Games and Reports

When I started my Punic Wars project if you told me that:

• It would be the Republican Romans that would first take to the battlefield.
• It would be for a “rank and file” game rather than a skirmish game.

I would have said you were joking but the other week the Polybian Roman to fight the Pyric army.

I went with the legions deployed in the centre and smaller cavalry and light troops deployed on the flanks. The main issue with the Romans is the lack of cavalry so I had to lead with the infantry and be more cautious with the cavalry.

The Pyric forces were deployed in a similar manner with the pike phalanx in the centre supported by cavalry on either wing.

As both centres advanced the early exchange of missile fire favoured the Romans with the veteran velites destroying several skirmishing units much to the disgust of the Pyric commanders ?.

On the Roman right flank the Pyric light cavalry made a dash forward pinning the light trrops in my flank command back.

In the centre the early clashes the Roman pilum proved ineffective, and the pike drew first blood and disordered the Roman heavy infantry.

The Pyric light cavalry burst from the woods and caught a velites who failed to evade and were ridden down.

Back in the centre the legio heavy infantry had failed in their attempt to rally and had taken another hit from the phalanx they were fighting, something was wrong with my veterans today.

In similar fashion my heavy infantry on the extreme left had been engaged by pike, again missed with the pila and had taken a casualty from the combat! My veterans were just not making their saving rolls ☹️.

In an attempt to expose the flank of my infantry the Pyric light horse charged a unit of veteran velites but were given short shift in the combat and were destroyed.

In the centre the battlelines were becoming messy as units on both sides pushed forward and some hung back.

My right flank was causing concern as cavalry was now threatening the flank of my heavy infantry if I was not careful.

The Pyric light cavalry managed to get to the rear of one of my heavy infantry but luckily for me were driven off by a Spanish scutarii unit so avoided any embarrassment.

And to really upset the Pyric commanders the Numidian cavalry rode forward and slung a few javelins at his elephants who routed and then rampaged through one of his pike blocks?.

At the same time one of the legio units managed to finally get rid of a pike block. The game was now getting very close with loses on each side mounting and the game could go either way.

At least one of my heavy infantry units was behaving correctly and having successfully rallied twice the Triarii were in the front rank but they still had two disorders on them and could no longer rally unless they fell back.

However on my right flank my veterans were not behaving themselves and failed to rally a couple of times and soon took to their heals two legio units down.

And to make matters worse the lance armed companions managed to get at my cavalry and rode them down so only “three victory medals” left on both sides.

However it was my other cavalry unit on the left wing that won me the game (apologies for the picture a Gerry shot to imply movement) as I managed to get a couple of moves from them and advanced and take the enemy camp and their last 3 “victory medals” before they could do the same to me.

Another close and enjoyable game (well at least for me) so now onwards and get the rest of the Carthaginians painted and also some more Romans so I can also field the Camillian Roman army that actually fought the Pyric’s.

For anyone who doesn’t want the issue of measuring and dice I would heartily recommend “To the Strongest”. While the card and movement mechanisms take a bit of getting use to they have produced some cracking games.