by Stephen Phenow
Metaurus is a fascinating battle to refight as it is the only battle in Italy where a Carthaginian army was destroyed. I would suggest to represent the Gallic lack of activity, only half or all the Gauls be under the command of the game master or a player who does not mind doing nothing during battle. A dice roll should decide if they intervene. The Carthaginians arc under the gun. They must defeat part of the Roman Army before Nero completes his flank march. Porcius' levies are the weak, point although the veterans of Spain made Livius' task hard also. It might important to point out that even if Hasdrubal is destroyed, if he sorely cripples the Roman force, inflicting 50% casualties, he helps his brother out substantially. Finally, if the Gauls had not started to flake, the total number of forces would be comparable. Perhaps instead of only 10,000, allow 20,000 Gauls to be present. It would change the tactics of Nero and Livius, significantly. More Battle of Metaurus 207 BC Back to Table of Contents The Messenger April 1995 Back to The Messenger List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1995 by HMGS/PSW. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com |