Battles of the Roman Republic

Using 36 Ancient Battles for Dominion of the Spear

I now turn to the Roman battles in the book.

Summary

Here are the battles I played and the results (showing units remaining at game end)

• Cannae - Carthaginians 4, Romans 1 - See below for an account.
• Magnesia - Seleucids 2, Romans 1 - See below.
• Carrhae - Parthians 5, Romans 1 - Romans lost all battles in the first round to a hail of arrows.
• Taurus - Parthians 4, Romans 1 - Romans lost a legion and slingers in first round.

Ouch! Those Parthians did a number on Rome.

Cannae

I previously played a version of Cannae using the standard army lists in the main book. I noted that the list was not applicable to Cannae. For instance, the real Hannibal did not have elephants. But I played that battle as more of a what-if scenario.

Now we have a more accurate set-up. Let's see how the Romans fare.

In the initial clash, the Carthaginians run off the Roman horse. Like the actual battle, this leaves the legions vulnerable.

The end of the battle - the flank legion (right) falls to the Carthaginian cavalry.

This leaves a lone legion totally at the mercy of Carthage.

Well, that played out much like the real battle. Well done, DotS.

Magnesia

Things started poorly for Rome. They lost their legionaries and allied spears in the initial clash. But their archers chased off the Seleucid scythed chariots.

Rome brought up its reserves. This is the ensuing matchups.

Again Rome suffered. This time their cavalry routed. Once again, the archers drove off their enemy. This led to a climatic showdown between Thracian spears and Macedonian phalanx in the center. Alas, the Thracians were no legionaries. They fled from phalanx. Rome lost the day.