A battle of wits - Marian Romans vs Celtiberians

[Justin Swanton]

DBA games normally last about 40 minutes or so. Not so the one between Noel and myself on Saturday. Fielding my newly-acquired Ancient Spanish against his Marian Romans, we planned on two games that afternoon, perhaps three. Two and a half hours later a desperate game finally reached its conclusion. Considerably longer than the average, but well worth it! The game was expertly photographed by Arthur Fregona, enabling me to use a combination of Photoshop and InDesign to create accurate diagrams for this battle report.

The mother of all (DBA) battles took place in Spain which, with a Celtiberian aggression of 0 vs Roman 3, was more than likely, and the wily Celtiberian commander Clevatactix was counting on it. He knew he had no chance on flat open ground against the Roman expeditionary force led by the redoubtable Ingenius Devisus, and planned to use a countryside full of steep hills and forest to negate the Roman blades' overwhelming 5 vs 3 combat factor against the Celtiberian warband.

Another advantage Clevatactix had over the Romans in difficult terrain was speed. With 6 warband, 4 psiloi, 1 light horse and 1 cavalry (general) the Celtiberians could move much faster than the Romans, who had amassed 8 blade, 2 psiloi and 2 cavalry (one the general) against them.

The gods smiled on Clevatactix when dicing for terrain and he was able to place a steep hill in 3 quadrants of the battlefield, and a difficult wood in the fourth. The Romans chose the side of the field with the forest. Celtiberia deployed first, followed by Rome:

Celtiberia moved first. With 3 pips Clevatactix moved up his psiloi (which can group move in difficult terrain) to secure his hold on the hills, and sent his cavalry left to counter the Roman mounted troops:

The Roman foot, flanked by psiloi, move through the narrow defile between the hills, followed by some of the cavalry:

With a good 6 pips, the Celtiberian warband were able to move up en masse whilst the cavalry continued their advance on the left flank:

Ingenius Devisus now took a huge gamble. To win against the Celtiberians he had to fight them on open ground where the close formation of his legionaries would gain the upper hand, but to do this meant advancing in column within charge range of the Celtiberian warband. "Alea iacta est" he muttered, adding "and it better be a bad throw for the barbarians", then ordered the legions to advance...

Clevatactix rubbed his hands in glee, threw the die - and got a 2. He could not launch an effective attack against the blades with only two warband, so cursing the goddess Fortuna, he moved up his cavalry and adjusted his psiloi instead.

The gamble had paid off. The Roman foot deployed into line whilst the cavalry contingent went off to reinforce the general's unit against the advancing Celtiberian horse.

Clevatactix retired his vulnerable warband from the level ground before the legionaries. He hoped to provoke a Roman advance down the centre, which would enable his troops on the high ground to envelope the exposed Roman foot, but Ingenius would prove to be not that much of a fool.

Ingenius reinforced the flanks of his infantry line and prepared to meet the Celtiberian cavalry:

Clevatactix decided not to wait, but strike the exposed right flank of the Roman infantry before the Roman cavalry could arrive. Getting his skirmishers behind the Roman psiloi, he brought up warband to catch them in a sandwich, whilst more Celtiberian skirmishers engaged the nearby Roman foot to keep them occupied. The Celtiberian cavalry meanwhile moved up to support this outflanking move.

After a short sharp fight, the Celtiberian skirmishers fled from the legionaries.

With only 1 pip, Ingenius nevertheless responded energetically, sending his uncommitted legionary base to support his threatened flank...

...but overlooked the dangerous proximity of the Celtiberian cavalry, who were just close enough to reach his own mounted guard on the front and flank!

The dice smiled on the general who liked to gamble, and the Celtiberian attacks were driven off.

Ingenius then counterattacked on his right flank, whilst moving to reinforce his left.

The Celtiberian light cavalry went down. First blood to Rome.

Clevatactix had no choice but to pull back his left. His psiloi, forced to flee from a blade attack, found themselves right in the path of the Roman cavalry...

...who dispatched them in short order:

Clevatactix continued shoring up his left whilst pondering his next move.

Tidying up his own left, Ingenius sent reinforcements across to his right to prepare for a push down the weakened Celtiberian flank. With a pip throw of 1, Clevatactix did nothing in his next bound, but he was hatching a plan.

Ingenius continued to prepare for the push on the Celtiberian left.

With the pips finally tolerable, Clevatactix struck: sending two psiloi to the end of the  Roman left flank, the leftmost legionary base was obliged to turn to face - and found itself in forest, difficult terrain that inflicted a -2 on its combat factor, with a further -1 for overlapping. Meanwhile the Celtiberian warband on the right hill positioned itself to keep both nearby Roman blades in its ZOC (oops...Threat Zone) so they could not help their beleaguered colleagues. All Clevatactix needed now was a good die throw...

...which he did not get (Roman 2 vs Celtiberian 2 and a draw). Sending one legionary base directly in front of the warband enabled Ingenius to free the other to move in support of the threatened base, whilst he sent back the psiloi to reinforce the Roman left flank.

The Celtiberian psiloi fighting the legionaries was forced to flee. With one pip, Clevatactix sent it back to support its exposed comrades.

The Roman advance on the Celtiberian left flank continued whilst the legionaries decimated the psiloi on the Celtiberian right. With 3 bases destroyed things were looking grim for Clevatactix.

But he was not quite done. With his flanks in shambles he had one kick left - in the centre. The Roman move to support the legionaries on the Roman left flank had opened a gap in the centre of the Roman line, just wide enough for a warband base to slip through. If the Celtiberians could kill a legionary base here, they might be able to move on the exposed Roman wings after that. Just one good die throw...

...but it was not to be. The Celtiberian attack was driven back.

Ingenius, seizing the moment (with the help of a good pip throw) ordered a general advance. Romans closed with their adversaries on the left, centre and right.

The inevitable happened. A psiloi base went down and the Celtiberians routed. 4 - 0 to Rome and well played Noel!

[Paul Innes]

Great report, Justin.  It's good to see the Celtiberians give Romans a hard time, although the final score was a bit heavy.  No doubt the reports to Rome will speak of sweeping victory against the barbarians. 

[Chris]

Very well done, Mr. Swanton! Though the photos are figureless (not that this is a problem), one can appreciate the nature of the ground and the movement of troops due to the graphic interplay of the programs used.

I did find it curious that the Celt cavalry was able to gang up on the Roman right while another Roman unit of horse stood by . . . I guess there was a problem of command and control?

Interesting too (though not unusual), that the battle was decided on the flanks instead of with a clash of the main bodies.

Your excellent report tempts me to stage something similar . . . perhaps a Sertorious vs Pompey engagement?

Regards,

Chris

[Justin Swanton]

Thanks Paul and Chris.

Re the cavalry ganging up, the Roman commander had been moving up his cavalry to rejoin him but then had to devote pips to sort out the attack on his infantry right wing, leaving the cavalry hanging. That gave the Celtiberians a window of opportunity to nip in and attack the general.

I await your Sertorius vs Pompey battle report with anticipiation...