A few snaps will be added later, but a truly amazing result from the rather one-sided defense of Messina.
The Syracusans found a marshy river along the coast to site their tiny army (3 x 4Sp) and the mighty host of Carthage advanced, confident of victory. They demonstrated on one flank and then the other with LH and Cv, while the rest of their army plodded through the sloppy swamps to come up and run through the undefended middle of the Siciliot line.
The LH declined to even engage, simply shadowing the one Sp facing their crossing. The Carthaginian general and his mounted groups, certain that the puny enemy would flee before them, splashed into the shallows of the curiously named River Styx. Several charges failed to win them the opposite bank, but they pressed on, knowing that the enemy could do little to harm them.
The Syrcusans, though, following trumpet commands from their command staff (comfortably situated on the ramparts of their temporary camp), charged across the river themselves, taking the Punic cavalry by surprise. Driving them backward, the Greco-Italians profited from the advance, unobserved by the Carthaginian general, of his own phalanx of hoplites. Caught between the unexpectedly pugnacious Syracusans and the march column of his heavy foot, the general and his Companion cavalry were dismayed, overthrown, and dispersed, leading to a precipatate retreat by the Punic army.
[1G-0 win by Syracuse, outnumbered 11 to 3. Carthage loses 1 Cav plus two other elements and retreats to Agrigentum. Syracuse retains Messina and gains 3 Prestige.]
