Dertosa (215 BC)

This Hail Caesar game is based on the battle of Dertosa in 215 BC, during the Second Punic War.  It occurred in Iberia, where Hannibal Barca’s brother Hasdrubal commanded a Carthagenian army intended to reinforce Hannibal in Italy.  Opposing Hasdrubal are the consuls (and brothers) Gnaeus and Publius Scipio.  In the historical battle, Hasdrubal attempted to replicate his brother's encirclement tactics employed at Cannae, to which the Scipios responded by fiercely attacking the Carthaginian center in the hopes of quickly breaking it. Unlike Cannae, the Roman cavalry was numerous enough to hold the flanks and Hasdrubal was unable to surround the Romans before they broke the Carthagenian center. 

I think this was my largest Hail Caesar outing for my 20mm collection to date, since I had painted up a box of Carthagenian Libyan medium cavalry that had been kicking around forever.  I have also finished flocking all the bases except for four units of Italian medium infantry, so things looked a lot more "done" to my eye than prior outings.

Each side had three generals.  Carthage  had Hasdrubal on the left (commanding a wing of medium cavalry, and some Libyan heavy infantry and elephants), Yarikh in the center (a block of Iberian and Libyan medium infantry), and Hanno on the right (the rest of the Libyan heavies and the Numidian light horse).  The Romans had Gnaeus with medium cavalry and Italian medium infantry opposite Hasdrubal, Publius in the center with the majority of the Roman maniples, and Vitulus on the left opposite Hanno with the identical forces to Gnaeus.

Victory went to the first side to remove six enemy units, not including skirmishers.  The rough outline of the game was as follows:

1. Both sides advanced forward, with the Carthage center closing to within 5" so as to try and soften up the Roman maniples with javelin fire. Carthage cavalry on the wings attempted to close with Roman cavalry.

2. Roman maniples attacked the medium infantry line in the Carthage center, which held its ground or at least was not destroyed outright.  Hasdrubal's medium cavalry routes Gnaeus' cavalry and a unit of Italian allies, putting Carthage up 3-0.

3. The Romans (using free initiative moves) dress the lines into long, curved defensive position.

4. Hasdrubal coordinates a massive attack on the Roman right, spearheaded by the elephants and supported in depth by Libyan heavy infantry. Numidian cavalry gets at flank of Roman left and tries to javelin Roman cavalry there.

5. Elephants are both broken and assault repulsed.  The "score" is now 3-2 for Carthage.

6. Roman infantry pushes Yarikh's medium infantry back.  Many units on both sides are now shaken or close to shaken. Hasdrubal attacks again against Roman right with Libyan heavy infantry, with neither side breaking and remaining "locked in".  Hanno's heavy infantry attacks Roman left with similar results.

7. A turn or two of sustained melee, with neither side breaking.  Both sides use "close ranks" for heavy infantry, and despite both sides being well supported, neither side can quite get the number of hits to break the other side.

8.  Gnaeus' Romans finally have too make shaken units and the line is unable to maintain network of supports. A unit breaks, and the sweeping advance takes another (Carthage now leading 5-2), and on the opposite flank Hanno's Numidians attack and break a shaken Roman cavalry unit for the game winner.

My pics are not captioned, but they are in the right order.  Close Ranks is a contentious rule - it certainly has the desired effect of reducing casualties at the cost of less hits, and allows heavy infantry to "hold the line" for prolonged times, but it can also make the game feel like a stalemate at times.  Was disappointed Hasdrubal's massive elephant assault flopped - seemed well situated to succeed (well supported).