013 Ilipa (206 BC)

Ilipa – 206 B.C.
Turn 1: Light infantry and skirmishers on the Roman left and Punic right engage to little effect.
Turn 3: Hasdrubal orders all mounted troops forward except for the elephant corps. The cavalry attack the light infantry on the flanks of the Roman line. The Roman light troops suffer heavy casualties. Carthage 1, Rome 0.
Turn 4: Romans order a cavalry charge and devastate the Numidian light cavalry. Carthage 1, Rome 2. Hasdrubal unleashes his elephants on the right flank and the pachyderms run through a Roman medium infantry unit and cause a light Roman cavalry unit to flee off of the field. Carthage 3, Rome 2.
Turn 5: Roman light infantry and cavalry take a stab at the elephants. The huge beasts on the Carthaginian right retreat and, in their rampage, crush several Roman horsemen! A Roman attack on the Punic left has no effect. Carthage 4, Rome 2.
Turn 9: Hasdrubal rallies his forces and three units are raised back up to full strength.
Turn 10: Scipio commits to a Line Command. His entire left and center moves forward and destroys the Carthaginian elephants and light troops in front of Hasdrubal’s main force. Rome 4, Carthage 4. Hasdrubal has his light troops and skirmishers Darken the Sky with javelins, but with poor results. Things are turning in favor of the Romans now…
Turn 11: Marcius and Scipio work together to continue to push forward. Seeing well armored Roman infantry bearing down on them, Carthaginian light infantry evade and fall back, but not without significant losses. Rome 5, Carthage 4. Hasdrubal’s Celtiberian warriors surge forward and crash against Roman auxiliaries and against Scipio’s legionnaires, but suffer extensive damage as the Romans battle back.
Turn 12: A Clash of Shields thunders across the line from Scipio’s men and eliminates one of the Celtiberian barbarian units. Rome 6, Carthage 4. The Carthaginian main line now is engaged with the Roman main line. A Roman auxiliary unit breaks. The Roman center has a dangerous gap! Rome 6, Carthage 5.
Turn 13: Scipio’s Leadership shores up the center just long enough for his legionary troops to destroy another Carthaginian unit. This secures the seventh and final victory banner. Rome wins 7 to 5. The Romans may have won this one, but it doesn’t look like it if you look at the battlefield. Hasdrubal has a lot of men, cavalry, and even some elephants remaining!

I've finally managed to updated the right scenario picture!

Yes, 2 leaders.

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7-2 Rome. Cards came up perfect for the Romans and they were able to order light troops and shoot the elephants on both flanks causing rampages two turns in a row. Carthaginian right flank disintegrated, and they had little luck with counterattacks, but managed to move their heavies up into the centre. Rome then got Order Medium Troops and Line Command and managed to move up most of the foot into contact just in time to draw Clash of Shields. Game over.

Hi all,

Surprised no one noticed - there should be a 2nd leader for the Romans on the Medium unit to the front right of the Heavy unit on the Left Flank. The Scenario in the VASSAL module is also missing this leader. Funny thing is that the block count below the map shows 2 leaders.

Carthage wins 7- 6 in a very close contest. True to life, the Romans attacked on the flanks. But in the end, Carthage finally pushed through in the center for the win.

Rome eliminates Carthage's elephants with light missile fire before they can accomplish anything. Despite Carthage advancing its main centre body with repeated line advances, the Romans drive against the 'centre flanks' and eliminate auxiliaries and light troops, their officers leading medium foot to repeated victories. 7:2 Roman victory.

The first couple of turns involved the Romans pushing forward on both flanks and the Carthaginians pushing the center to aid the beleaguered right flank. Both sides were able to move medium and heavy infantry forward and inflict heavy loses. Both elephants were lost without inflicting much damage to the Romans as the Romans pressed the flanks aggressively and the Carthaginians were scrambling to engage units from the center rather than move the elephants forward. Some lucky shooting did the elephants in.

With 4 banners each, both sides had heavy infantry with leaders pressing lighter forces against the baseline. The Romans were pressing with the right flank and the Carthaginians moving against the weak Roman center. Slightly better command cards seemed to be the difference as the Romans squeaked out a 7-5 victory.

Hanging back with the Roman center seemed effective. I am unsure if the Carthaginians would have won if they had advanced the elephants in preference to the infantry. All Carthaginian banners were earned from the infantry

7-5 with Rome victorious.

For what was a sweeping victory for Scipio, this scenario plays out very closely. Carthage has a nice selection of units, and the elephants can win this one for Hasdrubal.

Solo Play:

This started off with a mass push by both sides early on. Rome pushed their auxilia forward to complete a line of troops, while Carthage marched forward with a line command. Rome countered with the same setting the battle up to be a blood bath. Rome was taking the early lead by massacring the weak light units in the center. Carthage had a momentary breakthrough after Hasdrubal pushed his heavy units forward into the line. Rome repulsed the initial spearhead and inflicted heavy casualties. At this point the battle turned, the Carthaginian left flank units ran into a surprising amount of luck and capitalized by cleaning up the Roman right. with almost no casualties of their own (as usual the elephants died). Rome sensing the battle was swinging against them, made an aggressive push with their remaining cavalry to clean up severely weakened units. Amazingly, they only managed to eliminate one out of the 5 needed blocks and the battle back left them scattered. Carthage took advantage and eliminated the weakened cavalry.

Carthage 7 - Rome 5

Umm... maybe if the real Hasdrubal was as awesome as this Hasdrubal, Carthage would have stomped all over Rome. Again, the battle started with very aggressive opening moves by both sides. Same thing as last time, Rome gains the upper hand doing some damage and then Hasdrubal pushes through and destroys everyone! At least this time he was aided by some elephants who were wrecking the Roman right. But credit has to go to the general who just wrecked any unit attempting to challenge him. After the first couple of clashes, Rome was just reeling and trying to recover from each Carthaginian attack.

Carthage 7 - Rome 2