1. Close order troops except the legions and the scutarii should be disorganiaed.
2. Since neither side was in line of battle, (Livy's claim that both sides were in a column, when the battle commenced, is not be believed,) I suggest the Romans place their units down in a loose fine. The Spanish now dice for the distance for each of their units with two D-10s. The average, round off, is the distance each Spanish unit is from the Roman line. The Spanish may "mass" units on flank, on the other flank, or in the center. The idea is to keep the deployment fluid, it should not look regular at all.
3. The Numidian force has a 30% chance on turn 3 of the battle to intervene. They may come from any direction but must deploy one move from the fight. Each turn after the third add 10% to the chance.
4. Since Scipio was the heart and soul of the army, any unit he is with adds +1 to melee and morale. (With means base to base contact.) If he is cut down, the unit he is with is demoralized. After the next turn the units next to demoralized unit checks morale. The next turn the next two and so on until the whole army tests. If Indibilis falls, morale is checked for the whole Spanish army. Any bad reaction means the fickle Spanish unit flees and is removed from the table. Any. good reaction means that the Spanish unit is enraged, will ignore all further morale tests, and fight to the last casting. If Scipio is still alive when Indibilis dies, the Roman force receives a plus to its morale. If Mago or Hasdrubal dies, the Romans receive a plus to their morale for each.
5. There is no legion integrity. The legion may form into many units of 4-6 figures.
6. The Carthaginian force enters the battle the turn after the Numidians join in. Each myriad has a 30% chance of entering the battle. An additional 10% is added each turn until the base chance is 90%. If the forces keep rolling 91-100 the~y can't intervene. Carthaginian force has the light infantry deploy one move away from the Romans, any side, followed by the phalanx. The Liby-Phoenician cavalry- was not engaged. It was used in the pursuit.
7. Victory. If Scipio inflicts 50% casualties or more against the Carthaginian forces not the Spanish) it is a victor, as the armies will be too mauled to go after his brother. Any other result is a Punic victory.
Footnote
1. As much as I hate footnotes in a newsletter, I realize that I should explain why I believe the Carthaginian spear phalanx was not armed with a pike. Peter Connolly has one of the reforms of Xanthippus arming the strategios with the sarissia I have to respectfully disagree. Not only is there never am mention of this in any of the primary sources I have studied, logically it doesn't make any sense. First sarissas were hard to come by. They are hard to maneuver with in a untrained phalanx and Xanthippus did not have a lot of time. The large shield that the spearman carried also prohibits the use of the two handed sarissa After Cannae. Hannibal re-armors his veterans with captured Roman equipment. Some are said to be using Roman shields The thrusting spear can be used with the Roman sputum. but not the sarissa There is no archeological evidence Why have there never beer, found the sleeves that joined the sarusia together in any Pumc excavation.
One of Connolly's biggest particulars of proof that phalangites were in the Carthaginian army was the fact that Sopater's Macedonians at Zama was a strategiai of 4,000 phalangites and no historian found this to be unusual enough to draw special notice to it. I find it hard to believe that Phillip V, who already had problems coming up with troops, would waste a phalanx of Macedonians defending Carthage Likely they were thyreophori, and since the second line at Zama was made up of mercenary Spanish and Gauls and hastily-levied Carthaginians, all carrying the thureos. they would not be noticed.
His opinion that Polybius' longchephoroi are the same as phaiangites also seems incorrect. Polybius' longche can be thrown or thrusted. The Greek word could be interpreted as tongue shaped I propose this refers to the spearhead which is shaped like a tongue rather then a leaf. Alexander's Companions could throw or thrust their xystons, longche just may be another name for that weapon. I have read in no account anywhere that sarissas were used as a missile weapon.
Battle of Baetis 211 BC
Back to Table of Contents The Messenger August 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