Hail Caesar: Carthage v. Seleucis

Jim & Mike's Carthaginians v. Steve & Tony's Seleucids

Both sides 500 pts in 4 divisions.

Carthaginians are on the left.  Their deployment is, from far end: Cavalry (medium, 2 light all small), Gauls (4 warbands + 2 skirmishers), Spanish (5 Scutari, 2 skirmishers), Punic (3 spearmen, 2 elephants, 2 slingers).

The Seleucids deployed their strong cavalry divisions on both flanks and 2 phalanx divisions in the centre.

The Seleucids held back on their left & centre, advancing only their right flank cavalry.  The Carthos advanced all along the line except for their cavalry division where they send forward only their light cavalry as skirmishers.

The first combat was on the far end where the Seleucid heavy cavalry swung left and charged the end warband.  They rode them down and pushed the light horse back.  The Punic heavies had moved out to the flank and while they failed to take advantage, they remained a threat to prevent a rear attack on the Gauls. The Gauls charged forward to get away from the cavalry while the small Punic cavalry units surrounded the Seleucid heavies.

The Gallic warbands charged the phalanx head on, but their left flank was exposed and rolled up.   The Gauls broke but so did the Seleucid cavalry which had been worn down by their successful charges then finished off by good shooting by the Punic light horse & bad morale dice.  That made it 1 division down each and the action hotted up on the near flank.

On their right the Carthos plan was to outflank the cats with elephants while pinning them with their spearmen.  The Seleucid elephant and light cavalry delayed the 2 Cartho elephants, but couldn't stop them so the cats charged the spearmen.  Initially, the spearmen got pushed back but only one unit broke & the others reformed the line.


In the centre, the Spanish charged the 2nd phalanx division. Remarkably, the Spanish took out 2 phalanxes putting the enemy division on the brink.    


On the far flank, the Punic cavalry was unbroken, but in no condition to do more than pin down a unit or two. 


With the Punic elephants sorted out and on the move again, the cats charged again before they could be outflanked.  One unit broke and the other was outflanked and charged from 2 sides.  When it broke, that was 2 Seleucid divisions broken, one to go.


The Seleucids tried to get their 1st infantry division to the left to rescue the 2nd and they succeeded in breaking the Spanish division but the Punic spearmen & elephants had wheeled left and finished off the 2nd division in the same turn.  The Seleucids had now lost 3 divisions & the Carthos only 2, so the Carthaginians had won the battle.


This was a typical Hail Caesar battle full of excitement and wild swings of fortune giving the losers ample scope to blame bad luck for defeat while the winners could point out that they did actually do quite a few things right tactically.