In the Footsteps of Alexander

[Karvon]

Our 19th battle continues the putative expedition vs the Carthaginians.

19. The rough field

Our campaign against the Carthaginians dragged on as the enemy skirmished and fled (one opponent started then quit), and when we finally ran them to ground next, faced a rather unfavorable field.

Woods filled much of our right sector. A couple of large rough patches ran along the right edge ending in small steep hill. A marsh extend from the further rough patch across the far right to a larger rough patch in the far right center. A necklace of rough patches ran along our left center, leaving a narrow area of open ground in the center.

We initially deployed a division of medium foot in the woods on our right, our phalanx in the center, and our mounted on our left. Our lights formed a screen.

The Carthaginians deployed on our far right behind the rough ground and marsh. Their spears formed up in the center, with some mediums on their right, some horse in reserve and some lights screening. It was not an encouraging sight.

We decided first to probe with our lights supported by some horse along the right as our foot moved up in support.

The Carthaginians immediate began shifting further to their left, further concentrating behind the marsh and rough.ground.

We gamely pushed forward, but soon encountered more lights and mediums in the marsh. Our lights and supporting horse took some losses without doing much damage themselves, so we fell back and began shifting our phalanx wide of the rough. Our plan now being to swing around the rough and face the enemy in the open ground beyond that. We attempted to secure the rough with our lights and mediums, but our ill-fortune continued, with poor shooting and even worse close combat. The enemy foot stoutly resisted, we lost our general leading that assault, and our own foot lost heart and quickly fled.

As our planned assault around the rough became clear from our leading horse, elephants and lights, the Carthaginians moved away, marching their troops through the marsh and then wheeling around the now secured rough to come up behind and to our right.

With no prospect of quickly engaging, we turned our forces around and shifted back towards the center, keeping well clear of the rough ground dominated by his superior number of mediums. As day light was starting to fad, the Carthaginians began to press forward beyond the rough with his foot.

This led to general engagement of our foot in the center. Despite our superiority in heavy foot, we simply couldn't catch a break in this fighting either, as our guys fought marginally and his guys stoutly holding, when they did lose here and there.

Night fell on the field and the armies returned to their camps.

Final Score: Macedonians - 18 Carthaginians 32.