Augustus to Aurelian - River Crossing

Regular followers of the blog this year may have noticed a distinct lack of pictures of games played in the wargames room and other than a few pictures from my terrain building session in the first quarter of 2019, with my table covered in new terrain items being created on the covered table, the room has featured very little this year.

The main reason for this is that Chez JJ has been receiving some key home improvements that has meant my wargames table has been covered in all the boxes of figures and other associated wargaming materials that would have normally been stored in other parts of the house.

Thus with no table, no games have been played in the room for the best part of nine months and now with the build work completed in the week before Christmas Eve I was keen to recommission the room and table and get wargaming as normal.

The room is back in commission with the first game set up since a nine month layoff

What to play on the table, once things were tidied up was simple as both Will and Tom were keen to get in a game over the Christmas break with time off from University studies and apprenticeships and both opting for a game of Augustus to Aurelian (AtoA) with the Romano-Dacian collection.

The Romano-Dacians are back together with some of my new terrain created at the start of the year

More troops have been added to the collection since Will and I played with them over Christmas last year, with a division of Sarmatian cavalry, four units, added to compliment the now eight Dacian warbands, plus three Leigionary cohorts and an Auxilliary cohort added to the Romans.

The Sarmatian cavalry got to grace the table for their first outing

Thus I turned to the Hail Caesar Dacian War Campaign supplement and picked out the river crossing scenario and with adjustments made to the orders of battle together with the rules to better suit AtoA, I laid out the table as seen with the river dividing the opposing armies, each of three divisions, two infantry and one cavalry.

The Dacians are bolstered by the addition of three more warbands

To keep things interesting and uncertain, something AtoA offers in spades with its chit draw activation system, I also put out the unit cards for the three varieties of 'Untried', 'Experienced' and 'Hardened' options of units, as se in the first pictures, with the commanders dicing to see what kind of units they had in their army before play, keeping the result secret from the enemy.

A D10 was rolled for each unit with 1-2 = Untried, 3-9 = Experienced and 0 + Hardened.

In addition I allowed the Dacians to field two of the eight warbands as heavily falx armed versions and one of the cataphract units as 'Noble'.

 For the Romans the Praetorian Guard cavalry would only reveal its quality to both sides on first contact with the enemy, so leaving the Romans unsure as to how good they really were.

And the Romans are fielding four more Legionary and Auxiliaru cohorts

The dicing for quality left the two orders of battle looking thus;

DACIANS
1 x Falx Warband - Hardened
1 x Falx Warband - Untried
6 x Warbands - 1 x Hardened, 1 x Untried, 4 x Experienced
1 x Archers - Hardened
1 x Archers - Experienced
1 x Slingers - Untried
1 x Javelins Experienced

SARMATIANS
1 x Noble Cataphract - Experienced
1 x Cataphract - Experienced
1 x Horse Archers - Experienced
1 x Light Cavalry - Untried

Oh and I nearly forgot the German Auxiliary cavalry getting their first time out on the table

Romans
4 x Legionary Cohorts - Experienced
6 x Auxiliary Cohorts - 1 x Hardened, 1 x Untried, 4 x Experienced
1 x Auxiliary Archer Cohort - Experienced
1 x Slingers - Experienced
1 x Slingers - Untried
1 x Scorpio - Experienced
1 x Praetorian Guard Cavalry - Pseudo Guard (Good but not as good as they think they are)
1 x Auxiliary Ala - Experienced
1 x Auxiliary German Light Ala - Experienced
1 x Numidian Light Ala - Experienced

Two divisions, equating to eight Dacian warbands with supporting light troops make a formidable showing

The Dacians would set up first anywhere along the length of the river in their half of the table, then the Romans would set up within six inches of their table edge.

The Romans had 24 points of time to get six formed infantry or cavalry units, not skirmish infantry or cavalry, across onto the enemy side of the river at game end.

