Battle of Arausio 105BC using D3 Ancients Clash

Introduction

This is game 51 in play testing my ancient rules by replaying historical battles.  I am using my new rules d3 Ancients Clash (the previous games were with ‘Ancient Battlelines Clash’).  I am in the process of writing the rules up from the scribbling it is currently.  D3 Ancients Clash is an evolution of Ancients Battleline Clash but uses d3s and designed to assist with replaying these historical games.  I am play testing the rules by replaying all the Peter Sides scenarios from his Historical Battles books.  D3AC is designed to finish in around 30 minutes on a 16”x16” table.  I may go back to 2’x2’ in future.

Battle of Arausio

Here is the only internet link of interest I used for this replay:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arausio

Troops

Roman

Army 1

2 Legions, Heavy Infantry, line relief, medium missile protection

2 Allied Legions, Heavy Infantry, line relief, medium missile protection

2 Velites, Skirmishers, javelin

2 Allies, Medium infantry, javelin

2 Heavy Cavalry

1 -1 General with the Heavy Cavalry on right

All trained.

1 Camp

Breakpoint: 8

 

Army 2

2 Legions, Heavy Infantry, line relief, medium missile protection

2 Allied Legions, Heavy Infantry, line relief, medium missile protection

2 Velites, Skirmishers, javelin

2 Allies, Medium infantry, javelin

2 Heavy Cavalry

1 Camp

1 -1 General with the Heavy Cavalry on right

All trained.

Breakpoint: 8

German 

18 Warbands

6 Skirmishers, javelin

4 Heavy Cavalry

1 General with the Warbands

All untrained

Breakpoint: 22

Scenario changes

I reduced the forces by about two-thirds.

Deployment

Game

German right flank heavy cavalry charge the allied medium infantry.  The latter retreat, the cavalry follows and routs them.  The cavalry have broken past the first line and are lined up to charge the second army.

German heavy cavalry on their way to the second army

The centre sees a clash of skirmishers.

The German left flank cavalry charges the Roman heavy cavalry.   The Romans succeed is pushing the cavalry back.

German cavalry charging the Roman cavalry

The remaining skirmishers fires at the Roman line that sees the two fired on units advances into melee with the warbands.

Two Roman units break from their lines to charge the skirmishers and hit the warbands.

The Medium infantry retreats, warband charges into the Roman heavy cavalry and the warband retreats.

The legions retreats and a warband pursues but the legions gets the better of them and forces the warband to retreat.  The legion pursues into a warband and routs.  The warband follows up and runs into the allied medium infantry that had previously retreated and the medium infantry routs and the warbands pursue.  All of this narrative generated by the dice.  So at least that carries over from my old rules.

The successful warband breaks through the first army

And then the rest of the warbands move into clash with the line of Roman legions.

Warband horde Vs the thin legion line.

In a run of some appalling Roman dice rolls, two legions rout in the centre and the warbands break through.  With no damage to themselves.  The dice gods were definitely not with the Romans today.

The Germans have broken through in the centre.

The Roman first army has reached their breakpoint so flee (effectively rout).  The Germans are racing towards the other army.

Battlefield after the destruction of army 1

The Warbands charge the second army and the skirmishers do little damage but do manage to stop some of them from contacting the legions.  The warbands are carrying some shaken status on some of the units, and the Romans are rolling average this time.  No legions are lost and some warbands are pushed back!

Warbands contact the second army.

The German cavalry charge into the medium infantry and the heavy cavalry follow them off the table.

German cavalry about to rout the medium infantry.

The roman right heavy cavalry wheel into the flank of the warbands! (the other warbands that got delayed should have been protecting the flank).  The rear warband is depleted.  While it looks like a flank attack, the cavalry did not start behind the front line of the warbands so does not get the flank bonus.

Roman cavalry hits the flank

Note: It is here I played out a game to the end with the Roman Cavalry hitting the warbands in the flank and routing the column of 3 units and ended up with the Germans losing.  I was playing the rules all wrong (and they are mine)!  Summary of main wrongness – Cavalry hits 3 warbands in the flank and routs them all.  For one on multiple melees only one of the three can rout, the worst the other two can receive is a shaken, not a rout.  I replayed the game from here as it bugged me I had stuffed up so badly.

 Combat along the line results in one warband routing but then the German left flank warband routs a legion

German warband pursuing after routing a legion.

Another legion routed. And this tips the Second Roman army into their breakpoint and the flee the battlefield.

Overall end game.

Rule changes

Some minor tweaks, mostly clarifying what happens when two light missile units come into range of each other, and what units they will evade from.

Verdict

An interesting game of a warband steamroller!  It is after this game I stopped for four months to decide where to go moving forward.  In the end I introduced a specific Warband unit type and Horse Archer unit type (makes the rules a little clearer as reduces exceptions due to these two being abilities of other unit types) and decided to go from the 16”x16” back to a 2’x2’ table with distances measured in 40mm (base widths) rather than inches.  I also spent a month wondering if I should go back to 1d6 (it would not be too hard) but decided I really do like the simplicity of the 1d3!