Cannae with Legion II using Cyberboard

[Justin Swanton]

Last Sunday evening I had an interesting game with Phil Sabin played online with a combination of Zoom and Cyberboard. Phil hosted the game and during my turn he moved my units to the hexes I designated. We each threw dice for our combats. The system worked well.

Legion requires that each army march onto the battlefield via a deployment hex (the thick bordered hexes on the battlefield edges). It takes about 2-3 turns to get your entire army on the field. Phil inadvertently left two legion units behind which rather skewed things against him. In any case it is virtually impossible to win Cannae as the Romans. A handicap system allows a win if the Roman player routs enough Carthaginian units to conterbalance his own losses, but he will still lose the battle. The Roman player has about half as many command points as the Carthaginians, meaning that Hannibal could pretty much move everything each turn and have enough CPs left over for some decent fighting, whereas Rome had to be parsimonious about where to move and who to fight, which isn't a good thing for a battle of movement.

But to the game:



Turn 2 and most troops are on the board, except for the two legion units that Phil forgot about later. Varro went ahistorical, deploying all his cavalry on his left flank, whilst Hannibal opted for a more-or-less historical deployment except for switching his Numidian and medium cav. Roman light troops are in front of the legionaries. The Carthaginians lights are with the cavalry whilst the Gauls deploy in the centre behind them and the veteran Africans head to the wings.





Varro sends in his lights to engage the Carthaginian lights whilst his cav begin to engage the Carthaginian right flank cavalry. Not wasting any time!





Hannibal sends up his Gauls to support the centre and then leads an attack against the Roman cavalry, determined to destroy them at all costs. The Numidians move up to the Carthaginian left flank.





After some savage fighting, with Hasdrubal's unit taking losses and Hannibal himself in peril more than once, the Roman cavalry rout, Varro with them. This triggers a further rout amongst the Roman light infantry. It's now up to the legions to continue the battle.





The legions advance against the Carthaginian centre and left flank, but Hannibal is having none of that. The Gauls, lights, veterans and Numidians fall back, exposing the legionaries to a flank attack by the Carthaginian medium cavalry if they should follow up.





The legionaries fall back to cover their flanks. The Carthaginian horse move up.





Paullus decides that Hitler had the right idea and begins to form a festung. The Carthaginian infantry move up and the cavalry head for the Roman rear.





The festung is not yet complete when Carthaginian cavalry and infantry launch attacks on its left side, inflicting widespread damage though taking some losses themselves.





The festung is now completely surrounded and attacked from all sides. Its weakened right side crumbles and its rear, composed of two legion units, is close to breaking. Maybe Hitler didn't have the right idea after all...





The Gauls pour into the middle of the Roman position. Paullus is attacked from all directions, including by Hannibal (cue the Hollywood single combat scene). Somehow the Romans hang on. Can't be long now.





Paullus dies, shouting "Rome will live on!" That is the signal for the surviving legionaries to throw down their arms if they want to live on too. Game over!

[dwkay57]

Interesting use of the computer and hexes.

I've done something similar (but with poorer graphics) for some of my solo battles that didn't finish before I had to clear the table and I've also been experimenting in "scaling up" my rules for much larger virtual battles.