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Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
"naturally inclined to delay, and a man who preferred cautious and well-reasoned plans to chance success" (Histories, 2.25)

Well that kinda covers it doesn't it. A cautious commander would advance down Watling Street to a point where he could gather his troops from East and West (IX and II) whilst not exposing himself to Iceni forces whose location and strength was unknown. What he would know was that the forces had their base in East Anglia and as soon as he was past the Nene he was exposed to an attack from the East or to a force getting behind him from the Nene or Ouse vallies. It would seem cavalier rather than cautious to advance further south than the Nene.

Once past the Nene he is hostage to the terrain on which he finds himself, it would not be "of his choosing". He would be mobile, making liason with the IX and II far trickier and his mobility, with all his troops en masse, would be severely compromised, again compromising his abilty to select his site.

So his inclination to delay and his cautious, well reasoned approach all sit very comfortably with Church Stowe at a strategic level IMHO. But this strategic cautiousness described in Histories does not transfer well to a personal cautiousness, that could be interpreted as cowardice, strategic caution and personal bravery sit well together. So the Histories quote can very well describe the approach I have outlined for Church Stowe.

Tring is by no means a popular choice, neither Nathan (Yesterday 3:28) nor I, buy it. Whilst I have major concerns about a commander who was "cautious" bottling himself up in the Dunstable pit and trusting to luck, it still has a strategic sense to it. BUT there are no traces of anything after two years of the BF Trust snooping around, so it would appear to be another unprovable site. 

"Digging in anywhere at that stage would be a waste of time and effort." - Renatus
Given the daily habit of digging in this would seem the obvious course of action. Day 1 a marching camp and any subsequent days whilst awaiting the IX and II or the return of a recce force could be spent embellishing those earthworks. Amassing the three partial Legions and stragglers would take a while, the ominous build up of 230,000 Britons would also take some intimidating days, you wouldn't want your squaddies just hanging around dwelling on that, you would give them a pick and have them dig for their lives. The real waste of effort would be having the 3 Roman forces bimbling around potentally enemy territory looking for each other and a suitable defile to hold out in. Tiredness, lack of purpose, depletion of resources and extended lines all suggest this would have been the real waste of time and effort. Better to hold a secure, known position until your forces are gathered and the strategic situation known, or the baddies find you.
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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 John1 - 11-30-2015, 09:20 AM

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