David R. Moody - Jun 23, 2004 5:06 pm (#6750 Total: 6811)   
Last played: Afrika, Game of Thrones, Vinci, Kingmaker, Battleline, 
Down in Flames, Stonewall's Last Battle, Wings of War, Caesar: 
Conquest of Gaul. Reading: Flashman and the Tiger (George MacDonald Fraser), 
Phineas Redux (Anthony Trollope).    
 
Finished the battle of the Sabis last night (Caesar: Conquest of Gaul).
When last we left JC and the boys they were getting stomped on by hordes
of Bloody Belgae Bastards, buck naked, painted blue and with rancid
butter in their hair. 

The situation was very confused indeed, with legions trying to form line
in the face of the Gallic onslaught. The Roman center was gone, and
routed cohorts were streaming back to the unfinished camp, where Caesar
had taken position to rally them. Marc Antony had also pulled back there
with the remnants of the VIII Legion, to try and rally and get back into
the fray. Every time cohorts would reform and try to hold a line, waves
of Belgae would crush them and send them back. In places the enemy even
got close enough for auxiliary archers to pepper them with arrows from
the unfinished towers of the camp. 

But the Roman flanks held firm. On the right, the VII Legion advanced
steadily, driving the now disorganized Nervii back in heavy fighting,
and cutting through to rescue two cut off cohorts of the XII Legion (and
their eagle). On the left, Labenius held firm with the IX and X Legions,
refusing flank in anticipation of the onslaught of a third group of
barbarians, surging across the Sabis in one big amorphous mass. 

The fighting continued savagely. Antony, grabbing the eagle of Legio
VIII, led them back into the fray, hitting and rolling up the flank of
one barbarian penetration. The VII Legion pushed all the way to the
Sabis, hacking up fugitives and forcing the Nervii, their charge spent,
to pull back, though here and there small groups counterattacked
fiercely. And still the horde kept coming, overrunning the XI Legion,
nearly taking their eagle, hitting the flank of the IX, pushing almost
to the camp. 

It was this scene of carnage and chaos that met the eyes of the XIII and
XIV Legions as they came up, accompanying the baggage train [I got them
on Turn 5]. The XIII Legion, advancing in double line of cohorts,
marched steadily to try and reinforce the non-existent Roman center as
the XIV took the wagons into the camp. 

By now the situation for the Romans was desperate--center gone, VIII
Legion counterattacking manfully, but at the end of their rope [nearly
at Rout level], hordes of routed cohorts in the camp. And the third
group of Belgae, instead of hitting the flank, poured into the
struggling mass in the center! Again the Romans wavered; again the
hordes pressed close to the camp. IX Legion tried to hit them in the
flank, but was too few. Another activation would see them in the camp,
and on the wagons. 

And then . . . dieroll of doom!! Labienus, trying to get the X
Legion--Caesar's gallant old Tenth--into the fray, got to go again
thanks to Reactivation. He had earlier failed a Momentum attempt, but
now . . . . A cheer went up from the battered lines as the Tenth surged
forward, throwing their pila and smashing into the barbarian spearheads,
throwing them into confusion, routing them back. The barbarians recoiled
before this mass of Roman shields and swords, and began to flee in
larger and larger groups. With the XIII Legion coming up behind the
heroic Tenth, and reformed Gallic cavalry falling on the fugitives, the
Belgae fled the sodden field. 

What glory! What slaughter! Over 50% of VIII and XI Legions eliminated
(and the rest Depleted); three legionary catapults overrun and smashed;
lots of depleted and eliminated cohorts among the other legions. Nothing
is so melancholy as a battle lost than a battle won . . . 

A great great game, and it really turned on that Dieroll of Doom. If my
opponent's other '4' leader had gotten to go instead of Labineus'
reactivation, he would have been in my camp, and then it would have been
even more of a slaughter. That, and if he'd kept the Nervii together
better after their initial successes . . . . At any rate, now he wants
to try the Rhine scenario and all that German cavalry. 

