An Alesia SneakPeek

Example of Play and After Action Report Note: The following is from a playtest report from one of the Alesia team's tireless playtesters, Alan Smith. It is not a full replay with the final edition of the game rules. Final game rules and play may be slightly different, due to modifications made throughout the playtest process. The Battle Of Alesia: Alesia is a large game on 2 maps. The historical scenario is played only on the western map. The Roman-constructed vallations surrounding Alesia have only one main weak point and that is in the NW corner, where there is a gap. This gap has become known as the hill. The Gauls can enter the game from the SW to NW areas of the map. To simulate surprise they can start within one or two movement phases of the Roman defenses. The Alesia force itself will effectively come from the center of the eastern side of the western map. The Romans set up first with their legions and auxiliaries. The German cavalry can be a serious threat, but for this game they are given a more passive role. Caesar starts with 6 legions on the western map with a possibility of reinforcements if the Gauls take the ramparts. The Gallic plan is simple. Advance all the forces close to the vallations and create such a distraction that the Romans are not able to protect against the attack coming from the NW. The Gauls declare their entry positions only as they are brought on. 50,000 Gauls lead by Commius advance from the SW corner to the vallations while the Gallic cavalry supported by infantry cover the western side of the ramparts. The Romans start to reduce the Gauls with missile fire. There are so many of them that it is not making a serious impact on their numbers. Vercingetorix then leads his Alesia force down from the oppidum westwards, over the man-made ditch and starts to approach the Roman ramparts surrounding Alesia. The Romans as a precaution put the Xth on the hill which effectively covers the gap in the NW vallations mentioned earlier. It is at this point that all hell breaks loose as the Arverni and Carnutes, led by the Averni chieftain, launch a surprise attack on the Xth. The Xth took the attack well with little damage but one failed TQ check and one bad die roll left several holes in the line. The Xth then counter attacked, to reform the line, with some excellent results but........... advancing after the retreating Gauls dislocated their new line. To try and correct this a seizure attempt by Caesar was made successfully. The Xth then moved again to correct the gaps and also try and push the Gauls back further on their heels. This worked to a degree but there were still gaps in the Roman line. In the Gallic turn the Gauls who were adjacent moved to try and encircle the Xth while new units came up from the tribal counter to fill their places (tribal counters are placed on the map to indicate the on map starting point of any given tribe). All of a sudden the Roman cohorts were in difficulty. After the dust settled one cohort had routed and another was surrounded and destroyed. The Xth was starting to recoil back down the hill. The Xth was in serious trouble and although the Gauls had taken serious damage the hill would shortly be in their hands. Commius, the overall leader of the attacking units outside the vallations, decided to take personal charge of the SW feint to ensure it was done right. On his second attempt he was able to make his seizure roll. First time for everything. The VIIIth and XVth are holding this area. The XVth is not one of Ceasar's best, we might add. I am using VIth through Xth and XVth for variety. Although the Gauls take heavy punishment, they reach the vallations. During the ensuring shock combat the Gauls suffer badly but so does the XVth. The Romans now have two problems. The Xth is in danger of being surrounded and the Gauls are threatening to take the ramparts and destroy the XVth. Note that only half the XVth was deployed here. The other half is in the northern sector. They were put here because these sectors were supposed to be quiet. The XVth is now looking at 50,000 Gauls coming their way. Someone made a mistake in the holiday brochure! If Caesar does not get a positive seizure this turn, then either the Xth ceases to exist or the Gauls mount the ramparts in the SW. Caesar decides to save the Xth and it has withdrawn to a more defensible position. Caesar rolled his seizure attempt as usual. This guy is infallible, just as his book says he is. Now I have a problem and perhaps this will highlight what happens when you fail to focus on cohort positioning. The Gauls have attacked the vallations in the SW and are threatening to break in. The attack covers a front of 7 hexes. Much of the GoD (the protective pits etc. outside the vallations) hexes were filled in but not all due to movement limitations. The Second wave of Gauls is coming up close behind, in case the first lot fail. Needless to say there is not much room for a retreat here, so any Gauls forced to retreat will probably get trodden on in the forward rush. The Roman dilemma however is simple: The 5 cohorts of the XVth held the southern end of the vallations as I did not expect to get them involved in the main defense. The VIIIth was the one that should have taken the shock but they were moved north to cover the advancing Alesia force.Thus the XVth took the brunt of the Gallic assault. 