Calling all armchair generals! Boudica's Last Stand.

[Hanny]

This is exactly what I've been saying all along. I'm glad you have finally agreed - perhaps you would now care to retract your accusations about inability to read, understand, count, etc?

It was accurate then and remains so, so nope.

Of course not. See below.

Good, cant wait, the suspense is killing me....

Paulinus would have marched from Wroxeter around mid June with an army of c.20,000 men provisioned for a three month campaign in Wales, supplies carried on mules and in carts. He would have built roads and forts as he advanced, establishing his line of communication and supply.

He would?, what makes up this 20000 is a problem as that dont leave hardly any Aux for any other legions in Britain, but hey ho he established a loC and loS back to Wroxeter which as a years supply for a legion, but now has to maintain,20,000 or 4 times what it expects to support, Wroxeter Legionary fort now contain, 990000lbs to sustain this level of manpower you want him to have.

So he has 3 months with him?, what does that look i wonder, 3960000lbs of manpower rations, 200000lbs of water is 4160000lbs. 5000 mules at 190lbs is 950000 leaves 3210000lbs, everyone gets to carry 17 days extra rations, of 748000lbs, leaving 2462000lbs to be on carts, so at 1050lbs a 4 wheeled wagon, thats 2344 wagons pulled by 4700 oxen. Easy they had the 17 days on them from day one, or you need more carts. Nose to tail thats c12 miles of carts, 7 miles of mules and 2 miles of manpower.

Next problem.
Now still 7 camps between it and P in Angelsey, but now you have to supply 20000.

Each day 20,000*2.2lbs rations =44000 lbs, so you need 231 mules to deliver that each day, which means you need 7 of that coming in and 7 of that going back empty, so you need 3234 mules a day for food rations. Roman road is 20 feet in width, so 3 mules width one way, a mule is c7 feet nose to tail, so c5% of the total road net is full of mules each day, so yes you can have that volume on mules or anything else on the road, with ease, but not if you want to have 3 months carried, as that requires 21 miles of road net each day which is greater than the 18 miles between camps.

So by Sept 3, the mules have worked every day to move the rations consumed each day, which leaves P with nothing left over and nothing in stock, thats just to provide each days food.

Once he learned of the Iceni revolt, he would have supplied an expeditio force of c.6-7000 men with marching rations for 14-17 days, drawing from the supplies remaining for his campaign force.

I see, so now P has 20,000 manpower, but the threat to the province is so great he only takes a third of it with him, but Angelsey is Roman free for 2 decades post Iceni revolt, but was held down by 10s of 000s in your timeline. So, now he loads up 14-17 days rations, so how did that get there?, it needs more mules or human portage, 14 days is 215600lbs, 17 days is 261800lbs, which is now on mens backs, so thats between 31lbs and 37lbs ration on top of kit, your going to want to drink so thats another 10lbs a man which he replaces every day as the logistic fairy is a kind fairy, so kit plus 41 to 47 lbs. To build up 17 days stock to put on the Legions, and your using Aux as legions btw, requires a further 1377 mule trips in addition to the existing ones and a week to do it in.
Or maybe its instead on mens backs from day one, or we need 4620 mules.

He would then have marched back along his line of communication, 18 standard miles a day, to link up with Cerialis at Godmanchester. He would have known that he could get his force to either Colchester or London within 14-16 days and resupply them there..

His loC and LoS go back to Wroxeter, not Godmanchester, now you want a Cohort sized fort, which may not exist at this time, or a town that was burnt at this time, to have enough food for 7000 men, plus feed Cerialis force of what 3000.This is your cautouse general, marching of to a destination that may not exist,cannot feed the force marching to it if it does exist, leaving him with a max of 6 days rations when he gets there.

So the only remaining question is whether you believe that Roman troops could have marched for fourteen days on the road without pause, or not. I believe they could have done this, and there are examples from our sources of larger forces covering similar or greater distances very rapidly.

No Roman army was trained to carry 17 days rations and its kit, and march 18 mpd, it was trained to march 18 mpd with its kit on roads. You think Romans went into hostile land and they marched at 18 mpd cross country with 100ls loads, i think not.

Longest Spec ops with no re supply and carrying 100lbs is a week, D day UK Paras went in with 3 days supplies and carried 140lbs, first wave Inf with 100ls for same 3 days, longest YOMP was the Falklands of 3 days, S Jackson valley campaign of 48 days was a 14 mpd average, on macadamised roads. 1862 Army Officer's Pocket Companion, A Manual for Staff Officers in the Field

A mean average of 20 miles is the proper measure to adopt, remembering that cavalry can, from time to time, clear as much as 30 miles. A column of infantry passes over about two and one half miles in an hour, at the route step, including halts; a column of cavalry alternately walking and trotting will get over six miles an hour. For both infantry and cavalry one day of rest is sufficient after six or eight days of consecutive marching.A Corps of 25,000 men in a similar order, will occupy a space of about two and one-half miles in length, will take a little over one hour to deploy by either flank, and half an hour to deploy on the center

Paulinus, knowing that his province was in imminent danger, would have pushed his troops as hard as he dared. Stopping to rest his mules, for example, when Roman citizen lives (and his own reputation) were at stake would not, I think, have even occurred to him.

Esp since you have told me that he has everything on the mens backs so has no mules, so no tents, no means to did teh turf and make a camp if needed, ( plutarch tells us the grain grinders had to be abandoned when the mules died, and the army went without bread, so no mules means you cant work the ears of wheat to make anything to eat) and everything else the legions needs that mules carried. It occurred to Engels in his Logistics of the Macedon Army, as he cities Army regs for a min of a 1 day in 7 to prevent sores opening up on baggage animals under load that start on day 5 onwards from breaking down and being un usable. So P would know he gets there and has lost a large number of his transport element to them breaking down and limiting any further logisticallift. Any ho, now you want mules, so your going to have to feed/fodder/water them as well, so staying with engels for baggage animals, we get 10lbs food, 10lbs fodder, 80lbs water a day, let me know how that woks out for you.

He refers to Marcus Junkelmann's experimental march of 500km across the Alps with a group of untrained German civilians carrying reconstructed Roman packs of 43-46kg, averaging 25km a day, as evidence that this would indeed have been possible.

No disputes you can march in normal kit along a road at 18mpd.