Basic Impetus - Gauls Vs Romans

My usual Basic Impetus opponent, Ed, and myself had two fun games of BI yesterday. Here is a few pictures and a quick after game report on the first game. In the first game, Ed took the Romans, using the Marian Roman list, which covers the forces of Julius Caesar. It contains 1 medium cavalry unit, 1 light cavalry unit, 1 unit of medium infantry with javelins, 1 unit of javelin armed skirmishers and 4 units of scary Roman heavy infantry, the legions. Ed placed his general with one of the Legionaries units.

MARIAN ROMAN (VDT=18/9)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
1	CM(*)	10	4	1	2	Gauls, Germans, Italians...
1	CL	12	3	1	1	Numidians, Tracians...
4	FP(*)	5	6	1	3	Legionaries - pilum
1	FL	8	4	1	2	Spanish, Ligurians... - javelin
1	S	8	2	0	1	short bow B (Cretans) or sling (Balearics) or javelin (Spanish or Numidians)

This is the army of Marius, Sulla, Pompeus, Crassus and Julius Caesar


I took a Gallic force to oppose him, for the classic Rome/Gaul match-up. I had two medium cavalry units, one of which contained my general, two units of javelin armed skirmishers and six units of Gallic warriors, four of which I formed into two large double strength units.


GAULS II-I Cent. AD (VDT=20/10)

Nr	Type	M	VBU	I	VD	Notes
2	CM(*)	10	4	1	3
6	FL	8	4	4	2	impetuous
2	S	8	2	0	1	javelin

Note. FL can form Large Units


 We rolled for attacker and the Gauls won, so the Romans set up the terrain and deployed first, then the Gauls deployed opposite them. The initial battlefield looked like this :


The Romans held the hill in the centre, with a wood to their right and broken ground on their left.

 Turn 1:  The Romans won the initiative and advanced across the line, except for the legions on the hill who kept the high ground. The Gauls advanced all their troops straight ahead.

 Turn 2 : The Gauls took the initiative and surge forward, the Romans do the same in their phase, except for those holding the hill.

Turn 3. The Romans win the initiative and press forward again, the skirmishers attack the large unit of warriors ahead of them, but to no effect.

 Turn 4, The Romans take the initiative and the cavalry on their right flank charges the Gallic noble cavalry ahead of them, both sides are disrupted but no permanent damage is suffered on either side. The Numidian light horse on the Roman left charges the other unit of Gallic cavalry. The light horse causes 2 points of damage to the cavalry, but suffer 1 point themselves. The cavalry are driven back and the light horse pursue but cause no additional damage. The Gallic warband in the centre charge the legion on the hill and disrupt them. All other Gallic troops advance towards the fight.

 Turn 5: The Romans get the initiative yet again and the legion on their left flank charges the warband ahead of it, disrupting them, but then the Romans luck runs out. Their light horse are destroyed by the damaged Cavalry on the Gallic right, their cavalry go down to the Gallic cavalry and their legion on the hill are swarmed under by the large warband facing them. There are holes in the line and a few flanks are dangling in the breeze...

 Turn 6: The left flank Gallic cavalry turned to threaten the flank of the Spanish medium infantry of the Roman far right, but the Spanish are destroyed by the Gallic warriors attacking them. The victorious warband on the hill turn to face the flank of the last Roman legion on the hill and the left hand Roman heavy foot unit destroys their opponents

Turn 7: The Roman heavy troops on their left destroy the Gallic cavalry and have cleared the Gallic right flank apart from a unit of elusive skirmishers but the combined warbands on the hill in the Roman centre flank and destroy the Roman generals unit and break the Roman army, but having lost a cavalry unit and two units of warband, it was hardly a bloodless victory for the Gauls.

The position at games end.

We swapped sides and the Romans got their revenge in the second game which was a close run thing with every Roman foot unit being a hit or two away from breaking by games end. Both games were good fun. I hope to have my Macedonians finished and on the table in a week or two, unless real life gets in the way.

Phil