Early Imperial Romans vs Ancient British - posted by Vince Cholewa, 25 October 2020

A big thank you to Graham Starkey for a great game of toy soldiers yesterday at the Wellington Warlords - Early Imperial Romans vs Ancient British. Claudius is coming!

After more than four decades of wargaming with different rules, the DBMM rules for ancient and medieval games have become my all time favourites. They produce excellent games, and are at their very best with matched pairs of historical opponents.

The rules include a variation on the Roman army to represent Claudius invasion of Britain, which I used. Graham used his Ancient British, though without Caractacus in command. We ended with the Romans leading 14-11.

A simple plan for the Romans - strategic attack (they were, after all, invading Britain) but tactically defensive. Deploy between the sea and a fortified camp to protect the flanks. Two commands of infantry with auxiliaries and skirmishers in the front line and legionaries held back behind them to cover any breakthroughs. One of those commands to push forward along the coast and the other to hold and protect the army. A cavalry reserve to deploy behind the infantry and be able to attack from between them.

The British massed warbands along the coast, some on the coastal hill and a whole command hidden behind it. More warbands in the centre, chariots behind them and a command of chariots and light horse out in the open area.

The dice gods were fickle, and the Romans had to deploy first and move second, but the ground was muddy, disadvantaging the chariots.

The Roman plan rolled out slowly - Claudius is “inert” and each command subtracts one from its PIP die - but it was a good one (of course I’d say that!).

When we called time on the game the first British command along the coast had broken, intermingled with the second, which was being slowly pushed back. Unfortunately, when the first British command broke the Roman tribune lost control of the legionaries who rushed forward amongst the auxiliaries instead of holding back as a reserve. This would have been a risk if we played on as, without a gap between the lines, the legionaries could have been swept away with the front rank auxiliaries if they were beaten.

The cavalry command had come out of the infantry “box” and was doing well causing a steady flow of casualties, attacking the warband, regrouping and attacking again. Importantly, a gap had appeared between the warbands along the coast and the command the cavalry was attacking. The Romans’ Numidian light horse were poised to take advantage of the gap.

Claudius was commanding the defensive infantry line, which was holding fine and feeding auxiliaries and supporting skirmishers into the fight supporting the cavalry.

If you look carefully at the pics you might spot a bolt shooter on a cart. Well, it’s an elephant and it was historically part of Claudius’ cunning plan during the invasion. As I was leaving home with all my Romans in their box, I had that “you’ve left something behind” feeling. My elephants aren’t part of my Roman army so I had left the one I needed behind.

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Kevin McCarthy

That would be the bolt thrower in the corner of the room that no one is talking about

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Me and Graham. We first met in the early 1980s

The Emperor. Not part of the game, just a vignette I made

Initial deployment. There were lots more warband and chariots hidden behind the coastal hill

Craig, Michail, Paul, Peter and Ray offered advice

At this stage the front command of warband has been driven back onto the second and will soon break. The cavalry are doing their thing supported by Claudius’ auxiliaries

The end of the game. The front warband command has broken and the tribune has lost control of the legionaries who have rushed up to join the auxiliaries - not ideal

A closer view of the end of the game

Roman auxilliaries