hksw campaign series 201107

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HKSW CAMPAIGN SERIES 2011 07

VALLEY OF DEATH 57BC

THE GALLIC SECOND

REPULSE OF ROME

TALABECLAND PRESS


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CONTENTS

Origins of the Campaign

Gaul: the Arena of Conflict

The Coming of Rome

The Opposing Leaders

The Gallic Commanders

The Roman Commanders

The Opposing Armies

The Gallic Army

The Roman Army

The Gallic Order of BattleThe Roman Order of Battle

The Opposing Plans

The Gallic Plan

The Roman Plan

The Campaign

The deployment

The Initial Gallic Advance on all fronts

Julius Caesar Kens CounterattackThe Warband Attack in the Centre

Roman Left Wing Crumble

Roman Centre Broken

Final Victory of Gallic by breaking Roman Left Wing and Centre

Aftermath and Reckoning

Performance of the Gallic Army

Performance of the Marian Roman Army


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Origins of the CampaignThe battle of Hamburger Hill in 60BC was a serious setback of Rome in the Gallic

War. Although Julius Caesar Ken had routed its Gallic opponent and kept most of

his army intact, the German intervention on the Romans left and the crushing defeat

inflicted by the German save the day for the Gallic tribe. With Lorento committed

suicide in his bath and Proconsul Chu cut down by the barbarian in the Battle of

Hamburger Hill, Julius Caesar Ken assumed overall command and raised a small but

powerful army to invade Gaul again. Peace was short-lived. In spring 57 BC

Julius Caesar Ken executed his plan and led the army into the Gallic territory again.

King James this time did not receive any help from his German allies and had to face

the onslaught of Rome alone. James army composed mostly of newly raised

cavalry tried to stop the Roman advance in a valley later known as Valley of Death.


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Gaul: the Arena of ConflictPhoto of the terrain

Julius Caesar Ken might probably want to copy his success at the Battle of

Hamburger Hill and thus he chose 2 1FE size of hill and 1 FE size of marsh.

Unfortunately both hills were rolled at the wrong side of the table. King James

needed open ground to let his warband fighting in full potential and thus selected 1 FE

of wood and 1 FE of marsh to protect his flanks and also several hills to reinforce his

position. The result was, as can be seen from the photos, that the battlefield was

very open with some hills at the edges of the table. Each side also has a marsh at the

center rear and the Gallic also enjoyed an extra benefit of having a small wood

covering his left flank.


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The Coming of RomeThe Battle of the Valley of Death was the second battle of a series of battles fought

between the Marian Roman army and Barbarian armies at HKSW meeting. His

loyal ally, Chieftain Neil in the course of battle, helped King James.


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The Gallic CommandersPhoto of the Gallic Commanders, King James and Chieftain Neil during the battle

Photo of the Gallic commanders, King James and Chieftain Neil after the battle

James was the Commander who commanded the Gallic army and Neil the left wing

sub-general commanded the cavalry wing. Note that nearly all the figures used in

this game were painted by Dragon Painting Service Co (DPS). DPS has sponsored

our Societys activities for four years. Should you be interested to order painted

figures from DPS, please contact: [email protected]. Members of The

Hong Kong Society of Wargamers are entitled to 15% discount.


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The Roman CommandersPhoto of the Roman Commander Julius Caesar Ken during the battle

Julius Caesar Ken was the overall Commander with his newly raised Roman army.

His army was recently painted by DPS and just been delivered to him.


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The Gallic ArmyThe Gallic Warband


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The Gallic Cavalry


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The Roman ArmyThe Legions


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The Spanish Foot and Thureophoroi


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The German, Spanish and Gallic Roman Ally Cavalry


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The Gallic Order of BattleGallic (Belgae)

A B C D Train

Total ME 58 20 27 0 6 Break Points

>1/4 ME Lost 15 5.5 7 0 2 * Disheartened

>1/3 ME Lost 19.5 7 9.5 0 2.5 * Broken

>1/2 ME Lost 29.5 10.5 14 0 3.5 * Shattered

Cmd Points 302 97 146 0 0

Command A Type Cmd AP Total ME

2 Army Baggage Irr Bg(I) Train 1 2 1

1 C-in-C J ames Irr Cv(O) CinC 17 17 4

16 Cavalry Irr Cv(I) 5 28 1

64 Foot warriors Irr Wb(O) 3 192 0.5

5 J avelinmen Irr Ps(I) 1 5 0.5

3 Archers Irr Ps(O) 2 6 0.5

Command B Type Cmd AP Total ME


1 Sub-general Irr Cv(O) SG 17 17 4

4 Cavalry Irr Cv(O) 7 28 1


Command C Type Cmd AP Total ME


1 Sub-general Irr Cv(O) SG 17 17 4

11 Cavalry Irr Cv(O) 7 77 1


Train Command Type Cmd AP Total ME



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The Roman Order of BattleRoman army under Julius Caesar Ken

