Zama with Command and Colours

 At the 2025 SWS Christmas games day I took along Zama. We haven't figured out a way to play CnC satisfactorily as a remote multi player game (yes, I know you can do it two player), so f2f sessions are the rare occasions we can do it.

I'd been slowly working my way through the standard rules scenarios in chronological order and had got to Cannae, but tbh I'd done Cannae loads of times (although not with CnC) and didn't fancy it again.  I've never used all my elephants in one go though, so flicked to the back of the book to Zama, which features lots of elephants.

The basic setup. The others had grabbed all the big tables so we only had two pub tables to set up on and had to drop the five extension hexes, so this is is  a 12 x 9 setup instead of 12/13 x 9. No terrain features at least and we didn't particularly miss the end hexes.

Scipios Army was at the height of its powers with innovative formations and tactics, recently reinforced by the Numidians who had changed sides. Hannibal was on the back foot, having weak cavalry and and lots of hastily trained recruits in his army. He did however have lots of (poorly trained) elephants and made these the key to his battle plan.

Tim was Hannibal while John and Jerry took the Romans. This was the culminating battle of the Punic Wars and Carthage's defeat here led to its destruction.

 

The Carthaginian hordes, mix of 20mm plastics from Hat, Italieri and even Airfix! Hannibal is a Newline personality figure. 

Serried ranks of Romans. These guys are all HaT with some metal Newline commanders. 

Hannibals right, a lone unit of medium cavalry, some African veterans, some slingers a couple of units of warband. The latter not wearing any clothes, naturally.

Hannibals left, some light infantry javelinmen, a couple of units of light cavalry, some more African medium infantry and two units of Auxilia. There are a lot of Spanish figures in evidence as the Numidians are fighting for the Romans now, so nearly everyone here are various types of Spaniard.

And the centre we have three more Auxilia (some Spanish, some Carthaginian city infantry), a pair of veteran heavy infantry and no less than three units of elephants. As I have six elephant figures, I doubled up the elephants. Auxilia and medium infantry also have double elements whereas the heavy infantry have triple elements.

Hannibal and the other leader (Hasdrubal?) are each with one of the veteran infantry.

The Roman left. Two medium cavalry, two Auxilia plus two medium Legionaries and a heavy Legionary (triple base of  Triarii). There is a leader with the cavalry. 

Roman right. A couple of Velites, an Auxilia, a medium Legionary and another heavy Legionary. There is also a great mass of Light Cavalry (Numidians) led by King Massinisa. The Romans have massive cavalry superiority, hence Hannibal relying on his elephants.

Roman centre. Two more medium Legions and another heavy plus a couple of Velites. Scipio himself is with the centre Legion.

The action started with some skirmishing and the inevitable cavalry battle as the Numidians charged the Carthaginian left. For some reason this almost always happens in the CnC games, the most mobile units get thrown away early on, whereas more canny players keep their cavalry in reserve to roll up weakened enemy units.

The Carthaginians took the view that the elephants were a case of use it or lose it, so rolled forwards. Also, the last place you want to be is standing behind a 'friendly' elephant...

Over on the Roman right, the Numidians had defeated the Spanish cavalry, but were now weakened and parked next to a lot of angry Spanish infantrymen.

The Romans didn't respond to the elephant phalanx and the the Nellies crashed into contact. 

A series of bloody encounters and hilarious rampaging elephants inflicted hits all over the place. irl the poorly trained elephants fell into confusion and rampaged wildly and much the same happened here.

After all that, the few remaining elephants fell back and the Roman line was bloodied but not broken. An awful lot of vulnerable units left there though.... the Romans were well ahead on points now, 4:0, 8 points being needed to win.

The Numidians paid the price for riding into the middle of the Carthaginian army and were annihilated except for one battered unit which fell back to the baseline. Massinissa survived though and retired to join the main Roman line. 

The Carthaginians played a sequence of command cards which suddenly saw their mass of Auxilia and heavy infantry marching forwards, linking up with the last elephant. You'd almost think they planned that. 

The Romans were distracted by the prospect of some easy points, Scipio went charging off after the retreating elephants.

And the Roman cavalry charged the Carthaginian cavalry. The Carthos were defeated but the somewhat battered Romans now found themselves next to a lot of surprised and rather cross looking Gallic warriors, as well as some heavily armed and armoured Carthaginian infantry.

Scratch the Roman medium cavalry as the Warband routed them and set off in pursuit.

The Carthaginian infantry was now suddenly very close to the Roman centre. Scipio reordered his line but didnt bring up any reserves.

And with a carefully hoarded 'double time' card, the Carthaginians crashed into the Roman line!

As the Roman front line was already weakened, it could only really go one way. Hannibal and Scipio ended up facing off against each other, but Scipios Legion was carrying three hits while Hannibals heavy Carthaginian infantry had none. The score was 6:7 (six-seven! six-seven!) at this point.

And unsurprisingly the Roman centre collapsed, to give a the victory to Hannibal. At least Scipio survived to fight another day.

