Camp Cromwell 08/01/08

Ancient battle 300 pts using Camp Cromwell Rules

Renfrey of Pergumum v. Seleucis' Richard

The battlefield was a plain with a rough ridge perpendicular to the front on the Perumene left.
Both sides deployed their Phalanx next to the ridge with open order infantry on the ridge. Om the other side of the phalanxes were Mercenary peltasts, then heavy cavalry, then light cavaly. The Seleucids also had some Galacians on their far right beyond the ridge and their Argaraspids behind the cavalry on their left.

The rules require Command groups to be activated before they can move. Average command systems as these both were get 3 command dice a turn & can roll for activation with each one until they get a fail. So once you have had 3 fails you can't activate any more CGs that turn. This forces the players to prioritise their orders. Renfrey generally did pretty well with activation while Richard did not. He got his cavalry moving, but the Argaraspids used up all his activation dice for 2 or 3 turns leaving the phalanx imobile & his heavy cavalry with a hanging flank.

The pic is taken from behind Renrey's right. light cavalry are slugging it out in the foreground. Galacian cavalry have moved into the gap left by the Argaraspids failure to activate (the corner of that unit is just visible on the right). The heavy infantry are waiting orders.

The Pergumene caratphracts were initally beaten, but then hung on grimly while Renfrey manoeuved cavalry onto both flanks of their oponents. But both flank attacks were held off & the cataphracts finally broke. The Argaraspids eventually moved up & attacked the flank of one lot of flankers to save that side. On the other side, the Seleucid Heavy Cav held on until the Companions finished off the cataphracts and returned to help out.

On the ridge, Renfrey softend up the enemy with bowmen but Richard eventually activated some orders and counterattacked with Galacians plus Thracians to clear the ridge.

In the centre, the Seleucid phalanx was crippled by bowfire before it was got moving and when it finally reached the Pergumene conscript phalanx it was promply routed. But despite the success of the Pergumene phalanx, they had lost too much elsewhere and failed army morale.

The rules-in-progress played pretty well with a few more bugs showing up & being ironed out. The new Command Rules in particular change the game a lot & I think for the better.