Lost Battles 200 BC Campaign - The Final Countdown

This week we played the final round of the 'campaign'. On the face of it, Gaul and Numidia were vying for first place, Rome and Syracuse for second whilst Carthage and Macedon were trying not to be last. Strangely, it didn't turn out quite like that.

After the battlefields were generated, the Numidians were to face the Gauls on a plain.

The Improbable Encounter - Gauls face Numidians in a very yellow desert

This was to be the quickest game of the evening; no doubt due to the simple nature of the Gallic army and the lack of terrain. Not surprisingly an army of largely heavy infantry facing one of mostly light cavalry resulted in a draw. This lack of a decisive result made the outcome of the remaining battles very interesting!

Fighting for second place, Rome faced Syracuse on the Granicus battlefield.

Rome struggles across the river in the face of Syracusan opposition

By all accounts Ellimedes had, once again, sacrificed to the dice gods, resulting in a decisive win for Syracuse.

Down at the bottom of the table, Macedon faced Carthage on the field of Delium. The central hills were going to be a problem for the Macedonian phalanx but at least the two flanking streams should restrict the more numerous Carthaginian cavalry.
Antigonus' plan was to keep his cavalry in the stream zones, hopefully protracting the cavalry fight. The phalanx were to be deployed in the 3 centre zones with a slight preponderance in the left centre zone; the only zone where the phalanx could be deployed to best effect. However, with a command roll of one, the centre of the Macedonian army failed to deploy.

Macedonians push ahead on the left whilst the centre fails to turn up

The only house rule that we used for the whole campaign was that, as we were not fighting historical encounters,  each side could choose their own key zone (obviously chosen from the left centre, centre and right centre zones). For this battle Antigonus chose the left centre; being the zone where the bulk of the phalanx would deploy.
Somewhat surprisingly, Nellimedes chose his right centre zone, directly opposed to the Macedonian key zone. The mass of the Carthaginian heavy cavalry deployed on their right wing facing the Macedonian cavalry, whilst their main fighting power, consisting of veteran infantry and elephants, deployed in their right rear. The remaining Carthaginian line was lightly held by average infantry and light cavalry. These, probably sensing an opportunity arising from the Macedonians difficulty in deploying, advanced to attack. Oddly though Nellimedes chose to hold back his veteran infantry and heavy cavalry on the base line leaving his key zone unoccupied.
Seeing this, Antigonus sent forward the cavalry and phalanx, completely forgetting the plan to anchor his flank on the stream. Not only that but another command roll of one meant his centre was still unable to deploy.

The Macedonian centre finally arrives whilst the left flank battles it out. In the distance, the right wing is harried by Numidian cavalry

On subsequent turns the missing phalanx eventually turned up but all the Macedonian effort was put into their exposed left wing. Eventually this paid off with the more numerous Carthaginian cavalry breaking. Now assailed from two directions, the Carthaginian infantry were soon to follow. An interesting battle that could have gone either way; mainly decided by an error in the Carthaginian deployment.

So how did this affect the campaign outcome?

The Final Scores

In the end Alanix held on to his lead but a late win meant Ellimedes rose to joint first! More surprisingly, Antigonus' only win allowed Macedon to rise to joint third. As for the favourites, Rome and Carthage, - ...........nuff said.

So all in all a good campaign and I feel the format worked well. Hopefully, we can revisit this in the future.