Carthaginians vs Romans in 1/32 (part 1/2)
Date: December 24, 2009.
Hi,
We played a 54mm battle of Carthaginians vs Romans. Apart from some Gauls and Roman Cavalry, all the figures are from Steven Swiers who has become the ancients specialist of our club. A great number of his figures are painted by Peter De Ridder.
As Steven has still a lot of Romans and allies to paint, we were a bit short of Romans to have an equal battle. There part of the Gauls (infantry and cavalry) became Roman allies, and even then the Carthaginians were still stronger, also due to their large number of heavy infantry.
Steven took the Roman right flank with ally and Gaul cavalry and 2 Gaul warband and a Gaul noblemen unit as well as 2 units of triari. Siegfried held the centre with 5 units of hastati and 1 of velites. Patrick on the left flank had 3 units of cavalry : Romans, ally and Gaul, an Ally infantry unit and one unit of hastati.
On the Carthaginians left was Piet with the Numidian cavalry, 2 Numidian light infantry units and two units of Carthaginians infantry.
Geert had the left centre with 2 veteran Carthaginians units, 2 Carthaginians infantry and 2 African light infantry units. On the right centre, I controlled 5 war elephants and 4 heavy Carthaginians infantry units and Adrien had 2 units of Gaul cavalry, 2 warband units and one of Gauls noblemen. .
The velites and African light infantry started to skirmish while already two elephants went out of control (1 chance out of 6 for each one) and stormed directly in contact with 2 hastati units make causalities. The next rounds, the centre was dominated by the elephants all going out of control, charging friend and foe. They destroyed an hastati unit and made some casualties on both sides, but ultimately they charged of table or died in battle. However the Romans were not able to recover from these blows to keep their lines. On the Carthaginians right the cavalry charged one another, the ally cavalry wasn't present as they panicked being confronted with an out of control elephant, the former retreating to the rear. The infantry awaited initiative from the other side and kept their position, even the warbands(each unit tested each turn for 1 out of 6 chances to start an impetuous charge).
On rhe Roman right, the cavalry swept the Numidian skirmish cavalry from the field but was stopped by the heavy infantry and forced to retreat with the loss of their commander. One Roman ally warband made an impetuous charge against the Numidian infantry but was driven back.
The Roman right was defeated. In the centre it was up to the triari. Supported by another warband, the triari were able to destroy the African light infantry and a unit of the Carthaginians veterans but at a high price. The second Carthaginians veteran unit swept them away. The remaining weakened hastati units now faced my 4 Carthaginians heavy infantry units of which 2 had some casualties by the elephants. In the centre the Roman defeat was imminent. The hastati were beaten making the result clear. Too late, the Roman left tried to tip the balance. The fighting died out too, and the battle was over.
To have a more balanced game, we should have given the hastati a veteran status and the triari elite.
Dirk Donvil
Belgium
Many thanks to Mr. Donvil.