bloody battle sees balance of power sway, not stabilise

The small(er) army of Carthage, alerted that the forces of the Syracusan tyrant had finally issued forth to do battle, took up position in rough country not far from Agrigentum. They met the Syracusans near the coast, where the two armies faced each other amid a welter of sand dunes and marshes.

Carthage deployed its spear to the right, backed by skirmishers, with a column of warband standing as link between the slow foot and the faster horse on its left. Syracuse placed its spear phalanx on its left, atop a sand dune, and positioned its horse and artillery on its right, with a light horse element held back to protect the area of its camp from the Numidian scouts of the Punic invaders.

Desultory skirmishing was the order of the day for the respective cavalries, as little took place quickly but the occasional flight (and return) of Numidians who got too close to the Sicilians' bolt throwers. The fighting among the foot, however, was continuous and bloody.

It became quickly apparent that the Cartho general expected his Gallic mercenaries to do most of the heavy fighting. While spear sparred back and forth, the Gauls rushed forward, hacking and slashing. The Syracusans sent their own wild swordsmen to try to envelop the warbands' flank, but time and again fierce fighting saw the Italiots fall back and the African army push forward. The Syracusan commander's face darkened with anger as the enemy dodged one trap after another. One of his spear elements was lost and then, after more protracted struggle, another spear and the skirmishers who had reinforced it. A Punic spear band was eliminated, but still the Celtic threat menaced the Syracusans' center.

In the end, the engagement (at long last) of the cavalry proved decisive. The Carthaginian general led his horse forward and into contact with the column of enemy cavalry, charging into and overthrowing its leading portions just as the enemy finally compassed the defeat and elimination of the Gauls.

Syracuse's commander, frustrated beyond bearing by the tricky wiles of the whiskered barbarians and afraid of the damage the now fully superior enemy horse might do to his troops if they should precipitately retreat, had the trumpets sounded for an orderly withdrawal.

"What ever happened to our damn allies?" wondered the now puce-coloured Syracusan general. The wind sighed sympathetically but brought no (intelligible) answer.

Carthage wins 4-3, losing 2 x Wb an 1 x Sp but eliminating 2 x Sp, 1 x Cv, and 1 x Ps. Carthage gains 1 PP and maintains its siege of Agrigentum. Syracuse retires to either Messina or Syracuse.

What, one wonders, will Carthage do now?

ETA: Carthage continues its siege of Agrigentum, but the city stubbornly refuses to yield.