COMMANDS & COLORS ANCIENTS CAMPAIGN - TICINCUS RIVER .

 Ticincus River 218 BC.

Fellow grognard Arthur and myself have decided to run a Commands and Colors Ancients Campaign. It has been over five years since we last played campaigns in this system. The plan is to re fight all the second punic war battles which took place in Italy between the Carthaginians and Romans. Arthur has been painting like a demon to prepare some 1/72 plastic figures for the campaign. First battle in the campaign is Ticincus River 218 BC. We used the excellent ccancients.net website for resources to plan the campaign games. We will play each game back to back and swap sides.

Hexon terrain titles and 1/72 plastic figures.

Kids Connect 4 game proves useful as a scoreboard. 

Historical Background - Ticincus River
Hannibal has completed his epic march across the Alps, but has lost fully half of his soldiers in doing so. The Consul in Southern Gaul, Publius Scipio, has shadowed Hannibal’s advance following the coastal route. He intercepts Hannibal in Northern Italy as he is rebuilding his army with Gallic recruits. Neither commander is willing to bring on general battle, but Scipio does advance his light troops and cavalry, unaware of how much better the Carthaginian cavalry was than his own. Hannibal counters with his cavalry, including the fearsome Numidian light horse. Hannibal gives Scipio a tactics lesson. His heavy cavalry smashes into the light infantry, drawing the Roman cavalry into the fight. At that point, the Numidians hit both flanks, driving off the disorganised surviving cavalry, wounding Publius Scipio in the process. Historical result, victory to the Carthaginians.

6 Banners needed for a victory. 5 command cards to Carthaginians 4 to the Romans.

114 Plays recorded on ccancients.net as of 24-05-15.

56.3 % - Carthaginian
43.7 % - Romans

In our battles the Carthaginians won both games 6 banners to 2. The tactic of using light cavalry to surround and trap units proved very successful for both players as the Carthaginians. A lucky roll by myself as the Romans managed to bag a Carthaginian leader for a two banner result in the first game. As the Carthaginians I learnt from the sharp lessons handed out by Arthur and pushed up my light and heavy cavalry to trap Arthur's Romans on the base line causing many units to flee and retreat for easy banners.

Starting positions.

One stand represents a unit, coloured tokens represent hits.

So after game one in the campaign all is square. Eight banners each.