That was really good fun, and a nail biting finish as I thought the Carthaginians were doomed halfway through. I do think we've been playing too much Dominion though, as CnC Ancients seemed mind bendingly complex in comparison and we had to keep stopping to look things up! I guess it does have a lot of troop types and special rules for many of them. Anyway, it is always a good standby and gives an enjoyable game for reasonable numbers of players and I'd forgotten what good fun it is to play. 

SWS Christmas Games Day 2025

 It is fairly traditional at Xmas for Sheffield Wargames Society to have a games day in the break. Now that we play remote games on club night and f2f games at Tapton, we don't get down to the club very much so it is nice to pitch up and see the old gang at least once a year.

Many of the regulars like to set up big games which take much of the day to play.

Like this huge 28mm ACW game. 

Reb cavalry galloping along.

Or this big 15mm Napoleonic game.

Austrians vs French and some liquid refreshment to aid the brain cells!

There were also some smaller things in play, like the new edition of Kingmaker (much faster to play evidently) - Jerry was involved in the development and play testing.

And this naval game on a rather nice mat.

And an intriguing Ancients set played with top down counters on a square grid.

Great Plains, so Carthaginians and Romans.

Funnily enough I'd brought Zama, so more Punic Wars. I'll do that as a separate report, as you don't often get to play with six elephants.

We also had a few run throughs of the show version of 633 Squadron on Johns portable boards. This is the 1/300th scale Mosquito.

A bit less cumbersome than my mountains! Here is the Nazi base at the end of the fjiord complete with power station and waterfall as featured in the film.

Tim was first up.

Lovely aircraft cards, which sadly get shot down progressively. The Squadron Leaders plane goes at the front.

For my run I used the base of 1/600th scale Mosquitos in line astern, which I think look pretty good. In the book the planes flew up the fjiord at 20 second intervals to allow a safe interval for the bombs (fused at 12 seconds).

We also played a boardgame and by 6pm that was quite enough for me and time for home. Great to see everyone and nice to be back at the physical club again.

Battle of Gaugamela

 After the victory at Issus, Alexander spent a few more years swanning around Asia Minor, but a final showdown with Darius was inevitable. Darius raised (yet another) Army and eventually they met in the titanic struggle at Gaugamela. Yet another Command and Colours Ancients scenario. 

This time it is a nice clear plain, which makes a change from the rivers at Issus and Granicus. The Persian Army is impressively huge too, although the blurb notes that Darius was running out of decent infantry by this time, but had amassed lots of cavalry. So much cavalry, that some of them may look a bit like Punic Wars Spanish....

The Persian Army is hard on the baseline so needs advance or be obliterated by retreat results.

Alexanders Army is slightly different now and has more cavalry. The Macedonian left. Various Pike and Hypaspists, light infantry out front, cavalry on the flank and Auxilia in support. Parmenion is once again leading the Phalanx. 

And on their right we have Alexander with two units of medium cavalry and a light cavalry. Strangely there is a lone Heavy Infantry unit supporting them, and also light troops out front. Those are Peltasts in the rear.

Persian left. Lots of cavalry, supported by Light infantry, bows and some Auxilia. Obviously the Persian 'auxilia' aren't actual Roman style Auxilia, just raggedy medium infantry with some missile capability. But it is what CnC calls them, as does DBA. 

Persian Right. More cavalry, Light Infantry, Bows and Auxilia.

The Persian Centre, where all the fun stuff is. Heavy Cavalry, Scythed Chariots and Elephants! Plus more Auxilia and two units of Medium Infantry, which I modelled as Immortals. This time Darius is with the Heavy Cavalry.

I'd completely forgotten there were Elephants at Gaugamela, it was a real surprise when I read the scenario.  

Darius supervises proceedings. The Elephant looks suspiciously like a Carthaginian African Elephant, as I'm all out of Indian Elephants. The Scythed Chariot on the left is a proper Zvezda model, and very nice it is too. The one in front of Darius is converted from the Atlantic 'Greek Cavalry' set, by adding scythe blades to the wheels and harness and adding a Persian crewman. 

Well, this is quite a thought provoking scenario for both sides. The Persians are just so far away from the Macedonians. The Persians need to get off the baseline, and in particular shift all those units which are vulnerable to retreat destruction, especially the Chariots and Elephants. Then it is figuring out how to inflict death by 1000 cuts with all those light troops, backed up by the mass of cavalry.

Alexander has slightly different problems - how to avoid those shock units devastating the Phalangites, how to keep all the Persian Light cavalry from running riot, and how to get the Phalanx into action when the Persians are so far away.

First up, the Macedonians play 'Order Light Troops' and push a bunch of units within javelin/bow range of the Scythed Chariots and Elephants, hoping for some hits/retreats. It also clears the way for the Phalanx to form up.

The Persians respond very aggressively! Light Cavalry surround the Macedonian Lights, hoping for some retreat results. I've always been a bit doubtful of the 'running around the enemy' thing in CnC, but it does encourage you not to leave gaps in the line.

Over on the Macedonian left, the Bowman evade damaged in the face of the Persian cavalry. It gets them out of the way of the Phalanx anyway. I also took the opportunity get the Peltasts onto the extreme flank.