David R. Moody - Jun 30, 2004 3:59 pm (#6808 Total: 6811) 
Last played: Afrika, Game of Thrones, Vinci, Kingmaker, Battleline, Down
in Flames, Stonewall's Last Battle, Wings of War, Caesar: Conquest of
Gaul. Reading: Flashman and the Tiger (George MacDonald Fraser), Phineas
Redux (Anthony Trollope). 

More fuzzy-wuzzy bashing, Roman-style, last night, as one of my longtime
opponents and I continued with Caesar in Gaul. With time an issue, we
decided to do the first of the two "Publius Crassus in Aquitania"
scenarios from C3i #11. Once again, I took the Romans. 

I had the VII Legion, reinforced with two provincial cohorts and a
handful of cavalry and skirmishers, marching in parallel lines, two
cohorts to a hex, with the cavalry and skirmishers out front. We sighted
fuzzy cavalry up ahead, and engaged. My lads got the worst of it, so I
sent forward the lead four cohorts to chase them away. With a big hill
on our right, I deployed the skirmishers (one each of slingers and
archers) and two provincial cohorts to cover that flank, with four more
cohorts (stacked two to a hex and set up for line extension) and the
catapult behind. The remaining two cohorts hung out with Crassus, and
got routed over by some of the Gallic cavalry, failing their TQ checks
badly (the wussies). 

An aside--I'm not sure what the "provincial cohorts" are supposed to
represent. I imagined them as local citizenry volunteered or impressed
into the army and trained as legionaries, though not exactly such. As
always, I'd love to be enlightened on what they're supposed to be. 

Back to the battle. My opponent promptly made his first mistake when my
gladius-toting troops came into view. Instead of Orderly Withdrawing in
hopes of spreading me out when the rest of his army showed up, he STOOD
AND FOUGHT. So of course I cut him to ribbons, and he was only able to
rally one of the units before it routed off the map. And now he was
almost halfway to his Rout level. 

So we drove off the fuzzys, got the cavalry rallied, and then . . . the
whirlwind. It started slowly at first, with the LI H&Ding down the hill
at us (or, in English, light infantry running up, throwing javelins,
farting in our general direction, and running away again). We chased a
couple of them, catching one and thrashing it. Then the rest of them
came, charging and screaming. The skirmishers and provinical cohorts got
overwhelmed fast, and died as my opponent got Momentum and kept coming.
The second line didn't even have time to do Line Extension, as the
barbarians quickly lapped around my right. The stack of cohorts there
withstood the initial charge, but were soon cut off and wiped out. Even
the surviving enemy cavalry started moving back into the fight,
attacking and routing one of the cohorts that had advanced on them as
the enemy LI overwhelmed the one cohort that had unsuccessfully chased
them. 

But I refused to panic, even as the leading elements of the enemy came
up against Legio VII's catapult, which was firing into them at point
blank range, routing some back. I threw four cohorts straight at the
enemy center, killing two routed units, routing back more, and blowing a
huge hole. The cavalry prefect led one of his reformed units into the
rear of another BI unit, routing it. But still they came, now
overrunning the catapult. 

Thus it was that we were on the last turn, with me three points away
from rout level and the enemy five away. A large group of enemy were
routing back from whence they had come, but it would take them two turns
to get off the map. If I lost another unit, I was done for. It came down
to one last Momentum roll. If my opponent made it, he would descend on
one of my routed cohorts and destroy it for the win; if he failed, he
would have activated all his units and I could kill one of his routed
units then hunker down for the win. He failed, and failed miserably,
getting a Dieroll of Doom, followed by Reactivation (moot, as all his
leaders had gone so it was my turn anyway, but interesting that two
straight battles should come down to that). At any rate, I flung a
cohort and one cavalry unit at the remnants of his LI, killing one
(already routed) and routing the other. Then the Seventh pulled back
around its eagle as Crassus rallied the one routed cohort my enemy had
been unable to kill. 

And the enemy faded back into the French hills, leaving me in possession
of a sodden field. Six cohorts eliminated (both provincial cohorts, plus
four from the VII Legion), plus my skirmishers and catapult.
Thirty-seven rout points all together, just three away from breaking.
And my cavalry almost all Depleted. Can't ask for a closer game than
that. Next week the assault on the Aquitani camp.