The Points system works by further varying the time the game will end by rolling a D6 at the end of a phase of play determined by two Meridiatio chits appearing, with the score deducted from the time points.

Thus the game could end anytime between four and twenty four phases of play, with each phase variable depending on how many units activated before the Meridiatio chits ended it.

In the end we played nine phases with some phases only wiping off one point and two phases costing five points.

The Roman line glowers at the enemy as the table awaits the commanders to take the field on the morrow

The final variable to our game was to include consulting the favour, or not, of the respective gods for the upcoming clash, by rolling a D6 with 1 indicating a very unfavourable set of goat entrails, whilst a 6 showed the finest looking goat liver this side of the Danubius.

Tom managed to roll a 1 twice, once outside of the dice tower and once in it so the Romans were penalised with a '-1' on all their reaction tests until they successfully passed one and reassured the rest of the army that Jupiter was only messing with their heads.

All set and ready to go

For our day of family fun we were joined by a wargaming 'Newbie', and classics scholar, Ben, who fancied joining Will in running out the forces of the Dacian King Decebalus and he and Will set up first with Tom adjusting his set up afterwards and opting to make a dash for the river with his cavalry, on seeing the Dacians hedge their bets as to which flank the Romans might go for, by deploying the Sarmatians in their rear-centre.

Our commanders for the day, Will (left) and Ben (centre) commanding the Dacians and Tom (right) commanding the Romans. The Roman cavalry nearest to camera on the Roman left with the Sarmatian cavalry in the rear-centre of the Dacian lines opposite.

With the fist moves played and Tom has made a bold advance on his left with the Roman cavalry advancing rapidly to get across the river as the Roman infantry division to their right closes up on the first bend in the river to be met by four Dacian warbands. The Sarmatian cavalry is galloping across the rear to contest the Roman cavalry advance.

The terrain was open on either side of the river with the few trees simply for decoration, with the principle terrain feature, the river, fordable across its length and offering a defender on its banks a positive combat modifier when counter-charging a struggling foe attempting to come across.

The light troops on both sides are the first to engage the enemy

Will and Ben were keen to get as close to the river as possible to ensure they had a chance of using its defensive qualities, but, not knowing exactly where the Romans would head for, set up centrally with the two divisions of warbands, keeping the more mobile cavalry in the central reserve ready to move out once they could see where the enemy were heading.

One potential problem when trying to hold a position with warbands is their propensity to go impetuous once Romans get within charge range and certainly when getting shot at by skirmishers, so Tom was aiming to try and provoke such a reaction where possible.

Massed ranks of Roman cavalry prepare to cross the river

The Romans had the advantage of setting up to take advantage, if they could, of the Dacian set up but with a limited time to get across would have to commit to their plan or risk running out of time.

As it proved this was the key factor that influenced the result.

The small red casualty die indicates the first hits are starting to occur

The Roman Auxiliary Light Infantry Cohort armed with composite bows move up ready to support their forward cohorts

Tom immediately identified the Roman left as offering the best chance of getting units across quickly, looking to march move (a double move of sixteen inches and not moving withing enemy charge range, ten to twelve inches) the cavalry to the extreme flank and thus get two of the six formed units across without having to fight first.

With their pilum marker still in play these legionaries still carry a volley of their formidable melee weapons

Following them up in march move were the first division of Roman cohorts with the hardened auxiliary cohort forming a combined unit with the archer cohort shooting overhead, smashing the warband sent to contest its crossing, soon to be followed by two legionary cohorts driving back the warbands opposing them.

Decebalus with his Carpe Diem chit still to hand watches the early Roman moves

The Dacian left moves up to the river bank with the Roman skirmishers content in trying to provoke a barbarian charge across it into the waiting cohorts

However this was the high point of the Roman advance as their cavalry were pounced on with accurate javelin and archery from the Sarmatian light cavalry which allowed the cataphracts to follow up and smash both the Praetorian and Auxiliary alas that were forced to fight individually due to the limited deployment space on the flank.

