So on to game 3 in this Carthaginian mini-odyssey. This will match me against Camillan Romans in an almost, but not quite, historical match-up. A sort of Punic Wars preview 😄
So did the Carthaginians do better than they did in the Pubic Wars, or did the preview set the tone? Read on ...
The Camillan Romans were run by Simon Clarke who had kindly stepped in on the Sunday morning after one player had to drop out.
As a reminder this was my army list:
The Romans, as you would expect, have a lot of competent infantry, however, they were not using pila in large numbers at the date of this list and so would not be much better than my spear infantry, if at all. It was likely that I would have an advantage in mounted troops - isn't it always the way in Roman/Carthaginian match-ups 😂Can't really recall how the PBS went, however, I think I defended and was slightly outscouted (despite having more scouting). We ended with a Deep Water secure flank on my right with a piece of Rough Going next to it, and 2 pieces of Rough Going on the opposite flank. Lots of open space between them for both sides' heavy infantry and cavalry.
I placed the 2 units of Loose foot on my right to use the rough there. I assumed that Simon would have at least some troops who could fight there so wanted to block it off. Next to them went all the heavy infantry with the Sacred Band on the left hand end of the line as the most exposed position. All my cavalry went next and my left had all my infantry skirmishers who were mostly in the rough on that flank. Again I expected some terrain capable troops from Simon but felt I could at least contain them with massed skirmishers and hopefully the slingers would be able to hit something this game 😉
Simon had a centre of legionaries (who are Long Spear armed at this date) supported by skirmishers and cavalry on the right of the infantry. His left did have terrain capable troops, but fewer than mine although some were Superior but only a 4 base unit. On his right he had an Italian Hill Tribe ally; so as I thought may be the case he did have terrain capable troops on this flank as well, however, they were not too dangerous.
It all looked pretty even and would no doubt be decided with a slog and making the most of any small advantages that cropped up.
So after deployment it all looked like this:
The first move was a bit slow as neither of us had great cards (well, discs as that was what we were using). Simon's army made a stately move forward with his left wing moving slightly faster. I sent my Campanian cavalry to slow the right hand most infantry and moved my other mounted to (sort of) threaten where Simon's cavalry and Italian ally might advance towards. As planned my skirmishers hurried forward not worried about leaving the rough terrain.
The next move was more of the same really. The main difference was I did pull back most of my skirmishers to draw on Simon's troops to see if I could, perhaps, get my mounted involved with them in some way. Simon manfully resisted this though.
Again the next move was one where we jiggled around a little but mainly got up close and personal in a number of places. I finally got my skirmishers into position to shoot though. A nice bonus was that on my right my Ligurians had shot a base off Simon's "internal" hill tribesmen; one of those small advantages that could make a difference.
And it did indeed make a difference. That casualty, plus the dice going a little my way meant that the Ligurians broke their opponents fairly quickly. This was very useful for the Spanish who were next to them in the line had rather been battered by the Extraordinarii (Superior) unit they were mostly fighting - they had lost 3 bases and only inflicted 1 Wound; however, rather outrageously the Extraordinarii suffered a Skull and a Wound on KaBs due to the broken unit and the death of their general in that unit's rout.
In addition, on the right, the legionary unit next to the Extraordinarii were fighting 2 African spearman units and was coming off decidedly second best. The small advantages and some dice rolling was going my way.
Meanwhile over on the other wing my Greek cavalry were fighting both units of Roman cavalry - all the troops were identical. This was pretty much a buy time combat for me and , again, I got the dice breaks here as Simon inflicted damage very slowly and my cavalry hung in there much longer than the should have done by rights.
Although you can't see from the picture below, my skirmishers have started to cause damage to the Italian ally and the shooting is slowing their movement significantly. This is partly because the Italians are in 2 base wide formations and so even a single slowing result in the shooting dice causes a slow.
Simon's left flank quickly ceases to exist after this as his beleaguered legion also breaks. This leaves a nice path for one of my units to head towards the camp and also for other units to turn inwards to look to roll up Simon's line.
My cavalry continue to hold out and are even dishing out some losses on one of the units it is fighting. However, it will not last much longer.
The game ran to a conclusion fairly quickly after this. The next move or so saw me get a spearman unit within charge range of Simon's camp and also another in a position to charge the flank of a second legionary unit that was fighting my Sacred band.
However, my Greek cavalry break and the victorious Roman cavalry will turn round and destroy my chariots who are beating up a unit of Italian hill tribesmen.
This picture shows the game just before I take the camp and the legionary unit which wins me the game.
So we ended 15-5 to me which pretty much doubled my score 😎A good game of mainly straightforward fighting. I won, I think, because I did manage to create some advantages such as 2 units fighting 1 where all were equal, and also getting a few breaks on the combat dice.
Game 4 is HERE.
Extra pictures showing the armies at deployment.
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