2 cohorts of the VIIIth were left behind to cover the gap between the XVth and IXth which is holding the western line of the ramparts. One cohort of the VIIIth was also attacked during the Gallic turn. Now here is the issue, the XVth is too weak to hold. The VIIIth is watching the Alesia force and part of the IXth is pinned by a force of 20k Gauls and their cavalry supported by the LI on the western side of the vallations. Interesting. Caesar decides to move the VIIIth back to the threatened sector. He reckons that the Alesia force will still take some time breaking through the GoD defenses and he will have the time to deploy the VIth there when that happens. This is a risky move because the Gauls, if they are lucky and get a successful seizure result, might be in the ramparts before he can do this. The German cavalry is positioned currently in the vallations and can be used to mow down a few Gauls if they do break thorugh the western ramparts. The VIIIth now starts to take up its old positions. Driving several Gallic units back from the ramparts. It is now Commius' turn. Commius however has only just started. He has only lost about 10,000 men so far to the Roman's 1,000. A mere flesh wound for Commius. He still has 120,000 more !!!!!!!!!! Alesia: Part II Before I continue this would be a good time to explain a few rules, as otherwise much of what follows will be gibberish, if it is not already. The Gallic forces are divided up into tribes. Each tribe is represented by a counter. On the counter are 3 numbers. Total tribal strength, number of control points needed to activate the tribe and finally the number of units you can lose before the tribe routs. The chieftains have 2 main values: Their command range and their control points. The tribes come in all flavors. Some have 8 units for 2 control points and many have less. There are some tribes with 2 units for 1 control point. The Gauls have 3 major tribes however (or groups), they are the Arverni (24), Aremorican (26) and the Aedui (24). Each cost 3 control points and effectively activate the same number of units as a 3 tribes with 8 units. These 3 tribes will be at the front of the fighting. Indeed the Arverni are the ones going toe to toe with the Xth at the moment. The other 2 tribes have been committed to the NW assault too. Commius is an overall commander so has also the ability to attempt seizure. He has 3 seizure attempts available in any given assault period. The historical scenario has 3 assault periods. 2 day and 1 night. The battle described so far is the first day's attack. The Gauls are going for broke on the first day. Now a brief history of Commius in game terms. He has not succeeded in one seizure attempt in all the games I have played so far except this one. So you can imagine my shock when his earlier 40% attempt succeeded. Now on with the story.... It is not written when Commius decided to turn his diversionary attack into a major assault. He certainly did not have the best troops for it. However the fact remains that he lead the Pictones, Ruteni, Senones,and Sequani over the ramparts. On the ramparts you can only voluntarily have one unit in every other hex and they can only stack one to a hex on the ramparts so it takes time to get a sizable force over the ramparts. The Gauls started to mount the ramparts and turned on the XVth, screaming to avenge their fallen comrades. The XVth are only 5 cohorts strong here and greatly outnumbered. Their TQs are not so hot either. In the first wave over the ramparts one cohort routed and another was driven back. Commius, having one seizure left, decided try for it as he had to get more Gauls over the ramparts before the VIIIth became involved. So he rolled and a 2 came up. Commius fell off his horse in surprise and I fell off my chair. The Gauls moved down the ramparts onto the disordered XVth, while several more Gauls moved over the ramparts and attacked anything that was moving inside the vallations. One unit even managed to mount the other side of the vallations facing Alesia. In the ensuing shock phase 2 more of the XVth routed and one cohort was exterminated. The XVth had just literally been over