Showing posts with label Roman Campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roman Campaign. Show all posts

Thursday, 24 May 2012

Orbis for Roman campaigning

This is an astonishing new tool developed by Stanford University, seemingly designed for those wishing to run wargame campaigns set within the Roman Empire:-


The really useful tab is the "Mapping Orbis" one.  Using this, one can calculate journey times from any place in the Roman empire, to any other, and choose appropriate means of transport.  It even takes into account season and wind direction! 

One needs to be a bit careful about the suggested routes, which can be a little eccentric.  Also I'm cautious about land travel in winter, which (unlike sea travel) doesn't seem to take longer than land travel in the summer.  However, the potential for use as a tool to work out travel times is immense; the map is pretty handy, too, and could be made available to players.  The GM could calculate travel times for armies and modify with random factors or according to the generalship of the commander.

Hopefully I'll get a campaing running late in the year, and this will be the engine that I'll use to calculate the speed of movement of armies.  Do have a go, it is very easy to use and rather fun!

Monday, 23 February 2009

Desperate Times...

...call for desperate measures; and to a Roman, few measures are more desperate than arming a bunch of slaves! Still, with a horde of Germans ravaging the Po valley it is time to offer these chaps the chance to earn their freedom in exchange for dangerous military service.


These desperate heroes were painted for me by the highly talented and extremely prolific Greg Privat; I then did some highlighting and basing. They actually depict later, EIR gladiators from the 69AD Civil War. The figures are a mix of Foundry and Crusader.


This is a progress shot of my Galatian unit. There is not a great deal of progress, because I have been struggling with The Mother of All Essays; now happily vanquished, but around half have a basecoat, and all have a thin coat of Ronseal.

Friday, 16 January 2009

Marius Falls Back



Chastened Roman legionaries retire through Mutina.

Most of the buildings, including the superb villa, were made by my Scottish friend John S. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get him to build me some city walls at some stage, since there are so many rapacious Germans wandering around Italia at the moment!

The villa roofs lift off. The rooms inside would look great with mosaics... need to lay some, one day.

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

Woe, Woe and thrice Woe!

Marius' army, under my command, yesterday suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the German army.

The Roman army was deployed along a low ridgeline just to the west of Mutina:
The Germans attacked along the line of the Aemilian Way:










The German centre was led by Boiorix, hero of Vercellae:


A German left hook piled pressure against the Roman right. An attempted Roman counter attack by an outflanking force against the rear of the German army ended in disaster, with German cavalry, charged in the rear by Numidians:
However the Germans demonstrated that they could fight just as valiantly to the rear as to the front, by killing the Roman General leading the attack!



By the end of the game the Germans were lapping around the Roman wing in a most alarming way. A second German attack against a weak point between the Roman left and centre also inflicted serious casualties. Here Romans can be seen retiring into Mutina, whilst Marius leads the rearguard:One glimmer of hope for the Romans, is that the majority of the casualties were suffered by supporting allied (generally light) troops, and that most of the legionaries lived to fight another day; which is just as well as the German and Celtic army now controls Italy north of the Apennines...

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Battle of Mutina

...so, we left our Roman Campaign on the battlefield of Vercellae (101BC), where a final desperate German charge personally led by King Boiorix of the Cimbri, slew Sulla and wiped out his entire command.

Although the day went to the Germans, Marius' forces were able to retire to the Roman camp in good order and subsequently retreated, leaving the Cimbri in temporary control of much of Cisalpine Gaul.

In our campaign, the Cimbri have gathered a further confederation of tribesmen and are now advancing along the via Aemilia towards Bononia and the Apennine passes giving access to the Roman heartlands.

Marius and Catullus, both re-elected as Consuls for 100BC, have gathered a new Roman and allied army and advanced to meet them; tonight's clash will take place immediately to the West of Mutina, also on the via Aemilia. The new force is built around a core of Marius' veteran legions, but includes many recently levied troops and mercenaries recruited from North Africa.

Should the Romans fail to stop the Germans at Mutina, tonight, it is likely that Bononia will fall and that the Germans will be able to force the Apennine passes and threaten Rome, itself....