Disasters in the Narbonnensis

 

Caesarian assault along the river line

After the defeat of L. Trebonius in operations around Massilia, the leader of the Populares, C. Julius Caesar, led his main army to settle matters in the Gallia Narbonnensis. Trebonius's army remained in being, less its commander, slain in the late battle. This army Caesar ordered withdrawn to Luca, whilst he took over the lead in the campaign. Accompanying the march, as it were, the fleet kept pace along the Genovese coast. 

The Optimates, or Pompeian, army led by Ahenobarbus had not come off the recent battles unscathed. Conscious of the depletion of his army, he lined up his force along the line of a small river. His right wing screened by a hill with a tract of woodland beyond, he hoped the slight obstacle of the stream might supply his deficiency in numbers.

Map of the action

The Armies:

Populares (Caesarian):

IX Legion = 3SP
X Legion (commanded by Caesar in person) = 3SP
XI Legion = 3SP
XII Legion = 3SP
Auxilia = 2SP
Equites = 2SP
Total: 16SP 

Optimates (Pompeian):

I Legion (commanded by Ahenobarbus) = 2SP
III Legion = 2SP
IV Legion = 2SP
VI Legion = 2SP
I Auxilia = 1SP
II Auxilia = 2SP
Total: 11SP 
Note that all units except II Auxilia had accumulated losses in the course of the previous two battles.

Terrific battle on the Optimates' right wing

The Pompeian army drew up in two lines. The first comprised III, IV and VI Legions; in the second stood Ahenobarbus with I Legion, flanked by the Auxilia units. The weak I Auxilia stood behind the marginally less vulnerable right wing.

Caesar also placed his legionaries in the front line, keeping his own X Legion in support in the centre.
The auxilia followed XII Legion into the woods; the cavalry supported the open wing.

Pompeian left driven in and IX Legion across 
the stream. Losses not great, but Pompeian situation
looks dire already

The battle took some time to develop, as, with an early initiative, Ahenobarbus declined to cross the stream to take the fight to the enemy, but preferred to rely on the protection of the obstacle. It did him little good.

Caesarians win again...

Once his forces were lined up along the riverbank, Caesar ordered a general advance. The attacks were immediately successful. IX and XI Legions easily forced their way across the stream, though with minimal loss to both sides. XII Legion had a much tougher fight: both sides taking heavy losses (both rolled 5s) with the issue remaining in doubt. 

Pompeian VI Legion crumbles, but XII Legion 
knows it has been in a fight!

The riverbank defenders driven in, the attackers pushed on. Though inflicting considerable hurt upon the Caesarians emerging from the stream, the Pompeian III Legion was destroyed where it stood (both sides rolled 6s this time). A  quick counter-attack in the centre, led by Ahenobarbus in person, drove XI Legion back across the river. The situation on the flanks remained critical.

Caesarian right wing establishes itself firmly on the 
Pompeian side of the river

The hard-fighting XII Legion finally routed what remained of the Pompeian right, the weak unit of auxiliaries being quickly destroyed. The attempt by the I Auxilia to recover the riverbank on the left met with an equally summary demise. Almost surrounded, Ahenobarbus sounded the retreat. 

XII Legion victorious! The under-strength 
Pompeian auxiliaries routed and destroyed.

This was a strikingly easy victory for the Caesarians, despite the slight advantage to their opponents whilst defending the riverbank. The plus on the combat dice did not, it seems, compensate for being driven into the Reserve Zone, especially when the Caesarians scored the same results following up into the second line. 

The Caesarians lost just 3SP from this battle, two of them from XII Legion (I'm very tempted on their performance to give XII Legion permanent 'veteran' status: +1 on the combat dice rolls). For the Pompeians, this battle was a disaster. Their losses totalled 6SP out of 11 - but both auxilia formations and III Legion were destroyed. After returns, Caesarian net loss was just 1SP; the Pompeians, 5SP. 

The end of the action: both Pompeian wings 
driven back, and the caesarians have the initiative.

Caesarian fleet ...

******
The fleet accompanying Caesar's march encountered the Pompeian galley fleet outside Massilia. The fleets were exactly equal: 1 heavy and 5 medium units. Both sides placed their heavy units in the centre, but, as it transpired, they were not directly facing each other. As the fleets met close under the Narbonnensis shore, one unit on each side was placed in reserve. The Pompeians placed their reserve unit behind the shoreward wing; Decimus Brutus kept his reserve on the seaward side.

