Maharajah 2013 Practice

Chris's Carthaginians v. Jim's Republican Romans

Maharajah 2013, our annual club championship competition is about to start.  It will be contested using Hail Caesar 720 pts armies.  As Chris is a relative newcomer to Hail Caesar I gave him a practice match this afternoon (not using my Maharajah army).

The Romans are on the left.  Two legions with Italian allies on each flank.  The Punes have Spanish infantry in the foreground, Spanish cavalry, Gauls, Citizens & elephants then African cavalry on the far flank. The camps count as a division lost in the army break test if taken.

The African horse on the far flank charged forward but was left unsupported by the refusal of the African infantry & elephants to move.  The Italians repulsed the attack with their weaker cavalry supported by skirmishers, but they too refused to advance.
On the near flank the Spanish infantry has advanced while the Italians wait for them.
In the centre the Romans have advanced while the Pune's suffer bad command dice. 

On the near flank the Italians have given ground but the Spanish have not broken through.  The Spanish cavalry have charged the legionaries but been beaten off and the Romans are now pushing the cavalry back with javelin fire.  The other legion has been charged by the Gauls.   On the far flank poor command has kept things quiet.

The Spanish & Allies on the near flank are chucking javelins at each other with little apparent effect.  The Spanish cavalry is still being pushed back, but has refused to break.  The legion v. Gaul clash is a mixed bag.  The LH warband pushed their opponents back, but the RH warband broke immediately & the legionaries made a sweeping advance to also destroy the supporting warband.  The victorious half of the legion then turned to attack the elephants in flank and to charge the supports of the victorious warband in rear.  The far flank was still a stalemate.

The near flank continues to be a stalemate.  The Spanish cavalry continue to fall back.  The Gauls have broken.  The African infantry are being rolled up by the legionaries.   The Allied infantry on the far flank have finally started to advance. The African cavalry having rallied have tried another attack, but have again been repulsed.

The African infantry have now broken.  The flanks are still stalemated.  The Spanish cavalry are in a hopeless situation.  There is nothing to stop the Romans taking the Punic camp.  The Carthaginians have conceded.  As usual we had an enjoyable fast moving Hail Caesar battle (all over in less than 2 hours).  

There has been a lot of discussion on the forums about the small Republican Roman units - some think they have an unfair advantage.  I just don't see it.  2 small legion units v. 1 standard warband was a 50/50 proposition as shown by the result here.  The small Roman units were better able to exploit success, but very few more casualties would have shaken enough of the vulnerable little units to prevent that from happening.