SPI's The Punic Wars

One of the things that got me interested about the Carthaginians was the old SPI game The Punic Wars.  I loved this game so much I hand copied it (as you will see later).  I mentioned this to Simon and he said he had a copy.  It has taken a few months, but we finally sat down to play.  The first time in forty years!

We made a few mistakes to start with about what constituted a controlled/friendly province.

Attrition was horrific and I wasted my first few turns trying to maintain order in Corsica and Sardinia.  Thankfully I realised the key was controlling access to Sicily which my fleet promptly did.

Then it was a case of an arms build up.

Then there were cross straits incursions until finally I struck out for Rome.  It took a few goes, but eventually the Carthaginians were able to enter the city and win.

Sadly my hope of being able to use this game for a campaign was not really borne out.

Later

Armed with my knowledge of the rules I tried the First Punic War scenario again.

First turn no revolt, Carthaginians massed their forces in Sicily (avoided attrition in bringing troops over from Carthage) and attacked the Roman Fleet at 3 to 1.  It was wiped out which sealed off Sicily.  The Carthaginians then bravely attacked the Roman army in Sicily and with another good roll reduced it by 75% driving it into Messina where it was safe for a while.

The Romans elected two Level 2 leaders!  It did them no good as without a fleet they weren't going anywhere.  In another bit of good luck they were able to start building ships.

However with the second turn, Syracuse entered an alliance with Carthage.  Carthage continued to strengthen its garrisons in Corsica and Sardinia as well as build up in Sicily.

The Romans positioned their army north west of Croton in a blocking position.

Nothing was going to happen for a good while now.

The Carthaginians will move to occupy the Balearic islands.  They then need only one or two provinces to win.  However an army invading from Sicily is always going to be smaller than the blocking Roman army.  Using their fleet to invade elsewhere would create numerous attrition rolls and the subsequent losses would probably cause the Syracusans to change sides!

For the Roman fleet to attack the Carthaginians, there would be an attrition roll first and so it is unlikely to prevail.

So I am thinking that the Romans would use their fleet to block any movement up the coast from Sicily (an attack from Corsica would take a long time to build up and risk being attrited by revolts).  Eventually the Carthaginians could amass a reasonable force in Sicily and then risk an attack.

Rome could build a force of 12ASP and 12FSP.  Carthage could build up to 20ASP and 10FSP.  Eight Army Strength Points are needed to garrison the three islands and Carthage (anything less than 3 in each of Corsica and Sardinia risks being wiped out in a revolt).  In attacking the Roman fleet, the Carthaginians would want to be able to protect the ferry hexside and so probably only have eight Fleet Strength Points to use.  A 1 to 2 attack with the Fleet and assuming a superior leader has a one in three chance of success, but equally a one in three chance of defeat, all the time taking losses.  No fun!

So the Carthaginians probably need to attack immediately before the Romans build up; conversely hope that the Romans don't get to build fleets straight away.