SPQR (1st Edition)

Cannae August 2 216BC The largest army Rome has ever fielded -- eight double legions, almost 80,000 men -- stands arrayed in their unique but devastatingly effective checkerboard formations. Across the field, through the blowing summer dust, is an army half their size, a motley crew of Spanish javelinists, Numidian cavalry, Gallic lancers and the feared, sword-swinging Celts. But this varied force has already smashed two Roman armies, and it is led by one of the greatest tactical geniuses in history: Hannibal. The stage is set for one of the most brilliantly fought, stunningly overwhelming victories the world has ever known. And the stage is set for you to recreate one of the greatest battles in military history: Cannae!

Zama 202BC In one of the most important battles in ancient history, two crack Roman consular armies under Rome's first military genius, P. Cornelius Scipio, faces Hannibal's undefeated Carthaginians. Is Scipio the man to finally outwit the cunning Carthaginian leader? The finely tuned, evenly balanced battle matches two tactical systems at their peak in a final confrontation for control of the Mediterranean.

Cynoscephalae 197BC Considered the classic legion vs. phalanx battle, the armies of Consul Flaminus and Phillip V of Macedonia stumble into each other on a rocky ridge in the middle of a fog bank. Who will find whom? Can the weight of Phillip's double-depth phalanxes break the Roman center? Or will the legion's maneuverability carry the day in this, the battle that gave Rome control of the Mediterranean? And this time, it's the Romans who have the elephants!

Beneventum 275BC In the finale to the first series of meetings between the legion and the phalanx, Rome goes head to head with the famous Greek mercenary and descendant of Alexander, Pyrrhus. A meeting engagement with a surprise night attack, the battle features not only elephants, but the system's first use of artillery -- Roman scorpiones -- as well as an accurate scale rendering of the Roman camp.

Bagradas Plains 255BC Rome is having a pretty easy time of it at the First Punic War, and Consul Regulus is poised to apply the finishing blow. The Carthaginians, however, have hired a Spartan general, Xanthippus, and he has taught the Africans a thing or two. Will the flexible Roman legions overcome their severe deficit in cavalry?