Nigel took control of the Cartho cavalry (more later) as Russ and I went toe-to-toe again.
For a change the Romans won initiative (against Hannibal - surely some mistake!) so I got to choose the terrain (I went for Developed, obviously) and Russ had to place his troops first.
The terrain was placed - I went for big clunking bits to stop his troops moving about, Russ for as many open elements as possible.
As he had to place his troops first, he decided to place his African spears, Scutarii and Gallic Foot fairly centrally. As a consequence I decided to keep my heavy foot away from them and moved over to my left. Russ then placed his skirmish cavalry and heavy cavalry opposite them. I therefore decided to screen my heavy foot with velites and cavalry (leaving Russ to place his skirmishers in front of his foot).
The battlefield. Village and enclosed fields (on my left), vineyards and gully.
The Romans lined up on the left - and the Carthaginian foot in the distance dominating the middle.
The Romans moved off with the velites and cavalry (holding the Roman right) moved forward to engage the Numidian skirmish cavalry. These moved forward in turn to engage the velites and quickly the first clash of the battle took place. At impact the Numidians had a slight advantage but Russ' dice decided to misbehave resulting in him losing 2 bases and with one BG going disrupted.
Velites and Numdian Light Horse clash
The velites made big inroads into the Numidians and soon reduced one to 2 bases (and an autobreak). As a consequence all the BG's around them had to make cohesion tests - with the other Numidian horse failing. As another velites BG got into melee contact (and the Roman cavalry swung round to attack their flank) it was looking grim for the Numidians. The Gallic and Spanish cavalry therefore moved up to support them.
On the other side some more velites and Roman cavalry swung round to attack the Numidian javelinmen. As they charged the javelinmen evaded and the Roman cavalry unfortunately bounced straight into the African spearmen (who'd started the long slog across the battlefield to get close to the Roman infantry). The Gallic foot also started making their way forward.
Cavalry vs spears is usually a bad idea - and so it proved. The Africans made short work of the cavalry and the Romans were soo routed.
Luckily for the Romans, they were inflicting similar damage on the Carthaginian cavalry. The Numidians were polished off by the velites - just in time for the remaining Roman cavalry to engage the Spanish horse - possibly in the flank. Facing the prospect of being hit in the flank or meeting the Roman infantry (slowly moving towards them) the Spaniards turned to face the Roman cavalry. But they couldn't move (being undrilled) which meant that they got charged by both cavalry and infantry.
Miraculously, the Spanish won the impact. But as soon as the melee began the Romans started to chop bits from the Spanish BG and the writing was on the wall. To make things worse, I threw double six to polish off his commander (who was fighting in the front rank). So the Spanish BG disintegrated - leaving the Gallic horse running away from the rest of the Roman army.
On the other side, some velites charged the Cartho slingers and came off second best.
By this stage, time was pressing so we called it a day. Totting up the scores we saw that another Roman victory had been secured (1BG lost to 3BG). By avoiding the African spears the Romans again gave Hannibal a bloody nose - and took the score to 6-2 in battles won.
Laurel wreaths and triumphs all round!
Cavalry vs spears is usually a bad idea - and so it proved. The Africans made short work of the cavalry and the Romans were soo routed.
The Romans get mullered as the Carthaginian slingers and Gallic Foot move around to engage the Roman infantry.
Luckily for the Romans, they were inflicting similar damage on the Carthaginian cavalry. The Numidians were polished off by the velites - just in time for the remaining Roman cavalry to engage the Spanish horse - possibly in the flank. Facing the prospect of being hit in the flank or meeting the Roman infantry (slowly moving towards them) the Spaniards turned to face the Roman cavalry. But they couldn't move (being undrilled) which meant that they got charged by both cavalry and infantry.
Spanish cavalry - surrounded and in deep trouble.
Miraculously, the Spanish won the impact. But as soon as the melee began the Romans started to chop bits from the Spanish BG and the writing was on the wall. To make things worse, I threw double six to polish off his commander (who was fighting in the front rank). So the Spanish BG disintegrated - leaving the Gallic horse running away from the rest of the Roman army.
On the other side, some velites charged the Cartho slingers and came off second best.
By this stage, time was pressing so we called it a day. Totting up the scores we saw that another Roman victory had been secured (1BG lost to 3BG). By avoiding the African spears the Romans again gave Hannibal a bloody nose - and took the score to 6-2 in battles won.
Laurel wreaths and triumphs all round!