But on the Macedonian right, their Light cavalry is destroyed. The Persians are driven back a bit though, although the Horse Archers are careful to stay in bow range.

The first Scythed Chariot sets off. I might as well burn these early, they can only take two hits and are optimised for offensive action with their armour etc. If they can get in amongst the Pikes, they can do real damage.

I'm glad I managed to make a gap in the Macedonian Lights, as Alexander leads the Companions against the Chariots in an effort to destroy them before they crash into the Hypaspists.

Alexander succeeds, but then the next Chariot and the Elephants roll forwards. The Chariots make contact with one of the Macedonian Medium Cavalry.

And sends the cavalry retreating with two hits! Thank goodness there was a retreat route. This isn't looking good.

The sacrifice of the cavalry allows the Hypaspists to close on the Chariots and get the first strike in. The Elephants are in stomping distance of the Phalangites and will get 5 Combat Dice if they make contact. The only unit in range to intercept is another unit of Macedonian Medium Cavalry, really the worst unit to be engaging elephants. At least they have a leader. 

The Hypaspists despatch the Scythed Chariot, but the Elephant sends the Cavalry in headlong retreat without a scratch on it. I'd forgotten how good elephants are, particularly against cavalry. The Macedonians avoid destruction by one hit, as they (just) have room to accommodate the extra four hex retreat inflicted by the Elephants.

Nellie goes stomping on the Phalangites.

But with great good fortune, the Phalanx 'only' takes two hits and stands. The battle back sends the Elephants packing, and inflicts enough damage to avoid the dreaded Elephant Rampage. That was a close run thing, but the exchange has ended in the Macedonian favour in that the three shock units are destroyed, but at the expense of two crippled cavalry units and a badly damaged Phalanx. No actual units were lost though, but it has crippled the Macedonian Cavalry.

With his cavalry largely crippled, Alex is keen to get the war winning Phalangites into action and begins laboriously moving them up, with a range of cards played. 

The Persians respond with a strong move on their right.

And an overwhelming move on their left! I can't quite recall which card combos they had to pull this off, but I distinctly recall 'Double Time' and no less than two 'Line Command' cards. There are now three missile armed units within range of Alexander himself, backed up by three Persian cavalry units.

The Persians unleash their secret weapon, 'Darken the Skies'! All the missile troops get to fire twice, and the Companions vanish in a hail of javelins and arrows. Alex, however, survives... and evades back to the last remaining Macedonian Cavalry unit, with a mere one hit left. Things not looking too good for Alex here. 

In the centre however, the Phalangites are slowly sorting themselves out into a game winning Steamroller. 

The Persians pre empt them with a first strike (Double Time card iirc) , but this only succeeds in forcing the Hypaspists to retreat. Bad luck Darius.

And now the Persians are in range of the Phalanx. Parmenion rolls over one of the Persian infantry, and ends up in an interesting oblique echelon formation. 

The Persians counterattack with their Medium Infantry, but Parmenion hangs on with just one hit remaining. 

And a cheeky Persian Cavalry unit runs through a gap and attacks Alexander! This has a really good chance of wiping out the last Macedonian cavalry, and possibly Alexander with it. 

Sadly the Persians are unable to manage a single hit, and Alexander shrugs off the retreat results (Alex plus Companions can ignore 2 retreats). 

The Macedonians counter charge and rout the Persians. The Persians were a bit unlucky with those attacks, they could easily have racked up three more banners. 

The Phalanx now takes revenge and tears into Persian centre. 

One Persian Auxilia is routed, but the Apple Bearers hang on. 

Darius personally leads the Persian Heavy Cavalry in a counterattack! 

The initial charge is a glorious success (just look at those dice, for hits and a retreat) and a Phalangite unit is ridden down. Sadly, the momentum attack bounces off Parmenion, having only inflicted two hits. 

The Macedonian counterattack on the blown cavalry routs them, and in the confused melee, Darius is also killed. Game over. 

General overview at the end of play. There are still lots of Persians left, and not huge numbers of Macedonians. 

The right flank is a bit chaotic, with units scattered all over the place. 

On the left, the Persians have a large superiority and are well concentrated. 

But the Persian centre has largely gone at this point, which is astonishing considering how much stuff started there. 

And Alexander is still (just) in the saddle. 

Gaugamela was the decisive battle of Alexander's war against Persia, although the Hydaspes was yet to come, Persian power was broken at Gaugamela. 

I can't help feeling I didn't play either side very well there. I struggled to get my head around the odd initial deployment, and was perhaps too concerned with getting the Persians off the baseline. The Macedonians also tried to do the same thing as in the previous battles, and smash the Persian centre with the Phalanx, which proved extremely hard as both sides were so far apart. 

Instead I think I should have focused more on the light troops and the Skirmish battle, the Persians in particular have an enormous superiority in light troops and can probably just shoot the Macedonians to death, like the Parthians at Carrhae. 

I'd certainly like to try that one again as well as Issus. Hilariously, I also ran out of Persian cavalry, but I have another batch to paint, so next time, I won't have to make up the numbers with Iberians!