003 Bagradas (253 BC)

Bagradas – 253 B.C.

Turn 1: Carthage moves light troops forward. Regulus orders his cavalry on the left and right flanks to strike out and scatter the forward ranks of Xanthippus’ lines.
Turn 2: Carthaginian light cavalry counterattacks and drives off the Roman horsemen. On the left flank, the Romans rally and medium and light cavalry charge the Carthaginian equestrians. They fall back with serious casualties.
Turn 3: Roman cavalry continue to harass the opposition and earn a victory banner. Xanthippus orders the elephant corps forward in the center.
Turn 5: Elephant corps charges but abysmal dice rolling causes minimal damage to Regulus’ legionnaires. Romans strike back under Regulus and two of the three elephant units rear back in panic; some Roman units, unfortunately, are trampled in the scrimmage.
Turn 6: The African elephant corps regains control of their armored pachyderms and charge the Roman line again. The carnage is horrifying! A Roman unit is eliminated, another retreats away wildly. The units serving side by side with Regulus, however, hold firm and manage to slay several of the giant beasts!
Turn 10: The battle is raging fiercely in the center… only one elephant group is left but they’ve cost the Romans many men. The Romans are now summoning up their reserves consisting of heavy infantry.
Turn 11: The Roman gods favor the legionnaires this turn as the heavy infantry, led by Regulus, steadily move forward and cut down the last elephant unit as well as a band of North African warriors. Romans are ahead five to three.
Turn 12: Reserves on both sides are forming up new battle lines in the center. But the Romans are well ahead now, six to three.
Turn 13: Xanthippus orders the entire center of heavy Carthaginian infantry to surge forward; the clash of sword and shield can be heard across the line! The struggle is costly for both sides. Regulus barely manages to hold his line together and the surviving units battle back with fury causing some Punic units to collapse and fall back. The losses are too much for the Carthaginians and Xanthippus retires his forces. The Romans secure the win seven to four. MVP was Regulus and the two units led by him over the course of the contest. The elephants for Carthage caused considerable damage but failed to eliminate enough foot troops to decide the engagement. The Romans were able to kill off the elephants with medium troops which then allowed the heavy legions resting in reserve to move forward and finish off the battle in the center.

This week was the return match of C&C Ancients scenario 3, Bagradas, with Deon. So, my turn to be the Romans facing the Carthaginian elephants. Though, after last week, I was more worried about the cavalry: six Carthaginians to the Romans' four.
The initial action was on the Roman left flank, where Deon advanced his lights: infantry and cavalry. I countered with the Roman cavalry, eliminating one Carthaginian light cavalry (first blood to me), but leaving the Roman medium cavalry reduced to one block. Deon had more right flank cards and continued this attack, reducing the Roman light cavalry to a single block, too. But both damaged cavalry were able to retreat out of the way.
Action then moved to the centre and the elephants. I moved some of the Roman medium infantry into the line, giving the elephants targets that couldn't evade. However, the exchange went in the Romans' favour, losing one medium infantry for two elephants. This made the score 3:1 to the Romans.
The last elephant trampled another medium infantry before it fell - 4:2.
Then the Carthaginian heavy infantry moved up. Nicely into range for me to play "Darken the Skies". The flocks of arrows damaged several Carthaginians without removing any - though the cavalry threatening the Roman right had to retreat. A "Double Time" from Deon saw the Carthaginian heavies hit the Roman mediums, but I was able to pull back after taking some damage.
Time for action on the Roman right: the Carthaginian light cavalry came back into the fray, but one of them fell to the Roman light infantry and cavalry. That's 5:2.
Suddenly the Carthaginian cavalry swung round the Romans' left flank and took out the two one-block cavalry units hiding at the back - plus some light infantry that got in the way. And the score's 5:5.
Then a "Clash of Shields" gave me two extra dice where troops were in close combat. I took out light cavalry on my left and medium cavalry on my right (leaving Hamilcar stranded in the open!) to win 7:5.
It was another close and entertaining game.