With two of the Roman formed units destroyed and just three over the river as the game entered the second half, Tom tried to get other units on to the river as quickly as possible to give him a chance of grabbing back the initiative.

Dacian slingers attempt to soften up the legionary lines as Trajan moves up to encourage the troops

Roman slingers start to cause casualties on the Dacian defenders

The Praetorian Guard lead the cavalry advance 

A mass of Dacians resist the goading legionaries and hold their line on the river bank

The Numidian and German light cavalry fell back to hold the river line they had so boldly advanced over, as one unit of cataphracts turned to support the hard pressed warbands.

The climax of the battle - The Romans in the centre have forced a crossing with two auxiliary cohorts and the legionaries to their left have just pushed the next warband off the river with a volley of pila and close in gladius work. However the Roman cavalry have been crushed by the Sarmatians with the German and Numidian light cavalry falling back behind the river to protect the flank and rear of their infantry. Casualties litter the field where the main fighting has occurred.

The Roman light cavalry struggle to hold back their Sarmatian opposites

The Roman auxiliaries closely supported in a combined formation by the archer cohort are victorious with Trajan on hand to witness the events

Turning to the second Roman division which had struggled to get forward without recourse to using Trajan to get them moving, as their commanders chit seemed to refuse to come out in normal play, they tramped towards the river only to find four fresh warbands glowering from the other bank.

The Dacian warband has managed to rally back after being driven off, but the Romans are pressing forward looking to expand their crossing

Not taking the bait of being goaded into charging and with time running out Tom sent a unit of auxiliary infantry over at the charge, lobbing javelin as they went and causing a couple of casualties.

However only managing to cause one hit in the hand to hand combat that followed, the Roman unit recoiled as it was met by the hardened falx warband that clouted it with four hits and forced it back from whence it had come.

Meanwhile of the Roman right the refused flank has now closed on the river, but perhaps a little too slowly

The Dacians mass to oppose a Roman advance on their left flank as the fighting reaches a crescendo further up river

The Dacian archers are running and the warband to their left have just rallied but are badly disordered after losing the fight on the river

The victorious Sarmatian cataphracts come over to help the Dacian infantry in their struggle with the legionaries, weighed down with the heads of Praetorian guardsmen strapped to their bridles

The Romans make a last final push to try and snatch a victory as the game threatens to end before they can seal a win

The Dacian left is comparatively tranquil as the focus falls elsewhere in the closing stages

Suddenly the last Meridiatio chit had been drawn as the roll of the dice declared the Romans had run out of time and with just three units across on the other side the game ended in favour of the Dacians.

An Auxiliary cohort charges towards the opposite bank only to be met by a 'Hardened' Falx wielding warband that smashes it in the first round of combat

On reflection Tom decided he would have dispensed with the Duplex Acies deployment he opted for and would have closed up to bring more of his infantry closer to one point of attack and possibly to have used his advantage in Carpe Diem chits to have got both his divisions of infantry up more quickly.

That said the first attacks by the Romans were extremely effective and as usual the pila attacks hurt warbands .

The combined auxiliary cohorts were also very effective with the overhead shooting a useful tactic on the attack.

The legionaries have more success driving back their opposite numbers, but its not enough!

The Sarmatians mop up on the scene of their ambush giving no mercy to wounded Romans trying to get back to the river

AtoA gave a great game with lots of unpredictability that combined with the variable length phases and turns added pressure to the commanders to make decisions and back them and with only one Carpe Diem chit for the Dacians and two for the Romans meant that the commanders were very reluctant to throw that control away frivolously.

A good game and a fun scenario to end the year on and it was nice to have the table back in action.

