We reached the final game in the Rome v Carthage campaign with the Romans holding a narrow advantage going into this one. The Armies assembled with 3000pts a side being distributed between Carthage and its Greek allies on the one hand and Roman and its Spanish allies on the other. Carthage under their fabled general Ronnie Barca had the advantage in numbers but more poorer quality troops as the Roman's under Agrippa fielded their best quality legions. No one was sure if he ranked highly in Rome but he was the epitome of a military man on the field of battle.
Carthage had three elephants as special weapons, unfortunately they all had their mahouts killed and stampeded back through their own lines. From what we've seen in this campaign being a Carthaginian mahout seems to have been the most dangerous occupation in the ancient world some of them being killed several times at once.
The Roman's started off well on their left seeing off a lot of the enemy skirmishers before their legions got into melee with the Greek phalanx. In the centre the Spanish initially did well against the Greeks before fluffing some feigned flight antics and being routed. Their Celtiberians though did break through the Carthaginian troops they faced leaving things mixed in the centre.
On the Roman right the actual Carthaginians swarmed all around seeing off the Roman skirmishers and being poised the envelope the legions.
The battlefield complexion however started to shift as the Greek phalanxes were able to hold their own on the left and eventually after 7 turns of combat, wear out the legions whereas on the opposite flank the Carthaginians failed panic tests (and some were charged by their own elephant) leaving the Romans with the upper hand.
As the battle closed there was a slight advantage to Carthage but as Rome came into this ahead in the campaign the whole was considered a draw,
Just as historically, the Greek mercenaries are now putting in for a pay rise having won the battle for Carthage at just a slightly faster rate than the Carthaginians were losing it for Carthage!
But I'd better not !