Just found the photos to this so decided to do a quick battle report.
Mark and Russ took the Carthos, I took the Spanish. As Russ had adjusted his army list I needed every single unit of Spanish to make up the 690 points, and the battlefield looked very crowded as a result.
The last time I'd used the Spanish I'd just rushed Russ' lines with massed skirmishers then scutari which had overwhelmed his lines and led to a fast, major victory.
This time I decided to play a cagier game and used the flexibility and mobility to what I thought might be my advantage. But having lots of undrilled troop on the field often means failed CMT's - and so it proved for me.
This was Mark's 2nd game of FOG and he rightly told us off for playing too quickly (i.e. running through the phases of play without explaining why certain things were happening). We'll try to do better next time.
So to the battle. We rolled for terrain and I managed to adjust the pieces to put lots of tricky terrain between me and the Carthos (like vineyards and steep hills) that would negate his elephants and African spears. I decided to place skirmishers in any tricky terrain so they could dash in and out then be protected from any counter attacks.
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| Spanish lines - most of my cavalry on the left with hordes of skirmishers and scutari in the middle and right. |
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| Carthos - cavalry and African spears in the middle, skirmishers holding the cultivated land on their right. |
Mark played a trump card by having his cavalry in the middle - allowing them to choose which side to strike on. My idea was to have most of my cavalry on my left to attack the Cartho flanks if they came forward. But they decided to just stay where they were - taking most of the battle to move the African spears around the rear of their lines (from left to right flank). Meaning I'd have to be the agressive party.
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| The massed Spanish ranks press forward over rough terrain as the Carthaginians just wait to see what happens. |
My massed ranks therefore pressed forward and looked to gain as much rough terrain as possible.
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| Slingers jump into an enclosed field for protection as the light horse stream past to harry the Cartho left flank. |
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| The Carthos look to move their African spears to their right flank - so I decide to harry the elephants with my caetrati. |
As my cavalry were massed on my left, the Carthos decided to move their African spears from their left flank to their right. Had I been in position this would have been a great time to attack as the scutari are impact foot and could have pushed the Cartho front line back into the slow moving spears. However, only my caetrati were close enough and I had them have a go at the elephants instead.
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| Spanish cavalry threaten the flanks. |
As the African spears were moving across, my cavalry were rushing forward but had to negotiate a field - making the journey longer and giving the Carthos time to get organised. Mark make good use of his commanders - getting double moves in while screened to get the spears in position. But it did mean that I was forcing him to move around and so keeping the initiative with the Spanish on both flanks.
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My light horse try to get in on the act - forcing the Carthos to bring their cavalry out.
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What I hadn't done was have my troops in position to exploit this advantage - my medium foot were still coming over the hill and between the tricky terrain in the middle of the battlefield. Had I been able to hit them from all sides at this point, it could have been carnage. As it was (mainly me failing CMT's) the Carthos got themselves sorted out before I could exploit.
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| General overview - the African spears are still manouvering but only half my skirmishers are anywhere near and the medium foot are way back (you can see some coming over the hill). The Carthos have committed some cavalry to chase off my light horse so I have to move some medium foot to the right to protect the flank. |
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| My caetrati managed to get some shots in on the elephants but were threatened in turn by the Cartho cavalry . At the bottom you can see some medium foot moving to protect the flanks as yet more stream forward over the hill. |
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| Close up of my right flank. Some medium foot in position and more skirmishers pour forward to support the javelins attacking the elephants. I just hope weight of numbers makes the Carthos think before committing the cavalry. |
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| On my left flank, more medium foot move forward to swing around and attack the Cartho right flank (as skirmishers aim to use the fields and trees as cover to make shoot and scoot attacks. |
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| The first real combat - my skirmishers take on the Cartho skirmishers in a number of charges with the aim of decimating their skirmishing line. One is already disrupted from receiving missile fire. |
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| On the right wing, all kinds of chaos as my light horse are scared off but supporting units aim to get close enough to count. |
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| On my left - the plan unfolds (badly). I moved the cavalry too close to the spears - otherwise my medium foot could have hit them on the flank. Otherwise its a good position as my skirmishers are forcing the mercenary scutari - who are shock troops - to charge them (with my medium troops ready to hit them when they enter the terrain). |
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In the middle, my massed troops break a number of skirmishing units who run for the hills. The Carthos commit some generals to bringing them back - so an ideal time for another scrap! We try to kill the elephants and tempt the Gauls into a charge (thereby allowing my medium foot to charge in turn).
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| On the left, the elephants are in trouble as a consequence of massed missile fire and are ready for the coup de grace. Medium foot (in the middle of the picture) look to swing round and hit the cavalry chasing my light horse in the flank. |
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| Meanwhile my slingers got caught outside of their protective field and got mushed. |
The battle continued until time caught up with us. The spears were allowed to charge my cavalry who were allowed to break off after the initial combat. Looking across the battlefield we could see that the Spanish had routed three units of Carthos in return for 1 Spanish so we called it a minor Spanish victory. But it was a bit clunky and next time I might just rush them all in at the same time rather than use the fancy moves I tried before.
Still, as always it was a lot of fun and Mark got some more FOG experience - which is always good for you!
