Hard Fought at the Fort

By Timothy Carter

When Timothy contacted us via e-mail asking if we would be interested in using his scenarios we gave our usual “of course we would” response. At the time we didn’t know he was only 14 and we have to say we are very impressed by his writing skills and approach to dealing with the magazine. His scenario pits Celts vs Early Imperial Romans and should cause the EIR player all sorts of problems. So well done Timothy and keep the articles coming.

Introduction

This article is my first that I have ever sent to any magazine. I’ve been a historical gamer for only a short time, with fantasy and science fiction being my main gaming periods – if such things can be called a period?

However, I have been somewhat interested in the ancient Celtic world and the struggle with the Roman occupiers and this has led me to collect a fairly large army of Celts. I have to admit to not owning any Early Imperial Romans (EIR) yet, but a friend of my father does so I just borrowed them, but I have had huge fun collecting and painting my Celtic Horde.

This game is inspired by a bit of tribal warfare and magic. I initially started researching the ancient myths of the ‘Fisher King’ and have to admit to floundering when the documents I was reading moved away from traditional Celtic history and more into the world of King Arthur, Perceval and the Holy Grail and then things got too much for me.

So I’ve made this a simple scenario: a Roman force has discovered a Celtic Barrow that has several artefacts within it that the Celts would rather not have fall into the hands of the enemy occupier.

That’s it really. The game starts with the Romans deployed and unaware of an attack. I usually play my games using Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB) which I regard as an excellent set of rules. That said, they are not every gamers first choice and as such I have made the Orbats as generic as possible.

A friend of mine has discussed the idea of using the Lord of the Rings rules for playing this scenario, but I have not completed the Stats for using these skirmish rules. When I do I will send them on to Wargames Journal for publication.

Roman Deployment and Orders of Battle

The Roman troops are located in two spots. The first, and the largest force, is in tents behind an ageing Celtic settlement and wooden wall. This is the remains of a destroyed settlement and the wall will provide some cover/protection and act as a tricky obstacle to cross, but it is far from a complete enclosure.

The second smaller force is near the single tent that is located over the burial mound. It is here that four Roman engineers are working on finding the two objects of ancient myth: a Celtic Spearhead and a Silver Chalice. The two are symbols of Celt myth and are classed as of major importance.

Now the tricky bit for the Romans is the fact that only a day or so earlier a Celt was captured and interrogated. Just before his death he stated that no Celt war bands were in the area and that they did not know about the Roman dig.

As a result the Romans are not prepared for combat and are mainly in their tents. Some troops are out of their tents on guard and the mounted Roman troops are out on patrol, hopefully returning in the nick of time – but then again they might not. If they do return (see Special Rules) then they arrive in A1.

Roman Force

1 x Senior Officer (Legate) (Warhorse and Light Armour)

1 x 12 Auxilliary Cavalry (Leader, Musician, Standard and Drilled)

1 x 12 Veteran Legionnaires (Centurian, Musician, Standard and Heavy Armour)

16 x Regular Legionnaires (Centurian, Musician and Standard)

1 x 12 Auxilliary Archers (Leader, Musician, Standard and Light Armour)

1 x 16 Raw Recruits (Centurian and Javelins)

1 x Bolt Thrower

2 x Scorpio (Light Bolt Thrower) (the crews are wearing Light Armour)

4 x Roman Engineers

*This is roughly 1,700 Points of forces. You can hopefully model this in whatever rules you do use, but if you are a WAB player then this roster will satisfy all splits in term of unit percentages.

Celtic Deployment and Orders of Battle

The Celts start from the Easterly edge of the gaming table and can move forward pretty much unseen. The mounted troops and chariots must move on the open terrain, along with the Chieftain, Shaman and Battle Standard.

The unit of Fanatics (with a Warlord in tow) must deploy on the hill in H6 and will make a driving charge straight for the barrow mound. These chaps are hell bent on killing Romans for despoiling their tomb and as such are hard to control and give orders to. They MUST be played this way.

This is a large force of Celts and will cause the EIR troops to be very cautious. Also, the chariots and mounted troops make it very mobile, another massive problem for the Romans to deal with.

The Celtic force is as follows:

Command Element

1 x Chieftan (Light Armour, Horse, Shield and Throwing Spear)

1 x Battle Standard (Light Armour, Horse and Throwing Spear)

1 Shaman (if your rules support this character then use him…WAB allows for Warband, Fear and Hatred rules to apply)

Mobile

6 x Chariot (1 x Chariot will have a Leader and a Standard)

6 x Warhounds plus 1 x Packmaster

12 x Noble Cavalry (Leader, Musician, Standard and Throwing Spear) plus 1 x Mounted Warlord (Thrusting Spear, Light Armour, Shield and Horse)

12 x Light Cavalry (Leader, Musician and Standard)

Foot

24 x Warriors (Leader, Musician and Standard)

12 x Skirmishers (Leader, Musician, Standard and Bow)

12 x Fanatic Warriors

Special Rules

The Romans are in a bit of a confused state and although they do have sentries posted (I would recommend that the Raw Recruits take up a defensive posture near to the main camp) and that the majority of the troops are deployed within the three foot square deployment zone.

I would add to this that the engineers, 1 x Scorpio and one unit of Regular Legionnaires are located on and about the burial mound.

As stated the mounted troops are off ‘scouting’ and may well return. The best way to figure this out is roll a D6 from Turn 3 onwards. A 6 is needed to see them return so on Turn 3 roll 1D6 and see if you get a 6, Turn 2 roll 2D6 and see if a 6 turns up and then 3D6 and so on. It may be that they never come back…and that would only add to the pain of the Roman player.

As to the Celts …well they are blood crazed and hell bent on killing Romans.

There are no real special rules other than the fact that the Fanatics need to make a direct strike for the burial mound.