"It is the part of a fool to say, I should not have thought"

 So said Scipio Africanus, current hero of the hour in the Punic Wars campaign and he was right. Far from being the odds on Carthaginian victory that I predicted, the battle turned out to be a rather easy triumph for the Romans. I didn't have any cards to enable my legions in the centre to do anything so I took advice from, who else, one of the great Stoic philosophers. 'The secret of all victory lies in the organization of the non-obvious' was  what Marcus Aurelius said when I asked him and therefore I turned to my units of Velites, all five of whom were at the back of my army, the Triple Acies having been cycled appropriately. A sequence of 'Move/Fire/Move', 'Darken the Sky', 'Move/Fire/Move' and then 'Order Light Troops' saw two of them move to the right in a giant sweep that saw off elephants, cavalry and balearic slingers and reduced Carthaginian morale to zero. Naturally the post battle rolling for casualties left me losing just as many CUs as the enemy; I really do think that having defeated Hannibal in two battles running I'm entitled to be in a stronger position than I am. Still, the campaign has swung back a bit.

Not much news on the wargaming annexe due to 'A' level exams, but the table has been painted blue to enable naval games to take place. I don't actually have any ships you understand, but Peter sagely pointed out that if I didn't paint it now then I never would.