Bagotrix Strikes Back

Back in May at Cangames I ran another of my Roman - British Hail Caesar games.

In the game last year, recounted here, the Romans managed to capture a defensive dyke from the British and the over the winter have built a watchtower and are preparing to reinforce it in order to use it as a base to attack further into the British lands. At the same time, the British warlord, Bagotrix, has gathered some of his fellow kings for an attempt to drive the Romans back over the dyke.

The Roman forces consisted of the garrison at the watchtower -- Legion troops divided into line infantry, slingers, mano-balistae, and sentries as well as 2 scorpio and auxilia archer -- and the reinforcements -- a cavalry force with 3 units of medium cavalry and 2 skirmish units of Numidian light horse and an infantry force of legion and auxilia.

The British have 2 forces consisting of Warbands and skirmishers and one force with cavalry, a chariot unit, medium infantry and wardogs.

The Roman reinforcements lead by the Numidians approach the dyke.

The garrison of the watchtower prepare themselves for the British attack.

The Britsh line up for the attack.

The opening battle lines.

The British move up towards the tower with one force heading over the dyke to try and slow down the Roman reinforcements.

The Roman cavalry moves up but the Infantry is being indecisive and only moving up very slowly.

Meanwhile the British Cavalry seems very frightened of the British slingers and rides past them rather than over them!

The warbands, supported by the medium infantry move up to Roman lines.

The British cavalry take some hits riding by and the medium infantry takes care of the pesky slingers.

The noose tightens around the watch tower.

The two cavalry forces move towards each other.

 The British medium infantry press to the front door of the gate as the Legion pushes the warband back.

But the legionnaires may have moved a bit too far away from the tower as the British warbands engage it in force.

The two cavalry forces get stuck in.

They each win one of the battles so no resolution yet at the end of the dyke. The second British warband unit is moving down aross the dyke to to engage the Romans.

The legion at the tower is wiped out so now there are only a unit of sentries and and a unit of slingers guarding the outside of the tower.

The overall view of the battlefield.

The British cavalry move up to try and get the Roman infantry in the flank.

The British wipe out all the Romans outside the tower.

The Romans have a bit of good luck and defend well against the British cavalry, wiping them out before the warbands arrive.

In the mean time the surviving Roman cavalry has reached the tower and is trying to relieve the pressure on it.

The warband have reached the Roman infantry.

The remaining British cavalry engage the Numidians.

The Roman Cavalry has some success in pushing back the British.

The other warband wipes out the Roman auxila and pushes back the legion.

On the far flank the Numidians engage the British slingers.

In the centre, things continue to go badly for the Romans.

The Roman cavalry have better luck though and have pushed the British away from the tower.

The game ended with the Roman relief force almost completely wiped out but with the tower still in the Roman hands. The Romans will keep the position but they will be unable to use it to attack further in to British lands in the short term.

There will be more adventures of Bagotrix next year at Cangames, I have more British cavalry on the painting table right now (and a Roman elephant -- but I am not sure if I will use that or not)