Barbarians at the Gates

Scenario from the Hail Caesar Rule Book

Mark & Mike's Barbarians v. Steve & Rob's Romans

The scenario starts with the barbarians pillaging the village with an advance guard guarding the ford and bridge.  The Romans start beyond the river and have to force a crossing and save the village before the barbarians have completely destroyed it (about 9 turns but randomised).  The Barbarians have more troops arriving between turns 3 & 5.

The Romans advanced reasonably smartly.  Their cavalry quickly cleared the light cavalry from the ford and crossed over.  The Goth infantry on the bridge bought some time when their javelins caused the lead cohort to recoil.

A second Roman advance on the bridge cleared it, but the Barbarian reserves came up fast.  Barbarian cavalry charged the lead cohort - which held on bravely while their comrades deployed over the bridge behind them.  They eventually broke, but the cavalry were in no state to follow up.

On the right both sides' cavalry deployed to face each other off.  On the left barbarian cavalry  peppered the legionaries with bow fire but came under heavy fire from the scorpions over the river.

The scorpions were making a mess of the barbarian left, but the legionary advance was slowed by bow fire.

On the barbarian right, the Roman cataphracts charged to try to break the deadlock.  They ran into a wall of Oakie's dice and the Roman cavalry wing broke along with some supporting infantry.  This left their remaining infantry with a hanging flank and in deep dodo.

At the same time roaring flames in the village showed that the relief was too late anyway and the Romans gave up.

We didn't have all the right figures for the scenario as listed and had to use subs for quite a few of the troop types (like Persian horse archers for Huns), but they looked fine at a distance and as always with Hail Caesar a good time was had by all.