Thanks to Tom, Will and Ben for a very fun day

Roman Legionary Cohort

The three week break taken this summer to tour Spain and the Peninsular War battle sites, currently featuring in a series of posts, meant taking a break from the painting process, which is not a bad thing, but I was curious to see that the enforced leave of absence from the paint brush only left me feeling keen to feel a brush between the fingertips again, on arriving back in 'blighty'.

Cohort One
Cohort Two
Cohort Three

As followers of this blog will know I, like many others, like to plan out a painting schedule and then set too, working the plan. That process seems to give me a great deal of satisfaction and that sense of progress and achievement each time I take the pen and put a line through a completed unit on the planning list that is pinned to my painting desk.

Legionary cohort number four. Victrix loveliness of course and a break from the painting break

That said, variety is the spice of life, and although a regular diet of similar or the same type of unit seems to speed up the production process, as familiarity has enabled me to practically paint a Victrix legionary in my sleep, I prefer to come at each project with a sense of excitement that I get when painting a set of figures for the first time; and the sheer fun of finding the detail that a sculptor/designer has built into the figure that perhaps escaped the first examination, only to be revealed later, just screaming out for a paint job to bring it to the fore.

So on return from Spain I was keen to complete Roman Legionary Cohort number four to have the enjoyment of painting again after a long break, but the recent start of my AWI collection indicates the other aspect of recapturing the excitement of the new, and a Perry sculpt is a good way of getting that buzz going.

However as the Romans would tell you, nothing can be achieved without discipline and that includes writing a plan and seeing the plan through to completion, so the AWI excursion will be a relatively temporary excursion, before returning to the Romano Dacians to complete the outstanding third of the collection.

So my fourth cohort is using the charging legionary from Victrix complimented with LBM shield decals and I really love the dynamism in these figures which add greatly to the look of a game when seen pressed up to an equally expressive warband of Dacians.

Talking of Dacians, Victrix seem to be pressing on with their development of their new range and my short excursion also adds further method to my madness in that the slight delay might enable me to acquire some of the new Victrix range to mix in with my Warlord collection in time for when I come back to the project, adding yet more to the variety and look of the collection.

It may surprise some of my readers but I actually have friends, Mr Steve you know who you are, who sometimes express doubt that this collection is really growing with scurrilous suggestions that I am taking pictures of the same group of figures and needlessly filling the ether with 'fake news'.

I suppose this is representative of the times we are living in, so to refer back to a famous quote from the Falklands War, "I counted them all out and I counted them all back", to allay any fears of so called fake news, I present the first four cohorts of my Trajanic Legion destined to bring Pax Romana to Decebalus and his Dacian bandits.

The plan will see another three such cohorts added to these with the option to convert one into a double-strength first cohort and attached aquilla and primus pilus with all the added combat bonuses that would imply; thus my collection will represent a fighting legion of just under 3,500 soldiers, probably closer to average fighting strength.

Once the Romano Dacians are done I will produce a similar number of cohorts with red shields that will facilitate some civil war actions I have in mind as well as larger Roman versus the others encounters, with Germans and Sarmatians added to the Dacian collection to counter a larger Roman force.

If you are interested in reviewing the collection as a whole, that I have completed so far, together with other associated posts, you can check them out by following the tab, JJ's Dacian Wars on the top bar of collected links or in the link below.

JJ's Dacian Wars

So onwards and upwards with, next up, a look at my AWI Light Infantry, the Peninsular War history of Badajoz and the parts of the city we looked at this summer and I am in the process of basing some Iroquois Indians to add to the AWI collection, so will aim to put a post together on them as soon as I get my photography room back.

Oh and I have not forgotten the request I have had to put together a painting tutorial on how I do my horses, so I will do something about that once all the building works are finished here at Chez JJ with a PDF and YouTube look at the process.

More Anon
JJ

Roman Conquests, The Danube Frontier - Dr Michael Schmitz

As well as indulging the Peninsular War passion this summer, I was really pleased to finally get my pre-ordered copy of this much anticipated book that I had ordered from Pen & Sword over a year prior to its publication.

