The (Unofficial) Great Battles of History
Pyrrhus in Italy, 280-279 BC
The third module for SPQR, covering the two pre-Beneventum battles of Pyrrhus.
You need both SPQR and War Elephant to play.
The included battles are:
Balance: Even
Attraction: A reinforced Roman consular army faces an experienced but small Epirote force. For once, even the Roman horse outnumbers its opposition. But the Epirotes have a secret weapon -- elephants -- which the Romans have never seen before and fear accordingly.
Roman Advantages: Numbers, strategic initiative, left flank cavalry, awkward Epirote command structure
Epirote Advantages: Leadership, elephant surprise rules, high-TQ HC, awkward Roman command structure
See the Interactive Replay for an extended example playthrough of this scenario.
You'd think that these decently-rated commanders would have smarter leader deployments. (Could this be an artifact of the game system? Nah....) The Romans leaders are concentrated on their own left, which is great for getting line commands from Laevinus but leaves the right flank helpless as soon as IOs are required. And the Romans will have problems in their right. First, that Epirote front line isn't just skirmishers, it's got LI, too, which can't OW before an advance. It's easy to kill them, but hard to maintain your line integrity (because of mandatory advances or failure to advance) when doing so. Second, Pyrrhus and Megacles are poised to double-team the HC to chew up anyone venturing south of the river.
But things aren't easy for Pyrrhus, either. The Elephant Surprise rule can be a game-winner for the Epirotes, but only Pyrrhus can command the pachyderms and he's at least two activations away on the opposite flank. Move Pyrrhus east too soon and he'll miss opportunities to rack up the rout points; move him too late and the elephants may never get in play. (Of course the Romans should hit the Epirotes where Pyrrhus ain't, to make the decision of when to move even harder.)
The flow of the battle will largely be shaped by how the players respond to these command problems.
Pyrrhus is an elite leader, and hence gets an Elite Initiative Orders phase -- except on turn 1, when Drusus (offmap, with the Roman right-wing cavalry) can use the EIO. This option should always be used. Doing so isn't really taking anything away from Pyrrhus, who will usually get his three activations anyway. Instead, the point is to get an extra free activation for Drusus (EIO + normal + Momentum? vs normal + Momentum? + Momentum??). In spite of his numerical advantage, Drusus is going to have a hard time against both Pyrrhus and Megacles, so should arrange himself defensively behind the river to await developments.
On the other flank, the Roman RC have numerical and shock superiority over the Epirote LC. The only Roman problem is one of command. Falco needs to give Line Commands to use his force effectively, but Laevinus tends to get pulled away from Falco toward the center (for reasons discussed above). Philocles, on the other hand, should maneuver so that he'll get first attack Falco, since LC on the attack negates the Romans attack superiority (compare RC->LC with LC->RC on the Clash of Swords and Spears chart).
The center sees a conventional Roman attempt to break the enemy phalanx before the Roman flanks evaporate. No finesse is necessary here. Use the numerous '2' and '3' rated leaders to get in your attacks before the higher-rated Epirotes can respond. Repeat until the game ends. Who knows, maybe a lucky Momentum roll will result in a Dieroll of Doom and a quick end to the turn, in which case you try again for the same result!
The Epirotes have a bit of flexibility because of the "extra" line of Medium Infantry. It can't stand up to the legions, so the MI should head east (as happened in the Replay) and help the LC deal with the Roman cavalry.
I really like this scenario. Sometimes the designer's balance claims seem a little wishful, but I agree with them on this one -- it's anyone's game, a real nailbiter for both sides. It's too bad that the module is out of print!
Clarification: Socrates is marked with the Command Restriction "Peltasts", which isn't really applicable to this battle. When I questioned Richard Berg about it, he confirmed that Socrates is restricted to commanding only units in the LI/SK line. (This wasn't a popular ruling in the Replay, but I do consider it "official".)