Carthage plays card 33 and moves Mago and Hasdrubal to Dertosa and Hannibal to Beneventum.
Rome restores more political control with card 49.
Carthage plays card 27 as an event to sway Romes allies away from it. It flips two control markers to blue [Carthage].
Rome plays card 3 to gain control of neutral areas in Spain.
Carthage plays card 26 as an event and Syracuse switches allegiance to it.
The next two cards are both Roman. Using card 63 P. Scipio sails for the Balearic Islands then, using card 40, takes political control of them and further areas in Spain.
Both sides, as you will see, will spend 216 BC, the historical year of Cannae, consolidating their positions without a major battle.
The elected consuls, both in Rome, will be Nero and Paulus.
Of 216 BC, the most famous words of Scrotivius deal with etymology.
"..and the people of Tarentum, seeing the Carthaginians about their city, feared for the safety of their homes, children and prosperity. They beseached the garrison to surrender, but the garrison commander, called Nutsicus, refused. The people of Tarentum rose up in a mad and distressed panic and slaughtered the garrison; then they opened the gates. Now, when children in Rome become distressed and unruly, it is said they are throwing a Tarentum."
Rome plays card 51 and Hannibals army is hit by an epidemic causing 1 CU loss.
Hannibal, using card 6, marches to join Mago.
Scipio, using card 1, sails to Malaca in southern Spain.
Tarentum falls to treachery (see the words of Scrotivius above) on card 18.
Rome uses card 25 to gain political control of Malaca.
Hasdrubal moves to Salaria on card 52.
His sortee over, Scipio sails on card 34 to Emporiae.
Hannibal moves to Heraclea on card 17.
Rome extends political control of neutral regions on card 53.
Carthage sparks a revolt on Sicily with card 2.
Rome regains control of two of the revolting regions on Sicily with card 5.
Carthage uses card 43 to take control of the remaining two regions on Sicily.
Rome uses diplomacy (card 36) to exert further political control.
I'm sorry, about the jaunty angle of the pic, but it will not load to the blog the right way up!
Marcellus is elected to the consulship and Nero gets a second term.
Rome recruits auxiliaries in Campania (card 48).
Carthage uses card 37 (Minor Campaign) to Split hannibals force. Hannibal marches to Arpi whilst Mago attempts to sail from Croton to Sicily but fails to leave port.
Marcellus leaves Rome at the head of a large well trained army. Hannibal fails to intercept, but Marcellus attacks him anyway.
The area here is hilly. Looking at the area around modern San Giovanni Rotondo (41,42,21N 15,43,36E) on google earth you get a good idea of the terrain we will fight the battle on.
this is the biggest CU battle we have had up to this point. Consequently, we have decided to make the battle quite big. The Romans will field 3 legions (plus ala) instead of the usual 2.