Evert being otherwise engaged, this week's C&C game was against Deon and we went for his favourite, Ancients. I have not played Ancients a lot - I find it a bit too fiddly - so even an early scenario is new to me. Last time he played Bagradas, Deon was the Carthaginians, so he took the Romans this time. And I had elephants for the first time!
Obligatory trumpeting noises out of the way, I found my hand full of left and right flank cards. So my Carthaginian cavalry trotted up and the lights engaged the Roman flanks with some archery. Deon returned fire and then sent some of his cavlry into the fray. End result: I lost two light cavalry and he lost one medium.
By now I had a hand full of centre cards: time to get those elephants into play. Deon had conveniently moved up his medium infantry, so a couple of turns saw the elephants hitting them. (In the meantime Deon used a cavalry charge that resulted in him losing his other medium cavalry when mine battled back. The score was now 2:2.)
As expected, the elephants mashed the Roman medium infantry, killing one unit and damaging two others. The Roman light and medium troops fought back with surprising effect, destroying two elephant units! (Admittedly one of them was damaged when the third unit rampaged.) The score's now 4:3 to the Romans.
There was a bit of re-grouping on the Roman side, while the Carthaginian infantry started advancing (a Line Command card). However, it was my Mounted Charge that swung the battle as the cavalry hit damaged units on both flanks of the Roman force: unable to evade, a light infanry, auxilia and light cavalry went down. That's 6:4 to Carthage.
Deon made a final attempt to get Hasdrubal, whose medium cavalry unit was down to one block, but missed. And the coup de grace was a "Move - Fire - Move" card (my second) that let me finish off a one block unit for the win. It was a closer game than the 7:4 scoreline suggests and one that I throughly enjoyed.

7 - 2 Carthage Elephants proved too much for the Roman center. It was obliterated by these massive war beasts.

I have written a somewhat dramatized summary of this battle at BoardGameGeek (written as if from an ancient source): boardgamegeek.com/thread/1720533/accipiens-virginitatem-gladium

A TL;DR version:

Final Result:
First Battle of Bagradas: Stanislav (ROME) 7 Victory Banners vs. 4 Victory Banners Andreas (CARTHAGE)
Second Battle of Bagradas: Stanislav (CARTHAGE) 5 Victory banners vs. 7 Victory banners Andreas (ROME)

Stanislav wins 12-11.

All in all, a very entertaining brawl full of twists and turns. It was Andreas' first shot at C&C: Ancients (hence the name of the battle) and it was a very fine outing for a newbie. I think it is a very well balanced scenario full of possibilities and multiple approaches.

Romans formed a forward line by centering their LI two hexes in front of the MI...and there they managed to stay, until almost the end. Carthaginians advanced their own LI straight ahead, leaving a central gap for the Elephants to charge straight through.

Romans anchored their LI line with Auxilia. Carthaginians advanced Elephants down the central corridor, and Warriors on the right.

Things then got bogged down for the Carthaginians, who were restricted for too long to flank advances. The Romans found that although Elephants are large (and, here, immobile), they are surprisingly hard to hit with javelins However, the hits added up, and eventual Rampages ended up with far too many brown-on-brown Elephant casualties. Xanthippus and the Carthaginian HI waited, camped at the rear, for the carnage to finish.

Meanwhile, on the Carthaginian right, Warriors (supported by cavalry and LI) started making a mess of the Roman Auxilia and LI. A detachment of Roman MI and HI tried to make a difference, but a well-timed First Strike saw the Roman HI sent reeling back in tatters. Things were looking equally bad for the Romans on the Carthaginian left, where Hamilcar had brought his Light and Medium cavalry detachment forward to make a mess of the Roman Auxilia and LI on *that* flank too.

Sensing disaster, Regulus had a moment of inspired leadership, sending his own cavalry swinging around to Hamilcar's rear, to be the anvil to Regulus' MI hammer. While the Roman cavalry took terrible casualties, the combination of missile fire from the flanks, relentless infantry at the front, and a blocked retreat path, saw the dissolution of Hamilcar's detachment.

The Carthaginian HI came to life just in time to see Regulus's unit chase Hamilcar off the field. Despite Hasdrubal's exhortations that the Roman left was about to collapse, Xanthippus wasn't so sure, and the Carthaginian forces decided that enough was enough, ceding the field to the Romans.

Regulus's report noted that while Roman losses were minimal, could he please have some more Thracians, as he seemed to have run out...

Romans win 7-5.

This one does look a cert for the Carthaginians. A better army, more cards, more leaders and they go first, but my solitaire scores of 2-2 didn't bare this out. I was confident however, through these plays, that the best Carthaginian strategy lay in a steady cautious approach.

Get the elephants out the way, gather the strong heavy and warrior infantry together and launch the assault. when the Romans are faultering the cavalry and elephants are there to finish the job. Simple, or so I thought.

Face to face play, and horrendous dice rolling, have a habit of blowing the best laid plans out the water. I played my brother this summer with him as the Romans. My starting cards were mostly flank and mounted cards, but rather than be patient I launched my cavalry and elephants forward in total divergance with my plan. What was I thinking! The elephants were initially successful in taking out a whole unit of mediums to a mounted charge, but everything else went absoloutly t*ts up from there in. In one assault by a medium and 2 Light cavalry units all with leader benefit (10 rolls), against a light infanty unit with no leader support and no evade path, I inficted 2 casualties whilst losing 2 mediums (double triangle), leader (double leader), 2 lights (double circles) and a whole light cavalry unit (double retreat). This ridiculous luck continued, not in such an exteme vein, for the rest of this short game and I lost 7-2.

