I joined Kevin on Saturday for an impromptu game of Command and Colors Ancients using my 6mm figures. With only a couple of free hours, we completed two games of Zama. Kevin commanded the Carthaginians in both games. As a refresher, below is a photo of the Zama battlefield laid out on the game map.
In game one, the Romans began the game with a line command moving all infantry forward towards the Carthaginians. In response, the Carthaginians led an attack with their elephants. As we've seen in prior games, the elephants suffered great losses by splitting attacks against both medium and light troops. With elephants reeling, Rome pressed the attack on the wings and managed to compromise both Carthaginian flanks. Rome won the battle 8-3.
In game two, the game began similarly to game one with the exception that the Carthaginian cavalry were much more effective against Roman cavalry. After neutralizing Roman cavalry, Carthage played a succession of Center command cards allowing heavy infantry to advance into the van of the army. Although trailing in banners, Kevin pushed his heavy foot into contact with the Roman medium foot. With an attached leader, the heavy foot was able to destroy two foot units over each of the next two turns. Carthage won this confrontation 8-6.
15mm Second Italian War of Independence Project:
Progress continues with the 1859 project with two units being completed in October. Actually, base flocking wasn't completed until 01 NOV but I am counting both into the OCT painting totals.
First up are 24 figures for the Sardinian 9th Line Regiment. Each base represents one battalion and these two bases muster out as the 3rd and 4th battalions. Figures are Mirliton in advancing pose.
These two battalions complete the 9th line regiment and join battalions 1 and 2. Like battalions 3 and 4, the first two battalions are also Mirliton Italians, advancing. For those taking notes, I know that only the 2nd battalion of Sardinian line regiments carried colors but I prefer to give each battalion a flag. The 9th line is found in the Regina infantry brigade under Cialdini.
Second up are four squadrons of Austrian dragoon regiment, Kaiser Franz Joseph (KFJ). The KFJ dragoons were part of the Holstein cavalry brigade under Mensdorff's reserve division cavalry division.
On the painting table are six Austrian guns with four crew each. These artillery pieces will be tackled after I finish work on a dozen BTD WWII Germans. An effort is being made to sort through a number of bags of figures (both Old Glory and Mirliton) and apply primer to enough figures to finish 2012 with an emphasis on the 1859 project.
Fresh off the boat from a Chinese vendor is the Osprey Essential History of the Second War of Italian Unification 1859-1861. Initial scan suggests that this volume contains an overall history of the conflict with brief battle reports on Magenta, Solferino, and San Martino.
Nick stopped Saturday evening for dinner, retrieve his daughter and play a couple of games of CCA. We gamed Bagradas twice using 6mm miniatures rather than the blocks. The first game, I played the Romans and then swapped sides for game number two. The Romans were victorious in both games despite my perception that the Romans should be underdogs in this scenario. In my solo plays, Carthage tended to win about 75% of the games so I expected the same tendency in FtF play. Perhaps, my sample size of two FtF games was too small to support my thesis. Anyway, the games were closely contested with the Romans winning 7-5, 7-6.
Next scenario up for solitaire play is Zama. Below is the initial deployment.
In the first game, Romans won 8-2 with a quick envelopment of the flanks and then the destruction of the elephants in the center. It was over before the Carthaginians got going. The only two banners the Carthaginians managed to gain were the result of one combat where one medium horse and an attached leader were taken. The loss of the Roman horse and leader prompted me to consider the action I took to destroy these two units.
The diagram below depicts the situation at the start of the Carthaginian turn. The Roman horse with leader faces a Carthaginian warband with leader.
Carthage plays a 'three unit right' card and moves the light infantry two hexes to block the left rear retreat hex for the Roman while the warband moves two hexes to cut the right rear retreat hex.
The Carthaginian medium infantry moves adjacent to the Roman horse taking the position vacated by the warband.
With Roman escape blocked, the warband attacks since it must Close Combat having moved two hexes. The Roman horse took one hit and two flags and was forced to retreat. With no retreat, the horse was destroyed. The leader, alone in the hex, was killed on a single roll of 'helmet.'
After making this move, I wondered if this encircling tactic could be justified on the ancient battlefield. Should enemy units project a ZOC that would stop such penetrations or is this attack deserving for those units finding themselves over-extended?
