Slitherine

This past Sunday we played the first battle in a mini campaign that will consist of three battles.

The campaign is a “what if” campaign starting right after the fall of Saguntum to Hannibal. The Roman Senate has decided to react to this act by sending a consular army to Tarraco under the command of Publius Cornelius Scipio ( Father of Scipio to be “Africanus” ).

The game was played at our local game store here in Austin, Great Hall Games where rumors of FOG tournaments can be heard in the air. The Lonestar Historical Miniatures Austin chapter meets there every weekend to play wargames and FOG is quickly becoming the mainstream ancients rules. ( http://www.lshm.net )

The rules for the first battle of the campaign are as follows:

1.a Landing in Tarraco

Situation:
Hannibal Barca has just initiated hostilities against the Roman Republic by taking the city of Saguntum, a Roman ally. A Roman Consular army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio (father of Africanus) has landed on the eastern coast of the Spanish peninsula near Tarraco. The army has been sent to insure the protection of Roman interests in the region, force the retreat of the Carthaginian occupation and demand the surrender of Hannibal Barca.
Hannibal is mustering the Carthaginian forces to defend the colonies and insure permanent presence in the peninsula, although his objective is set on a possible invasion of Italy. For this purpose he has already recruited some peninsular mercenaries and also gathered some Gallic allies from across the Pyrenees.

PTS 700
Terrain: Agricultural or Hilly

Pre-Battle Initiative modifiers
Local troops know the terrain: Spanish troop bases count as “cavalry” bases for the purpose of pre battle initiative, ie. an army with 10 cavalry bases and 6 scutarii would count as having 16 cavalry bases for pre-battle initiative.

Coastline proximity: The Roman consular army has just landed and either commander could decide, if winning pre-battle initiative, to engage close to the coast, as a consequence the normal +1 for coastline on the adjustment roll for terrain set-up will not take effect in this battle.

Army Lists
Period: Troops that cannot be used after 220 BC cannot be selected.

Fresh commanders: It’s been a while since the nations have been at war and as a consequence commanders are yet to prove “inspiring” to their troops. 1 Field Commander must be bought at this time, the rest have to be troop commanders (no inspired commanders yet)

Spanish tribes limited engagement: Most local tribes are yet reluctant to join either side until they can identify who is more likely to win (!); as a consequence no allies are allowed for either side, the armies are limited to the basic core and optional troops allowed by their list representing the limited participation of the Spanish tribes at this point.

Roman Consular Army: This Roman consular army does not include elephants (no elephants can be selected ) and has a limited proportion of veteran troops so only up to 8 bases of Hastati & Princeps ( with their supporting Triarii ) can be upgraded to veteran legion.


Under these rules the commanders chose to field the following 700pts armies

Roman Army:
representing two legions under combined command and one legion working independently

3 x 4 base BG of leves or velites ( unprotected )
2 x 8 base BG of Hastati & Princeps ( avg, armored )
1x 4 base BG of Triarii ( superior , armored )
2 x 4 base BG of Hastati & Princeps ( avg, armored )
1 x 2 base BG of Triarii ( superior, armored )
1x 6 base BG of Cretan Archers
1x 8 base BG of Italian Pedites
2 x 4 base BG of Roman Cavalry ( armored )
2 Troop Commanders ( Publius Terentius Varro, Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio )
1 Field Commander ( Publius Cornelius Scipio “The Elder” )
13 battle groups

Carthaginian Army
1 x 4 base BG of Libyphoenician cavalry (armored)
1 x 4 base BG of Gallic noble cavalry ( armored )
1 x 4 base BG of Spanish cavalry ( protected )
1 x 4 base BG of gallic cavalry ( protected )
2 x 6 base BG of Spanish scutarii ( medium foot, undrilled )
1x 8 base BG of African Phalanx
1 x 6 base BG of Caetrati Spanish javelinmen ( unprotected light foot )
2 x 2 base BG of Elephants
1 x 6 base BG of numidian light horse
3 Troop Commanders ( Mago Barca, Hasdrubal Barca, Marhabal)
1 Field Commander ( Hannibal Barca )
11 battle groups



In order to allow for some classic trickery neither commander new each other’s army composition. Instead, the pre-battle initiative roll was used to gather information as follows.

If the total modified pre battle initiative roll was 9+ the commander would know the exact composition of the enemy
If the total modified pre battle roll was 7+ the commander would know the proportion of infantry, mounted and elephant based in the enemy army

They both rolled high. The Carthaginian commander won the initiative and also learned the exact composition of the roman army, the roman commander only found out about the proportion of bases in the Carthaginian army.

Hannibal chose to ambush the roman army in the hills west of Tarraco ( the Carthaginian player choose hilly terrain ).

For this game I came up with special rules for hiding troops, basically infantry would hide any infantry behind them, and mounted would hide mounted troops behind them. Elephants could not be hidden and light foot did not hide anything.
To represent this we had special cardboard templates with the size of units (both real and dummies ) which were used until troops where seen or it became evident what was there.


