Migration to Kingdom, 407 AD

Synopsis

This first scenario begins in January of 407 AD with the Vandals, Alans and Suevi having crossed the Rhine near Mogontiacum (Mainz). It was not long before news of their crossing had spread throughout the adjacent provinces of Germania I, but with the field army of Gallia still deployed in Italia, local military and civil officials were no doubt preparing their cities for the eventual sieges that would follow.

For the initial series of tests we have two players, one for the barbarian side and a second playing Rome.

This had the barbarian player responsible for the movement of three nations and the Roman player would have initially the Franks (foederati) and eventually the army of Britannia (Constantine III) for his use.

Barbarian Player

Each barbarian nation is represented by two counters; one representing its civilians and second counter, the tribal army. The counters are not stacked and therefore will require the standard point cost to move to the next province. Having each counter move independently demonstrated the need to forage, plunder and further illustrates the lack of cooperation among the tribes to assist one another. Taking this a step further, each of the barbarian army commands should represent a confederation of smaller tribes and may experience movement obstacles; this may operate along similar line to the DBA rule for "allied contingents".   

Roman Player

At the start of the game, Roman militia garrison each of the provincial capitals and will not leave their respective cities. Germania II is home to the Franks and as Foederati they have an agreement to defend Roman territory. The Franks are represented by an army counter and moving it requires the same point cost as stated in the campaign rule set.

Starting in Britannia is Constantine III, represented by an army counter. His departure to Gallia is set for early spring and his arrival coincides with his declaring for the “purple” so the Roman player will not only need to focus on the immediate threat that the barbarians pose but also any retaliatory actions taken by Imperial Rome.

Objectives for 407 AD.

Historically the migration took nearly three years to reach a conclusion, therefore the complete destruction of all the barbarian nations as a Roman victory condition should be deemed unrealistic; considering any command may restore its losses using activity points. 

At the moment I am considering a successful conclusion for the barbarian player as the displacement of all six counters further into Gallia, which would mean leaving Germania I to an adjacent province, as this can no longer sustain the tribes.

The Roman player assumes the role of Constantine III at the start of the game. The Franks are his sole army command to contain the barbarian horde until his own troops from Britannia arrive. Therefore, keeping the horde contained in Germania I would greatly enhance his prestige so I am considering a scale of success based on the number of counters that remain in Germania I. This may change, but it remains a reasonable start.

Game map one.

This first scenario will play out over the provinces west of the Rhine and these are Germania I and II, Belgica I and II, Lugdunenesis Senonia and Lugdunensis I.