Situation:
You are in command at Castra Lafe with 50 Legionaries and a further 10 auxillia. The normal compliment for this Castra is two centuries plus some auxilla. The Vicus is about 120 meters south of the Castra on the other side of the parade field and reviewing stand and is next to the river with a narrow bridge crossing it on the road to a larger Fort several miles away. The civilians from the Vicus come running to the Fort saying there are a large number of armed locals approaching. You climb the gate tower and see to your great surprise around 50 armed Britons including around 10 cavalry. (This is way more than you are aware of being at the event) Just then you hear the sentry on the North gate shout out there are many many Britons approaching the north gate. You run the the North tower shouting Alarm all troops to the walls. Your prearranged defense is 2 men per corner tower 3 per gate tower 4 on the wall beside each side of the gate towers and 14 left for each of the long walls. Each gate tower has a Scorpion. You quickly order 5 of the civilians from the vicus armed as a reserve. You arrive on the gate tower and there are 170+ armed Britons approaching some are carrying ladders some facines, some bundles of javelins and all look angry. Seeing the situation several of your auxillia jump the long west wall and head for the woods with Briton Cavalry in hot pursuit. Your remaining men seem anxious.
What are you next orders?
What is your plan to survive this encounter?
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[attachment=1444]bridge_2011-08-11.jpg[/attachment]
On the google link click the blue search box at the top and then look slightly right of center at the top of the map for the Castra! Then zoom in for a better look!
Well, the important thing is to show confidence first - project the image that I already have a solution to the situation in hand, and all that's left is to execute it.
As part of that, I'd get some of my men along with the civilians and auxiliaries to set up the vallii/sudea (the pointy stake things) all along the base of the walls as a sort of pit-trap obstacle to slow down enemies coming over the walls.
Next, I'd assign four people (perhaps civilians) to pick up spent javelins/spears and pass them to my men on the corner towers - one person per tower.
At that point the Britons would have reached the walls and future orders would depend on what happened from that point onwards.
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Ross
[url="http://galeforcearmoury.blogspot.com"] Working on a segmentata.[/url]
This is where you should have got your troops out of the south gate immediately and gone for the bridge to the other fort, for looking at this kind of problem you have put yourselves into a siege situation that you are not going to win.
I say this because the Romans were reluctant to ever put themselves into a siege situation and this is evident from Hadrian's Wall where the forts have the north, east, and west gates north of the Wall.
This way if any of those three gates were attacked they could deploy out of the other two, the south gate being defended by the two Valli and ditch.
However with Hadrian's Wall you have immediate back up from two turrets left and right and also two Milecastles, but should things get worse there are two more forts to your left and right.
It becomes very clear indeed with what is coming down on you from also the north gate your clearly not going to survive this attack, and as is shown very clearly by Seutonius Paulinus civilians are expendable you get to hell out and do what is called a re-group with the troops over the river.
May the gods help me!!! :wink:
jkaler...had an immediate flash back of exercise scenarios at Sandhurst and Junior Officer Staff College.
Gone for a lie down...via the bar :wink:
Moi Watson
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, Merlot in one hand, Cigar in the other; body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming "WOO HOO, what a ride!
Signal for the Roman cavalry to flood out of the western woods and flank the attackers, then mount a counter offensive on the remaining force. What? :? No cavalry waiting in the woods? Bad planning. :neutral:
You're doomed.
If running wasn't an option, I would gather some of, about 20, my forces under that bridge tower (gate?) use that as cover from above and the wall as another cover angle. I would station about 10 men or so, whoever couldn't fit under the bridge, on the bridge and supply them with pila. ( I would get my legionaries underneath the bridge to be only limited to 1 pilum each (as cover from above is more effective) obviously we have many more men left over, about 40 including light infantry. So, what next! Even though on that half of the fort we have 2 corner towers, we'll only use one. I'll order about 15 legionaries backed by 10 light infantry to form a quarter circle, a ninety degree one, so the walls will cover any sides left. When I see the cavalry attack I'll order the light infantry to use their spears and the legionaries their pila to use like Caesar did against Pompey. That is why they are only given one pilum to keep. On the corner tower I will post about 5 men supplied with about 24 pila, their own two and the pila given to them by them beneath, ( their extras) to cover anyone coming over the walls. When the battle is reaching to an end, and it's obvious no one is coming, or them beneath are desperate for support, then they can use to missile them inside the walls attacking the semi circle formation. so about twenty men under the bridge, about 10 on top, then at corner tower 25 forming semi circle, and 5 on tower ..idk...nvm lets do a new one...