run with numbers. The Gauls had opened a wide gap on the ramparts devoid of Romans. If anyone is wondering what Vercingtorix is doing at this time, I regret to say not much. He commands 43 units at start, but in order for them to get into battle at the critical stage, it is important that they are moved early to their attack positions. These positions are in the NW. The breakthrough has occurred in the SW. So in spite of this initial Gallic success, someone should have told Commius it was in the wrong place! The Alesia force is also quite brittle. The easiest win for the Gauls is to get Vercingetorix out, with a couple of escorts. The harder win is to put 4 on-board legions at 60% routed or reduced. It is therefore important not to attack too soon with Vercingetorix, or the Alesia force could be routed before any real breakthrough has occurred. So the situation is now critical for the Romans. Caesar has to close off this breakthrough. The tribes leading the assault though are badly weakened and some could rout very shortly. The 5 cohorts of the XVth are now consigned to the history books and Caesar acts with decisiveness. He orders the VIIIth to drive the Gauls back. This they do very effectively; the Senones are routed as a tribe and many other Gauls fall to their swords. Caesar, as confident as ever, rolls for seizure and gets it. Does this guy ever fail !? The VIIIth finally move into position and now seal off the southern sector that the Gauls have penetrated. One cohort of the VIIIth, while routing an enemy, is also routed. Interesting to watch them run away from each other. The first cohort of the VIIIth, being 1 TQ hit away from routing, is withdrawn with the intention of rallying it later. Caesar has now stabilized the situation. The southern defenses, although penetrated, are too far away from the Alesia force to be currently of value. If the Gauls spend the time required to get them there then Caesar can move his cavalry to attack the Gauls in the outer vallations, while at the same time moving the VIth to shadow the Alesia forces. The Romans can move double time in a number of circumstances. The Germans just move faster. Commius sits down to think..... makes a change. His own forces in the SW have been hurt badly, the Xth has a new defensive line, as does the VIIIth in the redoubts to the south. The VIth can cover the Alesia force and the IXth is looking over at the Gauls to the west. What next he asks himself. At this point tea time was declared. So they all went and had a cup of tea. Alesia Part III after the tea break It is time for a recap: The Romans initial dispositions were VIIth, 5cs of XVth and auxiliaries in the northern vallations. These vallations are isolated from those on the NW and W - a problem which the Gauls are about to exploit. ( Whoops, must not give the game away). The rest of the legions were disposed from NW to S as follows: Xth, VIth, IXth, VIIIth and 5cs of XVth. Caesar made the mistake (not me honest) of pulling th VIIIth out to try and get rid of the Alesia force. He new the Gallic plans (wonder how?). But no plan seems to last very long. The Gallic plan was to bring on the cavalry supported by infantry to watch the German cavalry and western vallations. Bring on Commius with 50,000 Gauls and provide a diversion in the SW. March the Alesia force close to the inner NW vallations to be ready to break through when the time was right. Launch a major attack in the NW with the 3 major tribes leading the assault. Note: If the Gallic losses exceed the number of on board then the Gauls withdraw. So it is a good idea to have a lot of Gauls on the map. Anyway, while Commius was wondering what to do since he had used up all his seizures and Caesar still has two, the Arverni chieftain took matters into his own hands and perhaps caused a change in history. He ordered the Arverni to continue to charge the Xth and use the hill for momentum. (Hill height plus movement gives +2 on the CRT, to counter the Roman BIvCO of -2). He also, since during previous turns had moved over enough to the east, contacted the waiting Aedui, (the meanest of the Gallic tribes)and persuaded them to attack the northern ramparts. The Carnutes were one unit loss away from routing and many of their on-board units only needed one or two TQ hits to do them in. Besides, the Arverni chieftain has a control of 7, so he can only activate the Aedui and Arverni. The addtion of the Carnutes would need 8 control points. The Aedui began their advance on the northern vallations where the rump of the XVth and the Auxiliaries were stationed. The Arverni did what they do best; they charged the Xth. In the ensuing shock the Xth had 2 more cohorts routed, including the 1st. The Arverni received serious damage in return and may only