See TMP link for some lead up to this…..
Pics are in the DBMM Yahoo group files section at link
And so on to battle…
It was a dark and windy day….in Upper Hutt just north of Wellington, New Zealand…gale force forecast not
far from here and it was certainly blowing outside with grey clouds.. :)
The battle was set – could the local Carthaginians match Hannibal's genius?
Mark Pickup played Hannibal – although ominously wearing a "Rome Total War" t-shirt, and was assisted by Brent Senior-Partridge and Al Duncan.
Rome would be saved (or not!) by myself, Richard Fields and Andrew Crampton.
The Romans "set up first", Hannibal 2nd…Rome took the 1st move…the PIPs were 0, 1, 0 and 3 (fron left to right low (Varro), high, 2nd, ally (Paulus)) were an immediate warning of what we could expect.
But we didn't have to wait long for the action – Carthage got 6, 6, 4 and 4, with their cavalry wings getting the 2 highest dice and the infantry centres averaging the low ones.
It only took to turn 2 for the Gallic and Iberian cavalry to smash into the Roman cavalry, and instantly they killed an element, creating the dreaded gap…
But for some reason the carthaginian plyer there didn't exploit it on turn 3 – maybe it was only getting 2 PIPs?
In the centre the Punic skirmishers and the first line of Gauls advanced to attack the Roman light screen – which struggled to retire through the legions behind them – the formations were so deep and dense that all sorts of moves had to be tried to get the light troops out of the way
(basically they advanced with 2 ranks of blades to create a gap into which they could retire) – much of the Roman PIP resource was spent trying to bring the heavy infantry forward through the obstacle of their own light troops! They may have been better off just fighting with them!!
On the Roman left Varro had 0, 1, 0 PIPs for the first 3 turns, and the Numidans (with 6, 3 and 6 PIPs) promptly marched outside their flank and lines up on the end of the more-or-less stationary Italian allied cavalry.
Contact was made between the advancing Gauls and the Roman centre on T4, but the Italian cavalry got 4 PIPs that turn, and turned on their tormentors – advancing a line towards the main body of Numidians and telling off some elements to cover their flank – but they didn't actually kill anything.
The Roman cavalry was crumbling fast on the right….right up until the bit where Hasdrubal got himself killed (T6)!! Over confident in his numbers he had fought in the front rank and pursued too fat – finding himself isolated and flanked! Oops.
However numbers and the gaps still told, and that was the end of the successes for the Roman right flank as the African spearmen came up onto the outside of the Roman infantry….
With 2, 3 and 2 PIPs on turns 5, 6 and 7 Varro was positively racing around the table on the left – and even managed to kill a few Numidians…..but early casualties meant the Italians were outnumbered in elements, and pathetic PIPs vs great ones for the light horsemen
(1,1,1 T8-10 vs 5, 6, 6) meant the Italians were essentially sitting ducks – they won a few combats, survived a few occasions being lapped around, but were being whittled down without being able to respond.
In the middle the Roman infantry pushed forward. Gallic casualties were mounting, but only a couple of handfuls so far…
On the right Paulus's infantry tried to turn outwards to face the victorious mercenary cavalry and the African spearmen….but he newly raised legions proved no match for the veterans, and by T10 Paulus' command was disheartened. By the end of T11 it broke, and T14 it was shattered and fled the table in disorder, followed by such Gallic and Iberian cavalry who were close enough to get impetuous pursuit and who were not controlled.
They had inflicted casualties on the Africans tho – especially where the Carthaginians had carelessly not covered a flank properly and were lapped by some Principes using that well known Roman manouvre the 80p slidus……:)
Did I mention that in the centre the Romans were pressing forward and Gallic casualties were mounting? It was fairly obvious the Gauls were going to be broken through right in the middle….advancing them early in the game had just
bought them closer to the Romans and given them more time to be killed – not a good move.
With a few African Sp(S) dead the left wing of the Carthaginian infantry was getting close to being disheartened, and at one point Hannibal even throw his own bodyguard into the fray, attacking directly at the pro-consul …but he achieved nothing of note (2 brilliant strokes as +2's in combat vs the Roman general….)
Back on the left….with the Roman right wing broken it was now a race to see if the Roman left would break before the Carthaginian infantry…
The Numidians all but cleared out the Italian cavalry, but the African spearmen found them much harder (lost 2 elements to 6-1's at 3:3!) – the last 4 elements of Italian cavalry, incl Varro's own Extraordinarii (thought I'd get that in… :)) simple refused to roll low…
On T13 Hannibal's infantry became disheartened……on T14 Mago's infantry became disheartened….by this time the centre of Gauls had completely disappeared…the Numidians had closed on all sides of Varro and his bodyguards…but inspired by the Consul the Italians forced the lighter horsemen to retire time after time.
