Cannae or Can'tae

Following his defeat, as he marched by Rome, Hannibal looked vulnerable to being crushed. Things did not pan out as I expected.

Rome: Card 12: Political control of Pisae and Croton.

Carthage: Card 14: Event, Ligurian Recruits - Hannibal adds 2 combat units (CU).

Rome: Card 16: Marcellus (pro-consul) moves with 4 CU to Syracuse and a siege is successfully begun.

Carthage: Card 19: Event, Pro-consul Dissmissed - Marcellus is relieved of his command.

Rome: Card 64: Flaminius moves to Syracuse with 4 CU and the siege is successfully continued.

Carthage: Card 35: Event, Diplomacy - Political control is negotiated over Brundisium in Apulia.

Rome: Card 5: Syracuse lamely submits and Flaminius enters in triumph - back in Rome Marcellus 'The Besieger' plots his personal revenge; Flaminius must have been behind his dismissal.

Carthage: Card 50: Event, Adriatic Pirates - Hasdrubal sails for Brundisium onboard a fleet of fast pirate ships with 3 CU. Because of the straits he lands out of reach of Flaminius.

Rome: Card 51: Event, Epidemic - Hasdrubal's army falls victim to sickness but casualties are minimal (no effect on CU).

Carthage: Card 6: Hannibal marches south to Terventum.

Rome: Card 53: Political control take of Falerii.

Carthage: Card 2: Hannibal marches to join his brother in Brundisium.

Rome: Card 11: Political control take of Nice.

Carthage: Card 40: Minor Campaign card, Hanno moves to Saldae and prevents Roman control. Hasdrubal boards his ships again (without CU) and sets sail for Spain. The Romans are waiting for him and his fleet is dispersed (Hasdrubal is displaced).

Rome: Card 42: Political control take of Nemausses in Massilia.

END OF TURN: Rome had the worst hand of strategy cards I've ever seen. Her temporary advantage was lost.

TURN 6: 211 BC - 210 BC

Flaminius is made pro-consul.
Scipio Africanus is made pro-consul and marches to Cannae with 5 CU.
Paulus and Nero are elected as consuls (placed in Rome).

At the start of turn 6 the strategic position is as follows.

 

Carthage: Card 7: Hannibal marches to Cannae to do battle with Scipio.

Hannibal has 7 CU plus 1 CU for allies in Italy.

Scipio has 5 CU plus 3 CUs for allies in Italy and a 'Brown Card'. (We have decided that strategy cards with a brown banner can always be used as an extra CU in battle - they can, of course, be used as something else if a suitable argument can be made). 

As battles go, this one was not the most exciting. Also Peter could only play on the first night (on which the all campaign moves above were made) and I had to finish it off for him in a short session on the following night. The resulting campaign consequences were also negligable (both sides lost 2 CU). The report is a shot one.

 Initial deployments. Note that Hannibal, having been reinforced from Spain, has elephants again.

 Light troops clash as the Romans rush forwards.

 Elephants advance onto the flank of the legions. Elephants were used well, for once, in this battle and caused much damage.

 The infantry clash was fairly equal for much of the time as each side traded victory banners almost 1 for 1.

Then the luck went all one way. The Romans dispatched unit after unit without significant loss to themselves. The surprising thing about the Roman victory was the number of units which were only one 'block' away from being destroyed - of the 12 or so remaining Roman units more than half had only one block remaining.

Hannibal retreated back to Brundisium.

Next week we will all be back to the continue the campaign.