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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
Renatus: There was no shame in retreating, if circumstances demanded it... Paulinus could have made a speech to his men to the effect that he had every confidence that they were quite capable of defeating the enemy as they were but that he preferred to join up with 'our friends' and give the rebels such a trouncing that they would never dare to rise again.


A plausible scenario - and I like the idea of the speech! The problem with all this is, of course, that we really don't know where various units were deployed at this point or how long Paulinus would have had to hear who may or may not have been coming to his aid. I tend to think not much time, and our sources suggest that whatever he intended to do (delay until 'another season' according to Dio, presumably so he could wait for reinforcements) he couldn't do and found himself having to act quickly.

The more I think about this, the more it seems that the three objectives you're discussing here - meeting up with western reinforcements, falling back on friendly natives and taking the refugees to safety - would be better served by pulling back west from London (again!). There's also this tricky business of the 'hostile population' in the Midlands to worry about...



(11-22-2015, 06:01 PM)Theoderic Wrote: Had he been at Dunstable the Brythonic Army could have split and one part have gone up Watling Street to his front whilst the other outflanked him via Tring and the Ickneld Way and circled around to his rear.

...they could have left Verulamium via Braughing and arrived at Colchester by the established road network by-passing Dunstable altogether.

I would think that if the Britons were capable of such long-distance strategic movement then your position at Chivery Top would have been doubly vulnerable, as it faces away from the enemy's direction of approach (but we've discussed all this!)

One of the beauties of the Dunstable position is that it's approached by a long narrow valley, all the way from Flamstead. Once a slow-moving column of people and vehicles had entered the valley, it would very hard for them to turn around - and Paulinus wouldn't have needed to deploy his men until the entire rebel group had entered the valley and were moving towards him... (but I would say that, of course!)
Nathan Ross
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Messages In This Thread
Re: Calling all armchair generals! - by Ensifer - 03-11-2010, 03:13 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-18-2012, 06:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 12:02 AM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 02:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 05:40 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 02-19-2012, 11:26 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 05:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 09:42 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-24-2012, 10:10 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:11 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 03:25 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-25-2012, 08:36 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-26-2012, 02:57 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 04-27-2012, 01:50 PM
Re: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by Steve Kaye - 08-05-2012, 02:24 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-07-2014, 02:18 PM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-08-2014, 01:50 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-11-2014, 02:03 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-18-2014, 07:54 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-20-2014, 02:37 AM
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica\'s Last Stand. - by antiochus - 11-25-2014, 08:29 AM
RE: Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand. - by Nathan Ross - 11-22-2015, 10:50 PM

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