whilst VHI I inflicted a solitary hit on the British HI unit, with both the British units passing the morale test. In reply, the British HI put 3 hits on VHI II, but VHI are not required to take a morale test. Elsewhere, one of the skirmish units put a single hit on the blue auxiliary infantry, who passed their test.

In turn four, the two remaining Roman VHI units combined in an attack on the front and flank of the third British HI unit at the rear of the hilltop, inflicting 5 casualties in one round of combat - but the Britons held firm. None of the skirmish units managed to cause any damage - they were rolling two hits but then had to subtract one for being LI and another because their target was armoured. I wondered if I was doing this wrong but double checked, and there is no mention of a minimum casualty rate of 1 or anything like that, so I carried on playing the rule that way for the remainder of the game.

Turn 5 was pretty much more of the same, particularly for the LI who were totally ineffective against the Roman heavy infantry.

On turn 6, every unit on the table was engaged in close combat - both the auxiliary infantry units did damage to the LI - but the latter passed their morale tests. Then, VHI I rattled the first of the British HI, and they fell back. VHI II put another two hits on the LI on the hill, but they stood their ground, and likewise with the other two British HI units at the rear of the hill.

In reply, once again, all three skirmish units failed to get any hits at all on the legionaries, whilst the hits from the two HI units still in combat were minimal.

Turn 7, and the auxiliaries were both piling the pressure on the British skirmishers, inflicting 4 and 3 hits respectively, although both British units stood there and took it. On the hill, all the veteran Roman infantry scored 3 or 4 hits on their opponents, resulting in the disintegration of the skirmish unit, which had failed to score even a single hit on VHI II. At the rear of the hill, VHI IV forced the defending British HI to give ground, as they failed their morale test after having suffered significant casualties.

In turn 8, the skirmish units both disengaged from combat with the auxiliary infantry and fell back towards the British position. The VHI on the hill suddenly gained total ascendancy, dispersing one British HI unit completely, and forcing the other two to fall back.

As the auxiliary infantry closed in at a 90-degree angle to the legionaries' flank attack, and the British army morale had already dropped by 50%, I decided to call the game as a Roman win at this point

Another fun little game, as long as you are not rooting for the Britons! They will win at some point - possibly if I do a Boudicca inspired campaign with these figures. For now, though, I might try getting some of the other collections out of the boxes and giving them a go at some of the OHW scenarios!

Thanks for popping in and bye for now!