This is my first game of Mortem et Gloriam. I have read through the rules a couple of times and read a few game reports from various places on the internet and thought its about time i took the plunge and had my first game.
Pre Battle Phase
The Carthaginian commander won the role off and defended. After the 5 flips before the battle the Romans had managed to move the battle from Dense coastal to open coastal. After the scouting phase the two armies drew which resulted in the Carthaginians setting up first.
The Carthaginians set up with the elephants on the left flank, the cavalry on the right and the infantry in the centre but deployed quite deep. The Romans set up to mirror the Carthaginians but had light troops and the flexible Italian foot to counter the elephants
The Battle
The first few turns the Romans advanced as quickly as possible in the centre with the Legionaries and held the cavalry back against the superior numbers of the Gallic cavalry. The Gallic cavalry rushed around the woods to threaten the flank of the legion and the roman cavalry. The elephants on the left were held up due to some poor command cards.
Numidian light horse race off after the Roman slingers and Velites.
The Roman light foot seemed to be in trouble
The Romans appear to be rushing into a trap as Carthage start to close in on the flanks.
Impact! the Numidian horse contact the Triarii asthe Roman light foot fall back
Balearic slingers loose slings at the Hastati.
The two battle lines start to close
Fortunately I changed camera at this point so the pictures should improve.
One unit of Numidian light horse are easily wiped out by the Triarii
The clash of the skirmishes. Numidians charge some Velites and the other unit of Velites charge Numidian and Spanish javelinmen.
Numidian horse struggling against the Velites while the Spanish javelinmen kill off the Velites
Gallic cavalry face off against the Roman cavalry
The Roman legion advance inexorably towards the Carthage battleline, as the Balearic slingers attempt to hold the up.
All the Numidian light horse have now been defeated
With an almighty crash the two sets of cavalry charge into each other
The elephants finally get some decent cards and set up for a charge nest turn
Elephants charge into the Hastatii and Triarii...
...But are quickly destroyed by their Roman opponents.
The Roman cavalry are slowly being whittled down by the Gallic.
The Romans now have a strangle hold on the battlefield.
The infantry close in...
...And battle commences.
The Carthaginian infantry are methodically cut down by the Hastatii.
Result
Carthage: 5pts
Rome: 7pts
Minor Roman victory.
Afterthought.
Well that didn't quite go as I had expected. The Carthage elephants were definitely underwhelming. I definitely made the mistake of using them against close order infantry instead of cavalry. Also the Numidian cavalry were very average. I probably should have used them to harass the romans rather that commit them to combat so early.
Finally the roman Hastatii are absolute machines. I cant see any obvious way the Carthaginians could confront these combat monsters and succeed. I think i will keep the same Carthaginian list for a couple more games were I will endeavour to use the army more effectively.