Originally the book was billed under the name of Philip Matyszak who I recognised for being the author of another of the Roman Conquests series of books by Pen & Sword, namely 'Macedonia and Greece.

The fact that Dr Michael Schmitz picked up the contract to write this book after the pre-publication announcements might suggest the reason for the delay in its eventual appearance in my postbox.

With my Romano-Dacian collection front and centre of my thoughts and wargaming activity at the moment, this title certainly ticked a lot of boxes and so I was very happy to put this one in the hand luggage as we set off to catch the ferry to Santander.

My experience of reading titles looking at ancient history, given the paucity of new information, is always one of guarded anticipation with regards to discovering much more from what is already known; and I have gradually started to seek out books that look to challenge accepted ways of thinking, bringing into play the latest archaeological evidence to add support to new ideas about what might have been the case.

The centralisation of command of the Dacians under first King Burbista and later Decebalus, combined with their ability in weapons, armour and military construction and a willingness to learn from the Romans made the Dacians a real threat to the Empire. - Radu Oltean

The campaigns of the Imperium and Trajan in particular have to be right up there when it comes to paucity of information, relying as we do for much of the academic thought about those military campaigns on two Roman monuments and so I was pleasantly surprised with how this book, looking at the wealth of archaeological data now coming out of Romania, was able to challenge a lot of wargaming preconceptions about the Dacians in particular and the threat they posed to Rome that caused the massive mobilisation of troops to finally crush them.

However it would be wrong of me just to focus on my own interests when writing about this new book as the title scans the Roman interest in the theatre and all the various groups of people that lived there from the 70's BC when the river was reached by the Roman general Curio right through to the Second Marcomannic War from 178-180 AD; describing as it does the growing interest in the lands bordering the River Danube on the modern day Adriatic coast starting with Julius Caesar.

It was Octavian who recognised the importance of Illyricum as part of of his plans to become the first de facto Emperor and later as part of the establishment of an Empire front line anchored on the great rivers of the Danube and Rhine, conducting three campaigns in Illyria himself, concluding with the Dalmatian surrender in 33 BC and returning to Rome to claim a triumph which helped bolster his standing with Rome and the army when it came to dealing with Anthony and Cleopatra in 31 BC.

Schmitz describes the three campaigns conducted by Octavian, looking at the Celtic style forces deployed by the Illyrians, Dalmatians and Pannonians, their weaponry, army make up and skill at defending against Roman siege methods.

However as the book goes on to describe, the Danube theatre and its peoples would prove an area of ongoing concern from the Pannonian Uprising of 6 - 9 AD right through, with the added concern that unlike the peoples along the Rhine, the Danubian groups seemed very willing to confederate and unite to oppose Roman will within the region, and its proximity to mainland Italy only added to those fears.

As Schmitz goes on to highlight, the Dacians stand out as the focal point of these confederations, with two Kings, Burebista (60-44 BC) and later, Decebalus (87-107 AD) able to unite the Dacians under their authority and harness that centralisation, with alliances with neighbours such as the Sarmatian and Bastarnae tribes.

He describes the social hierarchy and military technology of the Dacians combining skills in weapon and armour construction with that of building fortifications and strongpoints. This threat only enhanced by their willingness to adopt and adapt Roman technology and, through the use of Roman deserters, better train their own troops to Roman methods.

Making skillful use of the difficult terrain of the Dacian homelands when threatened with Roman invasions, punitive or otherwise, they were not averse to returning the compliment to the Empire by taking advantage of any perceived weakness on the frontier such as during Roman civil strife and the rise of Vespasian, with raiding warfare an almost continual threat to Roman held territory.

However as Trajan's column illustrates, the Dacians were not unfamiliar with siege tactics and the use of artillery and battering rams to take on Roman walled fortifications if the situation required it.