A B C D Train

Total ME 42 24 26 0 12 Break Points

>1/4 ME Lost 11 6.5 7 0 3.5 * Disheartened

>1/3 ME Lost 14.5 8.5 9 0 4.5 * Broken

>1/2 ME Lost 21.5 12.5 13.5 0 6.5 * Shattered

Cmd Points 251 148 136 0 0

Command A Type Cmd AP Total ME

2 Army Baggage Reg Bg(O) Train 3 6 2

1 Roman C-in-C J ulius Caesar Ken Reg Cv(O) CinC(B) 53 53 4

8 Legionaries Reg Bd(O) 7 56 1

4 German and Gallic cavalry Reg Cv(O) 8 32 1

4 Spanish cavalry Irr LH(O) 4 16 1

4 Spanish javelinmen Irr Ps(S) 3 12 0.5

8 Legio X Reg Bd(S) 9 72 2

4 Ditch and rampart for camp Reg TF camp 1 4 0

Command B Type Cmd AP Total ME


1 Roman Sub-general Reg Cv(O) SG 28 28 4

16 Legionaries Reg Bd(O) 7 112 1


Command C Type Cmd AP Total ME


1 Roman Sub-general Reg Cv(O) SG 28 28 4

4 German and Gallic cavalry Reg Cv(O) 8 32 1

4 Spanish javelinmen Irr Ps(S) 3 12 0.5

6 Thracian foot Irr Ax(S) 4 24 1

6 Thureophoroi Reg Ax(S) 5 30 1


Train Command Type Cmd AP Total ME6 Army Baggage Reg Bg(O) Train 3 18 2


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The Gallic PlanThe plan of King James was simple. Charged home before the arrival of Roman

flanking force if any. James hoped that the open terrain would help him achieving

his goal. Frontal attack in the same old barbaric fashion. Kill, kill, eat, eat and

waaggh, waaggh. The Battle started at noon (12:00).

The Roman PlanThe plan of Julius Caesar Ken was rather complex. From his past experience at the

Battle of Hamburger Hill he knew that his auxilia were hard to crack by warbands.

Thus he had a lot of faith on these units and wanted them to stem the tide of the

warband attack. He expected James to field all of his available foot warband

(actually only 64 out of possible 96 were field). Therefore the deployment of his

force was complex. He placed his auxilia, psiloi at the front while his legions were

positioned behind. A small detachment of cavalry was also place on its left wing to

protect the flank while a larger detachment of cavalry and light horse was positioned

at his right wing.

Photos of Roman deployment from right to left


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The Deployment

Situation at 12:00 - Gallic side

Last time James was unable to completely surrounding the Hamburger Hill due to the

suborn resistance of Roman auxilia. Unhappy with the result at the last battle, James

this time recruited more cavalry to deal with the troublesome Roman auxilia.

Typically he placed all his foot warband at the center. He had 64 elements of foot

warband positioned in 16 elements width and 4 ranks deep. Right behind the

warband there were also 16 elements of raw cavalry in single rank. The purpose of

the deployment was that should there be any auxilia found in front of the warband the

raw cavalry would pass though the warband to deal with it. Thus the cavalry were to

cover the advance of the warband.

James also placed a large cavalry wing on his left. Neil was ordered to secure the

hill and then turn the Roman right flank. James commanded a smaller cavalry wing

on the right wing and to have watchful eyes on any outflanking movement of the

Roman force.


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Kill, kill, eat, eat and waaggh, waaggh!


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Situation at 12:00 - Roman Response

As mentioned before, Roman deployment was rather complex.

The first line of light troops was deployed to absorb any possible initial charge of the

warbands which was deadly and with them giving ground gradually rather than

suddenly, the legions could counterattack at the desired moment thus routing the

warbands.

Due to being out numbered, the Roman deployed deep instead of a more linear

fashion.

The cavalry wings were to skirmish only and to protect the flanks.


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The Initial Gallic Advance on all fronts

Situation from 12:00 to 12:30

The battle started at noon. After seeing the Roman initial deployment, James

immediately advanced his cavalry in the center to cover the advance of his foot

warband. James wanted to use his cavalry to defeat those Roman psiloi and auxilia

and clear the way for the foot warband. King James stationed with the foot warband

so that he had a tight control on these unruly fighters.

In support of the advance in the centre, Neil also advanced his large cavalry group and

was able to secure the hill on Romans right. James also advanced his smaller

cavalry group on his right to support the advance and to crush the Roman left wing.

However, uncertain whether there was any outflanking force sent by Julius Caesar

Ken, both cavalry commands advanced cautiously and had some cavalry elements

held in reserve to deal with any unexpected situation.

