Pachyderm down!

On Saturday Len Cooksey (http://www.spanglefish.com/ivanhoefigures/) visited and between peering into various boxes of toys I managed to distract him with a game.  I had set up Bagradas 253BC for Command & Colours and offered Len the choice of sides.  Possibly prompted by the preponderance of pachyderms he opted to command the Carthaginians.  He thus represented one Xanthippus, a Greek mercenary general employed in desperation by Carthage when the s**t seemed to have well and truly hit the fan.  With all those elephants that must have been messy.

All the toys were from my 25mm collection including these time-travelling Sassanid elephants.

I took the role of Regulus commanding a Roman army.  Historically the Romans given a good kicking and the few survivors were traumatised by the disciplined Roman units being overrun by the enemy elephants.  No pressure then.

The initial setup - Romans at the top.

The game opened with various skirmishers running about between the armies.

The Roman (this and all further photos taken from the Roman side) light cavalry - outnumbered 2:1 by their Cartho counterparts - looked apprehensive.

Sure enough, the enemy light cavalry were soon galloping about making a nuisance of themselves.

My skirmishers had the worst of the opening engagements but Len's cavalry didn't seem to fancy tangling with the legions.  And yes, I know the Romans are from a later period but they're Romans, and that's good enough for me!

I at last managed to get the main Roman line moving - which rather dampened the enthusiasm of the enemy skirmishers.

As the Romans advanced the question in the ranks was "what are these big smelly grey things?"  That'll teach Len not to sit with his feet on my table.

This was the point at which Regulus was anticipating (at best) a difficult session in the Forum and all three nellies closed in for the kill...

However in an outbreak of uncharacteristically good dice-rolling, I managed to drop one elephant...

...and then the other two!  This certainly changed the look of the battlefield.  Much rejoicing in the ranks and elephant steaks for tea!

On the left I sent forward my cavalry - fully aware that I was risking them in order to clinch an overall victory.

On the right my cavalry were also in action and finally managed to wear down their opposite numbers.

Finally, on the left, the demise of the enemy medium cavalry sealed the Roman victory!  My thanks to Len for an entertaining game.