Hannibal Campaign Playtesting

I am quite new to this hobby that can take years and years to amass figures for various periods... however I've seen quite a few Carthaginians, Gauls, and Early Republican Romans massing on the fields (painting tables) of others.

Starting Setup

As I had GREAT cards for a siege...

Hannibal decides to take care of Massilia on his way, but of course a series of poor rolls [that had double bonuses!], fail and the siege ends up taking most of 218 B.C. 

Hannibal crosses the alps and due to more bad rolls and loses 20% of the force including half the elephants. Desperate for victory and reinforcements, Hannibal meets Publius Scipio larger force at the Battle of Trebbia. 

The Battle of Trebbia was a near run thing... a very near run thing.  8CU for Carthage vs 10CU for Rome (however allies and local friendly Gauls boosted Carthage's "battle cards").  At one point Publius' frontal assault almost broke the Carthaginian center (Hannibal had to make a dice roll with a 33% chance of losing the battle).  A flanking attack saved the day.  For Rome the loses were light... 10% for battle casualties and 20% for the retreat (3 CU). Carthage... another 3 CU losses, meaning Hannibal was at 50% of the numbers he started his march to Italy with.

The "Allies System" and combat losses/attrition may need to be adjusted for miniatures campaign purposes as will be seen further on.

Hannibal rolls the worst possible result for casualties. 

Battle of Mutina, 217 B.C.  Hannibal meets Publius Scipio again at the newly founded Roman Colony of Mutina. 

  Carthage CU 5 vs Roman CU 7.  Publius who had multiple battle cards to play to give him a leg up at Trebbia is out of tricks.  Hannibal, despite fewer troops, easily wins the battle and with the "double envelopment" bonus the remains of the consular legion are wiped out and Publius is gravely wounded.

Hannibal finishes what he started at Trebbia

New year and new consuls, Marcellus leads an attack into Etruria and is nearly wiped out...

 Hannibal ambushes Marcellus near Lake Trasamine Carthage 6 CU: Rome 5CU and is wiped out with only 1 CU making it off the field.

Carthage opens a new front in Sicily under Hasdrubal 

 Carthage (me)  gets great cards for negating Roman's naval supremacy and lands troops in Sicily following Syracuse's defection to Carthage.  Hasdrubal manages to wipe out Tiberius Longus in a series of victories (10 CU on each side) across Sicily compounded by the local population defecting to Cartage (long retreats through unfriendly territory are deadly).

Test run got called here in 216 B.C.

I think with some minor tweaks for converting CU to the tabletop and the battle losses table this could work and more importantly in the first few turns of the campaign the system produced a series of playable battles on the tabletop.

Independence Day and Some (Prussian) Fireworks

This Independence Day I celebrated by finishing up doubling my artillery to Empire standards.  Four half batteries are ready to take the field (16 artillerists and 4 guns)

The artillery themselves are based off a post made by Martin at http://befreiungskriege.wordpress.com/ as mentioned earlier.  This post is half to write down my paint mixes for the next time the artillery park needs an expansion.

The midtone on the carriages is approximately two parts Folk Art 720 Colbalt Blue and one part Americana Sapphire.  The highlights are about 50/50 Americana Sapphire and Folk Art 480 Titanium White.  All the metal work is supposed to be blacked so I did it in Vallejo 050 Dark Prussian Blue.  The gun is Vallejo Bronze highlighted with Vallejo Brass and black washed with the Vallejo Black Shade.

Although I find Vallejo paint annoying to work with (drys incredibly fast and the D. Prussian Blue is a nightmare to get out of brushes) and hit-or-miss to purchase (some are not exactly the same shade or arrived separated and never really reintegrated) the Vallejo Black Shade is a favorite.  A friend prefers to just make her black washes, but the Vallejo shade is darker, applies more smoothly and in generally I find creates less of a mess and re-highlighting work.

Next up on the writing down list is the recipe for Regulation Prussians!  The Kollet is Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue for the shadows (base coat), Blick Dark Light Blue Midtones and Americana Sapphire highlights.  Ceramcoat Opaque/Bright Red/Vallejo Scarlet.

The Pants are two-colored Ceramcoat Charcoal and Ceramcoat Rain Gray, highlighted with the Rain Gray.  All blacks are Blick Black and whites are Folk Art Titanium White.  The canvas haversacks are a mix that I try differently just about every time I make a run of Prussians. All buttons/gold lace are done in Vallejo brass.

EDIT: Leather Bits: 2x Ceramcoat Iron Oxide, 1x Ceramcoat Raw Sienna, 3x Americana Heritage Brick