In SPQR Battle of Alesia 52 BC, you recreate the historical final battle of Alesia in 52 BC, during Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul.
In the heart of Gaul, 52 BC, a battle unfolded that would reshape history. Julius Caesar had been carving a bloody path through the Gaul lands. Vercingetorix, the famed Celtic warrior-king, confident, rallied the scattered tribes of Gaul into a desperate stand on a fortified hilltop in Alesia. From within the encircled settlement, he watched as a vast Gaul relief army of some 250,000 men gathered to finally crush the brutally outnumbered Romans, a storm cloud promising a final, glorious clash.
Unknowingly, Vercingetorix had cornered Caesar into taking one of three potential actions; assault an entrenched enemy in the Alesia oppidum, lay a long-protracted siege with the specter of a large army of Gaul tribes that could arrive at any time from his rear, or retreat. He placed Caesar in an untenable position.
Julius Caesar then did something extraordinary, defying the convention and military doctrine of the time, even by today's standards; Caesar elected a fourth option. He ordered his army to construct two massive walls and fortifications; one facing and encircling the Alesia oppidum, and the other the outside. He encircled himself and his legions within the two walls, thus deliberately placing himself in a position to be attacked on two fronts. However, the walls were not hastily built parapets, it was an intricate system of fortifications, towers, pits, and earthworks designed to place the attackers at a great disadvantage. This is where Julius Caesar’s military genius and unflinching commitment to the conquest of Gaul would be tested in the crucible of combat. A defeat at Alesia meant the end of Roman incursions into Gaul and the most brutal defeat in the history of the Roman Army. The stakes could not be higher for Caesar, Rome, and his legionnaires.
The day of reckoning arrived. The massive Gaul relief army surged against the Roman circumvallation lines. Inside Alesia, Vercingetorix’s warriors, driven by both hope and desperation, slammed against the Roman contravallation wall. It was a battle on two fronts, a desperate gamble for freedom for the Gauls.
Will you lead the Roman Legions to glorious victory, or be annihilated in the muddy fields of Alesia far from the light of Rome?
