The Republic strikes back - Capua

Hi Guys

Last night Ed and I played the next game of our Pyrrhic campaign. This time Ed took the Pyrrhic army and I used a depleated Roman army. We used the Capua map and set up the terrain accordingly. I deployed the Romans first as defender and Ed as attacker set up opposite. The two brown features are scrubland, the green is forest. The river can only be crossed at the two fords. How these features effect movement etc will depend on what rules you are using.

Battle of Capua

This is the second round of the campaign ,using the third map after a major Pyrrhic victory last game. Due to heavy casualties in Cavalry and the legions in the last game, for this fight the Romans exchanged 1 unit of Medium cavalry for 1 unit of medium foot  (Samnite allies), and a unit of Legions for a unit of Spanish light horse and upgraded their skirmishers to a higher rating. 

 

Turn 1 , Initiative Pyrrhus,  The light horse crosses river to right, all other troops advance.

 

Rome: Light horse cross river to left, the Legions wheel to face the enemy pike, then  Roman Light foot and skirmishers advance

 

Turn 2, Initiative Pyrrhus, Light horse, pike, Elephant, Hoplites, Light foot & skirmishers advance, medium & heavy cavalry stand.

Rome: Light horse move onto ford,  Legion fix line, light foot & skirmishers advance, both cast javelins at light foot , but to no effect

 

 

Turn 3, Initiative Pyrrhus, Pyrrhic light foot charge their Samnite counterparts and inflict 1 pt of damage but suffer 2pts of damage in the process and  fall back. The Pyrrhic light horse advance. In the centre the Pike, Elephant, hoplites and skirmishers advance towards the enemy.

The Roman Legion and their Spanish light horse advance , The Roman cavalry wheel toward the skirmishers, and the Samnites throw a Javelin volley at the enemy light foot,but to no effect.

 

 

 

Turn 4, Initiative Rome. The Roman cavalry  charge the skirmishers, who evade away,the Spanish light horse closes on the enemy light horse , and launch a Javelin volley, but no effect. The  Legions advance, teh Samnites again throw a javelin volley at the light foot, but again no effect.

 

The pike charges the  Legion but are driven back, and the rear unit of pike are  destroyed, Legion takes 1pt damage. The Elephant charges the Legion but takes 2pts damage from a pilum  volley and is driven back. Hoplites charge Legion, but fail to score any damage and hold.  The Pyrrhic light horses charges the Spanish light horse, causing 2pts of damage, but suffering 1pt damage in return, The Pyrrhic skirmishers cast javelins at the cavalry and the light foot target the Samnites but with no effect from either.

 

 

Turn 5, Initiative Pyrrhus. Light foot charge Samnites and destroy them, and follows up. Pyrrhic light horse destroyed by Spanish light horse. Pike get disrupted, Hoplites hold vs Legion but disrupted.

 

Rome: Cavalry charge skirmishers, who flee. Roman skirmishers throw javelins at Pyrrhic cavalry, causing 2pts of damage. The Legion destroys the hoplites, and follow up.

 

 

 

 

Turn 6, Initiative Pyrrhus. Pyrrhic cavalry charge Roman cavalry, no damage.

 

Rome: The legion led by the Roman general chargesthe  elephant but takes 1pt damage. The right hand flank  Legion wheels to face Pyrrhus.  The Spanish light horse reform.

 

 

Turn 7, Initiative  Rome, righthand Legion charges Pyrrhus, but to no effect, General legion disrupts elephant.

 

Pyrrhus: Light foot  wheel onto legion flank, disrupting them, Pyrrhic cavalry destroys Roman Cavalry & follows up.
 

 

 

Turn 8, Init iative Pyrrhus. Pyrrhic cavalry charges legion flank, disrupts them. Pyrrhus destroys Legion, Elephant causes 1pt damage on Roman General

Rome: Spanish light horse  crosses river, General with legion kills elephant.

 

 

Turn 9, initiative  Rome, Pike destroys Legion, breaking the Roman army. Game over.

 

 

 

Rome loses, Minor victory to Pyrrhus, Pyrrhus advances on Neapolis, Roman army back to full strength for next battle as reinforcements called in after the disaster at Metapontum arrive. Pyrrhus has advanced three stages on the campaign board after only two games.

 

Battle of Metapontum

Hi guys,

As the first battle of our Pyrrhic campaign, Ed and I played The battle of Metapontum, the first stage as Pyrrhus breaks out of  Tarentum.  We used the standard Pyrrhic list and the mid republican Roman list.  It is probably more correct to use the earlier Roman list for the earlier battles of the Pyrhhic campaign, but  I wasn't getting a new army for one game. We used the normal BI rules, but with the extra rule borrowed from Impetus that skirmishers could flee from contact. The vast bulk of the campaign rules are by Andy Badger, I drew up the maps in advance, so we had them marked down in case a battlefield was fought over twice we could make it identical. Ed made the symbol maps after the event to clearly show unit movements which may not be as clearly seen on the tabletop pictures.  We set the terrain as per the map, Ed as the Romans deployed first and then I, as Pyhrrus, set up opposite.

 

 

Turn 1, Initiative Rome.  Full advance for Rome, but Cav and skirmishers on roman right flank stay put. All Pyrrhic forces advance.

 

 

Turn 2, Initiative Rome, Heavy foot in centre and cavalry on Roman right advance, Cavalry on roman left disrupt while moving on a forward left diagonal. Pyrrhic Elephan moves to match cavalry and disrupts as well. Bulk of Pyrrhic forces advance, heavy foot in centre and their supporting cavalry stay put.

 

 

Turn 3, initiative Rome. Roman right hand cavalry charge Pyrrhus, no damage caused but Pyrrhus disrupted. The Roman right hand legion charges the samnites but falls short and is disrupted. The Samnites loose a volley of javelins, scoring 1 point of damage on the legion.  Elephant reforms

 

 

 

Turn 4, Initiative Pyrrhus. Samnite volley causes 3 hits on right hand legion, Pyrrhus takes 3 damage and fall back, Romans pursue and hits tarantine light horse. No damage caused.

 

 

Turn 5 , Initiative Rome, Roman cavalry on left sideslip again, No effective combat. Heavy foot advance. Tarantine Llight horse score 2 hits on Roman right hand cavalry, they follow up, but are destroyed in second round of combat. The damaged legion are disrupted again by javelin fire

 

Turn 6. Initiative Rome. Legions charge, cause 1 pt damage on Medium cav who fall back. Velites disrupt Elephant

 

Turn 7. Initiative Rome, Foot slog to no effect. Elephant charge skirmishers who flee. Pike drives legion back, hoplites facing Roman general take 3 pts damage.

 

Turn 8, Initiative Pyrrhus. Elephant charges Roman left hand cavalry, Pike charges legion but no damage caused. Roman General kills hoplites, but takes 1 pt of damage in return. Velites cause 1pt damage on elephant with javelin volley.

 

Turn 9, Initiative Pyrrhus, Elephant charges cav and destroys them, follows up. Legion facing pike take 1 pt damage. Samnites wheel to face Roman Rh cav, javelin volley to no effect. Roman cav moves to rear, disrupts. Roman general reforms, no effective combat, Pyrrhic skirmishers move to rear of roman legion, javelin volley ineffective.

 

Turn 10, Initiative Pyrrhus, Elephant chases skirmishers off board, Samnites move to flank and disrupts, they destroy the Roman cavalry with a javelin volley. The pike destroy the legion facing them. This breaks the Roman army, who get to play out their turn, but to little effect.

 

 

The final result is a Roman defeat, and as Pyrrhus is still less that halfway towards his own break point, this counts as a major victory or Pyrrhus.So, a Pyrrhic victory, but not a pyrrhic victory ! This means Pyrrhus advances two spaces, so we skip the Heraclea stage of the campaign and Pyrrhus advances to Capua. As the Romans lost all their cavalry and half the legions, for the next battle, they will have to replace one of the cavalry units with medium foot ( Italian allies) and one of the legion units with a unit of light horse. This is a fairly poor trade for the Romans , and they will be hard pressed to stop Pyrrhus at Capua, and his attack may gain momentum. The Romans will be back to their normal army choice for whatever battle we fight after Capua, to represent troops called in from other areas after the disaster at Metapontum.

 

Phil