Rampage on the Rhine.



I've re-started a Roman mini-campaign of Rampage on the Rhine.  This uses my DSR Ancients rules (units sizes are 1 Cohort, 1 Warband, 1 Heavy Cav, etc) for field battles. Maneuver to battle occurs on the campaign map.



The Situation at Start

The Germans have become frisky and have started raiding into Roman territory again. To punish them, the Romans have assembled 2 Legions with auxillary support and have 1 month (8 bi-weekly turns) to destroy as many villages and enemy tribes as possible without losing too much themselves in the process.

There are seven tribes that have to be conquered. At start, the only 2 tribes mobilized are the Usipatti and Tencterii. Each turn the German player can attempt to mobilize 1 tribe. Its a race to mobilize enough forces to impede the Romans before they burn the villages (and therefore neutralize that tribe).

At Start:
Romans: 2 Legions, each consisting of 8 Cohorts each, 3 Auxillia Light units, and 1 Auxillia Heavy Cavalry unit.
Germans: The mobilized tribes of the Tencterii and the Usipatti (randomly determined, but roughly 8-10 Warbands, 3-5 Skirmish Infantry and 1-2 Heavy Cavalry per village).

The Germans will eventually have more troops, but it will take time to get them all together. The Roman has the advantage of concentration (and of course the fact they are Roman !). The German player has to play for time and inflict as many casualties on the Roman Cohorts/Heavy Cavalry as possible while preventing the destruction of their villages/tribes.

VPs are awarded as follows:
Romans:
+1 per village destroyed.
+1 per tribe destroyed (e.g. all their villages destroyed).

Germans:
+1 per Cohort/Heavy Cavalry unit destroyed.
+1 if they win a field battle.

At the end of the game, compare the VPs to each other.
The side that scores > 6 more than the other side is the decisive winner.
The side that scores > 3 more than the other side is the marginal winner.
Any other result is a draw (and the border wars will continue), but bragging rights go the the higher VP total.

In my experience, the Romans win almost all the field battles but have a hard time garnering enough points for a decisive win as they steadily lose more units to the seemingly inexhaustable Germans. Its good for generating several battles of decent size.

I'll keep you posted on the results from the campaign.