Epic Command and Colors Ancients - Crimissos River 341 BC

 

Carthaginian chariots

Sacred Band

Hasdrubal with heavy infantry

Light infantry

Auxilia and medium infantry

Carthaginian left flank behind the river

Carthaginian and Spanish cavalry

Syracusan right flank, all light infantry

Syracusan centre

Syracusan left flank

Last Thursday afternoon Rick, Garry and Robert came over and we played an Epic CCA game out in the shed. The scenario was Crimissos River 341 BC with a Syracusan/Corinthian/Greek army under Timoleon taking on the Carthaginians under Hasdrubal. We've played this scenario before in a standard game and the Carthaginians won easily but there are no special rules for the storm which was such a significant factor in their historical defeat in the battle. Plutarch in his life of Timoleon provides the details:

The tempest enveloped the Greeks from behind and beat upon their backs, but it struck the barbarians in the face, while lightning dazzled their eyes as the storm swept violently along with torrents of rain and continual flashes darting out from the clouds. These were terrible disadvantages, especially to inexperienced troops, and above all, it seems, the roar of the thunder and the beating of the rain and hail upon the men’s armour prevented them from hearing their officers’ commands. Besides this the mud also proved a great hindrance to the Carthaginians - who were not lightly equipped, but clad in full armour, as I have described - and so did the water which filled the bosoms of their tunics and made them heavy and unwieldy in their movements. It was easy for the Greeks to fell them, and once on the ground it was impossible for them to rise again from the mud because they were encumbered by their armour.

Plutarch, Timoleon in The Age of Alexander, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1973, p.177.

I decided to try some special rules to reflect the effects of the storm on the Carthaginians. In turns three and four heavy and medium infantry fight with only two dice in combat, all other Carthaginian troops are reduced to one die in combat and the same for shooting. In addition all troops crossing the Crimissos River in these turns, roll two dice for casualties, suffering hits on their respective coloured symbols and leader symbols. In our game these rules seemed to work, no units suffered unduly. One special rule in the scenario we forgot to use was the Sacred Band ignoring one sword and flag symbol in combat but this didn’t alter the end result at all.

Before the storm struck in turns three and four, the Carthaginians attacked on their right flank with the Sacred Band taking out units of Syracusan auxilia and medium cavalry. The Syracusans cancelled an Order Heavy Troops card and then destroyed both units of Carthaginian heavy chariots. The Carthaginian attack during the storm stalled and on the left flank, two units were caught crossing the river as it flooded and suffered casualties. Back on the right flank, the Syracusans got on a roll, Hasdrubal and his heavy infantry were all killed and finally the Sacred Band was surrounded and destroyed. Once the storm abated the Carthaginians attacked on their left flank and managed to destroy some light infantry and claw back a couple of victory banners. It was too little, too late and the Carthaginians suffered a heavy defeat as they did in the actual battle. The Syracusans thrashing them 9-4 victory banners.

Syracusan and Carthaginian armies deployed

Opposite end

Sacred Band attack

Syracusan cavalry charge the Carthaginian chariots

Carthaginian right flank attack stalls in the storm

Syracusans get on a roll

Carthaginians suffer casualties
crossing the river in the storm

Syracusan light infantry hold back

Storm abates

Back on the right flank the Sacred Band are
surrounded but go down fighting

Carthaginians attack on the left
but are thrashed 9-4 by the Syracusans