Hail Caesar 13/09/11

Jim & Mike Carthagians & Gauls
v.
SteveJ & Leigh's Romans

The Romans deployed their 2 legions in the centre with a division of mixed cavalry & auxilia on each flank.  The Anti-Romans deployed Gauls on their right, Carthaginians on the their left, cavalry on each flank, and elephants in front of the Carthaginian spearmen.

For once the Romans were agressive & began a general advance.   The Carthaginians advanced their elphants in the centre with some cavalry covering their left.  The spearmen followed up at safe distance.  The Gauls waited on the hill.

The Romans halted their general advance but pushed on with their left flank.  The weak Gallic cavalry was quickly defeated leaving the Gallic infanty's right flank exposed.  Any thoughs of charging out of trouble were thwarted when auxilia bow fire made the Gauls fall back behind the hill. 

On the Carthaginian left, the opposing flanking forces were happy to stand off and throw stones at each other.  In the centre, the elephants charged Leigh's legion.  Steve prepared his 2 divisions for an attack on the Gallic infantry. 

The elephants and the Leigh's legion slugged it out as the Carthaginans tried to manoeuvre their spearmen into the action.










Steve's legion got good command dice and charged over the hill into the Gauls as his cavalry hit their flank guard.   The flank guard beat off the cavalry then charged on into the infantry behind pushing them back as well.  But it was all in vain - the other infantry units were overwhelmed by the legion and the division broke.

The spearmen failed to move fast enough to attack Steve's legion's flank and when the elephants ran out of hot dice and broke, it was game over with the Anti-Romans having lost 3 out of 5 divisions.

So that's 4:1 to the Romans in our 28mm Hail Caesar battles.  This time it was the strong Roman left destroying the Gauls that won the battle.  With the 2 Gallic divisions doomed, the elephants had to win to keep the Carthaginians in the fight.  The 28mm elephants looked magnificant and they got the legion to breaking, but not close enough.   The Carthaginian's failure to get their best division, their spearmen, into the action was another cause of their defeat.  But a fine time was had by all, and the 28mm arms race continues.