Sunday 3 March 2013

Isara River - 121BC


It was a wet ol day here yesterday, and a great day for a game..... so my friend Ralph and I re fought ISARA RIVER - 121 BC Gallic vs Roman  Middle republican up in the Rhone valley of Germania.

A little background..
 The Romans had been campaigning on behalf of their Massiliote allies against the Saluvii tribe of Gauls in the Rhone Valley. When the Saluvii King fled to the Allobroges tribe, the Romans sent an army against them commanded by Gnaeus Domitius. Domitius achieved a stunning victory against the Allobroges at Vindalium in early 121BC. The remains of the Allobroges were then reinforced by the Averni tribe led by their King Bituitus, and the combined army reportedly totalled 180,000 warriors, but looking at similar figures for other Gallic armies a fighting force of 40-50,000 is probably more realistic.
The Romans now sent out a new army of approximately 30,000 men commanded by the Consul Quintus Fabius Maximus.The Gauls and Romans met next to the Rhone river where it is joined by the Isara river from the east. Bituitus, scornful of the Roman numbers, suffered a massive defeat which became even more catastrophic when one of only two bridges he had thrown across the Rhone collapsed under the weight of his routing army.


The Rhone sits at the back of the Gallic army, the river on their left is the Isara.


Looking from the river

Early initial approaches

The centre makes contact first.....crash and the Gauls are getting the better of it.

Romans struggle in the centre having to commit the reserve ( the elephants ). This doesn't go much better for them, and they also get thumped by a war band getting pushed back and looking rather fragile.

Roman right also not going so well.

The Romans kill King Bituitus who is attached to one of the centre war bands. Quintus Fabius Maximus's centre however is done for.

Roman left also breaks in the same turn, leaving what's left of the centre wide open for the Gallic cavalry to sweep around and clean up.
A Gallic victory, but they lost Bituitus......so the bulk of their army also routed.....a very bloody affair. Damn good game !!

This is the map we used for initial deployment, from Command & Colours.


18 comments:

  1. Looks very good! Impetus?

    Cheers, Simon

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  2. Great report, thanks for sharing!

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    1. My pleasure Thomas glad you enjoyed it.

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  3. Looks like you had lots of fun! I realy enjoyed reading your AAR.

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    1. Thanks Moiterei, it was a fun game for sure, didn't know which way it was going to go.

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  4. Great AAR and a fun day! The ending is very Roman. Kill the head, the body dies as well.

    I recall that in Impetus, Roman v. Gaul is a bit tough for the Romans. The Gauls get loads of Impetus dice on impact if they aren't nicked by the pilum going in.

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    1. Large units of War bands are even tougher, very hard to stop, you have to destroy the back unit and do 1 hit on the front before they loose their Impetus dice.
      Their hard to control though and often go screaming off after the first couple of turns getting themselves into all sorts of sticky situations : ) .....great fun to use though.
      Romans line relief option comes in handy when fighting large units of War band and helps if they deploy in a traditional maniple set up from the start......or at least keep your triarii back as a reserve.

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  5. Great looking battle and report using my favourite ancient/medieval rule set! Nothing beats Impetus basing. Wonderful stuff! Tough luck for Bituitus on not being able to enjoy his victory.

    Christopher

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    1. Hahaha yes poor Bituitus he was a little unlucky at the end. We're going to do Allia river next game, maybe the barbarians can make up for it....... : )

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  6. Great looking battle, the armies look great.

    Steve

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    1. Thanks Steve.....looking forward to seeing your Greeks and Persians in action.

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  7. I have just found your site and love thefigures and your painting...beautiful work

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  8. Greate looking game !

    Best regards Michael

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  9. Great report mate,

    looking forward to rolling out my republicans against Ralph's hordes of germans and celts!

    cheers
    Matt

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    1. He's got a thing for his war bands at the moment hahaha.....they are dangerous when their dice gods are smiling upon them favourably.

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