Neither side chose to use ambush or outflanking marches.

Pictures of the Carthaginian army can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=6232
Pictures of some of the Roman troops can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=6322

Deployment

The Roman army deployed in classical roman fashion.

The legions deployed in the center with velites up front, then Hastati & Princeps and behind them Triarii.in support. The Roman equites deployed on the right wing ( left side of map ) behind cretan archers.

One unit of equites was deployed in single rank hiding a second unit behind to create the idea of a possible outflanking march. On the left wing ( right side of map ) the Italian pedites were deployed on a steep hill covering the legions flank. Varro ( TC ) was deployed with the Cavalry and the Scipio brothers deployed in the center.



The Carthaginians deployed with their heavy armored cavalry on the left, both gauls and citizen cavalry led by Hannibal himself. This cavalry was deployed slightly to the right of the camp to use the unfortified camp as bait for any roman equites that might prove too courageous for their own good and try an attack on the camp ( looting the camp would subtract 50 points for the army whose camp was looted for the next battle).

In the center Spanish scutarii were deployed with the African phalanx in support among the brushes. To the right the massive unit of four elephants was deployed and Hannibal being a good student of Phyrrus he deployed Caetrati escort in front of the pachyderms.

The right Carthaginian wing closed with two units of protected cavalry (Spanish and Gauls ) one of these hiding behind the numidian light horse, also to create the uncertainty of flanking marches. As mentioned Hannibal deployed with the heavy cav on the left, Hasdrubal deployed with the heavy and medium foot, Mago led the elephant force and Marhabal with the cavalry on the right.

Deployment map



Map key


Deployment pictures

Carthaginian left wing


Carthaginian right wing


Roman deployment


High level picture of the deployment

You can see the green cardboard templates representing hidden units or dummy counters to represent hidden deployment

Everything was ready for the clash of arms.

Opening moves

The first moves showed the roman equites rushing forward on the Carthaginian left wing (left side of the map) confident that they could somehow outmatch the Carthaginian superior cavalry. Both centers slowly advanced towards the center of the battlefield, the legions in a more organized way than the Carthaginian foot, while to the right the powerful elephant force with its escorts advanced at full paced towards the enemy.
Marhabal sent his numidian horse to harass the Italian foot deployed on the hill and followed closely with the protected cavalry.



Hannibal leads the carthaginian cavalry on the left


Ther roman equites advance towards Hannibal


Spanish scutarii in the center supported by African Phalanx


Elepahnts advance on ther right


Numidians harassing Italian pedites


View from the right



Vie from the roman center


At this point something strange started to happen, Mago decided to engage some velites with his Caetrati, generating a light foot brawl in the middle of the field that prevented his full elephant force from engaging the legions, thus only one of the two elephant battlegroups contected the legions. This brawl became a melee when some velites returning from skirmish actions against the scutarii charged the caetrati on the rear, on top of that for some strange reason both Mago and Gnaeus decided to commit to the battle! Both commanders underestimated how long this melee would last and so even the scutarii ended up joining the fight by charging the last unit of velites also in their rear.



light foot brawl with attached troop commanders







the brawl becomes full scale melee as units join in







In the meantime to the left the Carthaginian horse destroyed the roman equites without even losing one based and rushed forward threatening the roman legions right flank. To the right the Italian pedites got tired of the numidian javalins and chased them off only to be in turn charged by the Gallic and Spanish cavalry.

Cavalry clash won by carthage superior horsemen







While all this was happening some indecision was presenting on both sides as neither commander was sure on what to do with some of their infantry. The cretan archers were asked to redeploy all the way to the other flank, one full 8 base battlegroup of hastate & princeps were sent to the right of the plantation thus moving them away from the center of gravity of the battle, while the African phalanx was getting some contradictory orders moving to the left and then forward.

View from the top

The height of the battle



Eventually units started to loose cohesion, in the middle the caetrati finally routed after Mago fell injured, while one of the velites battle groups was destroyed and the other one evaded. The unit of elephants was facing a tough time against the legion since the legion had overlap and was supported so no one was fully able to get the edge, until the roman commander made a risky move by trying to expand the line with the triarii that were in support. The move proved to be unfortunate since the legion no longer supported broke away and the elephants in pursuit caught the triarii on the flank !!
Meanwhile the other roman battle groups charged the spanish scutarii in the center however in doing that they exposed their flank to the heavy Carthaginian cavalry.



