"They Shall Not Pass" 217BC

As Brian and Dave were not available last night,it fell to Paul,Graham and I to fight a grand battle,pitting Carthaginians against some Alpine Tribes-and what a tussle it turned out to be!

Top photo is scenario and initial troop dispositions,bottom photo is the table before any movement.
Because Paul is fascinated by Hannibal's exploits,he was put in charge of the whole Carthaginian army,whilst Graham and I split the Alpine tribes between us.

This shows my section of the board-my plan was simple-ATTACK!!!!

This shot is from Paul's right flank-opposing him,Graham had light troops as well-all was set for a prolonged and hard-fought struggle!

In the centre, Paul is sending his skirmishers forward,in front of the Elephants,while I am moving my "suicide squad"(front line warbands!) forward to meet them-isn't Paul's face a study in concentration?

With bravery beyond comprehension,my men threw their little javelins,and then were met with tons of charging grey flesh!!-the result was inevitable,but spectacular!!!(fifty shades of grey was mentioned!)

Meanwhile,on our left flank,Graham is making headway-but Paul,the master of light cavalry tactics,is moving his Numidian cavalry onto Grahams exposed right flank!!!!

On our right,it was "swings and roundabouts" although my fighting points were better than Paul's,I was outnumbered,so the balance was keeping the flank open to anyone-great stuff!

As the tussle on the left continues,Graham has successfully taken the hill,driving Paul's Spanish cavalry backwards,and is now pouring his warbands onto the plain-this is looking good!!!

OH DEAR!!!-not looking so good now-an elephant unit has run amok,and flattened one of Graham's warbands,sending the others fleeing to the high ground!!-another elephant unit went amok the other way too,hitting one of my warbands,but also disrupting Paul's heavy cavalry!!!

There they go!!-bloody elephants-so much for our plan!!

It was at this point that our old friend, Billy Brown,who we haven't seen for years and years and years,turned up(he lives in London and is a councilor )-Billy offered to throw some dice for Paul,and promptly threw the requisite dice to destroy, one of Graham's warbands,killing their officer in the process,and forcing them to check morale,which they failed,causing all kinds of mayhem!!!!-well done Billy,the look on his face says it all!!!!

With the elephants out of the way,my weakened warbands pushed on to the steady Spanish infantry.Paul's cavalry had recovered from their elephant "scare",and moved onto my flank-now this really does not look good!!!

With our left flank on the point of collapse,and the right  flank still undecided,it was thought that the Carthaginians had done enough to win-the African infantry hadn't even been in contact!!-so we called it a night-well done to us all,this was another very enjoyable game.
Roll on next Sunday-I hope,if the boys can get their act together,that a WW2 game is in the pipeline!!