When asked about how well the Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare rules duplicate actual tactical battlefield outcomes, I often simply try to get the person who is asking the question to sit down and play.

This past weekend, I had my old friend Gary Comardo over to do just that. Gary is a fan of DBM and also likes to write his own rules, so he is always willing to try new systems and see how they work. For this particular game, Gary wanted to bring over his newly painted 25mm Celtic Gaul army. I decided that this would be a good test of the tactical fidelity of the rules so I opted to use an army of Punic War Romans. We decided on a mid-sized game of 500 points per side (about 230 Roman figures vrs. 300 Gallic ones). As always, I intended to finish the game in three hours or less, even though Gary was not completely familiar with the rules.

Historically speaking, what would we expect to happen in a battle such as this? The Gauls, many of whom were fanatics (Gary's infamous Inebrioxus tribes), would throw themselves upon the steady Roman foot and try to batter their way through them by sheer force of will. The Romans would be fairly evenly matched in the initial combat as the fierce Celtic warbands would be charging in a frenzied fury, hoping to force the Roman units back in disorder by the sheer weight and passion of their attacks. If the Romans held, the advantage would be all theirs, as their superior armor, weaponry and training would allow them to fight more skillfully and with better effect than the unarmored Gallic warriors. Eventually, the Romans should defeat the warbands, as happened historically.

Gary played the perfect Gallic general, putting the fanatic warbands in the forefront of his battle lines and moving rapidly to confront the awaiting Romans. He used fanatic cavalry on the flanks, which rode full-tilt into several Roman legionary units. The Romans had little trouble in forcing the Gallic horse to turn and retire.

The pilum-armed legionnaires fight two ranks deep, have more figures per stand, and I had them formed up in a 'locked shield' formation, which allows infantry to close up tight and offer an even stiffer defense than normal. Even though the Gallic horse crashed into the foot with all sorts of pluses (for being frenzied, charging, and being of fanatic morale), they could not overcome the tight Roman formation and double ranks of fighters. Also, the 'random' roll favored the Romans throughout (in the rules, each player rolls a six sided die and compares the two scores. The higher score adds the difference to his tactical close combat factors). The Romans had held back the Gallic cavalry.

Meanwhile, the Roman heavy cavalry, seeing the Gallic horse preparing to charge them, decided to retire, hoping to have the Gallic horse charge and hit nothing, thus becoming disordered. Unfortunately for the Roman cavalry, they did not manage to retire far enough and were hit in the back, effectively being destroyed (you must roll to see how far you charge, rout or retire. I rolled low, Gary rolled high).

The Romans had several infantry units and a general in reserve, however, and all of them passed their morale for seeing the routing heavy cavalry (they were all mutually supported and the general was in close proximity as well).

The Roman light artillery fired repeatedly at the Gallic warbands which were sweeping around their left flank, inflicting few casualties, but making the Gauls cautious about where their general was and slowing the attack from this sector. As it was, the Gallic center plunged into the attack without flank supports. The Gallic commander could do nothing to prevent his fanatical warbands from charging anything and everything within range. If you elect to purchase your troops as 'Fanatic' morale quality, you receive combat and morale bonuses, but abdicate much of your command control over them as they will simply charge turn after turn. The Gauls would have been wise to sit back and pelt the Romans with javelins, causing casualties and perhaps even disordering the legionnaires before smashing into them, but with fanatics, you do not have the luxury of timing your attacks. They go on their own.

The Romans here were issued with 'Defend' orders, allowing them to prepare for the attack by making minor ground improvements, shouting encouragement to their neighbors and in general getting ready to repel the frenzied warbands. Skirmisher foot were out in front of the Roman heavy infantry, and they fired at the Gauls, causing some casualties before being forced to run away (skirmisher foot are not allowed to stand and fight closer order troops…they simply run away when threatened). The Gauls chased the skirmishers and in the process, charged into the awaiting legionnaires. Again, the gods favored the Romans as the dice were thrown, although the Gauls did call on their Druid priest (a ghastly figure carrying a severed head) for a re-roll of a poor random die roll (I allow each side to purchase a priest figure, which allows you to 'call on the Gods" and re-roll one bad roll per turn). The warbands were all forced to fall back (they took more casualties than the Romans did) in a state of disorder.

Bringing up reinforcements, the Gauls prepared to attack again, but the Romans also went on the offensive, seeing the fanatic warbands in a disordered condition (you only fight with your front rank when disordered, and at less than optimum strength). The fanatic warbands, though disordered had to attack again as well. The armies tore into each other with the Romans holding all the advantages. Again, the Romans held the superior random rolls, though the Druid did try to re-roll a 2…his re-roll was a 1. This time, enough casualties were inflicted on the Gallic warbands to force them to take morale tests (they had lost complete stands of figures). With so many figures lost, the warbands were in desperate straights. They were now fragmented (they had been pushed back twice in a row, each push back putting the unit into a further state of disorder), and their morale failed miserably. They routed, carrying their commander with them. It was noted that the commander took a swipe at the Druid as he rode past, replacing the severed head in his hand with his own!

That effectively ended the game, just shy of three hours long. Did the rules replicate history? Most assuredly. The Gauls have to work on disordering the Romans, while attacking the auxliaries and lesser-armored types. It is hard for an unarmored loosely ordered fighter to stand against a well trained and heavily armored close ordered foe.

The Gauls can certainly win, but they have to be patient and use their troops to best advantage…not a normal Gallic trait.