GI 03 Battle of the Volturnus 554 AD

Historical Background

During the later stages of the Gothic War, the Gothic king Teia called upon the Franks for help against the Roman armies under the eunuch Narses. Although king Theudebald refused to send aid, he allowed two of his subjects, the Alemanni chieftains Leutharis and Butilinus, to cross into Italy. In the spring of 554, the two brothers invaded central Italy, plundering as they descended southwards until they came to Samnium. Leutharis soon turned back home, laden with spoils. Butilinus, on the other hand, more ambitious and possibly persuaded by the Goths to restore their kingdom with himself as king, resolved to remain. The following summer he marched back to Campania and erected a camp on the banks of the Volturnus. When Narses found out about the location of the Alemanni camp, he set forth at the head of an 18,000 strong force, including strong contingents of Heruli mercenaries.

War Council
Alemanni Army (Use Tan blocks and Byzantine Inspired Actions)
• Leader: Butilinus
• 5 Command Cards
• 3 Inspired Action tokens
• Move First

Byzantine Army (Use Purple blocks)
• Leader: Narses
• 5 Command Cards
• 3 Inspired Action tokens

Victory
6 Banners

Special Rules
• If at any moment the Byzantine player has two more victory points than the Alemanni player, two Byzantine Warrior units and one stacked leader are placed in two baseline hexes of the central section, on the Byzantine side. The Heruli enter the battle.
• The Byzantine Medium and Heavy Cavalry units are armed with bows.
• The river Vulturnus is impassable.

This needs to be playtested!

some questions, answers are mostly obvious, but asking never hurts;

1. The river is impassable except at the fords?
2. The Heruli are placed immediately, even if for instance the 2 banner advantage is in the Alemanni turn?

Concerning the Heruli, they essentially waited to see the development of the battle to decide if entering or not the fray. With the rule written this way, it's clear that they cannot be ordered the turn they enter the map.

Concerning the fords, yes, my original idea was to give some extra retreat hexes to the Alemanni by placing some fords. But this is not realistic. The Volturno is a relatively big river and it is unlikely there were fords in the area near Capua (that's the approximate place of the battle). I think I will change a bit the map. Thanks for the feedback!

Played this scenario tonight, final results of battle...

Alemanni - 2 VP
Byzantine - 6 VP

The Alemanni got out to an early 2-1 lead as General Butilinius repelled a Roman charge on their right flank, killing Byzantine General Artabanes in the process. However, the Alemanni did not fare as well on their left flank as Narses led a successful cavalry charge on the Alemanni left flank. Narses and his heavy cavalry finished off the battle despite heavy casualties for a Roman victory 6-2.

Casualties
Alemanni (29) - 5 Auxilia, 13 Warriors, 11 Medium Infantry

Byzantine (12) - 3 Auxilia, 1 Medium Cavalry, 7 Heavy Cavalry, 1 Leader (Artabanes)













Challenging scenario for the Alemanni to win I suspect. The Byzantine Cavalry advantage might be a lot to overcome, especially with no ranged attack. I would think the Alamanni would need an aggressive attack in the center with their warriors to try and break the Byzantine line before the cavalry can attack the flanks of the Alamanni lines with their cavalry.

Thanks for creating this scenario

Pete

Could you post a Vassal save file for this scenario, please Guilio ?

Or have I missed it somewhere already?

The VASSAL file for this scenario:

Hi Pete,
thanks a lot for the AAR. Did you find that 6 VP was a fair amount or you had preferred the battle to be longer (7 banners) or shorter (5 banners)? Archery was an essential factor in the real battle. A possible way of making the Byzantine more reliant on missile weapons and less on cavalry charge is replacing one or two Medium Cavalry units with light bow cavalry. How do you feel about that?

I would stay with 6 banners. This battle "moved" pretty quickly, but that is part of what is great about C&C Medieval compared to other C&C games by GMT...the action happens fast, you are on top of your opponent quickly, and it gets BLOODY in a hurry! This does a nice job reflecting the warfare of the time.

I would definitely replace some of the Roman med cavalry with bow cav. I am talking like all 4 med cav with light bow cav maybe. This might help balance the battle quite a bit and better reflect the real battle.

Granted I have only played this scenario once, but I have played every scenario in the base game at least twice now. CCM emphasizes cavalry. Any match up in this game where the cavalry is as lop sided in favor of one side as you have this one, is going to put the side lacking cavalry at a major disadvantage in my opinion. I think for the Almanni to compete in this one, you are going to have to either get them some cavalry to answer to the Roman's cav or put them in some cover (forrest, hills, etc) to negate the powerful advantage the cavalry have (of course, this might not stay true to the actual battle). I'm a pretty experienced CCM player and I just do not see the Almanni winning this scenario very often as it is. However, maybe that is just the point. In this battle the Almanni are suppose to be at a major disadvantage and the fun of it is to see if you can figure out how to pull off a victory with the them.

Based on Peter's remarks and a further round of playtesting I slightly modified the scenario setup.