DBMM New Zealand : Polybians Triumph on Debut! Posted by Andrew Bennetts, 5 August 2024

Polybians Triumph on Debut!

At the Pukekohe club on Sunday, my Polybian Romans debuted against my long standing nemesis Mark Caunter with his well practiced Later Carthaginians. Mark and I have enjoyed a tremendous rivalry over the last more than a decade, with at least one game a year, usually at Heavy Metal Con. Fans of the UK show "Would I Lie to You" will understand if I say our relationship is akin to my David Mitchell to Mark's Bob Mortimer!

As, alas, I won't be at this years's upcoming Heavy Metal, we agreed to bring our game forward to yesterday. With Mark's Carthaginians having won our last three encounters (against in turn my Iberian Spanish, Thracians and Andalusians) and the Polybians never before having been on table (Mark generously suggested the legions should be graded (I)….), I wasn't tremendously confident.

The setup saw Rome invading Carthage and the terrain coming down rather nicely for Mark, with a large gentle hill landing just forward of his deployment area (no prizes for guessing where his Libyan Spearmen would be going!) with the rest of the table framed by a mixture of hills, woods and rough going that left little opportunity for anything more than a frontal clash. Deployment was going to be key.

The Romans deployed first (despite invading, grrrrrr), anchoring their right wing legions on a wood garrisoned by some Ligurians, with a couple of Thracian LH and some Triarii to act as further flank guards. The centre was a vanilla command of more Legionaries and Velites with a few Iberian Scutarii in support. Using an idea lifted from a game report from Hong Kong, the Roman left wing was based on a Pergamene ally, whose General (Eumenes of Magnesia fame of course!) is classed as a Subordinate rather than an Ally and is able to command Roman cavalry in addition to the Pergamene contingent of a Kn(F) General, 2 other Kn(F) and a mixed bag of Psiloi. This allowed a rather stronger mounted command than Mark expected, especially with the (fragile) punch of 3 Kn(F).

The Carthaginian deployment was as expected, with a strong body of Libyan Spearmen poised to occupy the central hill and two flanking commands of Cavalry, Numidian LH, Spanish Scutarii and assorted Psiloi. The Elephants were placed on the Carthaginian left, facing the Roman right and thankfully well away from the Roman mounted wing.

With good early pips (indeed Roman pips were very strong all game, in contrast to my recent Levin experience!) the Romans advanced all along the line, Triarii, Ligurians and LH covering the right flank while the left flank command shook themselves out into combat formation, the Pergamene lancers (Kn(F)) being screened by a few Psiloi and the Cavalry spreading out to the left to deter any outflanking by the Numidians on this flank.

Not wishing to assault the central hill immediately, the Romans halted a little way back from that feature but continued to push forward on both flanks. On the left, Eumenes led the Pergamene lancers in an immediate charge into the Carthaginian cavalry, taking out two of them along with the supporting Psiloi they had unwisely left attached. With the supporting Roman cavalry also doing well, this early success put the Carthaginians on the back foot on this flank and they had to scramble to reform a line, being forced to throw not one but two Generals into the gap. They eventually managed to destroy two of the F(ragile) Pergamene Lancers but at the cost of the General of the centre command, whose demise (along with other casualties) caused the Libyan Spearmen to become disheartened. The surviving Carthaginian General then engaged Eumenes directly in a nail biting death embrace that left both Commands starved of pips and was still unresolved when the battle was decided elsewhere.

On the right, things began poorly for the Romans with a Spanish Scutarii 6-1ing the first of the Triarii on this flank and the Ligurians also taking losses, forcing the Roman CinC to be committed in support. This created another nerve jangling sequence where the Roman CinC was fighting double overlapped against a Numidian LH over several bounds, a 2-2 fight that could have gone either way but eventually ended with the Roman CinC victorious and the extreme end of the Carthaginian line exposed and starting to break up. While this was going on, the right hand legions were assaulted by cavalry and elephants but these were eventually driven off with loss, leaving the Carthaginian left also disheartened.

With both flanks now secure, the central legions finally advanced against the now leaderless and disheartened Libyan Spearmen, quickly dispatching more than enough to break that command, with ME transmission also taking out the Carthaginian left flank and with it the army for a 23-2 maiden victory for the Polybians!

Games against Mark are always close and great fun. Despite the scoreline, with two Roman Generals at various times locked in close combat in far from ideal circumstances, this could easily have ended differently if the dice had fallen Mark's way. Fortunately they didn’t!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2650954295064146/

[Admin: Here are some of Andrew's pics. There are heaps more on our Facebook, making a kind of storyboard of the game.]

The Roman deployment

The Carthaginian deployment

Eumenes of Pergamum and his command of Kn(F) (at rear), Cv and Ps.
Vincent Cholewa

In my musings about, if I ever got a Polybian Roman army, I had thought of this option. Seems to have been useful

The Roman CinC in a high risk fight with Numidians!

In the background, a Carthaginian elephant breaking through the legions is about to be dispatched by velites.