Jason proposed a game where he'd play Numidians. I could field either Carthaginians or Republican Romans as historical opponents, but needed an excuse to update the basing of my Carthaginians.
The last time I had used my Carthaginians was nearly two years ago, and was also against Jason playing Numidians. I know that Jason is an expert in effective use of light infantry and thinks that elephants are useful. Also given that medium cavalry javelin is a new troop type in v4, who wouldn't use them if they had the chance?
When I reviewed my list of two years ago, I had 2 MC and a LH in a medium infantry command and it didn't work. That cavalry came to 20 pts, which is the same cost as two mediocre elephants. I haven't used mediocre elephants in a long time as they always failed to meet my expectations. However I think my expectations are more realistic now, and I liked what I had done on the bases and wanted to use the models. After further consideration I decided against having them both in one command and had one corps with a single elephant and supporting troops and the other elephant in my main infantry corps led by a brilliant general. I also took a total 6 light infantry and 4 light horse to maximise my initiative.
As I had a large army, I decided against using a fortified camp. I should have enough models on the table to make it unlikely that my camp would be attacked, or to be able to leave a unit behind to protect it.
My Carthaginian list. My first time using Carthaginians in v4.
Jason's Numidian list. To keep things historical, Jason limited himself to pre 55BC. This meant missing out on the Heavy Swordsmen impact.
I rolled a one for initiative and Jason decided to defend in the plains. As I would have attacked in the plains that worked out okay for me.
As I was worried about the risk of units getting to my rear, I wanted to reduce the width of the battle field and so rolled for a coastal region (which was successful).
Jason took a hill with a plantation on top of it, two more plantations and a field. In addition to my coastal zone I took two fields. For my terrain adjustment I removed the plantation just beyond the field on my right blank. Jason moved his plantation covered hill forward from the board edge.
Jason ended up with one corps largely in ambush and his cavalry against the coast. Rather than have my cavalry outmatched, I had it deployed back on my left flank and the elephants facing off against his cavalry. For my central corps I had my spears on the flank closest his cavalry, with the impetuous HI swordsmen having LI screen to face off the Numidian infantry and elephants.
I deployed with the militia units behind the main battle line.
Initial deployment
I was reasonably happy with the final deployment although my cavalry would be cramped for room. I thought that it would be able to protect my flanks from whatever was in ambush if they came out of terrain.
End of Carthaginian Turn One
In my first turn I moved my infantry and elephant corps twice, up to a line just 4UD from the enemy light horse. I also slid right to ensure no chance of the enemy light horse sneaking through. For my right corps I brought the militia into the battle line as it didn't have a flank to guard, and to reduce the risk of my battle line being turned on the left flank. On my left flank my cavalry moved once but changed the formation of the light horse to make it more compact.
End of Numidian Turn One
Jason revealed an ambush, with four light infantry coming out of the fields on my left flank and moving up into the plantation. Most of the rest of his army also moved forward. On my right flank he declared a charge of 5 light horse against my light infantry screening my elephants. My choices were to either evade, in which case he could move only 2 UD and bring up the remaining light horse to shoot at my elephant, or to stand and sacrifice the unit to protect the elephant from being shot at. (Jason would have preferred to only charge 4 units, but didn't have the command pips to move 2 separated LH). I decided to stand on my right flank but evade the other unit. Jason then moved his remaining LH into a support position. My light infantry unit died.
In my turn two the elephant corps on the right flank charged the Numidian Light Horse. The entire group of 6 light horse evaded. My elephant from my central corps and one of the supporting MI impetuous swordsmen moved up and slid to ZOC the enemy Javelinmen with my swordsmen, and leave my elephant just out of shooting range of the enemy medium cavalry. This left one unit of MI impetuous swordsmen behind.
The rest of my central corps moved up and the militia moved to take up the end of the battle line. My light horse moved up to shoot at the light infantry in front of the enemy elephant, and my medium and heavy cavalry moved up to continue to provide flank support.
End of Numidian Turn Two
The Numidian medium cavalry moved up in two separate groups to shoot at my elephants, which each took a shooting hit. The swordsmen that were opposite my Gallic heavy infantry retreated back to the field but the other two units opposite my spears stayed put. On the Numidian right flank, the remaining elephant moved up adjacent to his fellow, and the light infantry and Javelinmen moved up through the plantations. In the shooting between the light units, a couple of Numidian light infantry took hits.
End of Carthaginian Turn Three
On my turn three, my elephant corps charged the medium cavalry in front on them (which evaded). The second elephant and escorting medium swordsmen wheeled left slightly and charged. Both the medium cavalry and the javelinmen evaded and the medium swordsmen reached the Numidian medium swordsmen. The Gallic heavy infantry charged the Numidian light infantry. Being impetuous they had to charge the full distance. They rolled long and this brought the right hand unit into contact with the Numidian medium swordsmen, so the right two units of Gallic infantry conformed to the medium swordsmen. It meant that the left two units had their flanks facing the elephant.
