Thursday 23 February 2012

The Battle of Nemausus - Full Report

Scrotivius:
"Scipio ordered the attack at once. The legionaries went forward with confidence and fought with great determination. His cavalry, of which he was woefully short, were swept away like autumn leaves in a gale. His infantry, seeing their doom, were forced to withdraw, with heavy loss, before they were surrounded and destroyed. Scipio was badly wounded by a sling shot in the encounter: He had taken control of the 2nd legion after its senior officers were killed in the cruel fight."



The Roman legions advance.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Roman cavalry advance on Numidian cavalry under a hail of javelins.















On the Carthaginian left the elephants are repelled, but replaced in the attack by veteran Spanish infantry.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On the right the Carthaginians launch their Spanish cavalry and elephants against the oncoming Romans.
The Roman cavalry are swept away in short order.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On the right, elephants are again given short shrift by the Roman infantry. 
The fight becomes one of infantry Vs infantry, but the Spanish cavalry threaten the flanks and rear. 
The Roman cavalry is defeated by the Numidians and the Roman right is similarly threatened.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The infantry battle heats up before..... 
...the Romans, with their flanking cavalry defeated (and at 2 morale chips), break off and start to withdraw.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The bulk of the 1st legion, harassed by Spanish cavalry, manages to withdraw largely intact.
 
The battle is ended.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Post Battle:
The battle lasted just over two full turns. We decided to call it a 5 'Hannibal: R Vs C' battle card duration battle. As the Romans had managed to withdraw with one legion, and its defeated cavalry had not been pursued off table, we decided it was a 0 adjustment victory for the Carthaginians. Both sides rolled on the losses table and the Romans withdrew to Massilia. Carthage losses = 1 CU. Roman losses 4 CU.

8 comments:

Milo Burgh said...

Great!!

I see that you base your heavy and light cavalry the same. How do tell who is who? And how do you base caetrati?

Sgt Steiner said...

Excellent stuff

NW Crew said...

Fantastic AAR. And great and very informative campaign. Will follow this with interest.

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi Emilio,

as I only class Numidian as light it is not a problem. Also, they would, like their equivelents on foot, have a similar frontage (see hastati / velite numbers): 'Skirmish' was probably more a function than a deployment.

decb said...

Great blog great pic's hope to follow your campaign.

http://thediceiscast.blogspot.com/

Hendrid said...

Outstanding looking game, nice!

Gunny Highway said...

James,
Great report! I thoroughly enjoyed your battle descriptions. As to the Roman Commanders main problem of a weak cavalry arm, I would hope he can gain allies to supplement his cavalry or there is going to be a lot of wailing within the walls of numerous cities and towns in the Roman state....... I would surmise he must be able to hold his flanks or the advance will run into the same problem he had here...

Respectfully,

Gunny

Rodger said...

Great stuff.