Rome vs Carthage 55BC.

We had a fitting end to 2018  last night with a nail-biting game featuring Romans against Carthaginians.As only three of us turned out,Paul elected to be in charge of the Carthaginians,whilst Graham and I took a Legion each.

Top photo is the scenario,bottom is the table before any movement-Romans on the left,Carthaginians on the right.

This is the Carthaginian right flank,showing the dreaded Numidian light cavalry,which Paul uses so well-advancing against my legion,showering them with javelins,retiring(it's good being retired!) then another wave is sent in-bloody frustrating,but historically correct!!!

Graham's archers did a grand job of driving off two of the four elephant units before they could make contact with my legion-However...............................

SQUELCH!!!!-it took two cohorts to shift this beast,and the other remaining elephant scattered the archers and disordered my central cavalry!!! giving Paul time to manoeuvre his troops into their final positions.

Paul has unleashed his Celts against my left hand cohorts,but my jolly old pila,gave the jolly old Celts a jolly old "seeing to"-hurrah!-but at the same time he unleashed his first line of Spaniards against Grahams legion.........................

What a tussle ensued!-Graham is also moving two cohorts around the back of the "mountain" in the background,trying to out-flank Paul-but he is too "wily" a wargamer to fall for that,and countered with his cavalry-wonderful stuff!!-I also used my left flank cavalry to drive away the dreaded Numidians-but look what happened.............................

I think the technical,military term is STUFFED!!!!-Paul can now move his Numidians(the dreaded type) around my flank and rear-oh dear(that rhymes!)

This is a general view of the table about move number 8 or 9-neither side has a clear advantage-this is hot work!!

With my cavalry and Paul's fighting it out,on the wing,my cohorts have finally charged the Africans in the centre-again what a tusssle!!
But what of Graham's legion?

The top photo shows the "impasse" in the pass!! but Graham is holding up 4 Spanish units with two cohorts,who are relatively fresh compared with Paul's units.
The bottom photo shows the second lines of Romans and Spaniards clashing,with Graham throwing wonderful dice to secure his flank-this is not looking too good for the Carthaginians!

A general view of the table at move number 14(!!)-my line has not been broken,and the Spaniards are well beaten,so the consensus of opinion was that the Carthaginians were the losers,but in this fantastic game there were no losers-well done to us all.
May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and healthy new year,and please keep reading our blog and passing your comments on to us.