Hail Caesar: Rome v. Carthage

Jim & Mike's Romans v. Two Steves' Carthaginians

For a change we decided to reverse out usual sides so Mike could try out being Roman.  We`also tried a new meeting time - starting straight after work and getting pizza for dinner.

The Punic army had 4 divisions - deployed on the right of the pics in the order from this end:   Punic Spears, mixed Gauls & Spanish, Elephants & cavalry.
The Romans also had 4 divisions, deployed in order from this end, cavalry, 2 Legionary &allied.
Victory conditions were either army to break on any 3 divisions broken.  The Romans would also break if they lost both Legionary divisions.

The Carthaginians got first move and began their advance with their cavalry on the far end, but they got generally good command rolls and the whole line advanced with only the elephants lagging  a little.

The Romans held back their right, formed up a defense against the cavalry and advanced slowly against the elephants.

After a feed of pizza the Romans sprang to life.  Both legionary divisions in the centre.charged forward against the Gauls, Spanish & elephants.  On the far flank their allied were doing a good job holding off the Punic cavalry while on the near flank the Romans light horse tried to slow down the spearmen while the medium cavalry withdrew out of harms way.

The Romans immediately gained the upper hand in the centre.  The Gauls broke, but the Spanish & elephants gave ground then fought back.  The Spearmen ponderously wheeled right to try and help out while the Romans light troops tried to delay them, & the triari put up a brave face.

The Spanish broke just in time for the Legionaries to turn to be able face the right hand spear unit, but bad command help up the rest of the spearmen.

The legion was hard pressed, but the Roman cavalry (after failing the previous turn) were lead by their CIC in a decisive charge into the rear of the Punic spearmen.  (The gap between the cavalry and the legionaries in the pic above is where the spear unit has been removed - having a fall back break test result while surrounded).  The elephant division is still hanging on.

The elephant division is now broken and is withdrawing.  The Carthaginians still have 2 of 4 divisions unbroken, but they conceded the battle.   The Roman cavalry is clearly able to delay the spearmen while the rest of the Romans army drives the surviving cavalry off the far edge.

Another most enjoyable wargame.  The critical factor in the Carthaginian defeat was that they did not get good value out of their spearmen on their left flank.  It looked a good deployment initially, with the spearmen clearly superior to the cavalry facing them.  But the Romans bogged down the flanks and the Legionaries were able to concentrate on the Carthaginian's allies.