The Carthaginian officer Gisco may well have been equally impressed by the numbers of Romans that appeared this Thursday at Firestorm Carpet Warehouse. Steve had offered to bring down his Punic wars 10mm collection and  we were all in awe. In all my years, I’d never played a 10mm scale game and had even given away an army I had bought, muttering darkly about yet another scale to complicate things. How wrong could I have been…..

Steve had done a terrific job on painting the micro warriors. They are based for Warmaster but the same bases are just right for L’Art de la Guerre. We used two bases of skirmishers as a ‘unit’ just because we had the figures and thought they looked good as clouds of psiloi.

Three hundred points in LAG gives you a massive army in ten millimetre scale. I deployed the conventional Roman legions in the centre, with unassimilated ‘Italian’ javelins on my right. I reasoned that my mixed “extranordarriI’ command of heavy cavalry and vanguard infantry could sweep through Steve’s right.

 However, it was the centre that would be the key to the battle. I had yet to face elephants and thankfully, without ever reading the rules James and Chris were at hand to talk us through the combat!!!!

On my right, the battle began with Steve’s Numidians sweeping forward and attacking my more lightly armed allies. I was able to rally most of my infantry losses as the command was almost stationary. My own mercenary light horse did a fine job rolling up the flank of their countrymen.

My Roman firework display formation drew some adverse comments. LAG is very slick in handling movement. I brought out my veteran spearmen to face the elephants and extend my line. A see-saw battle commenced with heavy losses on both sides.

Like some Roman circus crowd, the audience hated me for killing the cute elephants! They have a sting in their elephant tail though as they run amok in LAG, with the potential to crash through their assailants. Thankfully they rampaged backwards in their death throes.

Steve’s centre may have been under pressure but disaster loomed on my left. The Carthaginian spear had an advantage of numbers and a wider frontage allowed him to roll up the Roman swordsmen. The accompanying Roman horse , facing equal numbers of enemy, also disappeared. It had been a hard fought game but Steve still had a large reserve of good quality spear. Time had run out and victory was with the sons of Hannibal.

The period was a favourite with me many years ago. I had fond memories of taking Republican Romans to the first ever DBM competitions in Berkeley and yes they had been smashed then too! Somethings never change…..