Hannibal at the fords

[Deleted User]

I’d like to share photos from our recent 2 day Punic War game.
This shows the length of the table with the Romans & their Italian allies occupying the central position.
Hannibal’s Carthaginians were at the southern end, separated by a mostly uncrossable river. His brother Hasdrubal’s army was at the northern end.
The goal was to either destroy the Romans or, at least, join their armies.
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The difficult river:

 

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A marching fort occupied the heights, well defended.
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A villa lay abandoned.
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Hasdrubals cavalry moved forward, trying to tempt the Romans off their hill.
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The formidable elephants, screened by Numidian javelinmen, waited.

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Hasdrubal’s left flank reveal yet more cavalry & his centre with its Offensive Spears, poised.
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The cunningly placed ballistas (which actually took out a Roman Nellie) wait.
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Roman Allied cavalry
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Roman heavy infantry: the elite & nearly unbeatable centre of the Roman line
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The Romans surge forward, too late to stop a junction of the two armies
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The game had some hard fighting at the fords & the beginning of a battle on the slopes but ultimately the Romans were outmanoeuvred & the Carthaginians won a Minor Victory with a the joining of the two brothers’ armies.

donald

[Temporary like Achilles]

Looks like a great way to spend a couple of days! What rules were you using, and how did they handle a battle of this size?

 

 

[Deleted User]

Temporary like Achilles wrote:

Looks like a great way to spend a couple of days! What rules were you using, and how did they handle a battle of this size?

We are always ready to talk to the passing crowd. We’re the only wargame in a train & hobby show & very few have even heard of historical wargaming. However, interest is huge & we spend more time talking than playing so it’s really a one day game.

We use Field of Glory/2. Initially vastly popular, they seem “on the nose” for many gamers now. I find once you have the hang of them, they produce a challenging tactical game that more or less matches my view of Ancient warfare.

 

donald

[kyoteblue]

That’s impressive !! I tried FOG 1 but didn’t care for it.

[Nathaniel Weber]

Looks fantastic—love that 1/72 stuff.

[McKinstry]

Great looking game. We found FOG a bit inclined to produce a very grinding game in which forces tended to just stand toe to toe and slug until one side wore out. Has that been your experience?

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[Deleted User]

kyoteblue wrote:

I tried FOG 1 but didn’t care for it.

Neither did I for quite a while!

FoG *can* be a grinding game until everything unravels quickly (but wasn’t that what often happened in Ancient warfare?).

However, I’ve found in several games, using tactics such as provoking charges from Impact infantry breaks up a battleline & reveals vulnerable flanks etc.

There’s also the use of ambushes & flank marches for such & light cavalry are such fun if you can get them some space. Really, it’s a game where manoeuvre pays off.

At any rate if you tell me there’s several much better Ancients’ rule sets out there, I’d not argue. We have lots of time invested in FoG & it works well enough.

 

donald

[McKinstry]

We enjoyed FOG and while we’ve moved on to an admittedly simpler set that we found did bigger battles faster, I still think it handles the threshing machine aspects of the Roman Legions at their height better than anything else I’ve played.

I remain however a bit traumatized by painting a 10mm FOG Gallic Army. As I recall I had something like 12 figures on a stand and warbands were 8-12 stands so after 1,000+ 10mm Gallic figures trying to do each one a bit differently, I still twitch at the thought of any figure in any scale with checks or plaid.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[Victoria Dickson]

I keep reading the thread title as Hannibal at the fjords, which would be a really good title for a Carthaginian vs Viking battle report…

http://crazywargames.blogspot.co.uk/

[Deleted User]

Victoria Dickson wrote:

I keep reading the thread title as Hannibal at the fjords, which would be a really good title for a Carthaginian vs Viking battle report…

 

How about “Cannibal at the Ford’s” which would indicate an unfortunate dinner guest at the home of the prominent auto-maker.

 

donald

[Author]

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