500pts of Punic war. 25mm
Republican Roman.
FCCavalry Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x2
Velites light foot C Drilled Unprotected Javelins Light Spear x5
Hastati heavy foot B Drilled Protected Impact foot Skilled Swordsmen x6
Principles heavy foot B Drilled Armoured Impact foot Skilled Swordsmen x6
Velites light foot C Drilled Unprotected Javelins Light Spear x5
Hastati heavy foot B Drilled Protected Impact foot Skilled Swordsmen x6
Principles heavy foot B Drilled Armoured Impact foot Skilled Swordsmen x6
Triarii heavy foot A Drilled Armoured Off Spearmen Spearmen x4
Cavalry Cavalry B Drilled Protected Light spear Swordsmen x4
Spanish Scutarri MediumFoot C Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x4
Numidians Light Horse C Undrilled Unprotected Javelins Light Spear x4
Carthaginians
FC Cavalry Armoured Light Spear Swordsmen x 2
Gallic cavalry Cavalry B Undrilled Protected Light Spear Swordsmen x 5
Spanish Cavalry Cavalry B Undrilled Protected Light Spear Swordsmen x 5
Numidians Light Horse C Undrilled Unprotected Javelins Light Spear x 6
African Spearmen heavy foot C Drilled Protected Offensive Spearmen Spearmen x 6
Libyan Javelinmen light foot C Undrilled Unprotected Javelins Ligh Spear x 6
Spanish Scutarii Medium Foot C Drilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x 8
Gallic Foot Medium Foot C Impulsive/Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x 8
Gallic Foot Medium Foot C Impulsive/Undrilled Protected Impact foot Swordsmen x 8
Elephants Afrcan elephants C Undrilled x 2
Bruttians Medium Foot D Drilled Protected Light Spear Swordsmen x 6
We only had 3.5 hours to play the game and we really wanted to see a conclusion. So, we did away with the scouting phase and deployed ???historically??™. We had no flank marches or ambushes. We only
had ???nominal??™ camps, as they are so large that they take up too much room in the centre of the line.
The initial deployment was :-
Carthaginians defended and so went first (this we read on the forum and was a change to our previous games). Confirmation of this would be good.
Initial Deployment
Bound 1.
The Carthagians advanced aggressively on both flank where they have obvious numeric advantages. All marches were successful. After deployment it did fell like the Carthaginians have an overall numeric advantage , obviously at cost of quality.
Bound 2.
Romans advanced. Velites on the left flank occupying the edge of the rough. The right flank collapsed back to avoid the oncoming onslaught. The drilled troops in the centre passed their CMT easily with the general in tow. It was obviously easier for the drilled Romans compared to the undrilled Carthaginians ??“ felt OK
Bound 3
Impact
The more numerous Libyans charged the Velites in the rough. The outcome favoured the Romans. This was really down to the dice. The Libyans wavered.
Movement.
The Carthaginians moved again trying to press on the flanks. The Celts remained in reserve (un -triggered)
Melee phase. The wavering Libyans broke. Average dice with the Romans having the upper hand.
Bound 4
Movement.
The heavy foot began to incline as above. The gap created was to be filled with the Triarii.
Bound 5
Movement.
The Celts moved to support the centre. The line consolidated somewhat. The attack on the Carth right had stalled with the fleeing Libyans blocking the advance of the Spanish, and the mounted not wishing to attack the velites in the rough. The Carth left flank massed and redressed the ranks.
Bound 6
Movement.
The Romans continued their incline, the Triarii reserve marches on to fill the gap. The Libyans fled again and their general attached to them to try to rally.
Bound 7
Movement.
The Celts failed the CMT and had to advance full speed. This started the series of events that concluded the game. The rest of the moves were to support this The Libyans rallied one grade to wavering.
Bound 8
Movement.
The Romans continued their advance ??“ inclining left and right and Triarii in the centre. The Romans did seem to move easily and seemed to be in a strong position.
