Sometime during the Gallic Wars, Caesar has taken his army off to seek battle,

leaving a small force to guard his camp. Unfortunately for him, the

perfidious Gauls have decoyed him away with a view to destroying the camp and

the troops it contains, leaving Caesar cut off in enemy territory.

The Gauls have divided their force into two, the Warbands to assault the camp,

the cavalry and most of the light troops to delay Caesar's main force.

Caesar has roughly a quarter of his troops in the camp, three quarters in the

relief column. There should be JUST enough elements in the camp to man the

walls, with enough legionaries to man the side initially faced by the assault

force. This means that the camp occupants have a little time before the

warbands get to all sides of the camp.

I used the Bellona marching camp, which takes 5 elements along each long side,

and 3 along each short one (16 elements in all).

Victory conditions:

The Gauls win by capturing the camp before they are demoralised.

General notes:

This scenario was played using Roman and Gallic forces. There is no reason

why it can't be used with other troops. The two armies are roughly equal in

Army Points. The defenders of the camp should be about 1/4 of their army,

the relief column about 3/4. The assault force should be about 1/2 of the

army (preferably with the heaviest troops), the delayers should be the other

half, mostly light troops.

Time is of the essence for both sides - the Gauls must get troops on all sides

of the camp as quickly as possible (not easy with impetuous troops!), while

the Roman relief column must break through the light troops as quickly as

possible.

When we played this scenario I was the unfortunate camp commander. I say

unfortunate because the relief column appeared to be commanded by Fabius

Cunctator, not Caesar, and got nowhere near the camp before I went down under a

sea of Warbands....

(The two armies here are 300ap each)

Sub-general 1 Bd(O)

Legionarii 5 Bd(O)

Slingers 9 Ps(O)

Bolt-thrower 1 Art(O)

CinC 1 Cv(O)

Cavalry 3 Cv(O)

Legionarii 6 Bd(O)

Auxilia 3 Ax(S)

Bowmen 3 Bw(O)

Sub-general 1 Bd(O)

Legionarii 5 Bd(O)

Auxilia 3 Ax(S)

Bowmen 3 Bw(O)

The Gauls may choose which half of the army the CinC goes with

You may want to give them an extra commander, but it probably makes it

too easy for them.

CinC 1 Wb(S)

Bodyguard 3 Wb(S)

Warbands 30 Wb(F)

Javelinmen 10 Ps(S)

Sub-general 1 Cv(O)

Cavalry 12 Cv(O)

Slingers 12 Ps(O)

Warband 8 Wb(F)

The hills do not count as rough going, but give a combat advantage if upslope

The camp garrison deploys first anywhere in the camp

The assault force deploys next north of the camp and at least 600p from it

The delaying force deploys next anywhere on the line of hills at least 600p from the edge of the table

The relief force enters on turn one anywhere along the west edge