More Numidians arrived to harass the rear of the Roman left…but all this time Gauls were being cut down in the middle…the 2 pro-consuls had turned many of their troops towards the flanks and were "running down" the line….
And so to the final turn…T16…..both Carthaginian infantry commands were within 1 element of breaking, Varro was surrounded…again…and his raw legionaries were being attacked in the front (Bd(I)) by Hanno, and in the flank (Bd (I) forced to turn) and rear (Triarii Sp(S) that couldn't turn) by Numidians.
But hey…it's just a game of dice….:)
So the final round of combat in the Carthaginian turn – Hanno killed the Bd facing him….but the Carthaginians couldn't buy another victory anywhere – the Triarii turned and faced the Numidians, refusing to give in to panic; Varro's Italians finally caught some of the nimble horsemen coming too close and killed many who were unable to get away
(ie he killed the element facing), and in the centre the Romans wiped out some more of Hannibal's Gauls – so Hannibal's own command broke, and the 2 ME penalty for seeing tht broke the other infantry command – Game
over, and Rome wins the day!
ANALYSIS (some thoughts)
As Varro, having a dearth of PIPs was unbelievably frustrating – most of the time all I could do was try to get the general out of danger – half the time when I did have 1 PIP he was stuck in close combat and couldn't
move any troops anyway!
A better PIP allocation system may have been to average the 3 eligible Roman commands – this would have given Varro extra PIPs at the expense of the 2 central commands – but they also had their generals' PIPs which they used often to get into combat.
In this case the Roman psiloi would probably have had to fight rather than attempt to withdraw – and on reflection attempting to withdraw was probably a mistake too!
The Carthaginians made several mistakes IMO:
1/ Advancing the Gauls – no need to do this – the longer it takes for the Romans to get to them the better, and a couple more turns delay before it happened would have seen the Carthaginians probably win.
2/ Fighting with Hasdrubal – unlucky dice in some respects, but there was never any need for his extra factor
Both of these I put down to them being a bit impatient to get into contact and not fully realising that they needed to accomplish some things in order – ie FIRST clear away the Roman cavalry wings….THEN do the infantry fight…
You may notice three's no mention of the Iberian infantry – that's because they only fought a couple of times right at the end of the game. They had been set up on the flanks of the Gauls and not been advanced with the Spearmen – so they only barely made it into combat with the remnants of Paulus's army on the Roman left, and not at all on the right.
THE SEQUEL (ie how history changed….)
With most of their cavalry intact the remnants of the Carthaginian army were able to gather back at their camp – with Varro's urging, Paulus offered battle again the next day, but Hannibal refused, then slipped away that night, leaving his wounded to be slaughtered by the vengeful
Romans.
Terrentius Varro was aclaimed as the Saviour of Rome, and Fabius Maximus was reviled for having spent a year withiout inflicting any defeat on Hannibal.
Hannibal could not stay in southern Italy – no Italian cities rebelled against Rome, and he was forced to retreat back to Cisalpine Gaul for supplies. But even there the carnage among his Gallic troops had made him unpopular.
A year later Varro was ambushed by Hannibal while marching without proper scouts in northern Italy, but the revenge gave only temporary relief, and Hannibal was forced to make a long and arduous reverse passage through the Alps and return to Spain.
While there, his star seriously diminished and his troops exhausted, demoralised and many fewer than had left, he was defeated by the otherwise little known Roman general Publius Cornelius Scipio – Carthage was forced from Spain, and the 2nd Punic War was ended on terms of Carthage losing all its territories outside Africa, having its fleet
limited to 30 Triremes, and having to pay Rome a massive tribute for the next 50 years.
Just 23 years later the Carthaginians had had enough of this and went to war with Rome again – some say Hannibal was the chief instigator, but it was of no import – Carthage no longer had the resources to fight and had
timed it's declaration badly – Rome had defeated Macedonia and Seleucia in recent wars and neither was able to offer more than encouragement – although both did declare war. After several years' desultory fighting in Africa, Rome sent Lucius Aemilius Paulus to command – son of one of
the consuls at Cannae. He invested Carthage, and after a siege of 2 years accepted its surrender, sold it's people into slavery and destroyed the city forever.
So nothing really changed….:)
joins the video project.
