C. S. Grant With The Fourth in His New Series of Wargames Scenarios and Their Solutions
C. S. Grant With The Fourth in His New Series of Wargames Scenarios and Their Solutions
C. S. Grant With The Fourth in His New Series of Wargames Scenarios and Their Solutions
T he Ancient British and Roman scenario suggested as one of the options in teaser two was well suited to the
armies of several members of the Dover covent. For this reason the wagon train was set in motion across the
much fought over Grant wargame table last August. The Roman relief column was commanded by those two
illustrious Romans, David Matthews and Robert Waldron. The barbarians gathered three chiefs, Andrew Green
(sometimes known as "Andred the Berserker"), Peter Sheppard and Chris Spickett. All were sworn enemies of
the Roman invader.
The format laid down in the teaser was followed in almost every detail, the one exception being the
addition of one extra cavalry regiment for the Ancient Britons. This slight change engineered by our worthy and
farsighted umpire proved fortuitous for the Ancient Britons and went some way to counter their late arrival on
the table. Of this, more later. The only other change worthy of note is that as a keen eyed reader will see, the
maps accompanying this account differ slightly from those shown in the teaser. The reason is, of course, that
one must use the terrain one has available; thus small changes have occurred in the shape of some of the terrain
items without changing the essence of the overall battlefield.
The initial preparations for the arrival of the Ancient Britons provided the Roman relief column with a good start
as these results show:
Map reference number unit entry point period of arrival
1. light cavalry (Brigantes) C 2
2. light cavalry (Cantii) E 5
3. light archers A 7
4. war band Silures) A 7
5. light cavalry (Trinovantes) A 8
6. war band (Iceni) C 10
7. chariots C 11
A fortunate result for the Romans both in the distribution of the entry points and in the time of arrival, I think you'll
agree. But what of the might of Rome? The column entering the table from the West was composed as follows:
(letter relating to the map) (name of unit)
A light cavalry 1
B red cohort
C green cohort
D light medium infantry
E light archers
F light cavalry 2 (in the fort)
W wagons
The Ancient Britons had now shot their bolt, and with several units in rout, the chariots too weak to attack and
the Silures and Iceni too far away to prevent it, the remaining three ox carts, covered by the two cohorts, made
all haste over the last stretch to the fort. The result was a close game resulting in an honourable draw. The
garrison of the fort survived, perhaps to feature in another teaser, and the barbarians faded back into the
woods and hills to await a more auspicious day.