Saturday 13 August 2016

I guess Rome reigns down in Africa

I had an hour or so to myself today and thought about doing some painting, but I've lost my painting mojo at the moment. So instead I broke out the DBA Polybian Romans and Later Carthaginians and decided to invade Africa.
The first game went according to script (if you are Roman). The Waterway went down and the two pieces of terrain that were chosen were rolled for the same table quarter so things looked a bit bare. The Romans (via random dice roll) chose the side of the board with the difficult hill in it. The Carthaginians decided to line up their whole army and forego a littoral landing.

The Carthaginian line-up.
The Romans squeeze into their deployment area.
The two lines plough into each other, with a bad first round for the Carthaginians - 2 elements down in the first clash.
The velites engage the Carthaginian light horse trying to outflank the Roman line.
The Romans realign.
The Carthaginian General takes out an element of hastati. Things are beginning to even up.
Numidians decide that they would rather go home than face the velites. 3 elements down for the Carthaginians.
The Punic line is looking rather ragged.
BANG! A Libyan spear element is destroyed and the battle is over. 
A relatively decisive defeat for the Punic cause.
There was time for a second battle, to give the Carthaginians a chance for revenge!
In case of deja vu the marsh and woods rolled to be in the same terrain quarter and didn't fit. Once again the Romans chose to deploy on the edge with the difficult going.
The armies after the first turn. In the background the Carthaginians have made a littoral landing!
The first few turns see the Romans lose an element of cavaly and the general being recoiled. The Gallic warband is destroyed in the centre, losing 2 elements for the Punic cause.
Back into battle, the Carthaginian cavalry try to turn the Roman right flank.
On the right the Roman velites are destroyed by the Carthaginian light troops - revenge for their humiliation in the last game!
The Balaeric slingers close the door on an element of Principes who end up caught between the toes of a Punic pachyderm.
With the battle won on the main front it turned out to be a good idea to distract the Triarii with a littoral landing.
So a win a piece!
You can see in these shots my completed camp elements which are the maximum size possible (4 base widths). They were finished at the end of the holidays, three weeks ago, but I just haven't had time to post much (or paint much) since then. However, I've started to get back into it, and Craig's next lot of figures are currently on the painting tray.

I got a fantastic surprise this morning too. It is a few days early, but Dan sent me a birthday present all the way from Australia:
Ancient Spanish! Perfect.
Looking forward to getting these guys on the table... eventually.

Nate