Fought a 400pt battle today using my Polybians vs Carthaginians

(S.Brittan)

Romans 198-105BC (ie not strictly historical matchup but close)

Cic CvO with 12 BdO 6 PsS 2 SpS 3 AxS 3 PsO

Sg CvO with 8 BdO 4 PsS 2 SpS 2 AxS 2 PsS(Achaians)

Sg CvO with 2 CvO Romans 4 CvO Italians & 2 LhO Tarentines

Army Baggage with 6 BgF

all Regulars No stratagems

Carthage fielded 3 Cmds (with 4 Army Bag) with Cic commanding a block

of around 20 WbO with some PsS AxS and some SpO a SG with AxS LhO CvO

and a SG with CvO LhO and AxS. A mix of Irr ans Regs.

Carthos invaded in spring (weather n/e) and terrain placement saw a

river on Roman right flank with GH in Roman centre the remaining 2 SH

1 GH 1 V & 1 RF all ended up in Cartho half of table and was to play

no part in battle.

Romans deployed 1st with 2 Inf Cmds side by side with right anchored

on River and Bd deployed on central hill. Cav Cmd was on Left just

behind one Inf Cmd. Cav Cmd was allocated 1st the baggage the lowest

and the 2 Inf Cmds averaged (shock! horror!) the remaining 2 dice.

Carthos deployed with Cav Cmd on right, Warband cmd in centre and the

Spainish AxS with Cv/Lh on left

Initial moves saw Romans deploy off the hill into standard 3 line

formation with Velites joined by PsO Cretans and the AxS

Extraordinarii. Roman Cav moved to their left to opposse their Mtd

Carthos mirror image.

Carthos moved Wb cmd forward screened by their AxS and PsS (AxS

Ligurians part of Mtd cmd emerged from vineyard to extand their

screen) Their Cav cmd moved towards Roman left and a group of

Numidiam Lh moved across the river to threaten Roman right.

Bad Pips for Carthos saw all but their Cav Cmd slowed to crawl the

Romans with Great Pips (6 5 5 & 1 on two successive bounds) saw them

deploy their Cav against the Cartho Mtd and form a defensive flank vs

the river.

In the centre the Carthos moved up towards the Roman Light Inf screen

but feel short of contact.

More poor Pips from Carhage played a part in slowing their advance.

The Roman Light Inf however were forced to hit their Lt Inf

opponnents as Ps became impetuous in enemy TZ.

This turned out to be a major plus for Romans as their AxS and PsS

made mincemeat of the Cartho equivalents (lots of 1s from Carthos and

the S grading counting against them). First blood to Rome :-)

The Roman Cav then charged into the Carho Mtd and again luck favoured

the brave with the Carthos going Disheartened in one fell swoop !

Of course having done no damge to Roman mtd whilst fresh the

disheartened sods then killed 2 Italian CvO ! but it was too late to

stop them going Broken themselves.

Meanwhile the Warband finally cleared away the Velites but hit the

waiting Principes Bd line piecemeal losing a couple of elements.

On Roman turn they managed some flank contacts on Wb and with QKs

several Wb elements disappeared and their Cmd was disheartened.

Carthos had to throw their SpO into the fray to try to shore up their

right flank and the did kill a couple of AxS but suffered from Cav

and being flanked by Lh.

On Roman right the Carthos were causing some problems at end of Roman

line as they managed to outflank some AxS but again a dearth of Pips

slowed their progress (just as well as the Cv and Lh could have

caused major problems).

Another turn saw the game end in Romans favour as the Legions broke

the Warbands.

As always with Dbmm a fun game with lots of incident and the 'feel'

of having fought a battle.

Few rules queries arose with corner to corner contact copunting as

contact and allowing lining up being only one we had to give much

thought too.

However Reg SpO as a troop type feel very weak and poor value for

Pts. Sp are QK by so many troop types and their changed rear support

from Dbm makes them a very vulnerable and impotent. Even CvO can deal

with them effectively never mind S Mtd. How anyone fields an army of

Sp (such as Hoplites) is beyond us !!??

Anyway another fun game and my first victory (in some 15 attempts)

versus Stephen !!!!

Roma Victor :-)