HANNIBAL VS SCIPIO

Refighting Zama with Tactica II

The figurative dust generated by a recent focused consideration of the 202 BC battle had barely settled when I decided to return to the flat and evidently featureless plain. [1] This time, I would attempt to reconstruct the entire engagement. For this interpretation, I would employ the Tactica II rules. 

I started on the Roman left wing, with the cavalry formations under the command of Laelius. Using the orders of battle found on page 121 of Warfare in the Classical World and dividing the provided as well as estimated numbers by 60 (the larger figure given in the approximated scale discussed on page 1 of the spiral-bound rules), there were just over 33 “figures” of Roman horse on the left of the line. I established two units of Roman and Allied HC then, one of 14 “models” and another of 18 “models.” For the four legions that were reportedly present on the field, I studied the diagrams and text on pages 61-64, and decided to employ the combined Hastati-Principes formation, supported by a single line of Triarii. [2] A dozen Velites were prepared for each legion, which gave me 48 skirmishers in total. The Numidian foot, under the overall command of Masinissa, were represented with 4 units of light infantry. Three of the formations contained 27 “figures,” arranged in 3 rows of 9. There was also a small unit of 18 “figures,” deployed in 3 rows of 6. The Numidian horse, also under Masinissa’s direction, were depicted with 6 units of light cavalry, drawn up in half a dozen units of 12 “figures” each. The Roman army was fabricated using the 15mm figure basing dimensions listed on page 1. I was able to fit all of Scipio’s formations on my main wargames table, which measures 6.5 feet by 3.75 feet.

Shifting to the drafting and deployment of Hannibal’s army, I started with the first of the three lines described by the ancient sources. After considering a number of options, I decided upon and prepared 3 units of Ligurians (light infantry in units of 16 “figures” each), 4 units of Celts (warband units with 24 “figures” each, organized in 2 rows of 12), and 4 groups of 8 skirmishers, split evenly between slingers and archers. After noting the frontage of the Roman line and then re-reading the section about elephant screens in the rulebook, I built 3 screens of Carthaginian pachyderms. One screen had 3 animals; there were 4 of the lumbering and smelly beasts in each of the other screens, for a total of 11 elephant “models” or stands. Turning to the second line of Hannibal’s deployment, I made 8 units of Carthaginian citizen infantry. Each fo these formations was 24 “figures” strong and was arranged in 3 ranks of 8. All were classed as MG or Militia Grade troops. The third and final line of Hannibal’s army contained 10 units of 24 “figures.” Five of these formations were Bruttian veterans; 4 were African veterans, and one unit contained Spanish veterans. For the cavalry on the right, two units were fabricated. These were essentially identical to their Roman counterparts. However, they were a grade less in quality. The loyal Numidian light cavalry on the left of Hannibal’s position were represented by 50 “figures” organized into 5 units. 

Deployment

Initially, I distributed skirmishers (slingers and archers) between the elephant “models” comprising the three screens set in front of the Celts and Ligurians. Due to space constraints, however, this arrangement left me with a full unit of skirmishers that were positioned in front of two of the animals on the far left of the extended or stretched line. Upon review, reflection, and a little more reading, I changed this initial deployment so that it was more “wargame” than an attempt to replicate an interpretation of the historical record. The skirmishers were collected and positioned as a screen of light troops in front of the African animals. Additionally, the elephants on the left and right of the line were pivoted (as per the rules for screens) around 30-35 degrees to their left and right, respectively. The pachyderms in the center remained facing directly forward. 

Taken from behind the Roman line, showing most of the Roman and Allied cavalry as well as three of the four legions. The Velites are out front, screening the heavy infantry of the Hastati and Principes. The Triarii are held in reserve. Scipio’s position is plainly visible.

As for the infantry and cavalry of the Carthaginian army, the general deployment was fairly historical. The Celts and Ligurians were stationed in the first line. These troops were “bookended” by cavalry formations. The Punic horse was on the right and the loyal Numidian horse were on the left. The second line consisted of Citizen spearmen, and the third line contained the veteran units of Hannibal’s Italian army. 

