Game 1:
g1ul10 (Carthaginian): 6
mk20336 (Roman) : 4
Both Carthaginians and Romans want to control the central hill. The Roman strategy is good but their Clash of Shields fail and the subsequent Carthaginian Line Command inflicts two further losses for a 3-0 against the Romans. Next round I'm Spartacus played by Carthage brings the score 4-0 against Romans which also have two infantry units with a single block remaining. This is were the tide change: counter-attacking the I'm Spartacus, Carthaginians eliminate three Roman unit (thanks to a failed leader check). Next round the single block Roman medium inf eliminates a further auxilia before the heavy Carthaginian infantry closes the game mopping some damaged units up.
Game 2:
mk20336 (Carthaginian) : 6
g1ul10 (Roman): 5
Romans prepare a line below the central hills waiting for Carthage to attack and Carthage promptly does it in its left flank, where the Romans do in fact have a slight superiority (more medium inf). But this time Romans line command doesn't work as expected, with a Roman heavy inf that fails to score a single hit on a five dice roll and get eliminated by the battle back. I dare to say that if the result were reversed this would have been a rather easy victory for the Roman. But this was not the case. Severely battered after their own attack and next round counter-attack, Romans tried to maintain some cohesion and with I'm Spartacus brought the score to a not-too-bad 4-3 for the Carthaginians. Subsequent firefight moved the score to 5-5 and the game to a very tactical end, in which both parties tried to cover their weak units and exploit local superiority. The Romans were however progressively loosing troops to Carthaginian archery fire so they decided for a final, dramatic attack to the central hill, that failed. The following charge of the Carthaginian cavalry ended the game.
At the end both games were rather balanced and playing with Michal is always challenging.
