Dbmm Rome vs Carthage

Fought a 400pt battle today using my Polybians vs Carthaginians (S.Brittan)

Romans 198-105BC (ie not strictly historical matchup but close)
Cic CvO with 12 BdO 6 PsS 2 SpS 3 AxS 3 PsO
Sg CvO with 8 BdO 4 PsS 2 SpS 2 AxS 2 PsS(Achaians)
Sg CvO with 2 CvO Romans 4 CvO Italians & 2 LhO Tarentines
Army Baggage with 6 BgF
all Regulars No stratagems

Carthage fielded 3 Cmds (with 4 Army Bag) with Cic commanding a block
of around 20 WbO with some PsS AxS and some SpO a SG with AxS LhO CvOand a SG with CvO LhO and AxS.
A mix of Irr and Regs.

Carthos invaded in spring (weather n/e) and terrain placement saw ariver on Roman right flank with GH in Roman centre the remaining 2 SH1 GH 1 V & 1 RF all ended up in Cartho half of table and was to play no part in battle.

Romans deployed 1st with 2 Inf Cmds side by side with right anchored on River and Bd deployed on central hill. Cav Cmd was on Left just behind one Inf Cmd.
Cav Cmd was allocated 1st the baggage the lowest and the 2 Inf Cmds averaged (shock! horror!) the remaining 2 dice.

Carthos deployed with Cav Cmd on right, Warband cmd in centre and the Spainish AxS with Cv/Lh on left

Initial moves saw Romans deploy off the hill into standard 3 line formation with Velites joined by PsO Cretans and the AxS Extraordinarii.
Roman Cav moved to their left to opposse their Mtd Carthos mirror image.
Carthos moved Wb cmd forward screened by their AxS and PsS (AxS Ligurians part of Mtd cmd emerged from vineyard to extand their screen)
Their Cav cmd moved towards Roman left and a group of Numidiam Lh moved across the river to threaten Roman right.
Bad Pips for Carthos saw all but their Cav Cmd slowed to crawl the Romans with Great Pips (6 5 5 & 1 on two successive bounds) saw them deploy their Cav against the Cartho Mtd and form a defensive flank vs the river.
In the centre the Carthos moved up towards the Roman Light Inf screen but feel short of contact. More poor Pips from Carhage played a part in slowing their advance.
The Roman Light Inf however were forced to hit their Lt Inf opponnents as Ps became impetuous in enemy TZ.
This turned out to be a major plus for Romans as their AxS and PsS made mincemeat of the Cartho equivalents (lots of 1s from Carthos andthe S grading counting against them).
First blood to Rome :-)

The Roman Cav then charged into the Carho Mtd and again luck favoured the brave with the Carthos going Disheartened in one fell swoop !
Of course having done no damge to Roman mtd whilst fresh the disheartened sods then killed 2 Italian CvO ! but it was too late to stop them going Broken themselves.

Meanwhile the Warband finally cleared away the Velites but hit the waiting Principes Bd line piecemeal losing a couple of elements.
On Roman turn they managed some flank contacts on Wb and with QKs several Wb elements disappeared and their Cmd was disheartened.
Carthos had to throw their SpO into the fray to try to shore up their right flank and they did kill a couple of AxS but suffered from Cav and being flanked by Lh.

On Roman right the Carthos were causing some problems at end of Roman line as they managed to outflank some AxS but again a dearth of Pips slowed their progress (just as well as the Cv and Lh could have caused major problems).

Another turn saw the game end in Romans favour as the Legions broke the Warbands.

As always with Dbmm a fun game with lots of incident and the 'feel'of having fought a battle.

Few rules queries arose with corner to corner contact counting as contact and allowing lining up being only one we had to give much thought too.

However Reg SpO as a troop type feel very weak and poor value for Pts.
Sp are QK by so many troop types and their changed rear support from Dbm makes them very vulnerable and impotent.
Even CvO can deal with them effectively never mind S Mtd.
How anyone fields an army of Sp (such as Hoplites) is beyond us !!??

Anyway another fun game and my first victory (in some 15 attempts) versus Stephen !!!!

Roma Victor :-)