Ancients sea battle and campaign turn 4 moves

Ancients campaign turn 4 began with a sea battle to decide whether Rome or Carthage would get the opportunity to be moving first or second. The winner of this game gets to move second and with it the advantage of countering any of their opponents moves. 

The sea battle is being fought somewhere along Southern Italian coastline.

Start of the game. Both forces have chosen to split into two groups due to the rocky islands dotting this coastline. Rome's fleet is on the right and Carthage's on the left.

The fleets quickly engage in the open water, but around the rocky islands both fleets manoeuvre for position uncertain of their opponents intentions.

A close up of the scratch built ships. Already some of the ships have become entangled during ramming and boarding actions.

Around the rocky islands the ships are finally engaged in battle. While in the centre the battle is well underway with multiple ships becoming entangled. Although Rome appears to have gained a slight advantage by keeping their ships all grouped together.

In the end Rome was able to press home their advantage and Carthage's fleet is defeated.

With the sea battle decided it was now time for campaign recruitment and moves. As the campaign stood at the end of turn 3, Rome was unable to recruit an army as they did not have the numerical advantage in any of the regions. Carthage on the other hand could recruit and chose to recruit one army in Spain.

Campaign position as at the end of turn 3.

Winning the sea battle was important to Rome as it meant Carthage would want to keep two armies in both their Spain and Africa regions, to deter any Roman counter moves where they moved one of their armies into these regions and created a one on one situation. In they end Carthage moved another army into Northern Italy from Spain. After considering the situation Rome decided to keep their armies put for this turn.

The positions at the start of campaign turn 4

Two land battles will be fought during this turn in Southern and Northern Italy. The battle in Southern Italy will be important for Rome, for if they can win they will be able to recruit again the next turn.