Pyrrhic Campaign - Turn Two

For the previous turn and background see here:

 https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2024/04/pyrrhic-campaign-turn-one.html

Since our first game I had done some work on translating talents to armies, the Reinforcement Table and the General Traits Table (I will put them in at the end of the post).  But on with the campaign!

First the Romans told their Carthaginian friends to seize Syracuse.  They promptly tried and tried and tried and failed and failed and failed.

Meanwhile Pyrrhus was subduing a lot of the Italians south of Capua.  The Roman Second Consul, Deuxus, who should have been doing the same, took it into his head to put an end to this by marching and marching (on an empty stomach I may add) to confront the invaders at Maleventum, in a pincher move via Corfinium and Bovianum.  That part of the plan worked out well.  He failed to appreciate that the Greek army might be a tad bigger (as he had the slightly smaller Roman army, but only by one skirmisher unit), but he was confident friends would join him.  They didn't.  He was also confident that Pyrrhus, the harsh administrator, would have no friends at all. Quiet the reverse, they flocked to join him (giving the Greeks an extra four units).

Well, this would test the rules in seeing how disparate sized forces faired.  As the Romans were the attackers, they were made the invaders although in thinking about it now, probably should have still rolled for scouting.  It also strikes me that some more innovative Ace in the Hole cards could be created for a campaign game, but I digress.

The forces don't look that different in size, but the Romans are stretched thin.

The Romans advance, but the Greeks stay put, except for their right flank where Pyrrhus leads.

The Romans send one unit of Triarii to help on their left flank.

They have set themselves up for a masterful counter stroke,

if they can get the initiative.

Oh dear, the Greeks move first.

As an aside, the Romans never got the initiative in any of the game's turns.

But all is not lost.

Pyrrhus has taken some casualties.

The elephants are held thanks to the Triarii's long spears.

And on the Roman right a unit of skirmishers holds off some of those Italian friends of the Greeks.

Finally, the Roman legions have closed with the Greeks.

Well....

It was looking promising, but those impetuous Guals went straight through Deuxus' legion,

including the consul!

The Triarrii are still fighting, but the Romans are done for.

Defeat 

:-(

But it gets worse, a lot worse.  The campaign rules allow for routed units to return.  For the victor this is a roll of 4 to 10, for the defeated a roll of 6 to 10.  The Romans had lost six units.  They recovered only one.  The Greeks, who had some losses, recovered all their units.

The Romans retreat to Capua joining the other army.  The campaign rules don't cover rules for retreating or for recombining armies.  Consequently, the Romans do nothing but sulk for the rest of the campaign season.

The final situation.  The Greeks now have eight cities, double what they started with.

Talents

All armies get the general's unit and one S unit free.

Each unit then costs one Talent

These are selected from the standard list.

Then units can be swapped for options

In selecting units, every unit has to be selected at least once, before duplicates can be made.

After allocating options, an army cannot have less than seven units, which would represent a 5 Talent expenditure.

Armies with 12 or more units have a movement penalty

Additional uses for Talents available to the Romans or Greeks:

One Talent can be spent on bribes to provide a plus one on a Diplomacy roll

One Talent can be spent on siege equipment to provide a plus one on a siege roll

One Talent can be spent to strengthen a city (a minus one on any enemy siege roll)

Such additions must be allocated to a General or to a nominated city (which can be kept secret, but must be friendly/allied)

Reinforcement Table

General Trait Table