The 2nd Battle has been resolved with the end result being a draw. A brief battle report follows but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so no photos are included.

The Romans who had planed on making this 3:2 battle against Hannibal found that one of there columns was delayed by a Gallic Tribe ambush. Basically what should have been 3000 pts of Romans, ended up just being over 2600 points as not enough Roman players showed up at Sunday’s battle to muster the full force. Given the delay’s and rescheduling difficulties in getting this fight completed and the campaign moving again. All those present decided to game on with what was available. Those who were not present did not get a vote.

So the Roman forces were split between Rick (Marcellus) on the left and Carl (Flaminius) on the right. The Romans were especially weak in horse units and went in with two heavy, two light, and two skirmish units only. Rick also had two full Legion Brigades and Ally Brigade and a single Legion unit reserve. To these he also had three foot Skirmish units. Carl on the Right fought with two regular Legion Brigades, a Triarii/Ally mixed Brigade and three foot skirmishers. Rick and Carl split the horse units 50/50.

The Carthaginian/Macedonians had some 2200 point. Opposing Rick’s Romans was Barry’s Macedonians led by Mago. Barry had his normal huge pike wall (some 4 or 5 units), one Heavy Cav, two Skirmish Cav, a Brigade of Archers and a bunch of foot skirmishers and “light” infantry which were a new unit to me. Opposing the Roman right was Roger (Hannibal). Roger had a Hammer Brigade of Elephants, two shock Cavalry and a foot skirmish unit. He also had two Brigades of Carthaginian foot, a Gallic Warband Brigade, a brigade of Skirmishers, a full brigade of Numidians.

This six turn battle was a bit odd. It ended up being almost a complete skirmish battle with the main battle lines not really making contact. The Romans a bit unnerved perhaps by the lower than expected turn-out of troops/players did not press the attack. But they did advance their two Calvary Brigades to disrupt a Carthaginian Advance. To be fair, Rick did try to go on the offensive, but as per usual just failed command roll after command roll.

The Carthaginians, sensing the hesitation in the Roman lines, immediately shifted from defensive deployment to the ATTACK. Barry, though forgetting, that his Commander had a leadership of 9, kept missing command rolls that he probably should have made. As a result he was only able to push skirmish foot into the town of Boii and some Skirmish Cav along the edges of the town. But as noted earlier his cross table opponent Rick was also initially stalled.

Roger (Hannibal) made good headway initially and moved most of his units forward except his Hammer Brigade. Which actually did not move until Turn 6.

What did happen was some serious skirmisher on skirmisher fights. The Carthaginians had far more Skirmish units but the Romans had better positions (held hills mostly) and often had their skirmishers supported by formed units. As Results the Romans under Rick were able to bust through the Carthaginian/Macedonian skirmishers in the center and follow up into the town of Boii and against weak archer units. Rick was actually able to get what was left of two Roman Legion units all the way back to the enemy deployment zone, but by that point they were exhausted and out of command range to be much of a threat. Roger simply screened these Romans off with a skirmish unit and proceeded to have his Hammer Brigade make up for many turns of inactivity by getting off three successfully orders in one turn. This Elephants/Shock Cav unit smashed into what was left of a Roman Light Cav Unit and then into the remnants of a Roman Legion brigade holding a hill in the Roman center.

That’s pretty much where the battle ended. Both centers opened up with both wings barley engaged. Carl in fact did not even manage to get his three heavy foot brigades out of their deployment zone.

So this battle was essentially indecisive. The Romans scored more “points” for enemy destroyed, but beat the Carthaginians by less than 25 total points. The Carthaginians actually broke more “core” units causing the Roman to lose four to the Carthaginian loss of two. There was no way to call this battle anything other than a draw. Neither side was remotely close to breaking. Being the defenders, the Carthaginians held the field at the end of the day as the Romans unable to push them off the field and really only half the roman army even tried. The Roman Army will fall back to Mutina with a loss of 1 CU. I will not count this as a defeat for political purposes and it was technically a draw so the will not have to give up a PC. Hannibal holds the field at Boii but also losses 1 CU. Carthage as the initiative though and the next strategic move is theirs.

Oh, and if you thought Roger's Greek Mercanaries looked good, you should see his new Elephant unit. Totally awesome!!! Really makes me kick myslef for not bringing my camera!