Thursday 5 April 2012

The Battle of Arpi 215 BC

Last night Peter, back from his stable duties in Devon, and I started to fight the Battle of Arpi (part of our 2nd Punic War campaign) which was set up a fortnight ago.  http://olicanalad.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/battle-of-arpi-initial-deployments.html


Both of us felt this battle would be close. Two good commanders, the Romans with slightly more numbers and a very similar army characterisation card draw - 9 cards to 8. As it was, Carthage drew 74 morale chips, a Momentum (cavalry) March card, and a Stratagem (favourable omens) card. Rome drew 70 morale chips, an Aggressive Melee Up 1 card, and a Stubborn Army Morale card.


And so the battle began.........

The Battle opened with a cavalry fight in the centre which the Romans got the better of.
Carthage launched an attack with Numidian cavalry which skirmished with the Roman infantry to good effect.




 
The cavalry battle ended with heavy losses on both sides, especially for Hannibal who had to commit infantry to redeem the situation.




 
The Roman left advanced to clear 'the long hill' of Gallic warriors.

The battle initially went the way of the Gauls.......
But the Gallic counter charge was blunted after heavy fighting and they were pushed back in disarray.
The battle on the Roman left becames general......

The Roman cavalry on their extreme left did well initially but, then disaster struck. A series of 1 rolls shifted the balance of power.
Marcellus advanced the bulk of the army to put pressure on Hannibal's left.... 
.....but, Hannibal feared the imminent collapse of his right. Abandoning his position on the left, he rushed troops from there, behind his line, to reinforce it.

The Romans attack the 'hairy knoll' in the centre.
A shot of the battle at the end of turn 3. At this point Hannibal is down to 34 morale chips, the Romans are down to 13. Carthage is running out of fresh units, Rome is running out of morale chips - this is going to be close!

To be continued.........

9 comments:

Phil said...

A wonderful table and a great report! The mass of troops is really impressive!

fireymonkeyboy said...

Smashing stuff! Huge table, looks fantastic!

Unknown said...

Impressive table. And the tension of the battle really there. Oh I'm waiting for the rest.

Galpy said...

what an impressive looking game , the figures look great, can i ask what manufacturer your figures are mainly

JAMES ROACH said...

Almost entirely Renegade.

Only my Punic War elephants (Crusader), Cretan archers (Foundry), and Numidians (Crusader & Gripping Beast) are not; 100 or so figs out of 2100.

Galpy said...

Thanks for that, I am looking at starting my armies soon, thinking of using Aventine for the base and working from there, love you site and have added it to my blog list
Cheers
Kent

DadExtraordinaire said...

Great looking gaming table and figures James. The morale chips that are used, are they for shoring up morale i.e. staving off a retreat or rout or can they increase a units morale temporarily? I've never played Ager but very interested as it looks a really balanced game system from your AARs.

I recommend Renegade as well I have their WW1 range beautiful figures IMHO.

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi Maximus,

Kinda. A chip is lost each time the army takes a Unit Integrity loss due to combat, etc. UI are unit strength / casualty points. Chips are also expended when UI are rallied back to a unit on successful Command card rallies - one chip for one UI.

When an army reaches 0 chips it is subject to Army Morale tests (Army Die Vs Army Die) when Army Morale cards are turned. There are 3 in a deck. A failure indicates that each command group must check using its motivation die Vs D8. A fail indicates, depending on the loss, 1, 2 or 3 UI loss on each unit. At 0 morale chips, your time is limited.

Gunny Highway said...

James,

As your usually high standards, looks like you and your partner are having a ripping good time. Love the table too!
Respectfully,
Gunny