Mare Nostrum Campaign Year 7.1

This year has produced 3 battles.  In the west the Carthaginians tried to retake Carthage from their remaining territory of  Gades.  They found that while the main Egyptian army had gone back east by sea, the city was strongly garrisoned.  Meanwhile the Numidians had attacked Gades, so the Carthaginians had to abandon the siege and return to Gades to fight the Numidians & clear their supply line.  The Romans wee strangely quiet on this, sitting in Numantia keeping the Spanish bottled up.

In the east, Mithradates withdrew from Decumantes back to Athens fearful of attack to his southern flank.  The Macedonians were left to besiege Decumantes reinforced by one Pontic division.   Last turn the Gauls & Germans had been defeated at Decumantes by a larger Pontic & Macedonian army. The Gauls had retreated to Parma & the Germans to their heartland.   This year the Gauls have returned to Decumantes with Roman reinforcements and now have the numbers on their side.

In the centre, the Macedonian fleet has sailed to Syracuse where the Roman fleet has came out to fight.

Battle of Gades

The Numidians are in the foreground.  Only their light cavalry and infnatry are on teh table, the rest of the army is out of sight of the nemy (it could be behind the ridge or in the woods on the left).

The Carthaginian warbands in the centre have charged in the centre and one of the Numidian cavalry divisions broke immediately.  The Numidian infantry has been put down - they were behind the ridge.  At this point the Numidians decided they coudn't win and ordered a general withdrawal.

Naval Battle at Syracuse

The fleets are evenly matched except that the Romans have a new 5er with a raw crew.

 As usual in these naval battles things soon got too messy to adequately describe.

But the end result was decisive.  Only 2 Macedonian ships escaped - their 5er and a trireme.  They did succeed in sinking the Roman flagship, but not until the Roman marines from it had boarded and taken a Macedonian trireme.  So the Romans still have 6 ships though are a bit down on rowers. 

Second Battle of Decumantes
This was to be fought last Tuesday, but SteveJ couldn't make it, so his enemies did some tactical exercises (which cannot be described for operational reasons).  It is now scheduled for next Tuesday.