Carthaginians versus Spartans

[Saurocet]

A friend of mine, Keith, and I played a FoG game last night. He took Spartans and I took Carthaginians. His set up was far superior to mine (which is usual and customary).


The Battlefield
The table, from the Carthaginian perspective, had a gully in the top left corner (Spartan right flank) and a village a few inches below that. There was an open field right in the center of the table. Another open plowed field was in the top right corner (Spartan left flank). Towards the center of the table on the right was a forest and on the Carthaginian right flank were a small hill and a large hill. My left flank was clear flat terrain.


Deployment
Keith set up his 4 Spartan BGs and a regular hoplite BG in a line in the center about a foot and half north of the open plowed field in the center. Guarding the flanks of this battle line were a Spartan BG, about 4 inches behind and to the Spartan left, and a regular hoplite on the opposite flank. Behind the main battle line and in the center was a 6 stand heavy cavalry unit. A light horse unit was playing wide receiver on the Spartan’s left flank.

Keith also put an ambush markers in the village, one in the gulley, and one behind the trees.

I set the 2 African spearmen BGs in a long line across the hills on my right. My heavy infantry Celtiberians were in the back and center. I set up my 2 medium foot BGs (Gauls and Poeni) in a line in front in the center poised to take the open field. Then I put my elephants (4 stands strong), light horse, and cavalry on my left flank. I had three skirmisher infantry spread out in front.


First Moves
For the first few turns Keith anchored his Spartan right flank on the village and wouldn’t come out. I moved my whole force forward with my medium infantry taking the open field in the middle. I chose to halt there while my heavy infantry making slow progress by moving up and over the hills on the right. My cavalry moved forward pretty fast towards the village by taking double moves, but as I got there with my light cavalry, Keith got a good shot at them with his bowmen and spooked them. They became disrupted and ran away for a turn. The other light horse was charged by a BG of Spartans and fled as well.

Keith was using his light horse unit on his left to slow down my heavy infantry. Since my heavy infantry were within 6 inches of his horsemen I wasn’t able to get any double moves. Plus the hills slowed them down a lot.

My heavy cavalry kept moving all the way around the village and eventually got behind it. Meanwhile, my javelinmen charged Keith’s bowmen in the village. My javelinmen got the upper hand there in the first round of melee.

As my skirmish line in the center moved up, they conducted missile fire but didn’t do any damage to Keith’s hoplites. However, they did force the Spartans to charge; which they did but very unevenly. Keith’s line started to look very jagged. He broke one skirmish BG and it fled. At this point, I sent in my elephants. They slammed into a wall of spear and died. They lasted 2 whole turns and inflicted absolutely no damage at all.

In order to support my elephants (which were being poked by long pointy sticks at the time) I sent in my two medium foot units. Big mistake! I should have waited on my heavy infantry on my right to catch up. But it was taking them FOREVER to climb over the hills. My Gauls and Poeni medium infantry took it on the chin in the first turn of contact.


Quick Recap
At this point, Keith broke 2 of my units. I was wearing down one of his skirmishers and he is tearing through my medium infantry. My heavy cavalry behind the village threatened his rear area, but he had two ambush markers. I kept thinking he has to have a Thracian unit somewhere?!? They could be in the gulley near my on-coming cavalry or behind the forest in front on my on-coming heavy infantry. He could also have another skirmisher unit in the village as well, but that’s just a guess.


Last Moves
My 2 cavalry units completed their wide swing around the village and slammed into a group of javelinmen. The javelinmen were holding well against one of my cavalry units while my other cavalry unit charged Keith’s cavalry. I should have won that cav-on-cav fight, but lost in 2 turns.

My slingers kept the pressure up on his bowmen on the south side of village and eventually broke them. However, as one of my cavalry units ran past the opposite side of the village, the Thracian Peltasts jumped up and pushed my slingers back out of the village.

In the center, the Spartans were awesome. They quickly beat off the two Carthaginian medium foot units. The Poeni medium foot lasted one turn and the Gauls lasted 2. I never got my best units into the fight. They were about 6 inches from contacting Keith’s hoplites before we called the game. Keith had 10 break points (skirmishers, elephants, cavalry, and 2 medium foot) to my 2 (skirmishers).

In the end, my swing around the village encountered too much resistance to play a role in defeating the Spartan center. My center wasn’t strong enough to last long against the Spartan battle groups. And my right flank took way too long to get into the fight.


Strategy for Next Time
If I had to do it over again, I would place my cavalry units evenly on both sides: 1 heavy & 1 light. I would place the elephants in the rear on my left flank so that if an enemy hoplite unit started to falter I could charge in. Also, by placing the elephants on one flank I discourage the enemy from placing his cavalry on that side. I would have put my best troops, African spearmen heavy infantry, in the center flanked by the medium foot.

[Redpossum]

Cool AAR, thanks for the recap

By the way, were these Early Carthaginians?