Punic Wars - Armati Campaign Week 7

Hannibal's Veterans

For this battle the chance cards threw-up a Carthaginian force that was heavy on fast moving (non-key), Celts but rather lighter on heavy units and cavalry than usual. So Hannibal's plan was to use these to exhaust the Roman heavy infantry before attacking with the main line of infantry to finish the job.

 

 

The Deployment

The Roman deployment was fairly conventional with massed cavalry on the left and the Triarii positioned to act as flank guards on the right. In main line was angled to refuse the right. 



Roman left - cavalry and lights

Roman centre

Roman right with classic wargames point

Hannibal's deployment was more interesting due to the decision to launch an assault with the Celts to weaken the Roman's main line.  The front rank was entirely of fast Celts with a second line of the heavy infantry. On the left flank was the main attacking force of cavalry and Hannibal's veterans. As a compromise the right flank was elephants and lights. Hannibal had considered deploying some heavy cavalry here too but was fearful this would leave the veterans exposed to enemy cavalry and so prevent them from launching a flank attack. The Punic heavies were in a separate command to the Celts so they could be advanced slowly with the aim of the main line and flank attacking Veterans arriving at the same time.  

Long shot of the Punic lines

Punic right - elephants and lights

Celts backed by heavies

Punic left - veterans and lights with the cavalry just visible

 The Battle

The deployment meant that both sides had a strong flanking force essentially facing an open field or weak force, so both pressed ahead on their own lefts. As Hannibal's plan depended on beating Roman centre before he was flanked, he also pressed forward quickly in the centre.
  

Roman left moves to attack the weak Punic right

The Celts surge forwards

The outnumbered Punic right tries to hold out

Due to their high movement speed the impetuous Celts soon came to grips with the Romans in the centre and managed to achieve a few advantageous combats on the flanks due to them be deployed wider (+1 in Armati). However the results were very disappointing for Hannibal as a series of "1s" saw the Celts make no impression and lose their impetus. 

Celts have limited impact

On the Punic right their light infantry and elephants were killed by a combined Roman assault but did manage to last a few precious rounds.  Celtic performance improved slightly and after a few turns they made some impressions into the Roman line or did at least exhaust them.

Triarii and Peltasts see off the Elephants 

 

Punic heavies ready for action against the tiring Romans

It was all a little too slow though as the Roman's flank attack was able to come to bear against the Punic line and cause the required 5 hits to win. So a 5-3 victory for Rome.

Romans ready to turn the flank 

Romans get into the Punic rear

Conclusion

It was good to try a different approach to using the Carthaginians, and the presence of lots of Celts favoured this anyway. In previous battles the Celts have proven to be damaging opponents to the Romans but on this occasion the very poor dice made them a disappointment. Never-the-less the basic plan of weakening the Romans was working, just too slowly to win the game.

In hindsight some things may have helped Hannibal:
1. A stronger right flank - perhaps placing a unit of heavy cavalry on that side.
2. Breaking-off the Celts after the first charge, although that would have lost the initiative.
3. A slightly different configuration of the heavy divisions with the Celts and heavies echeloned, but risking the HI being pulled forward by impetuous tribesmen.

Across the campaign games and scenarios its now 4-3 in favour of Rome.    

Punic Wars - Armati Campaign Week 5

With Scipio now back from Rome, the hostilities resumed.  This week's battle took-place on the Hispania front. Hannibal adopted a slightly different approach for this battle reducing the amount of cavalry and adding additional heavy infantry to bolster the battle-line.

Deployment

Assuming that the Punic forces would try their favoured double envelopment Scipio adopted an unusual but pleasingly symmetric deployment with the flanks blocked by heavy infantry and units of cavalry in the centre. His hope was they might catch the Punic infantry deployed wide and so shatter the line.

Skirmishers covering the Roman right

The Roman right flank - refused 

Roman cavalry deployed in the centre

The Roman right also refused



And finally the more skirmishers covering the Roman left 

On this occasion Hannibal decided to focus his attack against the Roman left by placing most of the cavalry and his African Veterans on this flank. The right was refused with elephants and skirmishers deployed to delay any enemy advance.



Punic centre

The Punic right with massed cavalry

The Battle

Both sides advanced smartly with the Roman's seeking to breakthrough in the centre and the Carthaginians looking to hook around the Roman left and roll-up the line.   

Hannibal's cavalry on the move

Roman right suffers under massed skirmishers fire

The early stages of the game were very much in the favour of the Punic forces. On their left the Roman's came under heavy skirmisher fire and suffer 3 hits. On the right the Roman light troops were ridden-down by Celtic horse. The innovative Roman cavalry tactics also proved to be unsuccessful as one unit was destroyed (along with a general) and one fell back.  

Celtic horse sweep some lights aside

As the centres clashed things looked grim indeed for the Romans. They lost 2 units to flank attacks from the Punic horse and African Veterans. There were losses in the centre but they had managed to hold the initial attack of Hannibal's large Celtic infantry force.

