Battle of River Bagradas 255BC

 

This was the climactic battle of the First Punic War. The Carthaginians hired a Spartan mercenary General named Xanthippus, who with the help of 100 elephants, trampled the Roman army of Regulus into the dust.

We used the excellent Neil Thomas Rules, except as usual we upped the number of units to around 20 per side, the Romans had one extra, and played until only side had lost over half its bases at which point it was deemed to be broken.

Deployment was historical, with the Romans forming a compact mass, and the Carthaginians despite smaller numbers attempting to encircle them.

As the armies closed, the Roman velites opened up on the elephants much to the annoyance of the Carthaginian general, who countered by charging them with warband Spanish who made mincemeat of them.

On the flanks the outnumbered Roman cavalry refused to be drawn out and oiutnumbered by Numidians, who had to be content with largely ineffectuve javelin fire.

Meanwhile in the centre the warband hit the legionaries and after initial success were being worn down. The Roman maniplar line extensuion rule paid dividends in close combat.

The Carthaginans unleashed the elephants and met with mixed results - head on with leginaries both sides suffered heavily, one elephant went berserk an shattered a unit of Carthaginia heavy infantry, another hit a Roman ally unit in the flank and destroyed it in one turn!

Gradually the superior morale of the Romans began to tell, and the superiority of legion vs plalanx wore down the Carthaginian heavy infantry.

Most of the elephants had been destroyed and the cavalry had proven ineffective.

It was a very exciting game withe the advantage swinging from one side to the other, but it became clear that the Romans had on this occasion changed the course of history.

The armies line up

Elephants - the pride of Carthage

The elephants are from Poundland, one is an old Britains model, howdahs made by my wife.

Serried ranks of Romans

Pesky velites

Roman allies

Elephants trample legionaries

Romani eunt domum!

Infantry clash in the centre

Elephant in the flank - 16 attacks with no save rolls!

Cavalry charge elephant - bad idea.

Romans grind down the opposition.