This propensity to make war on Rome and the ability to humble its armies and leaders explains why Trajan decided to deal with the problem once and for all, making the territory east of the Danube the last addition to the Empire and filling Roman coffers with the gold the country had to offer as recompense for the Imperial effort to take it.

However the former Dacian lands brought new problems to the Empire, defence being preeminent, with its landward borders facing multiple threats with easy access routes compared with the lands behind the Danube. 

Schmitz goes through these issues together with the management of the Sarmatians tribes either side of the territory used to crossing it, to have formal links with one another and initially frustrated in these desires by Trajan and his successors, proving to be yet another source of raiding and war.

The territory would come under growing pressure in the latter centuries with the barbarian tribal movements giving rise to the Marcomannic Wars with both the German and Sarmatian tribes allied with others such as the Carpi and Costoboci would pose a serious challenge to Roman forces  weakened through plague decimating the ranks of the legions.

Again Schmitz goes through the events of the two wars, highlighting what is known and what is likely to remain conjecture even covering off the debate about whether we should even be referring to the Marcomannic Wars and not some other title such as the Danubian, Northern or Germanic Wars.

In his concluding chapter which rounds off the history of the Danubian frontier up to the fall of the Roman Empire, Schmitz highlights that, in spite of all the blood and treasure invested into its defence, Roman Dacia, the last conquest, became the first province lost in less than two-hundred years, delaying matters rather than solving them.

As late as 334 AD with Constantine and 359 AD with Constantius, Rome was still fighting the Sarmatian and Quadi tribes on the middle Danube, conducting huge punitive campaigns fuelled by the growth of Gothic power in the region, a presage of what was to come with the Goths themselves propelled into the area by pressure from the Huns.

The book consists of the following;

List of Illustrations (Seventeen in all with nine in colour, including several pieces of  Radu Oltean excellent artwork as seen above).

Acknowlegements

Introduction

Chapter 1    Illyricum: The Push Towards the Danube

Chapter 2    Julius Caesar

Chapter 3    Octavian's Illyricum

Chapter 4    The Danube as the Northern Frontier

Chapter 5    The Pannonian Uprising of AD 6 to 9

Chapter 6    The Dacians: an Emerging Empire

Chapter 7    The Flavian Danube

Chapter 8    Trajan's Dacian Wars

Chapter 9    Hadrian

Chapter 10  The War of Many Nations

Conclusion: The Best Defence is a Good Offence?

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

In addition there are six black and white, very clear and well laid out maps of the region illustrating the key areas within the wider area covered in the text.

I have to say I really enjoyed this book and the wide sweep of looking at an area under Roman influence over a relatively long period of time.

I started this review by stating what, as a wargamer, I look for in books covering the ancient period and that being, ideally, a book challenging my preconceptions which I found this one does.

Most ancient rule sets group the Dacians alongside other so called 'Barbarian' warband lead armies such as the Celts, and the Germans, allowing the addition of the allies that would characterise a Dacian host such as Sarmatian cavalry.

This is all very well as far as it goes, but I think Schmitz makes a very good case that the Dacians had to be and were much more than just another warband army and their record of success against Roman field armies and the fact that Rome had to raise such large armies to deal with them indicates this.

Those added differences might include more troops having armour protection, and perhaps increased effectiveness due to Roman training. In addition the Dacians having a better understanding than most of how the Roman army fought, knew very well the best type of terrain to fight them on and would often pull back from their lowland territory close to the Danube to contest things in the mountainous regions beyond.

I enjoyed the read and it has certainly given me much food for thought on how I can look to differentiate further my Dacians from a typical 'vanilla warband' army into a force that could pose more problems for a Roman foe, giving as it does a very good read, providing a very clear narrative of the wars in the area together with an account of how the Romans coped with the foes and terrain they encountered.

At the time of writing the book has a recommended retail price of £19.99 from Pen & Sword Books but can be picked up for around £13-£16 in hardback.

https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Roman-Conquests-The-Danube-Frontier/p/3842