Field of Glory Game

I had a game scheduled with the group today, but one fellow got sick, and the other remembered a nephew's birthday, so I was stuck gaming alone.

I broke out my 28mm Field of Glory armies and played my first game with them.

Both armies got a pretty standard deployment. Carthage started with cavalry on the extreme flanks, Gallic and Spanish infantry on the wings, and Libyan spearmen with elephants in the center. That unfinished wooden square behind the Carthaginian line is their fortified camp.

The Romans also started with a very conventional deployment: cavalry on the flanks, heavy infantry in a solid mass in the center.

As the two armies advanced toward each other, Carthage threw its cavalry out in advance of the infantry line, hoping to flank the Romans and force them to break their neat line. Both sides extended their light infantry into skirmish order.

Carthage definitely gets the better of the skirmish battle. They have two units of light horse and two large units of light foot. The Romans have only two small units of javelinmen.

The Roman cavalry on each flank charged the Numidians, who evaded on both flanks, leaving the Romans to strike the formed Spanish and Gallic cavalry. Meanwhile, the Carthaginian light foot chased off the velites, leaving the Roman main line uncovered.

Surprisingly, the Romans won the cavalry battles on both flanks, destroying the Gauls in two turns and the Spanish in four. Even with the Numidians nipping at their flanks, the Roman cavalry carried the day.

The Roman heavy foot charged the Carthaginian javelinmen and slingers, scattering them and uncovering Carthage's main line. The two opposing lines settled into the long grind that is infantry combat in this game. The big surprise was the complete failure of the elephants, which were destroyed in only two turns without causing the Romans to lose a single base.

Halfway through the infantry fight, the Roman consul attached himself to a wavering unit of hastati. The hastati lost the next round of combat, and Carthage made the roll to kill the consul!

Two Roman units broke and ran for the rear. One little unit of principes held up the Gallic infantry, but Carthage had spearmen headed for the Roman camp, with only velites in their path!

Carthage broke the Roman center, but a Roman wing commander rallied one unit of hastati and opposed the breakthrough. The Roman cavalry on the flanks destroyed the Numidian light horse and maneuvered to hit the Carthaginian infantry's flanks. And two Roman infantry units on the right managed to destroy a unit of Libyans and chase a Carthaginian general away from the fighting.

With six units destroyed or broken, and with their camp wide open to the victorious Roman infantry, the remnants of the Carthaginian army had to flee.

I enjoyed the game more than any other session of Field of Glory that I've played. I'm sure I am still doing some things wrong (the game is so complex!), but the rules made more sense to me this time than they ever have before.