The defence of Southampton was the mission set for my Roman army and after the recent failed attempt to attack and take control of London my Romans were on the back foot. The British attack on Southampton would threaten the Roman supply lines across the English channel so this was an important game in the campaign.
My Roman army deployed first with the Legionary units in the centre, auxiliaries and light units on the wings and cavalry positioned behind. The British force confronting me had very high numbers of mobile missile troops in the form of chariots, light cavalry, skirmishers and slingers. And, by deploying second the Brits were able to mass these against the right wing of the Romans which consisted mainly of Legionaries and auxiliary spearmen. Thankfully I had a couple of units of field ballista behind my legionaries and a couple of units of skirmishers to provide some missile support.
I advanced my Romans to form what I hoped would be a strong defensive line making good use of small areas of woodland for cover against missile fire and stall any sudden charge from the much faster moving British army. Soon Chris’s British shooters and throwers were embarked on their project of slowly whittling down my line of legionaries and evading any attempt to bring them into hand-to-hand combat with my pilum armed units.
On the opposite wing the massed hordes of British warriors were lined up facing my 3 units of auxiliary bowmen and spears, only the lurking Roman cavalry behind would offer any real deterrent against a sudden mass charge. The small central woodland adjacent to the road was the point of the first British assault lead by Gaisatai fanatics and a general. This started a local battle that would last for more than an hour and suck in reserves from both sides. By sacrificing my legionaries to an ordeal of a slow missile death, I had in fact prevented the Brits from fully exploiting their much greater mobility. This enabled my Romans to go onto the attack on the other wing without the fear of being completely surrounded by British chariots and light horse etc. These were all fully engaged elsewhere!
After suffering steady casualties through missile attrition my units finally could get ‘stuck-in’ to some hand-to-hand combat and inflict some significant losses on the British warriors. My shooting and throwing was erratic, especially with the pilum, but command and control issues began to affect the British as most of their 5 generals were concentrated on one half of the field. Tony, with his only general locked in combat saw his right wing of the British army slowly disintegrate. The Brits finally captured the 4 hex wood in the centre with their Gaisatai fanatics and their general. However, this had been anticipated and my reserve legionaries soon sent these to the casualty tray.
The Roman cavalry which had up until this point played no real part in the battle were suddenly able to charge the now vulnerable British hordes and inflict some noticeable losses. I had been reluctant to use these earlier in the game as I didn’t want to lose my only hard-hitting mobile reserve. The Roman defensive line on the extreme right finally started to crumble as 2 hordes of British warriors defeated 2 auxiliary spear units. However, I had 2 units of skirmishers and a unit of light cavalry in reserve waiting to deal with this event which I had expected to occur much earlier in the game.
As an overview at this point the left wing of the Romans was winning, the centre was holding and the right wing despite very severe losses was only just starting to crumble and I felt I had this covered with my remaining mobile reserves. The biggest problem facing my Romans was the large number of British chariots, skirmishers, light cavalry and slingers still present on the table. These could quickly surround and shoot to death any further Roman breakthrough. Time was pressing and despite quite severe losses I was pleased that my defensive position was still holding strong and there was little or no chance of a British breakthrough. Although the outcome of the game would be accepted as a draw by all players, at some considerable cost the Romans had successfully defended Southampton and their supply route.
Game Analysis
From the start I knew this was going to be a tough challenge for my Romans. The sheer number of missile troops in the confronting British force and much greater general mobility of their combat units dictated a strong static defence policy for the Romans. This was always going to be costly in terms of casualties, but on balance I think it worked well – the Roman position held.
Written by PK