Taken above the Carthaginian right-center. The three lines of foot are clearly evident. The elephant screen, partially covered by skirmishers is also evident. 

The Numidian sector of the tabletop battlefield. Masinissa’s cavalry and infantry are on the left; the Numidians loyal to Hannibal are on the. right. 

Over on the other side of the “field,” by arranging the Roman and Allied heavy cavalry very near the left short edge of my table, it was possible to fit Scipio’s army on the bare playing surface. The Velites of the four legions were deployed in a double line. These light troops were the first line of the Roman infantry position. There were no ‘elephant lanes’ as there were no maniples on the tabletop. There were, however, 8 units or colored counters representing the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii of the legions. 

A Summary of the Reconstruction

The contest between the large bodies of Numidian cavalry on the Roman right flank or wing was bloody as well as indecisive. This result did not favor Scipio’s cause. The light cavalry loyal to Hannibal put up a rather hard fight even though they were outnumbered. Masinissa’s cavalry experienced some command and control issues in addition to some rather awful dice rolling. When the refight was halted, the Numidians allied with Rome had just been give another bloody nose in this sector. One of the few remaining units of light cavalry was severely mauled by its counterpart. This left just two units with which Masinissa could try to envelop the Carthaginian second or third line. Given that a unit of Spanish veteran foot had been sent out from the reserve to prevent just this kind of envelopment rather foiled Masinissa’s plans. 

Early in the refight - one of the elephant screens has pivoted and the leading stand is taking javelins from the left-most unit of Numidian light horse. Some sling stones and arrows have been launched against the Numidian light infantry. 

On the other side of the field, things started off well enough for the Roman and Allied cavalry. In short order, half of the Punic horse had been put to flight. This advantage was followed up, but the second unit of Carthaginian cavalry proved stubborn. Equally stubborn was an elephant from one of the screens. This animal had been pivoted before moving and had managed to clip the Roman cavalry on its right-front. A protracted melee resulted. Victory eventually went to the Roman horse, but by this time, the battle had been decided. 

Over on the Roman left wing, the Carthaginian cavalry has been engaged. Another screen of elephants have advanced to take on the Roman horse as well as quite a few Velites. The Celts and other cavalry are waiting their turn. 

In the center of the table, the Velites and the Numidian light foot caused no end of trouble for the numerous elephants deployed by Hannibal. The same could be said of the pachyderms. Though they were slow to start and suffered quite a bit from the attention of light javelins and then pila volleys when the Hastati and Principes joined in the chaotic struggle, these wrinkled and smelly beasts caused a few problems for Scipio’s men. It was not until the eighth game turn that the last elephant (stand) was destroyed. While sections of the line were engaged by the elephants, the Celts and legionaries were able to get to grips. These various contests did not go at all well for the barbarians. In fact, the combination of routing pachyderms and solid formations of Hastati produced many killed “figures” which resulted in many broken units. The Roman heavy infantry paid a price for this progress, however. They would find themselves in a certain amount of debt when the Citizen infantry advanced into contact with both the Roman and Allied formations. The right of the legionary line had suffered the most during the early fighting. The additional casualties caused by this second round of fighting resulted in the Hastati and Principes of the right-most legion quitting the field. The Hastati and Principes of the legion next in line (a true Roman legion) were not very far from reaching that same dangerous point. 

Another view of this sector and the chaotic action between the pachyderms and Velites.  Having won the contest against one half of the enemy horse, the Allied cavalry have moved on to melee the rest of the Punic cavalry. 

The clash between opposing light cavalry formations on the Roman right. Casualties on both sides mounted fairly quickly; the Numidians employed by Hannibal were the first to reach a breaking point, however. 

The elephant melees continue on the Roman near left while half of the assembled legions advance to attack the Celts. The barbarians have a rather large hole in their line, and one of their units has been disordered by a panicked group of elephants. 

