Rome: Assert political control by converting two spaces under CUs. Spain and Sicily are slowly falling under Roman sway.
Carthage: Recruit in Spain.
Rome: Major Campaign. Scipio to Hispilis. Marcellus to Bilbilis. Nero to Agrigentum.
Carthage: Hasdrubal force marches to Hispilis (southwest Spain). An encounter battle!
The campaign situation is shown below.
The Battle of Hispilis - Initial Deployment.
For a change, and as the two armies had moved on the last card played, we decided to call this an encounter battle. A simple way to create this as a tactical situation is to allow free deployment anywhere along the table length / side of table. So that is what we did.
After the armies had deployed we carried out the characterisation card draw, Rome 8 cards, Carthage 10 (they lost 1 for the difference in command quality). The Romans drew 68 morale chips plus a Deft Cavalry card. The Carthaginians drew 78 morale chips, an Aggressive Melee Up 1 card, a Wild card, and a Stratagem - which drew a 7 to define it as 'Thickets in Woods'.
Although Rome is outnumbered, they are led by Scipio (later Africanus). This gives them a very tough veteran army. The morale chip count is similar. We expect this battle to be very hard fought.
Here are some deployment shots, with Rome tucked up in the corner; hmmmm, no flanks!:
