Friday 14 September 2018

ADLG Carthaginians v Patrician Romans

I haven't played ADLG for a long time but the opportunity came up to play Tim, the infamous 'Madaxeman', so it seemed like a good time to return to the Ancient world.

We agreed to play a 25/28mm game for a change and I decided to use my Carthaginians, an army which I painted around 1980 so true veterans in every sense of the world! 

The army is a mixture of figures from Hinchliffe, Minifigs, Irregular and Garrison. I rebased them a few years ago for DBM and, apart from the odd missing spear or sword, they are still in remarkably good condition. Tim used Patrician Romans, giants in comparison to my figures as they were relatively new.

The terrain consisted of a couple of enclosed fields and a plantation on my left, a gentle hill in the centre on my side of the table and a vast open plain on the right.

As defender I initially deployed a mixed Numidian/Libyan Spearmen/Balearic slinger command on my left under Massinissa. Tim opposed them with a similar sized command of Auxila swordsmen and bowmen.




Next up was my centre commanded by Hannibal himself and consisting of two elephants, some Numidian light javelin men, Spanish infantry and Spanish cavalry. These were faced by a large block of Roman and Barbarian foot plus a couple of cataphracts.




Finally on the open plain on the right I deployed some Gallic and Poeni cavalry with some more Numidians commanded by Marhabal. These were faced by a similar number of better quality Roman and Barbarian cavalry.




 Initially the action took place on my left flank where the Roman Auxilia rushed forward and were met by the African spearmen and Elephants following some initial skirmishing from the Balearic slingers.






The Romans also advanced slowly in the centre and dashed forward on my right where they had a quality superiority in cavalry. Looking at the odds Maharbal quickly withdrew the Carthaginians on my right to defend the hill.


Carthaginian cavalry hold the hill as the left flank storms forward.


The clash of arms went remarkably well on the Carthaginian left, the entire Roman Auxilia force being routed in short order for very little loss. The question now was could the Carthaginian left sweep away the Roman centre before the Roman cavalry on the right broke through the weaker Carthaginian cavalry opposite them?


The situation on the right was becoming desperate with several groups of Carthaginian cavalry being destroyed in a delaying action.


Could the elephants trample the Roman heavy foot in the centre in time?




On the right few Carthaginians were now left on the hill and the victorious Roman cavalry were rapidly outflanking the Carthaginian line.




The two centres clashed, both with concerns about their flanks






With both armies taking losses one of the Carthaginian elephants hit the rear of the Roman infantry line and severely damaged a Legionary unit.


On the right the few surviving cavalry and Numidians held on a little longer.




Maharbal himself led the last unengaged Gallic cavalry unit in a flank charge on some Roman cavalry and cut them down. The Roman army was teetering on the brink of collapse but so was the Carthaginian!


In an attempt to break the Romans finally Hannibal lead the surviving damaged elephant in combat with the almost destroyed Roman Legionary unit. Battle raged on but eventually the mighty beast collapsed leaving the Romans to claim victory!


I'm not that big a fan of ADLG personally, it seems to me to be quite repetitive and, in 15mm at least, to not really look like a battle at the usual 200pts more like a slightly bigger DBA game.

Having said that it is remarkably popular at my club and I can see the advantages of having to build a smaller army, having less to carry and being able to finish a game easily in a club evening.

This was a great game again though, it was really good to get the veteran army out and see it in action on the table again, I think they have aged very well and I should really replace the missing spears and swords which is all that needs doing, I might also replace the generals whose horse legs are very fragile and probably won't survive more use without snapping.

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