A victory for the Romans, but a close run thing. The Carthaginian cavalry and light infantry on both flanks tried to punch out the Roman cavalry but failed, taking a serious beating on the left flank in the process. The Roman center advanced, forcing the elephants to attack unweakened infantry in order to avoid being forced to rampage and retreat through their own troops. They did some damage before being annihilated, but not what they should have. After that it turned into a slugfest in the middle, led by a Carthaginian barbarian charge, that succeeded in bringing the Carthaginians up to five victory flags before the Romans finally took the field.

A Roman victory, but a Pyrrhic one - it's doubtful Regulus would have been able to follow through against Carthage after the hammering his army took (consisting almost entirely of light units at the end, while Rome held the field the Carthaginian army actually came out in better shape), and if the Romans failed to learn the needed lessons from a defeat, they're even less likely to learn them from a victory. Still, a win is a win.

(A bit of a tongue in cheek report for my first real game of CCA ever!)

This account of the battle of Bagradas (253BC) has recently come to light and believe to have been penned by one of the “lost” historians of the era and a contemporary of the great Polybius, Titus Marius Arcangeli.

In the tradition of ancient writers these account appears to have been written some time after the battle so some of the minor details of the battle seem to have been lost.

The account begins:

“The Roman army under the command of Regulus was drawn up in the traditional style; the Legions in the centre of the line with the allied contingents protecting the flanks. The army of Carthage was formed with a strong centre fronted by elephants and cavalry massed on the flanks. 1.1

The battle began with the elephants of Carthage advancing at a great pace towards the Roman line. Regulus, seeing the danger, instructed his light infantry to engage the beasts with javelins and rocks. 1.2

The elephants were checked for but a moment as they crashed into the main Roman line sowing panic and disorder within the infantry. Regulus advanced through the ranks crying out to his men “Do not fear these beasts! How craven are the men of Carthage who send animals to do a man’s work?” 1.3

Goaded by these words of Regulus, the Carthaginian general, a Greek by the name of Xanthippus, rashly committed his heavy infantry and Gallic allies into the melee. As the two lines of infantry clashed, the elephants began to wreak havoc on both sides resulting in a tribe of the Gauls being destroyed by the swords of the Romans and the tusks of the Elephants. 1.4

As the infantry continued to clash shields and splinter spears in the centre of the battlefield the Carthaginian cavalry advanced on both flanks and pushed the Roman army closer together, thus making it impossible for the maniples to manoeuvre and bring their superior training to bear. 1.5

The struggle in the centre of the field now reached its bloody climax as the infantry from both sides fought between the remaining elephants. Regulus was wounded by a wild sword slash and he was forced to move back through the lines and shelter with the Triarii. An unnamed Roman officer took his place at the front of the line but was cut down by the soldiers of Carthage who were now pressing at every point of the line. 1.6

With this final blow the Roman army realised they had been abandoned by fate and fortune and began to withdraw from the field swearing great oaths at the victorious African soldiers. 1.7”

(Crosspost from General forum, can be deleted if necessary.)

Solo plays:

Carthage really had the upper hand on this one when it came to orders. They managed to get two mounted charges, two I am Spartacus, and several outflanks. This heavily impacted their strategy which was to push their wings forward and attack the edge of the Roman line, avoiding the heavier units in the center. The light cavalry darted in to cut off retreat routes while the heavier mounted units would crush them. Amazingly, all of casualties were caused by the light and medium cavalry, not the three elephant units. Poor Rome had no luck, only able to use its weaker flank units to strike back at the cavalry. They had several advance center cards, but it was difficult to maneuver them around the light units in the front.

Carthage 7 - Rome 3

The Carthaginians took the adage \"No Guts, No Glory\" to heart for this battle. After a first turn positioning move of moving up for harassing fire, Carthage decided to make sure the elephants played a part in this battle. With several orders to ensure that they would wreak havoc in the field, the generals pushed the animals forward. Unfortunately somebody forgot to tell them they were supposed to actually injure those they were battling. The elephants managed to cause three blocks of casualties before being eliminated. Even less impressive when you consider that only one of those was from the enemy. The rest of the battle consisted of conflict between the two armies' flanks. Besides the elephants, all of the casualties were from the wing units. The battle looked firmly out of Carthage's hands, but through some sly positioning and some luck they managed to swing it almost their way.

Rome 7 - Carthage 6

Eric S. Raymond wrote some comments about this scenario on his webpage. CLICK HERE to read full article.

Carthaginians with 6 cards and 3 elephants against pre-Marian Romans with just 4 sounds like a slaughter in the making, and that's how it was historically. It is actually possible for the Romans to win this one (I did it), but it requires aggressive use of light infantry against the elephants and a hard focus on taking out the Carthaginian cavalry before the lines close.

If you think this scenario is unbalanced, you could give the Romans 5 cards

This is the third scenario included in base game.