The Battle of Ilipa (206BC)

Last night four hardy souls met to reprise the battle of Ilipa from the 2nd Punic War in 206BC. Chris was laid low with COVID, Rob was still providing free childcare and Greg was “working somewhere in London”. Tony and Dave took the roles of Hasdrubal and Mago, and Phil played Scipio. I supported Phil and supplied refreshments. Our first game of this back in June had resulted in a pretty inconclusive slug-fest between deep units. This time I had tweaked the ORBATs slightly to reduce the Carthaginian’s spearmen but boost their cavalry.

The game set up saw the Carthaginian’s with cavalry heavy wings under Tony, and myself with an infantry heavy centre for the Romans. It seemed all set to see if the Carthaginian wings could win the day before the Roman legions broke their infantry opponents.

Tony started quite aggressively, pushing his right wing cavalry forward. How unusual!

with the light cavalry hoping to take to fortified Roman camp.

However, Phil countered with the Roman cavalry and soon charged his Punic opponents killing a unit in combat and sweeping away another right unit under TtS’s morale system. On the Carthaginian left again the cavalry attacked with the Romans countering with archers, cavalry and mercenary scutarii. The Carthginian plan seemed to be foundering as another unit of their Spanish cavalry died.

However, the Roman attack in the centre wasn’t going to plan. The Spanish javelinmen and slingers were a nuisance scoring a disorder on a Roman Quincunx, and their veteran status made them unusually difficult to kill. Even when the Roman legions charged home their attack did little damage.

The combat on the flanks continued to be bloody. Phil’s general saw his unit killed, but his general survived the “Infamy, Infamy” stratagem...a typical Punic trick...and he relocated to the surviving cavalry and started to charge towards the Punic camps. On the other flank both sides broke through, but Phil brought his cavalry back under command and managed to position them to attack the Punic flanks, whilst Tony’s breakthrough unit was stranded in the middle of nowhere.

The centre continued to be an attritional battle, with disorders being landed but no killing blows. Here the Roman Quincunx proved its worth being able to rally even when in combat. Eventually a Quincunx killed its opponent and even managed to turn the enemy flank.

With their coin reserves dwindling the Carthaginians unleashed the elephants into the battle in the centre. Shame that they died under a hail of pilums and as they stampeded swept away a unit of mercenary Numidian cavalry. The last remaining Carthaginian victory medal was surrendered when Scipio himself charged into the Punic camp.

An interesting game, and one that seemed closer than the victory medal count of 16-5.

The Roman Quincunx is a powerful unit but very expensive, costing even more than a Successor phalanx, so any Roman army will normally find itself outnumbered as regards units. A few more “failed saves” in the centre may have given a different result.

Simon