Rearguard Action

 The battle described by Nick below, was interesting as an example of asymmetric victory conditions. We rarely these days fight the straight encounter battle, that can be thought of as the typical wargame and this one was a rearguard action by a Carthaginian force trying to defeat or delay the Advance Guard of Pyrrhos. The Pyrrhic army had the sole objective of breaking through the Carthaginians and exitting the table; their real interest being the retreating main Punic army beyond. The Pyrrhic army only drew 21 morale chips at the start of the game so had the potential to be quite brittle, if they suffered any early reverses. They did get a Brilliant Leader card and a Strategem card for addtional reinforcements though.

The points of interest in this game to me were:

1. A plan that actually executed as intended. The idea was to punch a hole with the phalanx and then seal off the enemy battleline with the second line of pikemen, leaving a corridor for the bulk of the Pyrrhic army to funnel through. The success of the plan was greatly helped by the failure of the morale of the Keltic mercenaries. This rang true, as they had been flung forward out of their defensive position between the impenetrable marshes, right into the teeth of the advancing Pyrrhic phalanx. Only one Kelt warband stayed to fight the pikemen and that didn't go well for the brave lads. The pikes then just had to keep pressing forwards, brushing aside skirmishers and preventing any Kelts from rallying (the General of the skirmishers died valiantly trying to reform his Moorish light infantry.)

After that the second, shorter line of phalanx laboriously wheeled 90 degrees to seal off the hole in the Carthaginian line and then assisted the elephants in breaking the Greek hoplite phalanx. Reverses for Pyrrhos on other parts of the battlefield were irrelevant as they could not prevent the main objective and were too limited to threaten the Pyrrhic force.

2. A re-enactment of an episode in one of our earliest games of Piquet, where a player (who shall not be named*) used their spare cards in place of their deck proper. Only spotted after around the third morale check card had been drawn. This time eyebrows were raised on the Pyrrhic side of the table when a second Brilliant Leader card was drawn (a very powerful wildcard) and then the error was spotted by the GM. Luckily it didn't affect the way the game panned out on this occasion but we will be reminding the player about it for some time.

3. One of the most successful uses of elephants I have seen on a wargames table. The single unit  combined their intimidation and harassing archery to great effect.

(*it was Nick)

Nick's take on the Battle - A Pyrrhic Victory?

Tasked with fighting a rearguard action while the main body escaped, the Carthaginians occupied a flat area of land with impossible terrain anchoring both left & right flanks. The Carthaginians right wing contained 4 units of Gauls & 2 units of javelinmen. These faced a Pyrrhic phalanx 4 units wide & backed up by another 2 units in phalanx. The Punic centre was led by a mercenary Greek phalanx, 2 units strong. The Sacred band followed in support. These brave souls prepared to take on the frightening sight of Pyrrhic elephants, trumpeting loudly as they showed their eagerness to charge into battle. Supporting the elephants were a variety of peltasts & psiloi. Left Centre was held by more Gauls & 2 units of Spanish foot. The Punic left flank was held by 3 units of horse, including Numidians.  These faced 3 Greek cavalry units.

Opening movement saw a general advance by both sides. The most aggressive move was by a unit of Greek Tarentines which moved rapidly up on the Punic Numidians - a move they regretted & which ultimately led to their annihilation. With the centre & right now in close proximity to the enemy, the Punic allied Gauls now checked for proximity to fearsome opponents (phalanx & elephants). The Gauls did not like this & a number withdrew in disorder. The Greek phalanx advanced steadily & the Carthaginians again checked their morale (drew another COURAGE card). More Gauls routed or ran back in disorder. The Greek phalanx advanced, the Elephants advanced. The Greek mercenaries withdrew. The battle was lost!

As a consolation, the Punics Spanish allies chopped up some Pyrrhic Peltasts