Battle of the Sabis 57 BC

Side view of the table

Gauls prepare to charge across the River Sabis

Roman foragers deployed near the river

Gallic warbands on the left flank

The Gauls charge and the Romans are forced to give ground

Gauls in the centre surge across the river

Gallic right flank are slow to get of the mark

Gauls pursue on to the hill

Last Sunday Garry, Bern, Gary and I played a Hail Caesar game, the Battle of Sabis 57 BC, down at the Vikings Club in Lanyon. We used the scenario in the Age of Caesar supplement (pp. 26 – 30) but modified it to make it a bit more accurate in terms of the numbers and the troop types involved. We reduced the number of legionary units by one per division, increased the Gallic warbands by one per division and added the slingers and Numidian cavalry that Caesar mentions in his account.

We hadn’t played a game of Hail Caesar for about 18 months so we were all fairly rusty with the rules. The game turned into a disaster for the Romans, thanks to some poor dice rolling and equally woeful command decisions. Caesar was wounded early on and eventually killed. His central division broke, and while the Roman divisions on the flanks were in tact, the Gauls were clearly victorious.