Fort Apache - Ancient Britain

Greetings to all.
Yesterday Mike hosted another ancient game at his house with his fine collection of figures. This time we had an extra added bit, a Roman fort with all the trimmings. Towers, gate, walls and ditch. This wonderful addition to our gaming is available from Atcheson Creations and a nice bit of work it is. I believe that Mike's was painted by the Evil Bob's PAinting Service but will post any corrections if this is incorrect.

So the scenario was an assault on the fort by some riotous and brave Celts from the Isles of Britain. We had 6 gamers plus our host Mike. Bill, Wendel, Phil, Ken, Larry and myself. Larry was destined to leave early so mike would take his place at that point. The rules we used are homegrown and were created for a specific game we ran at a convention many years earlier and used a tremendous number of figures. By my meager memory I believe that game had 1440 Celtic infantry, 96 to 144 Celtic cavalry and over 500 Romans and allies. It was really epic.

But I digress. The sides were Bill, Ken and Phil as the Celts and Wendel, Larry and myself as the Romans. From the beginning the Celts plan was to swamp one section of the fort to gain entrance.

A view of the fabulous Roman fort.

The heavily weighted Celtic Right flank.

Another view of the Celtic Right flank.

So the Celtic hordes begin their assault without wasting any time. Each commander gives his men an inspirational speech to stir them on to victory! This is a die roll and check on a table where the result can increase, decrease or have no effect on the units fighting ans morale. During the initial moves it is not really needed but seemed like fun.

Everyone had very good mobility. The Celts could move 16" per turn and the Romans had internal lines of movement and communication moving about 10" to 20" per turn.

The Romans began the game with missile troops lining the walls and 10 balista in support in the towers and on the walls. The Celts took a heavy beating with the missile fire causing them to reach the walls with some units near the breaking point.

The assault on the Roman Left flank.

 Another view of this attack.

A view of the Roman Right flank showing the Celtic attack meant to tie down Romans from participating in the defense of the Left flank.

After four turns of see saw fights for a foothold on the wall of the Romans left flank, an opening appears on the wall! It was just prior to this point that Larry had to depart and Mike took over for him.

 And the Celts take full advantage of this opportunity to get on the wall and into the fort.

 And now on the next turn another and much greater opportunity presents itself for the Celts. A large section (the entire left side of the fort!) is left without any troops to defend it and the Celts come pouring on to the wall.

Well this looked bad for Rome. but valiant counter attacks and the freeing up of troops from the Right flank, stole this victory from the brave and valiant Celts. A Roman victory and off to the woods for the Celtic warriors to tend to their wounded and fallen companions. Perhaps another day with more warriors and no less determination will carry the day to rid their homeland of the despised invaders.

Here as always, a couple of pictures from Mikes collection.

Romans from Foundry.

Roman cavalry but I did not get the manufacturer.

The Celtic hoard are Old Glory but sorry I do not have a picture to do them justice.

Thanks again to Mike for hosting anther gathering of gamers and letting us play with his wonderful toys. Everyone had a great time and as always the high point is the camaraderie enjoyed by all.