The Roman left is flanked - things look grip

Over on the Roman right they advanced steadily, pushing aside the skirmishers, and coming to grips with the elephants and cavalry guarding the Carthaginian flank. By this stage it was 3-0 to Hannibal and he seemed to have the stronger position with the Roman left turned.
  

Roman right advances

Elephants get stuck-in 

Now came the critical part of the battle - Hannibal was ahead but his weaker infantry could not hold forever against the superior Romans. Hannibal made two key mistakes at this point. Firstly he failed to advance his cavalry that had flanked the Romans rapidly enough meaning the area was congested for two key turns that restricted the ability of the Veterans to manoeuvre. More critically though Hannibal forgot that he could about face his Veterans and so wasted two critical turns during which he might have been able to roll-up the Romans.

Veterans try to turn the flank but its all a bit congested

Italian horse is trapped and killed but buys valuable time

Once the Carthaginians got moving again it was too late as their centre began to crumble. 3-0 quickly became 7-5 and a Roman victory by 1 unit (the Roman breakpoint being 6 vs Hannibal's 7)

Romans withstand a heavy assault

The veterans pose for a shot 

So a game that Hannibal should have won but failed at the last moment. In hindsight the flank attack became too congested which lost a couple of valuable turns.

Punic Wars - Armati Campaign Week 4



The fourth week of the campaign sees us return to Italy where Hannibal is once again in the offensive attempting to move from Umbria to Piceni as he seeks to threaten Rome itself. This week we are trialling a new reinforcement system where all reinforcement cards are available to the commanders rather than just those for conquered territories. The intent was to provide a wider range of troops to the Romans to spice-up the games. This was partly successful with the Roman forces featuring Numidian light horse and the Carthaginians some elephants.

Deployment

On this occasion the Roman's adopted what appeared to be a fairly defensive formation on the presumption that Hannibal would again attempt a double envelopment. The Roman's left was guarded by heavy infantry and was angled back to increase the time taken to envelope it. The Roman's right was much stronger containing all the cavalry and the Triarii in the hopes of entangling the Punic horse long enough to create a flank attack with the heavy infantry.

The compromise in the position though was that to create enough frontage for the overlap the Romans had deployed several units in width not depth, risking them being swept away if they were fighting the Celts.

Roman left with flank guards in place

Roman Centre

Roman right - cavalry ready to engage

Roman right - Triarii ready to create the flank

Although Hannibal enjoyed a cavalry superiority it did create a dilemma for him. In order to have flexibility with his elephants and African Veterans he would need to create heavy divisions containing two units of heavy cavalry. These are unwieldy beasts making it hard to outflank an opponent who is not foolish enough to advance and almost impossible with two such divisions on the same flank.

So the cavalry was divided equally between the flanks with the Veterans deployed close-in on the right side to hopefully do the real damage.       

Punic left - a large cavalry force supported by elephants

Punic centre - a polyglot of Libyans, Greeks, Spanish and Celts

Punic left - African Veterans and another cavalry force

The Battle

On Hannibal's left be battle began with both sides advancing towards the centre. The Romans were seeking to avoid the elephants with their Italian horse and destroy them with them light troops. Some careful manoeuvring allowed the Italians to engage the Celtic cavalry opposite them while the lights delayed the elephants progress. Hannibal deployed a cloud of skirmishers to weaken the Triarii who moved to support the Italian horse.  

Hannibal advances his left wing

 

Elephants become engaged with the lights 

 

Triarii move to cover the cavalry 

 

Believing that the Triarii had moved too far from the flank of their main line Hannibal pushed forward in the centre in the hopes by-passing them to launch an assault on the main line while his African Veterans sought to turn the Roman left. This saw an earlier than usual clash of the heavy infantry in the centre. With the Romans deployed well-back and slightly angled it did mean though that the African Veterans took an additional move to come to grips with the enemy.  It was a risk though as the wider Roman line left a unit of Hastati in flanking position on Hannibal's left.  

The lines clash with a potential flank exposed

Celt-Iberians push into the Romans

Back on the Roman right it was a mixed time for Punic's. They managed to catch a unit of Italian horse with their elephants but were only 2 moves from a deadly flank attack on their own left. Things looked grim for Hannibal. 

Elephants mash some enemy horse - stomp stomp 

The Roman flank attack is poised

At this crucial juncture the Veterans and Celt-Iberians crashed into the Roam left flank with deadly effect, sweeping away several Roman units deployed wide and the Celts especially performing above expectations.

Veterans join the fray

Celt-Iberians bring on the pain

As the Roman's lined up their flank attack, Hannibal won the imitative and was able to kill enough of the Romans to win the game before the attack could be launched, scoring a 6-4 victory.

Both sides tangled-up on the Roman right

Hard shoving in the centre

The Roman left where all the damage was done

So the heroes of the day for the Punic's were certainly the Celt-Iberians who broke through the Roman line just in the nick of time. 

The Victors



Charge

Conclusion

A close game and one that only swung to Hannibal in the very last move. In truth both players made some errors. Hannibal wasted half his cavalry as it became stuck wide on the Roman's  refused left and took no part in the game. The Roman's could perhaps of used the Triarii to assault the Punic's flank instead of turning outwards to support their cavalry.