Zama - Scipio's crushing blow to Carthage Building upon its successful relationship with Baccus to create our stunning and very successful Battle of Guagamela game Wargames Journal has again teamed with Baccus to go even bigger with a 6mm version of Hannibal’s defeat by Scopio at the Battle of Zama that will use 20,000 figures.
If you look back at the Second Punic Wars then the simple fact that Roman troops finally landed on African land was significant. As the Roman army steadily defeats Carthaginian armies under Syphax, coupled with adding support to a Numidian uprising against Carthaginian rule, the leaders of Carthage were ready to sue for peace. Then the mighty Hannibal returned from Italy with some 15,000 of his veterans. Emboldened by the return of its great hero, Carthage chose to continue its wars against the Romans. At its hour of need Carthage made a grave error in judgement. As the forces met near Zama Regia in the summer of 202 BC, both armies numbered somewhere in the region of 35,000 to 40,000 men apiece. Hannibal had a strong elephant corps with him, which must have filled him with confidence, but the infantry were another matter, of lesser quality to the highly trained legions of Scipio. Also, Scipio had the advantage in cavalry, having delayed an engagement for long enough to allow a strong Numidian force under Masinissa to join him. Just as with the Battle of Cannae, this Roman meeting with Hannibal was to be of a vast scale. In Summary Scipio’s military mind made the Roman force that stood before Hannibal much more dangerous than the one he had despatched at Cannae. His tactic of effectively surrounding his opponent and crushing them would not have worked at Zama and with this defeat the end of the Carthaginian Empire came about. Zama marked a major milestone for both sides: the end of Carthage dominance and the realisation that the Roman Army had learnt from its errors (Cannae being a very painful one) and that Scipio’s reforms to the armies of Rome had turned them into a fighting machine that could match any commander; even one that was great as Hannibal Barca. Gaming Zama in 6mm A quick chat amongst the team, which included our star 6mm painter Mark from Rather Nice Painting and the stage was set for a very big game to take place. We’d been sent through the proposed Orbats for the 28mm Warhammer Ancients Battle game that GB was planning on using its excellent 28mm figures for. Its game would feature at least 1,628 infantry and 184 cavalry figures and 8 elephants. What a stunning sight this will look on the gaming table. The decision was made to use Warhammer Ancient Battles as our rules of choice for the game and to also go with the exact number of bases as GB was planning to play with, except we’d fill them with 6mm figures from Baccus. We've decided to work on a 80mm by 40mm basing style with a war band consisting of more or less 4 of these bases put together to make a 160mm by 80mm block of troops. We'll probably be working to one set of command figures per base we deploy. This will make moving the little chaps much easier and will look great on a tabletop. Each of the bases will fit roughly 80 infantry figures. So if you think about an average Gallic Warband it will have four bases per unit (320 figures) and have the 160mm by 80mm size to it. When you think that there will be six of these in action it comes out at 1,920 figures of just Gallic Warrior Warbands. We plan to vary the sizes of units to show different unit types on the battlefield. So archers may be a mere 2 bases per unit, with light infantry being 3 bases per unit and warbands being 4 bases per unit. Cavalry are an altogether different issue and we have decided on having a unit formed of 12 25mm x 50mm bases with 12 cavalry per base, so 144 cavalry figures per unit. If you lined the Gallic Warbands up side by side with no gap they would have a three foot frontage, which is not that bad in 6mm. The net result for the whole army is as follows: The Carthaginian Army At the Front 1st Line – 12,000 Gauls, Ligurians, Moorish Archers and Balearic
Slingers So Hannibal’s First Line comes to 3,120 foot figures
The Second Line comes to 3,280 figures
The Third Line comes to 3,360 figures
Right Wing of Punic Cavalry
1st Line – Velites and Hastati (The Velites are smaller units than the Hastati and are in fact 1.5 bases in size and will be made up of one 80mm x 40mm base and one 40mm x 40mm base) 2nd Line – Principes 3rd Line – Triarii
Right Wing 3 units of Numidian Warriors (12 bases) – 960 figures
Our main concern was size due to two things: 1) The fact that this is a big game that needs to roll out the thick end of 20,000 figures. 2) Cavalry play a massive part in the overall outcome of this battle and we need to be able to deploy these mobile troops in a way that allows them to interact not only with each other but with the foot troops. As a result we have decided on a table that will be 20 feet wide and 6 feet deep for its entire length, but at each flank we will add a further 4-6 feet of table that allows for plenty of ‘flanking action’ to take place. We need to play test this out but as it stands this is what we will be building. Clearly the worry about this size of table is that it will look bland which means we will attempt to create an undulating terrain that looks good, doesn’t really get in the way of battle and allows the movement of these vast troop formations to occur unhindered.
Anyone interested in playing the ‘test’ game in December should contact Wargames Journal (www.wargamesjournal.com) and use the following e-mail address, admin@wargamesjournal.com and we’ll add your name to the list of interested parties. So keep checking back to this article and over time we’ll add more details about units, painting, terrain, plans and pictures for how we will play the game.
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