A Battle In Germania Using Three Ages Of Rome Rules

 Some time ago I finished painting another batch of 8 Foundry Early Imperial Romans, seen here.

With these new recruits to the legions mustered in to a collection that's either Foundry or Victrix, I decided that I had enough figures to try a battle revisiting Philip Garton's Three Ages of Rome (3AR) rules published by Helion.

These are fairly simple rules, mostly quite clear and self-explanatory, with army lists for the republican, early imperial and late imperial eras of Roman history.   The rules are written with 15mm figures in mind, but can be adapted easily for 28s by increasing movement and missile ranges by 50%.  There are simple command rules, loss of cohesion instead of removing figures as casualties, and no buckets of dice to throw.

Wulf Stinkig had rallied the men of the Fritzi tribe and their allies, and after raiding and much annoying behaviour, had drawn out a substantial Roman force.  Wulf's force includes two veteran units of massed infantry, two trained mass infantry and one trained unit of skirmishers, a raw unit of mass infantry and a raw unit of javelin armed skirmishers.  His co-commander is his brother in law, Grull the Bald (the little axe markers are to remind me which are the veteran units).

Opposing Wulf is the veteran general Bulbus Nasus, who has spent the last five years in Germania after an unfortunate dalliance with Caesar's niece Vuluptua.   He is assisted by Crismus Bonus, a hard headed centurion. Bulbus has four veteran units of massed infantry legonaires, a unit of trained skirmishers with slings, and a unit of hastily raised auxiliary archers, rated raw.  He also has a unit of trained massed cavalry tucked away behind some woods, Maximus style, and commanded by a young and eager tribune,  Caius Insalubrius.

Wulf Stinkig gives a long oration, which can be summed up as variations on "Slit Their Gizzards".  3AR has a pre-battle rule for oracles and orations, which can help or hinder each side, but in my haste to get started I forgot about it until too late.  I guess there were no priests or soothsayers available.

The Romans take a cautious stance, opting for Hold orders.  Wulf and his warriors rush forward.  Movement in 3AR is generous, 20cm for massed troops in the open, and it recommends adding 50% to the movement rates for 28mm figures.   This brought the Germans almost to charge distance.  They take a round of sling stones and arrows, and the greenhorn archers do some damage to the one raw unit of warriors.  In the Roman move (order of movement depends on chit or card draw to activate various commanders and their troops), the missile troops pull back and two units of legionaires under Bulbus rush forward.

Both sides are locked in combat, but Grull the Bald's veterans are coming up to support their comrades, while Wulf sends his skirmishers through the woods.  They flank a unit of Roman auxiliaries, which hold their own, just barely, personally led by Crismus, while the raw archers come through again, keeping a unit of German javelin throwing maniacs at bay.

As Grull leads his men forward, the young firebrand Insalubrius leads his cavalry forward, making some speech about how if you find yourself in Elysium, then you've failed your saving throw.

Crunch!  They crash into the flank of some German veterans, who are pushed back in Disorder.  In 3AR being flanked or even attacked in the rear isn't necessarily fatal.   In either case, the defending unit takes a -1 on its saving throws if any hits are scored.  In the case of the auxiliaries above, they survived several rounds of combat with the skirmishers on their flank.  What 3AR does well, I think, is that once your units get into the fight, it's hard for them to recover their cohesion.  Adverse results can cause Disorder, which is bad, Disruption, which is worse, and Rout, which is worser.   Routing units can provoke Impetuous Pursuit in the victor.   While there is a rally phase, it's harder to recover cohesion, especially with enemy units nearby.

Wulf Stinkig has seen enough.  Most of his units have lost some level of cohesion, and he hasn't really scratched the Romans.  He orders a general withdrawal, so his brave Fritzii can live and fight another day.   The Germans stream off the field.

One German unit is caught front and rear and is destroyed, the only loss of the game.  3AR might seem a little bloodless to some, I found that most combats end with, at most, one level of cohesion lost (Sound to Disordered, Disordered to Disrupted).  However, as noted above, it gets progressively harder to rally troops in the thick of it, and so you can sense when a battle is lost or won fairly quickly.

So Bulbus Nasus is happy because he can claim a victory and he has some captives to sell to the slavers.   Caius Insalubrius will be mentioned in dispatches, burnishing his career.  Wulf and Grull will retire and try their luck another day.

All in all, I like 3AR, it's a fairly simple set of mechanics with army lists that cover a large swath of ancient history.   It doesn't require throwing buckets of dice, which I like.  Most melees are decided with each side throwing one or two d6 to hit, and then throwing saves, with a 4 on 1d6 always being the magic number after modifiers.  The rules for command and control are simple, with three basic postures for each wing or command of an army:  Hold, Attack, Withdraw.  Commanders have radii where they can influence their units, and any commander designated Heroic can add a +1 modifer to a unit in combat on the first round, with some risk of being killed or captured.   So no mechanics that couldn't be taught to someone in twenty minutes, and a conclusion within two or three hours, makes these rules suitable for club play.

I'm a sucker for rules and I admire how Helion supports the hobby with a line of rules for various periods, though they are probably eclipsed somewhat by the Osprey blue series of rule books.   Philip Garton knows his onions, this is one of three sets of rules for ancients that he's written and published with Helion, which I respect.  3AR would be a good way to introduce folks to ancients gaming, though I suspect that if I wanted to find opponents, I'd be better off putting more time into learning Midgard, which seems to be as well suited to ancients as it is to fantasy.  Of course, there are also the TFL Infamy, Infamy! rules for the early imperial period, and my copy just arrived, so stay tuned for more struggles in Germania!

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+