ugh, you can do this many ways, and win, yes. It's not the end of the world! Pilum, lets say every man takes about one man with his pilum , ( out of two projected) there's 50 kills. The light infantry kill 20 enemy before being "retired" 70. Every legionary takes out 3 men hand to hand....there's 150+70=220...the cavalry aren't a problem, some taken out by pilum, and others made an easy target by scorpion. anyways, ..,..good luck
The Fort cannot be held. You simply do not have enough manpower to defend it, even if that is what you wanted to do.
Best bet is to quickly look for key terrain where you can defend from and quickly regain the offense.
If possible, take the artillery with you and fight a delaying action using your auxiliary and legionary forces. Time may not allow for that, so best to torch the Fort. Litter the ground with caltrops to make it a bit miserable for the Britons on foot and for their cavalry.
While there is high ground to the East and a open field to the North, best bet is to evacuate the Fort and race to the Bridge and hold the Bridge. The terrain forces the Britons to bunch up and lose advantage of their numerical superiority with a broader front.
If their is no time to evacuate, their is plenty of open space to fight half+ centuria, the walls and gates will serve to channel the Britons where perhaps you can even the odds a bit as they enter, restrict their maneuver, where you can then close, engage and destroy. The artillery can be used to soften them up and then cut the ropes rendering them "spiked".
A subset to that is do as Caesar, and make a new gate/knock down a section of wall, come out from the side and execute a flanking movement. Speed and violence of action being very key.
While holding the Bridge, send for reinforcements to the next garrison.
Worse thing you can really do though is to make no decision.
Mike Daniels
a.k.a
Titus Minicius Parthicus
Legio VI FFC.
If not me...who?
If not now...when?
:wink: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt=":wink:" title="Wink" />:wink:
Is this question asked in a real historical situation, or a needlefelt situation?
If it was real, I'd exhaust as much of my scorpion bolts as possible, and try and remove their small cavalry element. If missile weapons were available, I would further use that to thin out the British numbers and create a gap at the south of the fort facing the bridge. Then, as others have said, it's a short hop skip and a jump to the bridge (if we are using the same distance as it is at Lafe from the fort to the "Creek").
Burn it or hold it then...but the Brits wouldn't get across if the romans stuck to formation...they would get slaughtered in my mind.
If it was needlefelt, I may be inclined to do the same thing...
Good work so far guys! In a few days I will post my (official?) solution which you will be then able to critique! Scenario is much the same for real (ancient) world and needlefelt although in needlefelt Romans tend to die much quicker.
In the interest of completeness, since nobody seems to have mentioned it yet, I propose what might be called the Rorke's Drift defence
Thesis: your defensive perimeter is too large for the forces you have to defend it. If you intend to hold the fort, you must shorten the perimeter and construct a defensible redoubt.
1. Send the fastest available runner(s) to the nearest Roman garrison to get help asap.
2. Station 50% of your force, with all artillery, in the north-east corner of the fort, behind that large wooden building.
3. Station the rest of the force around the remaining gates and walls and order them to hold as long as possible.
4. While the cordon of troops hold the walls, order all the civilians, and any other available hands, to tear down the wooden building and use the wreckage to construct a rough barricade across the north-east angle. If they have the tools, also dig a trench; if you have caltrops, use them too. The perimeter should be small enough for your remaining men to defend.
5. Once the redoubt is constructed, call the surviving soldiers back from the walls and gates at a run. If they have time and fuel, have them set fire to the rest of the fort behind them.
6. Gather your forces inside the triangular redoubt, with the walls on two sides and the barricade, trench and caltrops on the third. Hold until relief, or death. hock:
I'd need some more information, such as:
Are any of the auxilia archers? If yes, they go in the towers.
Are the civilians Roman settlers or 'trusted' Britons? If Romans, they can act as firemen. If Britons, lock them up at least.
I'd add 4 men from the 'long wall force' to each gate, 10 men are good enough for the wall.
Send at least one runner (or if you have horses, a horseman) to the next camp for reinforcements, seeing that the British cavalry is already distracted by the defecting auxilia.
Try to hold off the Brits until help arrives.
Robert Vermaat MODERATOR FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
hock:
