Hannibal was kicking his heels in southern Italy, so the
time had come for a Roman counter-attack in Spain. A rapid Roman offensive across the Ebro
caught Hasdrubal Barca off guard and now the glorious Roman army was besieging
Dertosa. Hasdrubal rushed to relieve the siege and so the opportunity avenge
the deaths of the elder Scipios 4 years earlier presents itself.
Well, as expected the Romans lost the scouting contest and
so deployed the centre of the Roman triple line. The Carthaginian’s responded
by deploying the massed citizen spear blocks, supported by Spanish infantry.
Then it was down to just seeing how much overlap the Carthaginian’s managed to
achieve around the outnumbered Roman cavalry.
Battle opened with the Carthaginian left wing surging forward to try to envelop
the Roman right, while their left wing had a bit of a false start and the citizen
spear indulged in a half hearted shuffle forward.
The confident Roman legionaries marched forward to engage
the Carthaginian centre, while the wings mounted a holding action. However, very
quickly the numerous Carthaginian cavalry started to flank the hard pressed
Roman cavalry.
No matter, thought the Roman commander, “we can still crush
their centre, before our wings collapse”. But, no matter how hard the Roman
Hastati tried, these Carthaginian citizen spear just would not die! Save after
save was coming out of the bag and when hits were finally achieved, they were
quickly rallied off.
Meanwhile the Roman left wing was starting to run into
trouble, being out flanked by the Numibian light cavalry and the Roman right
was being assailed almost in front of their own camp!
Then at the darkest hour one of the Carthaginian citizen spear
blocks pushed its way through the Roman first line. Things were looking very
bleak indeed!
But then the Romans found a weak spot, the Spanish infantry!
They managed to break these allies. Then
quickly routing a supporting elephant unit, which fled through a group of
slingers, squashing them into the turf.
Finally things were looking up for the Romans, but too late.
God had called time and despite being less then enamoured with the beardy
wonders on the Carthaginian side, was forced to grudgingly accept this as a
marginal victory for Carthage. The beardy wonders immediately claimed an overwhelming
victory, desperate for any popular acclaim, while the Romans were left to
ponder their tactics!
Another fun game using the ‘To The Strongest’ rules, that
remained ‘in the balance’ right until the end. What more can you ask of an
evening’s gaming.
