Aegidius confronts Armorica

Aegidius, magister militum per Gallias, held one of the remaining fragments of the Western Roman Empire. Following the assassination of Majorian and the placement of Libius Severus as emperor prompted Aegidius to rebel and declare an independent kingdom of Soissons. It would not be long before rival kingdoms would seek to expand their own territories. 

First to invade the kingdom of Soissons, Armorica found the army of Aegidius prepared and deployed for battle. The field, flanked by wood and a river forced Armorica to deploy its infantry in deep columns with the majority of its cavalry on the left facing the Gallo-Roman infantry.

Sensing an opportunity, Aegidius launched an attack to catch the Armorican as they exited the bottleneck created by terrain.

The nearby wood, flanking the field, soon became hotly contested forcing Aegidius to send mercenaries from his reserve line. Unfortunately, their departure left Aegidius with fewer troops to staunch the breakthrough made by the enemy. To salvage the situation, Aegidius led his own guard into the breach only to find himself surrounded. Seeing their commander fall, the Gallo-Romans lost heart and fled the field (3+gen – 1). 

A second battle was played but deployment areas were exchanged.   

Advancing forward, the Gallo-Roman line wheeled its entire line, seemingly to invite the enemy cavalry to attacks its exposed right flank. In response, Armorica repositioned the infantry to meet the approaching line and, in that moment, the Gallo-Roman line struck.

Caught off-balance, Armorican light horse could make no impression on the open flank as they were soon ambushed by troops hidden in the wood. Elsewhere, the legion and auxilia crashed into the Armorican line, The carnage that followed crushed the entire Armorican right forcing them to flee (4 – 0). 

Observations

Both games ended quickly, four turns were needed to reach a decision. Both sides made use of the restricted terrain and avoided the temptation to place troops on the opposite bank, the distance between river and wood was less than 7BW. 

Game one, Rome planned to catch a disadvantaged Armorica before their light horse could move onto the open plain, Roman troops however, were not ideally placed to make an effective assault and Armorica easily countered to break through part of the Roman line.