last one or two more turns at most. Gallic losses are starting to mount but so are Caesar's. It is now Caesar's turn. He is going to trust to his luck and use one of his two last seizure attempts. He hopes the Xth can still block the Arverni advance and with turn seizure to bring the VIth to fill the gaps. So far the Gallic plan is working to overextend the defenses. Amusingly, the only legion now committed to watching the Alesia force is the VIIth, and they are stuck on the northern side of the vallations. The only units on the western vallations facing the Alesia force are the 2 cohorts of the VIIIth left behind when the VIIIth moved back south. The Gallic force must get 2 Alesian units out of the vallations as well as Vercingetorix. It is the latter that is the most difficult to achieve and we will see shortly if they manage it. Alesia Part IV Caesar redressed the lines of the Xth and with seizure success yet again (boring) brought the VIth over to support. The Arverni in their turn continued their attack on the Xth, driving them back further, but came to a grinding halt at the VIth. The Aedui continued to approach the northern ramparts and managed to assault parts of them. The tribe was badly positioned to start with and is taking longer to get into a postion to do serious harm to the Romans, although one unit did break into the ramparts after driving back a defending auxiliary unit. Caesar now launched the VIth at the Arverni. Rolled for his last seizure attempt and succeeded yet again and continued the attack. The Arverni collapsed and routed. All of a sudden the pressure on the Romans in this area seemed to go. Now before the Aremorican tribes arrive, can he rally his battered Xth? There is a point on the hill where it is possible to bring into command range several tribes at once and so the Arverni chieftain stands on this spot (Great view from here) and calls forth the Aremorican tribes to advance while the Aedui continue their assault on the northern ramparts. They will take a while to arrive but Caesar may not have as much time as he would like. Vercingetorix is sitting with 3 possible seizure attempts at 50% each! The Aremorican tribes advance and the Aedui assault continues. Caesar now needs a lot of luck and needs to take a serios gamble. The need to use some seizure turns early by Caesar is now going to cost dearly. Alesia Part V One point about the Aremorican Tribes is that they are numerous but have a weak TQ. They also have a larger number of archers. They are poorly suited for the work they are being called on to do. The Aedui continue to make progress against the weakened XVth and also some cohorts of the VIIth. Losses are mounting on both sides and the Gauls may be running out of steam a little. Caesar takes the opportunity to rally the Xth. The effect is to reduce 2 TQ hits per cohort that does nothing else during the turn. This gives a new lease of life to the Xth. If only the Aremorican tribes had been further forward. The Aremoricans start an assault on the northern end of the western rampart and also get a few units around the end of the rampart there. The shock attacks involve several cohorts of the VIth. Most push the attacks back without problem. The cohort at the northern end gets encircled and is destroyed. The Aedui start to pentrate the ramparts with some units now moving within the vallations. The remenants of the XVth hold on as best they can but they are now at 40% losses and give the Gauls one legion towards their more difficult victory conditions. Just as Caesar prepares to continue to rally his troops, Vercingetorix attempts a seizure roll. Fortunately for Caesar he fails, but Caesar stops to think. The only unengaged legion is the IXth. The VIIth will shortly have their hands full, and are in no position to help the western vallations. The XVth has ceased to exist in general and the VIIIth is totally occupied. It will take time for the VIth and Xth to destroy the Aremorican attackers. What to do? Committing the IXth too soon might let the Gauls into the ramparts on the west side. Perhaps when all else fails one should trust in the Xth and let the Gauls do what they will. In case the Alesia force attacks the VIIth he prepares to order the XIth legion to come to the aid of the VIIth. But he pauses to think............... Meanwhile Vercingetorix is looking for his lucky dice. The Gauls have lost over 30,000 men and the Romans 7,000 so far. The Gauls cannot keep this up for much longer.... Alesia Part VI Finale and Summary Caesar decides to do one more rally turn for the Xth and then go mop up the approaching Americon Tribes. Thinking that the Gauls had lost, it was time to look at the rule book and the map. Richard had made a serious change to the NW map area. I had never