"Well?" the older General smiled at the somewhat abashed Gaius.
"That would have been a disaster," Gaius admitted sheepishly.
"And why did that potential disaster happen?"
"The enemy reinforcements weren't supposed to exist," Gaius said. "According to my scouts. ."
"You relied on one piece of information without verifying it," the older General agreed, "and you made no effort to check it, not that that would have made a lot of difference. But that's not the issue. What is the lesson?"
"I don't now," Gaius admitted. "I was. ." He stopped. What could he say?
"Fighting Caesar's most famous battle," the General challenged.
"I recognized it," Gaius admitted, then added sadly, "Caesar won it, and I didn't."
"That's not the lesson," the General said. "The lesson is essentially one of defence. The Gauls had correctly found one of the best defensive spots available, and so far, they are winning. It's generally wrong to launch a primary attack up-hill. The problem for the Gauls was, Caesar did not attack."
"Neither did I," Gaius admitted, "but I still lost."
"Because you assumed the Gauls would adopt a passive defence," the General said. "He who maintains a passive defence eventually loses. The key to adopting a defensive strategy is to spot a critical moment and know when to turn it into an offensive one. Once the Romans began digging trenches, they generated a new problem. Can you see it?"
"I had to dig trenches all the way around the hill," Gaius replied, "which meant thinning out my forces. Perhaps I should have kept them closer together."
"Then I would have merely marched away down the other side."
"That's what I thought," Gaius admitted. "So I spread out the troops, and. ."
"And I lead a concentrated attack from above at a perceived weaker point in the line, coupled with an external attack that Caesar did not have to defend against until his works were complete. Once through, what happened next was inevitable."
"So what should I have done?" Gaius frowned. "The way you put it, it was a no-win game."
"Life can be like that," the General shrugged. "Sometimes you are destined to lose."
"That's not very positive," Gaius shook his head. "You've got to do something."
"Yes, you do," the General said. "The object is to be more competent than your enemy, and if you're not, then at least be sufficiently competent to live and fight another day."
"I should have run?" Gaius frowned.
"No, but you should have had a line of retreat," the General advised. "You're seriously outnumbered, there are enemy reinforcements coming, so you can't be assured of winning. In fact, in any attack, a General should have a line of retreat thought out. You can never guarantee to win, so when it's not your day, your first priority is to salvage what you can.
"Your next mistake was strategic," the General went on. "What was your objective?"
"To defeat the Gauls," Gaius frowned.
"A commendable objective," the General smiled, while a slightly amused and condescending look crossed his face. "It is, however, the overall objective of the war and is not a strategic objective, or at least not a clear current objective."
"But if I beat the Gauls I win the war," Gaius protested.
"Then prioritize," the General said. "There are two forces of Gauls. The ones on the hill are doing nothing, and they are in an optimal defensive position. If they stay there, you can come and get them some time later. The real problem is if they come down and attack in conjunction with the new force. I would argue that if they had done that with everything they had against Caesar, even with the palisades complete, Caesar would have lost. Too many of those on the hill sat on their arses and watched, and even then it was a close thing. Now, what you must do as soon as you hear that the new enemy force has arrived before you get your defensive fortifications in place is to bring all your forces to what you see as your best spot, which, as an aside, could be somewhere else. Try to deceive them, try to split them, and attack one part at a time. Which brings me to the next point. While your men are digging trenches, you should get a clear idea of advantages and disadvantages of the local terrain, and form a reserve plan of what to do if someone else turns up. Remember, after you heard about the additional enemy forces you had a day to implement any manoeuvres.
"Yes, I know, in that day you might waste half an hour while inspiration came, and you had two minutes on the board game, but that's not the point. You won't learn enough playing in real time. What you should take from this is that once the situation changed so dramatically you must adapt. Forget about surrounding those on the hill. Your best move is to protect your rear, and attack the relief force.
"But your real major fault was that you were not fighting your battle. You were lazily showing me you remember what Caesar did. I would argue Caesar was somewhat lucky in that campaign, and you cannot rely on such luck. It may be that Caesar had a plan to deal with a Gaul counter-attack before construction finished, but since, apart from continual skirmishes, one did not eventuate we do not know. However, we do know you had no such plan, and once the unexpected began, you found yourself helpless. Think about this, and we shall resume again tomorrow."
* * *
Once again, Gaius was staring at the board. A message had arrived informing him that the enemy had been sighted. Two separate forces were heading towards his two villages, and in five days would enter his zone of agriculture. At present they were leaving the wooded area at the head of the valley, one part was marching down the side of the river towards the northern village, while the other appeared to be marching south, presumably to attack the second village from the east. There seemed to be little alternative. He split his legion into roughly two equal groups, and sent one group to each village, with instructions to secure the villages, then to march out towards the enemy and then engage him as far from the villages as possible. He would lead the group defending the nearest village.
Timothy took his actions to the other room, and when he returned he said with a smile, "Go back to the beginning. You have received a message that the enemy is now in a single force, and is marching down the southern side of the river towards village number one."
Gaius shrugged, and said, "I send out more exploratores to verify this is so, but. ."
"Assume it is so," Timothy intervened.
"Then I march my legion to the first village, then I head out to intercept the enemy. I aim to meet him about here," he said, and pointed to the map. "I shall line up and prevent entry to our territory, but the exact deployment will be left until I see exactly where and how he deploys."
Timothy left, and returned with a General who was shaking his head sadly. "As I suspected," he smiled. "You have some idea of tactics, but little idea of strategy."
"I don't understand," Gaius said, a trifle angrily.
"Strategy is more than just going out there, meeting the enemy, and fighting. Let's look at the first scenario. The enemy has split his forces to give you two problems. You simply accepted the two problems."
"What else could I do?" Gaius frowned. "I could hardly give up one of the villages."
"No," the General smiled. "You should leave some forces with each. Take advantage that you are fighting on your home ground, and recruit help."
"The citizens pay their taxes for the legion to defend them. They. ."
"They don't wish to be raped and pillaged," the General countered. "They will help build fortifications. Your men may have to do most of the fighting, but you can count on a number of them standing behind protected fortifications and letting loose some arrows."
"I suppose, but supposing the enemy is merely pillaging the farm land. I can't. ."