The following battle was played out in 15mm by Dan Promutico, Tom Fowler, John Picca, and myself. Rather than play a standard action, Dan devised 'a scenario based on Hannibal's crossing of the Alps in the 2nd Punic War. WRG 7th rules were used although the terrain and deployment were of Dan's devising. His 8' x 4' board was set up with a mountain pass about 1-5 elements wide running down the eight foot length. All terrain on either side of this pass was considered steep, rocky slope (the Alps).

The victory conditions were for Hannibal (John) to lead most of his force across the board, or in the alternative to impose such a defeat on the Gauls that they would be so impressed with his prowess and invincibility that they would join forces with him in his march on Rome. The Gauls simply had to inflict defeat upon the foreign 'invaders' attempting to cross their mountains.

The Carthaginian forces consisted of about 2500 points of troops versus about 1800 for the Gauls. Only Dan as the Gallic C-in-C knew these numbers at the outset (as he had designed the scenario). John and I as the Carthaginian commanders knew nothing of the set-up other than since we had all gathered for a wargame there must be something waiting for us on those hills.

The scenario dictated that we must advance in column with no deviation until the Gauls (hidden deployment) were sighted. I led the advance guard; light cavalry, light infantry, two units of Spaniards, and close-order spearmen. John kept the majority of the Carthaginian forces under his command including most of the cavalry. He hoped to use the horse as a mobile reserve to quickly race up or down the pass and deal with the Gallic ambush wherever it appeared, hopefully hitting them in the flanks as they charged down their slopes. It was obvious, given that most of our army was close-order foot, cavalry, plus elephants, that we were not going to be able to go up into the hills after the Gauls.

Dan and Tom waited for the entire Carthaginian army to march on board before springing their trap. By now our column stretched most of the pass's eight foot length. Our advance was stopped by the appearance of Gallic HC at the end of the pass. At the same time, the Gauls in the hills showed themselves following behind an avalanche of boulders.

Some of the Gallic deployment points had been spent to purchase rocks to roll down the slopes. These were sent down into the pass at about three places. Two particularly well placed rockslides came crashing down on the Libyan spear unit bringing up the rear of my advance guard. Hit incredibly hard, the Libyans were completely wiped out and buried. Well at least they received a burial of sorts, unlike the rest of my force which seemed destined to die in the open ground of the pass.

Worse than losing a unit before hand-to-hand combat was even joined was the fact that the Libyans' burial from two sides at the narrowest point of the pass resulted in a barrier of debris (see WRG 7th rules for mechanics of how this occurs).

My advance guard was now separated from the main body. Some of my foot might be able to slowly scramble over the debris and make it back to the main force (would they be any better off back there?) but I certainly was not expecting to see the cavalry reserve come charging over the boulders to our rescue.

Meanwhile, the head of my column was in trouble. While in normal conditions my Numidian light cavalry could have delayed and harassed the Gallic cavalry which was blocking our exit, these were not normal circumstances. We were strung out in column with little room to maneuver. The Numidians' normal response to heavier cavalry is to evade out of the way, however if they evaded now they were going to run smack into my stacked up column of foot which were only beginning to turn into line to face the Gallic warbands coming down the slopes.

From my vantage point at the table I could see things a real life general would not have known. Things appeared to be going a little better back there. The main body contained the larget part of our forces and seemed to have enough units to be able to form two lines, one facing out at the enemy on each slope. In fact, traffic congestion appeared to be Hannibal's worst enemy. At least there was no Gallic cavalry rolling up his column. I could have observed more of that part of the battle and reported it here, except that I was distracted by the dire straits my own units were in up front.

One unit of loose-order Spaniards was doing fine, even driving a Gallic warband back into the foothills. The close- order spear units were hard-pressed. I had one unit of Libyans which were particularly frustrating. They found themselves at the rear of my column and had managed to pass the waver test caused by the burial of their compatriots. They were now faced on two sides by Gallic skirmishers.

Although the skirmishers did not have the opportunity to charge, neither did the Libyans as a charge against one skirmisher would force them out of their square formation and expose their rear to the other. A 'counter' would have been helpful to extricate them from their precarious position and get them up with my other hard-pressed units however the dice were not cooperative. They failed every counter roll and were effectively pinned by the skirmishers and of no use to me.

The beginning of the end occurred when the Gallic heavy cavalry drove in my lights. My light cavalry were pressed against the head of my column (which at least now had turned in place to form a line) with no room to recoil let alone evade.

Instead they were caught, broke, and routed -- right into my infantry. The resulting disorder now sealed our fate. No help was coming from over the barrier of boulders and unit after unit wavered and broke. The Spaniards were the last to die, but one too many waver checks for routing friends finally did them in. The survivors were now attempting to rout back towards the main body.

Although my attention had been diverted from the other part of the battle, it was obvious what had happened there. I think the main body had outnumbered the ambushers back there, the disadvantages of terrain, position and congestion eventually won out. The Gauls came out slightly ahead of the main body on points killed, however when combined with the results of the killing sack closed around the advance guard, the result was a rout.

History this time did not repeat itself, and if Hannibal ever made it to Rome, he did not make it by way of these Alps.