69 AD, the year of the four emperors. After Nero died multiple claims were laid at the throne of Rome. Political murder and battle would settle the matter. A full year the Roman empire was in turmoil.
At last Friday’s BOD evening Gerco and I played a scenario based on the first battle of Bedriacum, or first battle of Cremona as it also named.
Before diving into the story of how our battle played out, first some interesting observations.
At the BOD we sometimes have some money left from the year’s contributions. This we put to good use and this year it was decided to purchase addition tablecloths. Now measuring 180 x 180 instead of the more traditional 180 x 120. This is helpful because the venue where we rent space has 90 x 90 tables. In other words, we are able to use the tabletop to their full depth. How does this matter you might ask. Well, we played this scenario using 10mm and at 20 paces to the centimetre. At game start the two armies were relatively far apart. In most ancient wargamerules I have played over the years an approach of two armies at such distances often plays out awkward at best. Turn on turn you either miss out on PiPs, or orders aren’t understood, or activations fail. Yes, good rules model friction, but my view is that once a line of battle has been ordered to advance, and has started to do so, will continue to do so until it either hits the enemy line or is told otherwise. The Warrior has fixed this by using so-called ongoing events. Add variable amounts of time a round represents and things move smoothly and easily. It also allows you, actually forces you, to consider what to do with this steadily advancing line of legionnaires approaching…
The first battle of Bedriacum has Legate Aulus Vitellius, governor of the province of Germania Inferior, face Marcus Salvius Otho, who had murdered Galba and claimed the throne. Vitellius also claimed the throne and was on his way to Rome. His army was split in two parts. The first had crossed the Alps via the Great St. Bernard pass and was waiting near Cremona for the others to arrive.
In the meantime Otho decided to face Vitellius and gathered what legions he could. Even mustering gladiators to fill the ranks. Still, his forces were outnumbered and had pressed hard moving north, with Vitellius men resting while waiting.
I took control of Otho’s army. The challenge was that this army is outnumbered, more fatigued and more or less a spitting image of its opponent. Not much differences that could be exploited to any sort of advantage. None at all, to be precise. So I decided to go for a static, defensive deployment and have Gerco and Vitellius men do their bidding. The idea was to allow Otho’s men to halt and rest as much as possible in order to at least negate one of the disadvantages. Still, fully static my approach was not. I ordered the cavalry forward with the aim to delay the Vitellian forces as much as possible, and so gain more time for my men to rest.
Forwards my horses went. Meeting the Vitellian cavalry soon enough, and being bested by them. Mostly that is. Despite some small success, overall the Othonian horsemen did not make a good show of themselves. After something like a quarter of an hour of engaging, being pushed back, and losing their commander who was captured, my right wing cavalry broke and fled. Hotly pursued all the way to right next to the infantry line. Fortunately the whole affair had also taken its toll on the Vitellian horsemen and they fell back to regroup, thus lifting the direct threat to the infantry flank. On my left wing the cavalry fight was a little more even, but my single successful unit had too much fun in pursuing their beaten opponent all the way to the Alps, probably.
All the while the legionnaires of Vitellius advanced. Not hindered by any of my actions. I ordered some units on the flanks to redeploy and cover the exposed flanks. All braced for impact. And impact there would be. The first melee occurred at my leftmost flank. The auxiliary engaged and were locked in a close run fight for several minutes. A cohort of legionaries was argued to charge in as support, but this was successfully disputed. Legionaries would fight legionaries.
In the centre the true big clash happened. There I had stationed the gladiators. Experienced fighters, but lacking discipline. On top of that they faced the veteran legions from Vitellius. It didn’t look good. Not good at all. But, as the saying goes in wargaming, there is no problem that the rolling of a six doesn’t solve. And although The Warrior uses 3D6 for resolving disputes, including combats, the truism holds, and held in this game. Yes my dice rolls were lucky. The gladiators forced the veteran legionnaires to fall back. They followed up and I argued they would not rally but press on. One of the legionary units managed to reform on time, the other not. And again Mars was in my favour. This proved to much for Vitellius men. Further down the line a similar story developed. My veterans beat the opposition. The army of Vitellius had no centre anymore. His men had had enough and the army broke.
Arguing when... wargames 