Showing posts with label Ruspina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruspina. Show all posts

Monday, 7 December 2009

Ruspina 46BC Part III; Caesar vs. Labienus; Head to Head!



We rejoin the action for the third part of our four part account of our refight of Ruspina.  Caesar, thwarted in his attack on the left by the arrival of Petreius, has advanced the right of his line in an attampt to break through in the centre.  This would require fighting his way through Labienus' veteran Gallic and German cavalry...

 

Above, Caesar's outnumbered Gallic cavalry charge bravely forward but are engulfed and founder amidst a sea of Numidians and Germans.

 

Five more Numidian units march onto the table to join Petreius on the ridge...  gulp.  The Caesarians were outnumbered roughly two to one in units, by this stage. 

 

"Lads, if we can break through, there's all the wine you can drink on the far side of that ridge!"  Caesar (right centre, you can just see his red cloak) advances to avenge his Gallic horse.

 

Caesar contracts his line, moving away from the worrying Pompeian buildup on his left.  That's a Command and Colors summary sheet in the foreground.

 

The cavalry unit in the centre of this mass of legionaries is Labienus with his German bodyguard.  Caesar managed to isolate it by marching a couple of units to prevent it from evading, and personally attaked it at the head of his troops.  The unit was comprehensively slaughtered.  However, Labienus managed (somehow!!!) to survive no less than 5 rolls to kill him as he broke through the encircling units to escape.   Grrrr.  If he'd have died, Caesar would have been able to claim "Spolia Opima" and to hang his armour outside his house in Rome.

 

And here, in today's final shot, Labienus taunts Caesar from the relative safety of a hillock.

Final part, tomorrow.

Sunday, 6 December 2009

Ruspina 46BC Part II; Opening Moves




In my previous post I described the deployment of the forces for this refight of Ruspina.  We drew chits to see who would play which side; I drew the Caesarians, and was to be ably assisted by TimeLine Barry who played Dubius Status, my Tribune.    My old adversary, Ian, played Caesar's old adversary, Labienus.

Caesar decided that his strategy would be to advance as swiftly as possible in order to minimise shooting casualties and to pin the elusive enemy (who, even without their off-table reinforcements, included no less than18 units of skirmishers!) against their baseline.

Above is the situation after the Caesarian second move; the Caesarians have moved up to drive back the Numidian skirmish line.  Caesar delegated Dubius Status to roll the combat dice; needing to get a "green on a one in six chance, he managed to roll no less than 5 hits on 10 dice! 



Above, the Numidian skirmishers in turn managed to inflict some casualties on Caesar's line.  The unit on the far right has already been reduced to a single stand (gulp!).  Caesar's archers have moved into the line on the far right.



Here's a cloesup of the rather menacing situation on Caesar's right, which was eventually completely surrounded by the Numidian host.



Caesar lacked a suitable card to recover the situation on my right, but had an "Order Medium Units" card which enabled him to throw the left half of his line forward, at the double. This meant that Labienus would need to react to this on his next turn, or Caesar would be able to snaffle two units of his light infantry.  This had the effect of relieving the pressure on Caesar's other wing.



Labienus successfully pulled back two of the threatened units but Dubius Status was able to isolated a third, and destroy it with some more highly effective dice rolling.  The Caesarian line, on the left, has pushed right up to the Numidian horse; leaving a wide gap in the centre of the line!  It looked , for a minute, like Caesar was poised to break through onto the ridge and into the greenfields, beyond.



However fate had other plans; Labienus played an "Inspired Leadership Right" card and brought on Petreius and 5 units of Numidian reinforcements.  Defending hills, the Numidian Auxilia are better than legionaries; Caesar realised that he would need to break through somewhere else, instead!

The next installment of this battle will be published tomorrow.

Saturday, 5 December 2009

Caesar's Matter of Loaf and Death (Ruspina 46BC) Part I

In 46BC Caesar led three legions of recruits (leavened with some veterans) out of his camp in Africa, to gather grain.  He was unaware that his former lieutenant Titus Labienus, now a Pompeian General, was in the area with a vast force of Numidian light infantry and cavalry, and several thousand veteran German and Gallic cavalry that Caesar had once counted as his own.  Worse still, another Pompeian General, Marcus Petreius, was moving up to support Labienus with another force of cavalry and a very large force of Numidian infantry.  The ensuing battle lasted the better part of a day, and Caesar came very close to being comprehensively defeated; arguably closer than in any other battle of his career.

Last week I finally finished my Numidian light cavalry and so decided, in order to christen them, to refight this battle using the Command and Colors Ancients rules.  It is a fascinating battle because the sides are so asymmetric; the Caesarians are mostly heavy infantry, and the Pompeians almost all light troops.  The Caesarians have a nightmare trying to pin down and destroy the faster Pompeians, but the latter must prevent the former from taking the ridge and moving on to achieve their grain-gathering mission.



Here is a view of the battlefield.  On the left are the Pompeians; twelve units of Numidian light cavalry, six of light infantry, and three of German cavalry "with bridles".



You may be able to make out Titus Labienus (centre on a white horse) at the head of his heavier cavalry, screened by the lighter Numidian cavalry.  Another large Pompeian army, under General Petreius, is lurking off table behind the ridge line...



And here are the Caesarian lines; twelve units of medium infantry, a very lonely-looking unit of Gallic cavalry on the extreme right, and a unit of archers scurrying up from the camp to support the line.  Caesar is the general on the round command stand, furthest from the camera.

We were playing the Caesar's legion amendment, which allows legionaries to move two hexes (but not attack) and  the Caesar rule which gives a unit that Caesar is accompanying an extra dice.  We also played a house rule to reduce the casualties that light troops take when evading; essentially troops who are faster than those attacking them only take one dice of casualties; those of a similar speed, two and those slower, three.  This was critical because under the standard C&C(A) rules, evading Numidians would have been shredded!

Victory was set at 8 units destroyed.  Any Caesarian units exiting off the Pompeian board edge (towards the Pompeian granaries) would count as one block towards the total.

Tomorrow I'll post the first part of the battle....