Pompeian fleet

The fleets approaching each other

Seizing the early initiative, the Pompeians drove forward along the centre and right. The left wing proved more laggard. In his usual headlong fashion, Decimus Brutus flung his centre squadrons hoping for a quick result in the middle of the enemy line. In this, he rather forgot his original plan: a species of 'Periplous' against the seaward wing for which the extra unit was placed behind the right. However, it remained possible for that unit to reinforce the centre when required. 

The centre squadrons engage...

Brutus got his quick result, and it did not augur well for the Caesarians. The centre driven in, both Caesarian units taking big losses - unrequited at that - the Pompeians hesitated not to follow up. Three Strength Points the Caesarians had lost already, two from his heavy unit, and no material damage to the Pompeians.

At once, matters go badly for the Caesarians.

Some hope remained of turning the tables. Owing to the dilatoriness of the Pompeian shoreward units, the Caesarian vessels on this wing drove in upon the flank of the Pompeian centre. They were faced, however, by the Pompeian heavy unit, which, though taking losses themselves and getting slightly the worse of it, managed to inflict some damage in return (the 6-5 dice roll). 

A Caesarian counter-attack does some damage...

But the Pompeians reassert their ascendancy, as the Caesarians 
start to lose ships.

Seizing the initiative themselves, the Caesarians pushed forward, but events were not going their way. One of the central units was sunk, and they were unable to make head against the rest of the line. By this time, the shoreward Pompeian units, though straggling, were beginning to come into line. 

The Pompeian shore units still distant from
the action...

Fierce fighting on the seaward wing saw the Caesarians pushing back their opponents, but overall the battle was going badly. His splintered centre heavily outnumbered, Decius Brutus went down with his ship. The shoreward unit was caught before they could reorganise betimes to meet the late-coming enemy, and the reserve squadron failed to intervene. Only on the seaward wing did the Caesarians enjoy any success, sinking one unit, but at the cost of one of their own.

The seaward units giving and taking fearful 
punishment...

The fleet badly mauled, the battle lost, the Caesarian remnants drew off. 

Utter disaster for the Caesarian fleet: two-thirds 
of the fleet lost, against just one in six of the 
Pompeian!

It was a disaster for the Populares. Caesar had lost an able admiral, and the fleet had lost 4 units sunk, and overall, 10SPs. Nine SPs were a total loss.The Optimates fleet had not come off unscathed, but, of the 5SP worth of damage, only 2SP might be written off. 

******

This gave Julius Caesar considerable food for thought. But the momentum lay with him (the subsequent Campaign Initiative Roll went 3-1 in favour of the Populares), and he resolved to march upon Narbo and Hispania to try conclusions with Afranius's army. Replacing Trebonius with Marcus Antonius, he instructed the new commander to occupy with Trebonius's former command the area around Massilia. The fleet would remain in the offing.   

Meanwhile, far to the south, Curio loaded up his fleet and set forth for Africa...


******

Before continuing, a couple of issues have presented themselves. 

1. In the kind of battle that led off this post, placing the defended river line along the square boundaries as I have done seems to make the defence problematic owing to the lack of depth to which the defenders might be able to withdraw without disaster. The first four combats in the centre and Caesarian right all went the Caesarian way without inflicting losses.  The lead units were driven into the reserve Zone, then the second line went the same way as the caesarians followed up. At least one, possibly two, units destroyed simply for exceeding the reserve zone capacity.

The battle might have been over right then and there, but I did allow some chance of a comeback.

The thought occurred that the river line might be better placed along the centre of the middle row of squares. For quite a while, this seemed like a good idea, but I'll take it 'under advisement' for the moment. That battle I think took maybe 10 minutes to play out. So, by the way, did the fleet action.

2. Curio has laden his whole fleet - 4 galleys and 6 transports - with his infantry for the African expedition. No doubt the Pompeian fleet will oppose the landing. 
Now, the transports can carry whole units apiece; and the galleys each 1SP (to be allocated). It seems to me that the extra infantry about the galleys will add something to their 'fightability'.  What I propose is this:

A galley with a land unit SP aboard adds +1 to any combat dice roll. However, if the ship is lost, the land unit SP goes with it.
A transport with a land unit aboard adds +1 to the dice roll, but transports have just 1SP only, and, if lost, the infantry goes with it.

Meanwhile, as the Caesarians have the initiative, the African fleet will not have had time to embark any infantry units. I'm not 100% sure I would allow it anyway. The purpose of putting land units aboard is to effect a landing somewhere, not to resist one.

******

Finally, my apologies to readers. I played these actions out a week ago, and have found the motivation to write them up pretty threadbare. I have no idea why it has been so hard to put 'finger to keyboard'. But really there is no excuse.  

To be continued...