Temp League - Game Six - Early Carthage vs Carthage in Italy

[massina_nz]

Well I choose the best map I thought of the choices I had, haven’t played this map before. Oh dear lots of marsh and lots of opponent MF, damn I can’t really move my main forces forward, so I send out my cavalry to harass.

[massina_nz]

Nothing much happening yet– my opponent isn’t too impressed by this map either. I get a LH to stick but didn’t expect it, otherwise I would have positioned this unit facing back (it moved before the LF that stuck).

[massina_nz]

My army is stuck, it can’t move forward, so I have to allow the enemy to come to me, which means I have completely lost the initiative due to my map choice, this seemed to be the best map to choose as the other three looked very rough, but this is actually the worse choice I could have made.

[massina_nz]

Luckily my fragmented LF survives as the enemy Numidian cavalry routs. My opponent is leading with his spearmen, fully aware that my chariots will wreak havoc on the Campanian blades and his MF. All I can do is wait. Shocking general ship really.

[massina_nz]

More positioning – My enemy’s weakness is his MF in the open, however he can use his spearmen to just push the mF’s greatest threat, my cavalry back. On a more open map it would be different. But I didn’t choose one! I just thought I had!

[massina_nz]

I get aggressive and lock in some skirmishers, hoping to expose the non spears to my chariots. In hindsight this was a poor decision as all of my LF end up routing eventually.

[massina_nz]

I surprise my opponent with the number chariots I have, so far so good in the centre – if I can get the upper hand here it could prove vital.

[massina_nz]

Despite losing several LF units this turn, things look promising as most of the enemy veteran spearmen are either fragmented, below or at 75%. If I can break the spearmen in the centre then I have a chance as the heavy chariots will then be able to turn their attention elsewhere.

[massina_nz]

The fight rages on, as the enemy arrives at my flanks, will I be able to break the centre before the envelop me? Some of the enemy Veteran African Spearmen are getting very close to automatic rout levels, and their C-in-C looks very vulnerable.

[massina_nz]

The fighting is brutal, results are pretty even at the moment, but I think I’m vulnerable to a lot of rear attacks next turn, so the game for me could be over next turn.

[massina_nz]

It’s just plain chaotic here, a lot of my moves are just to cover the rear hexes of my exposed units already in combat. See at (X) how I’ve attacked a routing unit, as when it moves it will drag my unit into the rear of the enemy C-in-C and will disrupt it and lock it into combat.

[massina_nz]

My cavalry on the left dissolve, and I can’t get the domino routs I need to even things up. So I end up losing in the following enemy turn.

In retrospect my poor map choice doomed me from the start. My cavalry advantage was wiped away by all the rough terrain.