The legions on the right of the Roman line have moved up into contact with the barbarians of Hannibal’s first line. The Celts are in trouble as both formations are disordered and so, will only half of their allotted dice. The combined Hastati and Principes units will each get to roll 12 dice against the Celts. 

Late in the action . . . This snapshot shows the hurt and tired legionaries advancing into another round of melees with the Citizen spearmen. The dice did not favor the Romans or their allies. 

At the conclusion of Turn 8, a halt was called in order to assess the status of the field and the state of both armies. While the Romans had stripped Hannibal of cavalry on his right, the equites were in no condition to continue let alone pose a threat to the Citizen spearmen in the second line or Bruttian veterans in the third line. The legions had seen some hard fighting. While the elephants, skirmishers, Celts, and for the most part, Ligurians had been sent packing, there remained a large contingent of Citizen infantry as well as the fresh and veteran troops of the Carthaginian third line. What was left of Masinissa’s contingent on the Roman right was also in no condition to really affect the outcome of the engagement. A victory, albeit a fairly expensive one, had to awarded to the man who had crossed the Alps with elephants so many years before. 

Commentary

The initial stages of my refight featured no trumpet blasts or shouts from hundreds of Roman throats echoing around my tabletop. There were no elephant lanes either. Even without these devices and tactics, the Roman light troops, legionaries, and their allies were able to handle the enemy pachyderms without suffering too much damage. In fact, if memory serves, all of the routing animals turned and stampeded into friendly lines. This caused a number of problems for the Celts. 

There was no clear cut and quick victory by either Roman cavalry wing. The troopers on the left flank became embroiled in a long struggle against a stubborn unit of pachyderms, while their comrades were weakened by a number of melees with enemy horsemen. The Numidian horse on the right wing was damaged in a hard-fought contest. Furthermore, they suffered command and control problems which prevented the survivors from organizing any real threat against Hannibal’s left flank or his rear. 

The infantry struggle was, perhaps, closer to the historical record in that the Romans were able to overcome the first line. However, this local victory did not translate into a win when engaged by the Citizen spearmen of the second line. 

Overall, a successful battle of attrition had been waged by the veteran Carthaginian commander. He had quite a few more troops that could be sacrificed on the legionary altar or against the more numerous cavalry. Scipio could not spend his men’s lives as freely. Shortly after attacking the second line of Hannibal’s deployed formations, the Romans realized that they would not be able to carry on the fight. A win, albeit an expensive one, was awarded to Hannibal. A win meant that history had been reversed on my plain-looking tabletop in early October of 2021. 

As with previous projects, reflection and critical review produced a subjective list of pluses and minuses. In the positive column, and in no particular order, there was the fact that I had managed to recreate the 2020 BC battle of Zama on a fairly small tabletop. This had been achieved with a minimum of expense. The specific and various formations could be readily identified; the deployment and sections of the opposing lines could also be easily identified as well as manipulated. Even though there were no special or scenario rules developed to address the historical behavior of Hannibal’s elephants, the rules (as written) handled the herd of pachyderms rather well, in my opinion. In summary, an engaging and educational experience was had. 