At 12:10 Ken withdrew his psiloi to the marsh and allowed his legion to advance to

deal with the Gallic cavalry. He also advanced his other legionaries behind the

auxilia in order to support them.

At 12:20 a Roman deserter (Herbertis Wongius) revealed to James that there was nooutflanking force sent by Ken (Ken rolled 3 command dices instead of 4). Moreover,

the cavalry in the front also reported that the Roman auxilia was actually smaller in

numbers than they seemed to be. Thus James had nothing to worry about and lined

up all his cavalry as well as those commanded by Neil (more than 30 elements) in

order to execute a La Grand Charge.

Facing such a formidable cavalry formation, Ken sent his auxilia forward hoping that

they could brunt the charge of the Gallic cavalry. The advance of the auxilia also

gave room for Kens legion to deploy.


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Situation at 12:40 and the initial Assault

Surprised by Kens advance of the auxilia, James and Neil nevertheless ordered their

cavalry to charge home. The charge killed 2 units of auxilia. This was quite

unlucky for the Romans as they should be able to hold for a longer period. It seemed

that Kens hope could not be fulfilled. However, thing did not go smoothly at James

right wing. Although James cavalry had also overlapped Kens smaller cavalry

detachment, James could not achieve a breakthrough there but in return had one of his

cavalry units killed. It left a hole in the cavalry line and let Ken to exploit it.


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Julius Caesar Kens CounterattackSituation at 12:50 - Roman Response

Ken advanced his legions in the center left to counterattack James cavalry. His

cavalry on both wings also counter-attacked and managed to inflict some losses on

James and Neils cavalry. It seemed that Ken could stabilize the front. However,

the threat on Kens left did not remove as James was going to turn Kens left using his

vast number of cavalry.


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The Warband Attack in the CentreThe high tide of the battle came at 13:00. Seeing his cavalry being repulsed by

Kens counterattack, James decided whether to commit his foot warband into the fray.

Actually James had little option as he threw 1 PIP for that command and the target

was also tempting. There were a lot of legion positioned within the strike range of

the foot warband and they were all caught in double ranks. Thus the foot warband

could kill 2 legions in a row. Eventually James had let go his foot warband.

Immediately a wave of warband in 16 elements wide and 4 ranks deep had surged

forward for their victim. They charged through their cavalry and soon 4 legions

were destroyed. The Roman auxilia were also giving way from the pressure of both

James cavalry and warband.

Ken wanted to stabilize the situation but already a hole was created in his center. He

had no option but to commit his Legio X (Bd(S)) into battle. The situation was

grieved and his smaller commands were close to dishearten point. Once

disheartened the legion and auxilia were easy prey to warband.


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Roman Left Wing CrumbleAt 13:20 the legions at the Roman left wing were broken after suffering terrible losses.

In one stroke James warband was able to kill 1 auxilia and 2 legions.


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Roman Centre BrokenAt 13:40 Roman center also crumbled and everything was lost.


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Final Victory of Gallic by Breaking

Roman Left Wing and CentreAt around 13:40, the veteran Legio X started to take casualties Since the left and the

center of the Roman army were already broken, this sparked a panic in the Roman

files and the whole army started to flee. Julius Caesar Ken could not do anything but

to flee with the remaining part of the army back to Italy to fight for another day.

The Gallic losses were minimal and James claimed a major victory. Hope peace can

last forever.

Situation on the Roman left wing at end of 13:40


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Aftermath and ReckoningPerformance of the Gallic German Army

Extract from the Gallic King James:

The battle again was straightforward. I positioned the warband at the centre and

two cavalry wings at the extreme left and right. However, this time the foot

warband were also supported by newly raised raw cavalry and these cavalry played

a crucial role in the crumble of Roman centre. The cavalry had disturbed the

position of the Roman legions before the foot warband charged home.


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Performance of the Marian Roman Army

Julius Caesar Ken fought the battle in unfavorable terrain. Having been caught in

the open ground the Roman had little chance to withstand the onslaught of the Gallic

warband especially the Gallic enjoyed a vast superior advantage in the number ofcavalry. The original plan of having the auxilia to brunt the charge of Gallic cavalry

did not work and the trick to create an exaggerating army was also unable to fool

James.

In addition, the Roman logistic department misread the army list and thought that no

Gallic auxillaries are available. Further more the Roman did not dig field

fortifications in such unfavorable terrain.

.

What if Julius Caesar Kens had received his field fortifications and his Gallic

Auxiliaries reinforcements before the battle


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Editors: James Cheung and Lawrence Ho

Writer: James Cheung and Ken Chan

C i ht 2011 Th H K S i t f W hk

hksw campaign series 201107

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