Barbarians at the Gates Version 2

Mike's Barbarians v. Steve's Romans

I remembered I had a model town wall I'd made a few decades ago & dug it out of a box buried in the junk room.  It looked so good I had to make up a scenario to use it.   This is an adaption of the Barbarians at the Gates scenario in the HC book.

The city in one corner of the table is besieged by the barbarians (Dacians and Samartans).  The mercenary engineers have made a breach in the walls and the barbarians are preparing to assault when news arrives that the Roman provincial governor has forced marched a relief army from his capital and is about to arrive down the Roman road at the far corner.

The barbarians have 2 infantry divisions of 4 warbands and 2 skirmishers, a Sarmartan division of 2 cataphracts and 2 horse archers and a cavalry division of 2 medium & 2 light cav.  They have a camp which counts as a division lost in the army break test if taken.

The Romans win by breaking the barbarian army.  The barbarians win if they break the relief army, or they break into the city.  The garrison is allowed to sortie out.

The city has a garrison of 3 citizen spearmen and 3 light archers.  The Roman relief army has 2 infantry divisions of 4 legionaries & 2 skirmishers and a cavalry division of 2 medium & 2 light cav.

The 1st pic is about turn 2.  The Romans are coming on in the far corner and most of the barbarians have turned to move towards them.  

The barbarians made a move towards the breach with one division.  Their onagers fired in support.  They had the option of trying to make another breach, but chose to shoot at the defenders.

The barbarians formed a line and advanced to meet the Romans.  The Romans brought their cavalry on on their left (they had the option of either side of the road) and immediately threw it forward at the barbarian right flank.   The bold cavalry move paid off big time as they rode down the end infantry unit and their supporting unit broke as well.

Suddenly, the barbarian line fragmented.  Their cavalry on the left charged forward at the Roman right.  The remaining infantry fell back while the Samartans turned right to deal with the Roman cavalry.







The attack on the city was called off and one warband rushed back to guard the camp.

The Roman cavalry regrouped and turned to face the Samartans.  The warbands in the centre advanced again after the Samartans had gone past and charged towards the Roman infantry.

On the far flank, the barbarian cavalry and their opponents had reached a stalemate of shaken units & could do little but chuck javelins at each other hoping the other side would break first.

The barbarian infantry attack in the centre was a disaster - the Romans broke it straight up.

The camp guards charged out of the camp into the flank of some shaken cavalry and the Roman horse was pincered between them and the Samartans.  But the Samartans too were caught out by a rapid advance of the Roman foot and pincered themselves.

Both the Roman cavalry and the Samartans broke, but when the other barbarian cavalry division finally broke on the far flank it was all over for the barbarians - they only had 1 division left out of 4.

A good battle enjoyed by players and umpire alike - an example of how well Hail Caesar works with scenarios that go beyond line them up, charge and throw dice at each other.