Romans advance exposing their flank


view from the top ( Hasdrubal Barca leaves the phalanx and runs to rally the routing Caetrati )


Triarii try a dangerous move, while cretan archers redeploy, this move will result on the fall of the Roman left wing



In an impressive show of courage ? the velites on the plantation came out and passed the test to stay when charged by the heavy cavalry, sacrificing themselves to protect the legion’s flank. Do I need to tell you what happened in that melee ? I guess not.
On the right the Carthaginian cavalry bounced against the Italian pedites. How could this be ? Well, some bad die rolling and the fact that the cavalry forgot to use their spears ! ( ie. I forgot to count their spears advantage once the net POA cancelled out, BIG MISTAKE from the referee, me ). They bounced off and the Spanish cavalry dropped to disrupted.



velites sacrifce themselves


and die

The final stage

Finally the battle reached a critical point. From right to left the situation was as follows. The Italian Pedites where getting the best out of the Carthaginian cavalry which where now routing. One elephant group had broken a 4 base legion battle group and a 2 base triarii battle group and was now in pursuit. The 4 base battlegroup of triarii supporting the left legion turned and charged one of the scutarii battlegroups on the flank. This was too much and they routed. The ensuing pursuit by legion and trairii caught the second elephant battlegroup on the flank, hard to know what the elephant commander had in mind, when he presented the flank to the enemy in the middle of the battlefield.
The 8 base legion battle group that was facing the other scutarii was now overlapped by gallic armored cavalry and no longer had support due to the triarii moving away and so after a couple of bad rolls was now disrupted.

The arrows represent routs, and the yellow dots represent fragmented


The Roman infantry left and right wings fall while the center breaks through catching the elephants on the flank

Red arrow counters= routed
one casualty marker= disrupted
two casualty markers= fragmented


















At this point 2 roman cavalry battle groups and 2 velite battlegroups had routed off the table, a triarii battle group and a legion battle group where routing and when the other 8 base legion battlegroup got fragmented the roman army fled the table at 13 attrition points.

The carthaginian camp was never disturbed


It was an interesting battle. The Carthaginian commander managed to complicate his roman opponent with the use of the terrain. In the middle of the battle both sides were too eager to re deploy and this resulted in pursuers contacting enemy in the flank on both sides. For the next battle I am sure that both commanders will have learned that it is not a good idea to be doing maneuvers close to the enemy.

The Carthaginian took the initiative by getting cavalry and elephants into combat first, which was ideal for them since here they had an advantage. When the legions finally contacted the Carthaginian foot the tide started turning but the Carthaginians managed to capitalize on their early success and thanks to some risk taking on the roman side when they took the triarii support away from the legions the punic forces were able to reach the break point just when the Romans where starting to break in the center of the line ( very Trebbia like ).

The game was fun, all the terrain and pre-battle initiative rules are ideal to create special scenarios such as the ones in this campaign. Everyone agrees that the rules provide for a nice game while behaving just like we read that ancient battles might have been. The use of terrain is a key element of the game allowing commanders to show their tactical skills.

The next battle of this campaign will be fought in 5 weeks, with 800 points armies. The Carthaginian having won the first battle has now gained the allegiance of the local tribes and so will be allowed to hire a Spanish ally contingent, which in turn has some advantages when trying outflanking marches.

We need to get more used to the rules, the game was way to long going for 6 hours, of course a light foot skirmish in the middle of the battle line always delays games !
But we are looking forward to that QRS !!!

THE END

Next battle of the mini campaign in about 5 weeks !!

VERY nice AAR, excellent job

Outstanding!

Superb and am looking forward to the next installement

From experience so far time for a game drops rapidly after about 5 games

Si

I especially like the campaign rules.

Great report, and love the look of the 10mm figures. If only I didn't already have 2,000,000,000 15mm and 25mm figures.

rbodleyscott wrote:Great report, and love the look of the 10mm figures. If only I didn't already have 2,000,000,000 15mm and 25mm figures.

I started the stock take of my armies last night and have managed to cataloge the first 16 boxes. The trouble is that isn't even half way!!! When it's all catalogued I will be able to see where I need to tweak the odd element or three and what I need to rebase but it is a huge task. Now if someone would just give me a load of dosh for all my 15s I could switch to 6 or 10mm and get superb looking games like these.

Nicely done. I look forward to the next one.

What program are you using to create your battleground drawings? These are very well done.

<BRIAN>

Thanks for all the compliments

The program I am using for the maps is a very versatile tool, it is called Microsoft Word

I will find a place to post a pdf with the full campaign rules

Hi ,

a great " bravo ! " from France, an excellent report , beautiful figures , beautiful table !

very impressive , that's total booby trap to fall in the Field of Glory circus
ok I'm already in the trap
please is it possible to have your campaign at gillesw01@club-internet.fr to do it at our club ;

best regards

thefrenchjester " welcome back to the circus "

Excellent campaign adaptation, battle report, diagrams and pics. Very well done!

Cheers,
Scott

Wonderfull !!! Thank you very much for this pleasure !!!

Awesome AAR and pics!

ok let's try this for the people who were asking about the campaign

try downloading the file from here and let me know if you have any problems

http://www.4shared.com/file/45295176/57 ... -PuWa.html

Can we translate the campaign and this topic for the french players ?

Seldon wrote:Thanks for all the compliments

The program I am using for the maps is a very versatile tool, it is called Microsoft Word

I will find a place to post a pdf with the full campaign rules

Very nicely done. Microsoft Word is the one graphics application I should manage - could you kindly post a file (on the Yahoo FoG group site for example) including the various graphic elements you are using? This would be a good strating point to adapt for other maps.