The Libyans failed to rally ??“ still wavering.
Bound 9
Movement.
This was indeed the pivotal bound. The Carthaginian line was out of range (just). The Celts failed the CMT to short move or halt. They had to move straight forward full distance. The Elephants failed the CMT to short move and advanced full move. They stood slightly forward of the main line. It was a bit of a mess. The undrilled troops were difficult to keep under control.
Bound 10
Impact.
The hastati on the left charged the elephants. Pressing forward allowed the line to contact the African spear to the left. It wasn??™t a wheel as such as depicted. The Hastati on the right impacted the Celts which stood just short of them.
The Hastati on the left rolled well, inflicting 5 hits on the elephants. The Elephants hit once. (poor dice) The African spear also rolled poorly with only a singe hit. The Hastati hit twice.
All death rolls were passed (the Romans couldn??™t fail) apart from the Elephants (even with the +1). Bad news for them. They lost and element and would therefore autobreak. Lesson here 2 element units of elephants are brittle!! Cohesion tests. The Africans disrupted. The Gauls adjacent to elephant failed the cohesion and disrupted.
The Hastati on the right had lesser luck. A relatively bloodless impact phase left the Romans disrupted.
Movement.
Now??¦ the Principle on the right used their ability to switch ranks with the disrupted Hastati for the forthcoming melee phase. I??™m not sure with did this correctly. There were contradictory rules
governing this. Primarily whether you can contact in any phase other than impact. We judged that you could otherwise the ???replacing ranks??™ rule didn??™t make any sense!
Melee.
Hastati lined up with the African spear, advancing into the gap vacated by the elephant. Not sure when the out break elephants are removed?
The Melee here again went the Romans way. The spearmen went to wavering.
On the right the Principles supported by the disrupted Hastati attacked the Celts. This was a draw (down to dice) The Romans were quids in to win , but failed.
Bound 11
Impact
The Spanish on the Carthaginian right charged the Velites. The charge fell short and the Scutarii chose to move the minimum.
On the opposite flank the Carthagians threw in the Gallic cavalry on the end on the line to try and inflict some casualties as the centre was disintegrating. This looked ok in theory. Cavalry charging the end of the line of disrupted foot. However, the POA was with the Romans still!! However, only a couple of elements were in contact and the resultant Roman cohesion test was passed.
Movement
A couple of units were brought up to bolster the flanks. Another anomaly, the central gallic unit failed its CMT to halt (partly because it was now disrupted) This meant that they should advance toward (and contact) the Triarii. (didn??™t make any sense to us, so we left as was)
Melee.
The African lost another element, but survived the Cohesion test. The Gauls facing the Principles lost an element, but survived the test. They were suffering now against B class, armoured, skilled swordsmen in melee. (++) re-rolling 1??™S!!!
Bound 12.
Impact.
The Triarii and Princples charged the disrupted Gallic foot in the centre. It looked to be curtains. As they were already wavering it wasn??™t too difficult to punish them sufficiently to fail a Coh test by 1 grade and waver
Movement
None
Melee.
The African lost again and began to waver. The Gauls on the Roman right lose another grade and wavered. The Centre Gallic unit lost again and failed a cohesion test , it broke. This caused the flanking/wavering African spears & Gauls to test ??¦. And break. The centre was broken
Conclusion
The Carthaginans had lost 4 units (8pts). The Romans had lost 0. So it was a 16-0 score. Probably an appropriate score.
While the Romans did have some favourable luck they were never in a situation where the looked like they were in trouble. The undrilled Carthaginians really had some manoeuvre issues which were punished by the Romans. We probably expected the centre fight to be a little more even, but it was quite one sided.
The battle looked OK. Feeling quite like a battle of antiquity.. So quite successful. I think that we do have concerns over the duration of the game. We kept it simple and it really did go the distance.
cheers ....
which I doubt points at Simon's pics ...