Thread Rating:
  • 4 Vote(s) - 5 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.
(12-18-2017, 01:37 AM)Nathan Ross Wrote:
(12-14-2017, 01:22 PM)MonsGraupius Wrote: You have troops galloping up and down Watling Street

Try working out the movement times and distances and you'll see that the active campaigning period has to be very brief, if we are to make sense of the sources, which simply do not allow for anything longer than that.

And Boudica simply went down to the army and navy store to buy enough wagons, tents and portable camp supplies to equip her army and set off that afternoon without anyone having a clue who was going to look after the fields and the animals and do all the work that normally has to be done in an iron-age society.

And of course all boudica needed to do was post a message on her local "IceniArmyTalk" forum and every able person from across the Iceni tribal area would be ready and willing to immediately leave. ... I know they probably had thousands of homing pigeons all ready and trained to leave with the messages to all the hamlets ... but I may be a bit hazy on iron-age communications networks, but I suspect they were slightly slower than our modern systems.

And I know there are people who can wake up in the morning and think "I fancy flying to Iceland today to spend a week pillaging", but the rest of us need a bit of time to plan & organise our pillaging excursions. Indeed, it might be helpful to talk to local Icelanders to find out whether your planned pillaging would be acceptable to them. So, at the very least, Boudica might want to tell your neighbouring tribes that the massed hoards moving in their direction aren't organising a mass raid on them. That would avoid them mistakenly siding with the Romans and you never know, they might even want to help the Iceni if asked politely.

Likewise Paulinus, could just set off and take supplies from the local tribes as needed. It might however be prudent for him to try to keep as many of the other tribes from siding with Boudica, or at least not openly giving support. He therefore needs to be as diplomatic as possible - using both the threat of violence and the lure of Roman gold to try to prevent support of Boudica growing. That doesn't make it easy moving 1000s of hungry troops, looking for a bit of native "entertainment" wherever they can around the country.

Or the easy way would be to just ignore all the planning, logistics, diplomacy that goes with a campaign and just gallop down Watling street and engage Boudica in a show of Roman superiority and dominance like Cerialis.
Oh the grand oh Duke Suetonius, he had a Roman legion, he galloped rushed down to (a minor settlement called) Londinium then he galloped rushed back again. Londinium Bridge is falling down, falling down ... HOLD IT ... change of plans, we're leaving the bridge for Boudica and galloping rushing north.
Reply


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 MonsGraupius - 12-18-2017, 09:18 AM

Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Armchair Wall walking mcbishop 3 3,479 01-11-2012, 03:22 AM
Last Post: Vindex

Forum Jump: