Bagradas 253 BC

(A bit of a tongue in cheek report for my first real game of CCA ever!)

This account of the battle of Bagradas (253BC) has recently come to light and believe to have been penned by one of the “lost” historians of the era and a contemporary of the great Polybius, Titus Marius Arcangeli.

In the tradition of ancient writers these account appears to have been written some time after the battle so some of the minor details of the battle seem to have been lost.

The account begins:

“The Roman army under the command of Regulus was drawn up in the traditional style; the Legions in the centre of the line with the allied contingents protecting the flanks. The army of Carthage was formed with a strong centre fronted by elephants and cavalry massed on the flanks. 1.1

The battle began with the elephants of Carthage advancing at a great pace towards the Roman line. Regulus, seeing the danger, instructed his light infantry to engage the beasts with javelins and rocks. 1.2

The elephants were checked for but a moment as they crashed into the main Roman line sowing panic and disorder within the infantry. Regulus advanced through the ranks crying out to his men “Do not fear these beasts! How craven are the men of Carthage who send animals to do a man’s work?” 1.3

Goaded by these words of Regulus, the Carthaginian general, a Greek by the name of Xanthippus, rashly committed his heavy infantry and Gallic allies into the melee. As the two lines of infantry clashed, the elephants began to wreak havoc on both sides resulting in a tribe of the Gauls being destroyed by the swords of the Romans and the tusks of the Elephants. 1.4

As the infantry continued to clash shields and splinter spears in the centre of the battlefield the Carthaginian cavalry advanced on both flanks and pushed the Roman army closer together, thus making it impossible for the maniples to manoeuvre and bring their superior training to bear. 1.5

The struggle in the centre of the field now reached its bloody climax as the infantry from both sides fought between the remaining elephants. Regulus was wounded by a wild sword slash and he was forced to move back through the lines and shelter with the Triarii. An unnamed Roman officer took his place at the front of the line but was cut down by the soldiers of Carthage who were now pressing at every point of the line. 1.6

With this final blow the Roman army realised they had been abandoned by fate and fortune and began to withdraw from the field swearing great oaths at the victorious African soldiers. 1.7”

(Crosspost from General forum, can be deleted if necessary.)

Solo plays:

Carthage really had the upper hand on this one when it came to orders. They managed to get two mounted charges, two I am Spartacus, and several outflanks. This heavily impacted their strategy which was to push their wings forward and attack the edge of the Roman line, avoiding the heavier units in the center. The light cavalry darted in to cut off retreat routes while the heavier mounted units would crush them. Amazingly, all of casualties were caused by the light and medium cavalry, not the three elephant units. Poor Rome had no luck, only able to use its weaker flank units to strike back at the cavalry. They had several advance center cards, but it was difficult to maneuver them around the light units in the front.

Carthage 7 - Rome 3

The Carthaginians took the adage "No Guts, No Glory" to heart for this battle. After a first turn positioning move of moving up for harassing fire, Carthage decided to make sure the elephants played a part in this battle. With several orders to ensure that they would wreak havoc in the field, the generals pushed the animals forward. Unfortunately somebody forgot to tell them they were supposed to actually injure those they were battling. The elephants managed to cause three blocks of casualties before being eliminated. Even less impressive when you consider that only one of those was from the enemy. The rest of the battle consisted of conflict between the two armies' flanks. Besides the elephants, all of the casualties were from the wing units. The battle looked firmly out of Carthage's hands, but through some sly positioning and some luck they managed to swing it almost their way.

Rome 7 - Carthage 6

Eric S. Raymond wrote some comments about this scenario on his webpage. CLICK HERE to read full article.

Carthaginians with 6 cards and 3 elephants against pre-Marian Romans with just 4 sounds like a slaughter in the making, and that's how it was historically. It is actually possible for the Romans to win this one (I did it), but it requires aggressive use of light infantry against the elephants and a hard focus on taking out the Carthaginian cavalry before the lines close.

If you think this scenario is unbalanced, you could give the Romans 5 cards

This is the third scenario included in base game.