Second Field of Glory Game - Part 1

This past Saturday we got together at my friend Mike's house to play the second Field of Glory game in our Second Punic Wars campaign. One of the players had to leave before we finished so this will be post one in a two part series on the battle. For this game we also brought in a gun-for-hire, our friend Leo, to help out pushing the Carthaginiains. Leo will probably end up being a Roman player eventually but we were desparately short on Carthaginians so for his first game Leo was a turncoat. These photos were taken by Mike and are just a few of the many photos that he took. To see the rest of the gallery you can visit Mike's Picassa page.

This second battle is the battle of Ariminium, in Northern Italy. As you can see the Carthaginians have brought their Elephants over the Alps with them. Again they caught the Romans unaware and have attacked a small portion of the Roman army in hopes to destroy it quickly. If the battle looks familliar to those that read my entry from game one, that's because the situation and terrain dictated a similar defensive deployment. The battle took a while to develop as the Carthaginians deployed in a very compact deployment and used the early turns if the battle to deploy and re-deploy their assaulting troops into positions of their choosing.

These photos show the first early combats of the battle. On the right (also the Roman right flank of the battle) you can see the Numidian light cavalry skirmishing with the Roman Legionaires. The left photo shows a large skirmish battle in the woods on the Roman left flank. Early losses have forced the Carthaginians to withdraw one battle group of skirmishers and replace it with a fresh one. The Romans also swapped out one battle group of velites to allow it to recover its morale. When we return on Thursday night to finish the game many fine Roman and Carthaginian soldiers will meet their maker on this field of glory.