211 BC - Carthage
The year is 211 BC. The Senate debates passionately about whether to support the offensive in Sardinia, or support their new allies in Sicily. As happened every time the Senate was torn, the savvy land-owners in Spain passed their motion, and thus :
Nevertheless, there were two sweeteners :
- Almost all commanders had authorisation to act
[6 command points !]
- Recruitment of a replacement fleet was hastened in Carthage :
[two recruitments instead of one can happen - rarely. It seems to happen more frequently when defending Spain but not sure]
In Cisalpine Gaul, Himilco moved first. There was a Roman Praetor in Placentia, and the Punic General had an axe to grind :
Nero knew he had not a chance to survive, but he could hope to make Himilco pay dearly for his life :
This would not happen though, and only some Gallic soldiers died in the assault :
[I consider myself lucky. I expected to lose 3 units ; I consider a card to be worth on average 2 units and well I had to assault a city anyway to recruit. What happened was that the Roman inflicted a lot of routs, but only one hit. I finished the battle with only 3 units on the front line, vs 1 militia. On the other hand, I got a card that is not very useful in my situation : "Hannibal on the Move" allowing Hannibal to move twice or bypass mountain attrition]
Himilco pondered whether to move South to support Hannibal, or recruit what Gauls he could
[I have a card to recruit 2 extra gallic units]. Ultimately he remained in Gaul and sieged Genua.
Meanwhile, Hanno in Sardinia was in a bit of a bind. He was one season from completing his siege, but there was now a Praetor with a limited force in Sardinia - Hanno's force itself being anything but strong.
If he carried on sieging Carales, he was at risk of being by a legion in the back with two legions attempting a sally out - better to lift the first siege, and start sieging the Consul himself - a sortie would be less impressive with only one legion and some militia.
[thinking about it, it was not really a smart move, as Valerius could have left Olbia by ship, landed in Carales, take the legions there and attack me with 3 legions instead of one but for some reason I forget about this. Luckily as we will see, nothing like this happened]
In Sicily, Hippocratès took upon himself to liberate Sicily from the Romans. With his small forces, he assaulted Lilybaeum first. The proud fortress of the first Punic war was true to its reputations, and way more soldiers than the Syracusans expected died in the assault. Hippocrates had no enough forces left to assault Messana, so he wisely contended himself with a siege.
The Syracusans also decided it was time to reclaim the Ionian Sea. The whole of the Syracusan fleet faced the local Roman fleet:
But things went very bad very fast for the last free city of Sicily.
Unused to fighting after decades of peace, the Greek fleet was routed, only a few ships made it to the Lakkios. The Roman fleet was exactly as strong as before the battle.
Meanwhile, the Punic fleet had left the unsafe harbors of Spain and was within view of Carthage, where it was reinforced by the newly built ship.
[so that's my 5 command points : Himilco, Hanno-in-Sardinia, Hippocratès, the Syracusan fleet and the Carthaginian fleet. Of course, the last action will be for Hannibal ; I wish I could have moved Hanno-in-Gaul back to Spain].
Finally, Hannibal.
Hannibal would not stay in Capua, but Scipio was waiting for him outside. Hannibal was confident he would win this battle - he still had tricks up his sleeves - but he was also expecting heavy losses [
8 legions are going to inflict around 3-4 hits / round, with high standard deviation - Hannibal force is 14 hits strong]
There was only one place leading out of Capua. There, Scipio was waiting :
Hannibal had been expected this. He knew the Romans would fight until the end, but he also knew that, unreinforced yet, they had to be defeated know with the tools Hannibal had : elephants breaking a line, cavalry infiltrating the line, breaking the cohesiveness of the different legions between them.
[with 21 attacks, including 5 "increased chance to hit" ones and the better general, I can expect around 6-7 hits/routs by turn, ideally as much routs as possible since legions can tank 2 hits each. Obviously also with high standard deviation too]
Scipio had his own surprises. Through methods that were not passed to history, Hannibal's elephants were rendered harmless to the Romans
[ I am down to 19 attacks including 3 "increased chance to hit" so 5 - 6 hits/routs by turn
The battle would truly begin :
Both armies clashed. One of the Roman legion broke under the shock, but the Punics were otherwise met with a wall of shield. Almost half of Hannibal's line faltered and run, as it looked like the Romans were not here to retreat this time. Hannibal could not help but notice the Italics and the Gallics had been the one retreating ; the Africans and the Spaniards had held. They were better men.
[the Romans delivered as expected, more or less, my units severely underperformed]
Scipio was no junior commander, and he quickly rallied the weak legion :
Hannibal on his side was busy rallying the Italic cavalry
[as the leader with the higher skill is allowed to do, though doing so he sacrifices part of his leadership bonus for the turn]. The situation looked dire ; Hannibal had to use everything he had to plug the holes in the lines, including Spanish infantry more fit for assaulting cities.
[with 18 attacks including 4 elite ones and a smaller commander bonus, I can still expect 5 or 6 hits or routs by turn]
The second phase of the battle started … :
… and it would turn out to be the last phase. The cavalry found the hole in the Roman line - probably where a legion had faltered a few hours before. Punic cavalry poured in and passed on the other side of the Roman army. In this instant, the Romans remembered they were fighting Hannibal. In this instant, they remembered what happened to Valerius legion in almost the same place - when only a few men managed to reach one. Had they held the line, they could have won, but they panicked. All of them.
Hannibal gave pursuit :
[with 9 elite hits and 6 normal hits, I can expect to deal 5 hits in the pursuit]
Hannibal was adamant that this time, Scipio should not escape. The general who killed his brother Hasdrupal had to die. The general in front of whom he had to flee in front of Rome had to die.
"Kill him, so I never hear again of this accursed man and his family"
A couple hours later alone, the head of Hannibal bodyguard came to the eldest of the Barcids. In his hands, he had the head of Scipio.
"This cavalry trick was neat. I should use it more"
[I draw another Punic Trick card 
as a reward of this battle]
Sum-up of the Carthaginian turn :
And the options available to them :
It is time to recruit. The Carthaginian intensified their efforts in Cisalpine Gaul, but their efforts are ruined by desertion by the (superior) Italic infantry down in Rhegium.
In addition, the Punic leadership had not expected that years of war had totally depleted the Bruttium of recruits.
… on the other hand, as you can see [
end-of-turn card drawing giving me a second Macedonian help card], the Macedonians were finally open to some serious alliance with Carthage.
211 BC Rome
Rome woke up from the beginning of year 211 with a serious hangover. One consul was dead in the field, Hannibal army almost intact. One praetor in Cisalpine Gaul also dead, with a Punic general about to reverse the gain of the two past years, and a last praetor besieged in Sardinia. And Sicily was in full rebellion.
And of course, Hannibal's army at the gates. AGAIN.
The only happy news was that apparently the Punic fleet had been caught in a storm and several ships [
one unit] sunk
Meanwhile, Valerius assumed that with the death of Scipio he was the only general to have meet Hannibal in battle and survived, and thus his life was too precious to be lost stupidly in Sardinia. He evacuated to Tarentium
Recruitment was meek however, and mostly in Rome :
Rome elected new officials, with only one newcomer : Caecilius
Here is the situation as 210 BC opens :
The situation is very good with the "free" defeat of Scipio and the Macedonian opportunity, but I have to bring to your attention the presence of 14 legions in Rome :
Senate of Carthage, the Suffet confidently informs you that he is close to total victory, and inquires on what you would propose him to do ?
It is time for YOU to decide of the course of the war !
It is also to YOU that we ask to provide which troops should be recruited in Carthage next year !