In the negative column, well, I stipulate to the lack of visual appeal. This interpretation of Zama looked nothing like what Simon Miller, James Roach, Rick Priestley, or Ron Ringrose would probably produce for an adoring public or group of wargaming colleagues. As to the mechanics of the game, the “flow” of a turn, it was noted that the initiative was evenly split between each side. Hannibal won the initial move option, then the initiative went over to Scipio. On the third turn, Hannibal regained the initiative. I guess that this is realistic in some respects. It seems to me, however, that one side might hold the initiative a little longer. Were I to refight the contest again, I would probably substitute the move option procedure detailed in Armati, another set of ancient wargaming rules written by Arty Conliffe. Related to this “problem area” was a concern about command and control. This was most evident on the Roman right when a Numidian unit was prohibited from making any further progress into Hannibal’s left rear as they were out of the command radius of Masinissa. In other sets of rules, movement of “out of command” units is not halted but it is penalized. As I have mentioned or remarked in previous articles and posts, missile and melee resolution in Tactica II can be a little dice heavy. It can also require a shift in one’s thinking about how combat happened on the ancient battlefield. For example, when the Hastati and Principes stands of the Roman and Allied legions on the right made contact with the boiling warbands of Celts, barely a third of the heavy infantry bases were in actual physical contact with the barbarians. Even so, the Roman and Allied troops were allowed to roll their full allotment of dice, which resulted in the Celts being extinguished. Another perceived negative or at least concern involved the numbers and scale of the reconstructed engagement. By my calculations, the Romans had 395 “figures” on the table, 343 of which counted as massed units, so Scipio’s breaking point was 172 “figures.” Hannibal’s army contained an impressive 734 “figures.” After subtracting the skirmishing archers and slingers, this total was 702, so more than double the number of “figures” in the invading Roman army. Using the approximate unit scales provided in Paragraph or Section 1.1 of the rules, there were either 15,800 or 23,700 Romans and Numidians in Scipio’s assembled army. They faced an ad-hoc Carthaginian army numbering between 29,360 and 44,040 foot and horse. Based on my reading of the ancient sources, employment of the larger figure scale provides for a better representation of the armies actually involved on the day. This much admitted, an asterisk was placed over each cavalry wing. In the recently completed refight, the Roman and Allied cavalry were significantly weakened and so, were not able to envelop the Carthaginian right and rear. In a similar fashion, the Numidians on the Roman right were given a bloody nose by their counterparts and played no further part, really, in the tabletop scenario. A partial sum of the points deployed by Scipio came to 1,392. An incomplete sum was obtained from the Carthaginian order of battle. It is estimated that Hannibal had over 3,900 points at his disposal. 

A rough calculation of losses was made at the end of Turn 8. Scipio’s army had lost around 75 “massed unit figures,” or approximately 23 percent of their determined break point. Hannibal’s army suffered about 225 casualties in “massed unit figures,” or approximately 64 percent of their determined breakpoint. At the point the reconstruction was halted, the Carthaginians had two lines of infantry that were essentially untouched. The veteran formations in the third line constituted the biggest threat to Scipio’s plans. To be certain, Hannibal’s cavalry had been defeated, but the Roman and Numidian horse had been severely weakened. It was very doubtful that they would have been able to coordinate any kind of serious attack on the second or third line of Hannibal’s army. The Roman and Allied legions were damaged and tired, it could be remarked, from their efforts against the Celts and their initial contacts with the Citizen spearmen. It appeared that the Hastati and Principes would have been decimated if not broken by continuing the struggle against the Citizen formations. This would have left only the Triarii of the four legions to face the overwhelming numbers of African and Bruttian infantry. In terms of numbers, this melee would have seen four thin formations of good Roman troops facing ten units of as good or better Carthaginian troops. Forty-eight Roman heavy infantry would have to engage with or endure against 240 enemy heavy infantry. 

Even though history was rewritten on my tabletop, even though the Romans were defeated and Scipio’s reputation was undeniably tarnished, I was entertained, engaged, and learned more about Zama during the preparation and play of this most recent project. 

Notes

1. “Manipulating Zama” was posted to my blog, https://nopaintingrequired.blogspot.com/, on 30 September 2021. The opening sentence of this report was typed very early on the morning of 04 October.
2. At the referenced figure scale of 1:60, the admittedly abstract depiction of a Tactica II legion represents just 2,880 men. There are exactly 720 Hastati, 720 Principes, 720 Triarii, and 720 Velites. Unfortunately, this model does not match the information provided on pages 110-112 of Warfare. I considered doubling the permitted number of Hastati, Principes, and Velites, as this would produce a legion strength of 5,040, which appears a more historically accurate figure. However, I wanted to play the rules as they were written and so, used one of the options provided.