Hannibal versus the Ghaznavids

Ever since reading Hannibal: Enemy of Rome by Leonard Cottrell when I was a teenager I have wanted to run a Carthaginian army.  I recall experimenting with a few conversions from various Airfix figures to see what I could build back in the 70s, but didn’t take it too far.  Many decades passed until last Friday when I had the chance to run them against a Ghaznavid army courtesy of Mark W.

My 800 points Field Of Glory Carthaginian army had all the usual suspects including four elephants.

The Ghaznavids commenced aggressively advancing on Hannibal’s right.  Excellent as the limited plan I had was to mass my cavalry on my right and attack in echelon leading with that flank. 

Eagles view of Hannibal’s army from the left showing the Numidian light troops, Gauls, African spearman and the elephants in the distance before the massed cavalry with Hannibal.

The Spanish cavalry aided by the Gallic cavalry on their left and Numidians on their right engage the Nomad horse archers who had perhaps rashly stood to fight.

The Spanish are triumphant!  The Gauls are ready to charge while the Numidians fight on.

No!  The Arab cavalry with their lances prove too good for the Gauls and they are broken; Hannibal makes a lucky escape with only some dents to his helmet.

The Spanish foot get into trouble fighting a unit of Ghilman heavy cavalry, but it is elephants to the rescue!

Hannibal is triumphant again and is aided by the Spanish cavalry having the Arab lancers pinned.

Around this time on the left flank, the other unit of Ghilman cavalry comes to grips with the lone Numidian light horse brigade who got caught evading ... it ended badly.  The Ghilman cavalry went on to loot the Carthaginian camp.

Getting into more trouble, Hannibal is having a problem keeping his forces together to fight the Dailami armoured spearmen.  Some Ghaznavid horse archers have returned after defeating the Numidian cavalary that was on Hannibal’s right and are chasing the Numidian foot.  In the distance the Balearic slingers have engaged the Naffatun incendiary throwers.  Off to the right of the picture the Arab lancers charged the Spanish cavalry who failed to repeat their previous success against a more formidable foe and broke. 

Disaster!  Hannibal is killed and the Spanish foot and supporting elephants break.  The remaining elephants are distinctly unhappy.

The Gallic foot on the Carthaginian left finally get engaged, but right from the start things start to go against them.

While the Balearic slingers prevailed, it was not enough to save the inevitable destruction of the remaining Carthaginian elephants and with their demise so went the game.

An excellent game with lots of to and fro action and only one recourse to the rule book to deal with a tricky situation.

All figures and terrain is from Mark W’s collection.  A real delight to play with.