One pair of light infantry moved up through the heavy foot to continue to screen them. The other pair moved to engage the light infantry in front of the elephant. In retrospect these moves were probably a mistake, and I should have worked out some way of guarding the flank of the heavy infantry.
My light horse front pair of units evaded out of the ZOC of the enemy lights, whilst the rear pair repositioned themselves so as to avoid exposing a flank to the enemy forces moving through the plantation.
In the melees, my light infantry died to its opposition in front of the elephant, and my disrupted medium swordsmen were routed by the Numidian medium swordsmen.
In Jason's turn three, he brought up his medium cavalry to shoot at my right flank elephant. His centre corps medium swordsmen charged my light infantry which had to evade, but they stopped their charge short of hitting my heavy infantry. They then moved up their light infantry through the unit.
The Numidian light infantry in front of his centre elephant then conformed against my unit of light infantry, which evaded (possible poor choice). His elephant was then free to charge into the flank of my left most unit of Gallic heavy infantry. This routed the unit, which resulted in the adjacent unit being disrupted. The elephant pursued into the adjacent unit of Gallic infantry. In the photo it has already conformed to face the elephant, although it shouldn't have done so until the start of its own movement phase (p69, Contacting new enemies, last bullet).
The other Numidian elephant with support from a unit of light infantry charged my militia, which routed.
In my turn four my elephant corps charged the opposing cavalry. After conforming this left a Spanish medium swordsmen unit in combat with light horse, and the elephant and the other Spanish medium swordsmen in combat with the medium cavalry (not sure why they didn't evade). The combat against the medium cavalry saw me inflict hits on both units. However the combat with the light horse resulted in my medium swordsmen being routed, which disrupted the militia behind them.
In the centre the elephant conformed against the Numidian medium infantry, but took a hit in the resulting combat. The Gallic heavy infantry did a couple of hits against the opposing medium swordsmen. The Gallic heavy infantry against the elephant was able to inflict a hit. A unit of Libyan light infantry charged the elephant and inflicted a couple of hits. I don't know why I didn't support this unit with either another light infantry unit or a cavalry unit.
My light cavalry that had evaded before moved back up. The heavy and medium cavalry just stayed put.
In the Numidian turn five the elephant chomped its way through another unit of Gallic heavy infantry. The Numidian light and medium horse moved up to engage my right flank
With four mediocre elephants on the battle field, it is interesting to see how Jason used his more effectively than I used mine. He was able to remove my screening light infantry and then get in shooting hits. Additionally with his light infantry he was able to use them effectively to support his elephants either directly (as in a supporting unit in combat) or indirectly (dealing with my unit of light infantry that might have protected the flanks of Gallic infantry).
When I look at my movement in turn three, moving the light infantry up through the Gallic infantry that had just charged was a waste of command pips. They just evaded back the following turn. I should have used them to ZOC the elephant instead, or at least protect the flank of my Gallic infantry.
I probably had too many points invested in my cavalry corps to just use them as a flank guard as I did. They did get involved near the end of the game, but running down light infantry and as combat support. At the end of the game I was pretty much assuming that the second ambush was a dummy, when it was holding 4 swordsmen. Where my heavy cavalry ended up in turn six, Jason was waiting to use them to do a flank charge on my cavalry.
I also need to be more careful in my movement. There were a few cases where there were just a few millimetres in whether a unit could or couldn't fit. Some of this could have been caused by having to conform to the enemy units, but in other cases it may just have been me not taking enough care and thinking about where other units may want to move in this or following turns.
In general I am not thinking far enough ahead. I make most of my moves without considering what my opponent can do in their following turn.
With respect to my army composition, Jason suggested that I should have had a single corps with medium infantry, that is put my elephant and medium infantry from the central corps in with the corps with the other elephant and medium infantry. In terms of my command and control, I often had too few command pips for my central corps and too many for my flanking corps. Another option would be to take Hannibal in Gaul for the large complicated corps to get the extra command pips, though that would mean that the militia are not available.
I had more realistic expectations about the elephants, and was happy with their performance. The army can have three, but I don't know that the third would be worth it. I didn't have too many problems controlling my impetuous infantry, although the charging the full distance left their flank exposed to the enemy elephant. I need to better protect the flanks.
The final thought is that part of the reason my flanks were exposed was because I was (apart from the cavalry) always moving forward as far as I could and always attacking. I could have held back a little - maybe smarter even if less fun.