looked at it that closely before. There was now a gap between the northern and NW vallations where troops could move unimpeded, one reason for moving the Alesian force there in the first place. It required that the minor river be filled in to cross and in truth the VIIth had been strung out to guard the vallations and not touched since, although 2 cohorts guarded against any crossing attempt. It was then I noticed that in changing the map the ramparts no longer were outside the redoubt but actually stopped there. The rampart line now had a break in it. There is a -2 to attack across a redoubt but a -3 for a rampart. Also the redoubt allows stacking the rampart does not. Finally, at the moment, you can force a unit to retreat from a redoubt. From a rampart the unit can choose to take 1 TQ hit and not retreat. The rules require the Gauls to move forward so some low TQs filled up some of the stream and the high TQs the rest to attack the 2 cohorts of the VIIth guarding the crossing. Vercingetorix joined in this attack to give a die roll boost. Most of the Alesia force flung themselves against the western inner ramparts. Many of the low TQ units perished in the attempt, but at least absorbed the defending missile fire. The Gauls were stopped at the ramparts but the cohorts guarding the minor river crossing were driven back, as were the weak 6 TQ cohort guarding the redoubt. There is only a -1 at present for attacking across a minor river, once filled. (Wonder if that will get changed now?) Vercingetorix now prayed to his gods and rolled the die...4! Seizure attempt succeeded. The Gauls launched themselves over the ramparts and attacked. The Gauls in the redoubt found themselves next to the Aquila of the Xth. Needless to say, a battle errupted to capture the Aquila. Meanwhile, the Gauls on the ramparts drove back the 2 cohorts of the VIIIth that were still there. The Gauls outside the ramparts can add numbers to the attack which can be from +2 to +6 depending on how many hexes contain units adjacent to the defender. The Gauls, led by Vercingetorix, continued to drive back the VIIth. Since no one was guarding the gate of the infantry camp, a stack of TQ 8 gauls marched in and started a bit of a rampage, only finally being stopped by the 1st cohort of the VIIth. The Romans counter attacked to stop the breakthrough over the minor river, but much of the VIIth was too far back to do too much good. Sufficient forces arrived to push the Gauls back towards the river. However insufficient forces were given to try and remove the Gauls in the camp. The result was that they were pushed back towards their friends, but not destroyed. When it was the turn of the Gauls, Vercingetorix led his forces once more against the blocking Romans and at last broke them or drove them back. Meanwhile, the Gauls that had stormed the ramparts moved to the gate adjacent and captured the Aquila of the VIth. The Alesia force now had open ground to the north between the northern and NW vallations and a straight shot over the western vallations as well. No matter what Caesar did, he could not stop at least 2 Alesia units from getting out, and Vercingetorix with his movement of 9 could not be caught. THE END Afterward This was the fist victory for the Gauls for me. It involved luck but Caesar made all his seizure rolls. Mistakes were made on both sides but hopefully this outline will give everyone a flavor of the game. To me it seemed the Gauls were in for another loss, but it just goes to show it is not over till it is over. The Gallic player has the harder game but has far more options. Choosing which tribe to use for a given task can be very important. The Gauls lost well over 40,000 men in game terms and the Romans about 10,000. Roman units are about 500 men per counter and the Gauls 700. The Roman player is usually the reacting one, but I personally would normally use the German cavalry more aggresively. It is a hard decision for the Roman player to determine how many units to put in the northern vallations. Also the seizures are game changers. Much thought needs to go into the Roman initial deployments, for if you are caught out of position it can cost dearly. Ultimately, in this game, the Gallic plan worked. The Alesia force struck the ramparts just north of where the IXth was deployed and there were not enough cohorts close enough to hope to stem the tide and Caesar was out of seizure attempts as well. Bringing on another legion was an option, but you can only bring them on 5 units at a time. With the Romans needing every activation they can get, it is hard to move 5 units when you can move 10. The German cavalry were used purely defensively and that was costly too. Hope you folks found some interest in the replay. Cheers!!!!!!! -- Alan Smith --