Prefect Figulus Third Battle.

My Good Friend Quilpius,

I am in the centre of a huge mess.  My Auxilia are surrounded in a marching camp we have constructed near the old Tungri Oppodum.  The enemy have been using this hill fort as a base for their slave raiding operation, which is all well and good, but they haven't been paying the Empire their cut.  

And by "The Empire" I mean of course me!

I have had an attack of cowardice and spent the evening dead drunk and in tears.  My First Spear, former legionary Centurion "One Eyed" Julius seems to be really cheerful at the prospect of our heads becoming German hut decorations  He has a plan to charge out tomorrow, taking the fight to the enemy.

"Up the Fecking ramparts young Prefect sir," he told me.  "Not more than a couple of hundred fecking blue arsed Batavi up there and we have fifty Tungrians… Easy meat!"  He is quite mad.

I need more wine to see me through the battle tomorrow.  To be honest nobody would notice if I was dead drunk anyway.

Remember me to my friends in Rome (not the pleb ones obviously)

Your poor friend,

Figulus

The tabletop

The old Oppidum of the Tungri not occupied since the days of the Divine Julius has a group of "rebel" slavers mainly of the Batavi, but working with the Corrupt Procurator of Tungrorum.  The 1st Tungrian Cohort has been attacked here and have constructed a marching camp at a village near the base of the fort.  They are now surrounded but plan to break out and attack the hill fort.  

The table has a large clearing around a Germanic village in the centre, beside the Marching camp on the baseline with the hill fort above.  The surrounding woods are dense.  My Auxilia Century must  hold the marching camp and then charge out to assault the hill fort.  If Figulus can pull this off  his reputation will increase and he can continue recruiting for the cohort.

Roman Auxillia force:

Six tent parties of 8 Auxilia,

one Group six slingers

Centurion Julius and Optio. 

The Renegade force:

One band of 8 Mounted Nobles

One Group of 10 armoured Noble Warriors on foot

Four Groups of 10 Warriors,

One Group of six javelin armed skirmishers,

and three Chiefs

The Game

The Auxilia stand to arms in the marching camp.

The hillfort looks a tough proposition.

Gallic rebel Cavalry swarm around, slightly our of focus.

The Centurion and drunk Prefect lead their men out.

The Auxilia take on the enemy besiegers around the fort.  The enemy have split their forces but it will still be a hard fight

The Gallic Cavalry throws its chance away.  Those dice are terrible

The Auxilia get stuck in, clearing away warbands.

The Centurion leads three tent parties against three warbands near the fort.   The dice of fate are decisive.

And the Optio also breaks through a warband.  No sign of the Prefect though.

The Batavi rebels were always going to fight to the end.  The Centurion assaults the hill fort.

Meanwhile the Optio leads another group up the hill. Our brave Prefect seems to be in the front line... almost...

The Rebels are broken and surrender.  The Prefect managed to get up here on his horse!  

A good start to this project, but the Men of Bronze rules only translate so far.  I like the focus on formation,  and Dan Mersey's dice to activate mechanism, but the command structure is too weak for my Romans.

The 1/72 plastics work really well, big enough and detailed enough to challenge the 28mm route I normally would have gone.  The cost is a quarter of even plastic 28mm figures. 

It seems that the 1st Tungrians have come through recruiting and training well,  and are now ready for a posting to the frontier.  Even our young Prefect seems to be shaping up, given enough wine!

To steal a line from Simon Scarrow, Figulus and One Eyed Julius will March again...