Calpurnii v Flaminii - a new Campaign - Game 1

Game 1

Middle Republican Roman (Michael 5,950 pts) v Syracusan (Alec 6,250 pts) 

Minor Invasion 211 BCE (MeG Magna, 16-Jan-2026).

Battlefield Effects: None

January 2026 sees the start of a new single-era campaign between myself and another local gamer - Michael. We are going to be contesting the Middle Republic Era using the Mortem et Gloriam Magna rules and are using the full Battlefield Effects optional rules. As our family Gens for the mini-campaign Michael has chosen the Flaminii and I have chosen the Calpurnii.

Rolling up the first battle it turned out to be a Minor Invasion of Syracuse and as Michael bid the lowest to be the Romans  under the campaign rules he is playing the Roman army with 5,950 points under the command of a Flaminii C-in-C whilst I'll be taking command of the opposing Syracusan army of 6,250 points in a bid to stymie his chances. As it is a Minor Invasion, there are two points up for grabs for Michael if he can pull off the victory but he will have to force the pace to achieve them with a slightly smaller force. My job will be to prevent a Roman win so that the Flaminii end up with a negative Prestige Point.

My planning thoughts

1. On the assumption that the Syracusans will have more access to cavalry than the Romans I'll try to take advantage of that by maximising that arm in order to threaten the Roman flanks. At the very least it will force Michael to divert resources from his attack to avoid being hit in the flanks and rear. 
2. As Michael needs to be aggressive to get his  points I will try to create a sufficiently large solid infantry phalanx to take on the Roman heavy infantry battle line whilst my cavalry hopefully does its job of winning on at least one flank. The line will be supported by several skirmisher units to enable me to pick off the odd casualty and defend my troops against any opposing light infantry..

Set-up & deployment

As I had chosen a mediocre army commander my PBS cards available were very limited - only four, consequently I was expecting to be severely out-generalled in the PBS set-up as I reckoned Michael would probably go with a competent professional general at worst, giving him probably double the number I would have. During the pre-battle procedure however, it turned out that whilst Michael did have a much better C-in-C he drew incredibly poor cards so I was able to dominate both the pre-battle manoeuvring and the scouting. Not only was the result a totally flat battlefield but I out-scouted the Romans by 40%. Additionally I was surprised that Michael didn't select any terrain at all as he had the option to choose one piece, but I wasn't going to complain.

Michael deployed his army fairly conventionally with an obvious bias towards his right wing where he placed both his cavalry units, one heavy TUG of Roman cavalry and one light SUG of Spanish cavalry. I placed two heavy cavalry on my left wing; one TUG of Syracusan Greek cavalry and one TUG of superior quality mercenary Campanian cavalry. 

I placed my infantry in the centre, consisting of three TUGs of spearmen, one of which was the superior quality tyrant's bodyguard, a unit of mercenary Spanish Scutarii, two TUGS of Gallic tribesmen and a TUG of poor quality citizen spear-armed infantry, which I left in the rear. In front of the heavies I placed three light infantry SUGs. 

Opposite my infantry Michael placed five TUGS of Roman Legionaries, one TUG of Italian mercenaries and one TUG of Spanish Scutarii. He also placed three SUGs of Roman Leves. Two of the legionary TUGs were of superior quality and also had the Melee Expert characteristic making them very lethal units; he placed these on the flanks. 

On my right I placed a SUG of light cavalry, against which Michael deployed nothing. 

I noted that Michael only had three generals to my four, giving me an eleven card draw every turn to his eight; I hoped to take advantage of that during the game.

Set-up ended up as below, the Syracusans are on the left of the photo:

Turn one

Our moves largely mirrored each other, our centres advanced and we both sent our light horse units forward on our respective right wings. Whilst advancing my centre I manoeuvred my infantry slightly to the left and let my Spanish Scutarii, who were on the very left wing of my infantry line fall behind slightly as they were opposite the Roman heavy cavalry, a matchup I didn't fancy. My heavy cavalry command received terrible cards so, despite seeing the advances of the Roman cavalry, I decided not to move them at all. 

The end of turn position was as below:

Turn two

In turn two we continued to advance towards each other in the centre, Michael didn't appear to have great cards so not all his infantry was able to keep up. The TUG that did advance got into charge range of my line. My cavalry command drew bad cards again so again had to remain out of position behind the line.

I forgot to take a photo at the end of this turn.

Turn three

In the charge phase our infantry centres made contact - one Roman legionary TUG charged into the centre of my line, the Romans came off slightly better in the charge combat but I made up for it in the fighting phase - result one base loss each. Elsewhere we continued to advance where the cards permitted. My cavalry command again drew poor cards but I managed to advance one cavalry TUG towards the threatening Spanish light cavalry on my left flank and also manoeuvre my light cavalry SUG on the other wing into javelin range of a Roman legionary TUG and change its formation to "Cantabrian", which upgrades its shooting die-rolls.

The turn ended as below:

Turn four

Our heavy infantry centres continued to charge into contact knocking lumps out of each other in both the charge and melee phases. I charged my Greek cavalry forward to counter Michael's right wing light cavalry, driving it back but losing a base in the process, whilst failing to make contact as the Spanish light cavalry successfully evaded away. Michael charged his heavy cavalry into contact with my Campanian mercenary cavalry risking a barrage of arrows and javelins on their way in. They largely got away with it, taking minimal shooting casualties but they came off second best in the ensuing melee phases.

On my right I advanced my Gallic mercenary infantry forward to put pressure on Michael's refused left flank, forcing Michael to advance his troops on the wing a bit to cover the end of his central infantry line.

No photo - I forgot to take one again!

Turn five and End of Game

The melees continued in earnest but Michael's forces came off worst all along the fighting line, largely due to my infantry spearmen having the edge in combat claims. His lone heavy cavalry TUG ended up one base from destruction with an exposed flank where I had the Spanish infantry TUG that I had held back waiting to charge in next turn, whilst in the centre one of Michael's legionary TUGs was routed and his family representative C-in-C was killed. One of the Syracusan spear units pursued into the Roman rear.

At this point we ran out of time but it wasn't looking good for the Romans: the Roman C-in-C was dead, one Roman legionary TUG was destroyed and three of Michael's TUGs were each one hit from destruction, the loss of which would have broken the Roman army had we continued. None of my TUGs were close to elimination.

Final position as below:

Post-mortem

The game went as well as I could have hoped, and largely to plan. The threat posed by my cavalry on the wings, combined with insufficient cards effectively forced Michael to hang back with his infantry TUGs on either end of his line as hoped, at least initially. Unfortunately for him these were his superior quality elite legionaries which actually failed to get into the fight at all leaving the lower quality Roman and allied infantry to fight the battle. The Roman lack of command also contributed as they had to go into combat piecemeal.

The man of the match award I feel belonged to Michael's TUG of Spanish Scutarii (we both had one). It was quickly reduced to exactly 50% of its strength but try as I might it subsequently survived multiple combat rolls and KaB tests to stave off destruction.

Amusingly an event earlier in the day may have had a great impact on the game. On the way into a supermarket I found a penny on the floor and picked it up! During the battle I will admit that for most of the game I had better luck than Michael. Were these two events connected? Who knows.

Result

Flaminii Losing draw - minus one Prestige Point.