The (Unofficial) Great Battles of History
Rome vs. Carthage (2nd Punic War) - 206 BC
by Knut Grünitz
This is much more a small skirmish than a battle.
In 206 BC the Roman conquest of former Punic Spain was nearly completed. Only Gadir remained as the last Carthaginian base but the Romans planned to take it soon by a combined land and naval assault.
In these days the Carthaginian admiral Adherbal was on the way to carry some caught traitors from Gadir to Africa. He had only a very small fleet consisting of one quinquireme and eight triremes. On his way he suddenly met the small Roman fleet under C. Laelius near Gibraltar (or the Mons Calpe how the Romans called it). The Roman fleet consisted of one Quinquireme and seven, probably former Carthaginian, triremes.
In the following engangement two Carthaginian triremes were sunk and one damaged, the rest escaped till Africa. But Laelius also had to return to Nova Carthago (today Cartagena) to repair his ships, which proved a setback in the Roman attack plans.
It didn't matter: a few month later Gadir surrendered, was renamed Gadis (today Cadiz) and became Rome's first naval base at the Atlantic coast.
Map: Use the "sea" map. The 1000 hex row is the north side which is considered coastal (Spain).
Balance: The Romans are favoured. They have one less ship but more manpower. And most times they will get the first Initiative which enables them to act more agressive.
Playing Time and Difficulty: This scenario serves very well as a learning scenario. It is very small (smaller than Tauris) with only one commander on each side. So it won't last more than 2 hours.
Ship Scale: 1 counter = 1 galley.
Deployment:
Carthaginian Deployment (Green ships):
Adherbal (Admiral; use Hanno [a]), 1 Quinquireme; ID 11:
3523-3524
8 Cataphracted Triremes; ID 1-8: 3320-3327, 3720-3727
a = the regular SqC, not the Admiral!
Roman Deployment (Red ships):
C. Laelius (Admiral; use Vatinius), 1 Quinquireme; ID
50 [a]: 3708-3707
7 Cataphracted Triremes [a, b]; ID 31-37: 3408-3401, 3706-3701
a = treat all Roman galleys as C3 (sorry, but there are no such units
in the countermix)
b = treat all Roman triremes as M3
Initiative: The Carthaginian player has the Initiative automatically for the first turn; he may decide who goes first.
Wind: I've assumed a steady blow from the Atlantic side: Place the Wind Direction marker in 1028 pointing into 1027. The wind remains steady; do not roll for change.
Victory: Either player wins when he has at least 20 VP, and that number is at least twice that of the opposition. In addition the Carthaginian player earns 3 VP for every Carthaginian galley he exits from the east (Roman edge) of the map that is not Crippled. They do not count as VPs for the Romans, but may also not return.
Source: Viereck, H.D.L. (1996): Die römische Flotte - Classis Romana; Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg.