A Couple of First Punic War Questions

[homet]

I have a couple of questions regarding the regions of Drepanum and Lilybaem in the Southwest corner of Sicily and how they affect movement and supply. In the first image below, Rome is besieging Lillybaem and controls the rest of the regions in Sicily. Note that the Roman army besieging Lilybaem can march directly to Drepanum in five days.

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The second image shows the supply status of the region of Drepanum under Roman control.

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A short time later, a Carthaginian army lands at Drepanum and begins a siege against the Roman city in that region. The image below shows the position of the Carthaginian and Roman armies and the supply status of Drepanum from the Carthaginian point of view.

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Here are my two questions. First, the Roman army in Lilybaem can not march directly to Drepanum and attack the Carthaginian army. There are no hidden forces anywhere. It just can't be done (and the Carthaginian army can't attack the Roman army as well). Why can't the two adjacent armies attack each other? Note that the armies are roughly of equal size. The Roman army can head north to Tyndaris and then head back south west to Drepanum to make the attack, but it can't attack directly. That just doesn't make sense to me.

The next question involves supply. Note that the Carthaginian army in Drepanum has military control of the region, but does not yet have control of the city. It receives 44 supply chips from that region and therefore can sit there almost indefinitely without having to resupply (army requires 203 supply per turn). The game manual lists the supply chip contributions from various sources including depots, cities, forts, ports, etc. It almost looks like the Carthaginian army gets the supply benefit from the depot, city, port and fort even though it does not control the city. That also doesn't make sense to me. The region is listed as civilized so I know that also plays a role. I would have thought the Carthaginian army would have gotten supply credit for the county side, but nothing else. Can someone explain why the Carthaginian force gets 44 supply chips (220 supply points)?

[Franciscus]

Hi

Do you have a save ?

[Highlandcharge]

I am Homets pbem partner in this game, here are the turn and orders files for both factions....



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[homet]

Thanks!

[Highlandcharge]

no problem, its going to be interesting to see the results

[Franciscus]

Hi

First question: it has to do with the evasion points of the roman armies vs MC of Drepanum (very low for Rome - just 4%). If you remove from the one led by Pacilus the Turris, you can go directly to Drepanum because your evasion points will go up. Likewise, if you remove the Impedimenta from the army led with Hiero, he can go directly to Drepanum.

As to the Turris, it makes perfect sense. Not 100% sure if the evade value of Impedimenta may be too low - and would like further input on this from you and from the Masters

[Franciscus]

Second question is more difficult.

I can't say exactly why the Carthaginian army is getting so much supply. I suspect though that it is via Lilybaeum city and harbor, that although besieged are still in Carthage possession. If the Romans blockade the sea region that is an exit for both Lilybaeum and Drepanum, (Aegates Insulae), the CAR army takes a hit on supplies, but keeps getting them...

Not sure about this, would like input from Master Bohémond...

Regards

[homet]

Franciscus-Thank you for the quick response! I hadn't considered the patrol/evade value influence on adjacent forces being able to engage each other. I ran the test you mentioned above and my armies did indeed move. I need to do more testing to better understand how the composition of my forces may have influenced being able to move. One quick question comes to mind. Many of the Roman forces are composed of many different individual elements, each with their unique patrol/evade values? Can one element in the entire Roman force with the "wrong" evasion level prevent the army from moving?

I also discovered another odd issue with the test case sent above relating to the large Roman fleet in Drepanum. In my game I had set the large fleet in the port to have a defensive stance. What I've observed is if Drepanum is under Roman military control, the fleet maintains the defensive posture. When the Carthaginian force besieged the city and took military control of the region (but not the city), the fleet posture of the fleet changed from defensive to offensive. It does that every turn while Carthage maintains military control of the region. I think this is due to the game function where a force entering a region under military control of another nation assumes an offensive posture. The problem here is that I didn't think to check my fleet posture every turn after the invasion thinking it was safe. My opponent later informed me that my fleet had attempted to attack the Carthaginians. Apparently a fleet inside a port in an offensive posture has a finite chance of attacking a besieging or blockading force. My request, if possible for the future would be to allow a force that is already in a region that changes military control to maintain its original offensive/defensive posture and not automatically change to an offensive posture.

I also look forward to any light you can shed on the issue of supply the Carthaginian force receives while besieging Drepanum.

[Highlandcharge]

Hey Homet, we could do a test, If I move my fleet away you could then put my port in Lilybaeum under blockade just to see how it effects my besieging armies supply....


I will do the tests now, I have some spare time at the moment

[Highlandcharge]

Ok guys I moved the Carthaginian fleet back to north Africa and then moved the Roman fleet to blockade LilyBaeum/Drepanum to see what would happen...


Supply levels of Carthaginian army in July...

423 overall stock
203 usage Per turn
3 Forage value


Then levels in August, same settings..

403 overall
203 usage per turn
3 forage value

Then September..

395 overall
203 per turn usage
44 forage value

With the Roman fleet blockading Lilybaeum and Drepanum the forage levels in Drepanum fall in July and August due to the said Roman fleet (I think), but they go back up to 44 in September even although the fleet is still there, also the supply levels for the Carthaginian army dont make any sense, surely they should use a lot more general supply than they are using, there are more than 50,000 men in the army...

I await the word of the higher powers