Successors: Seleucis v. Ptolemy

 Seleucis: Steve & Chris.  Small veteran phalanx ( 2 units), Galacians, Thotakitai, cataphracts, Agema, Light cav & elephants.
Ptolemy: Jim & Mike.  Large kevy phalanx (4 units), Peltasts, Agema, light cav & elephants.

Seleucis on the left, put the elephants in the centre as front line.
Ptolemy put his elephants on the right of his phalanx & most of his cavalry on his left.

Both sides advanced with their left leading.

It was mostly a brutal frontal fight all along the line with little manoeuvre except on the far flank.

Ptolemy's phalanx held off the elephants. 
Seleucis' Thotakitai had mixed success v. Ptolemy's elephants.
On the flanks, Ptolemy's cavalry was getting the upper hand.

In the centre, Ptolemy's phalanx disposed of the Galacians, but were no match for Seleucis' vets after being weakened by the elephants.

Although losing half his phalanx, Ptolemy's cavalry had won on both flanks & the Seleucid's broke.

Seleucis probably erred in putting his elphants in front of his veteran phalanx as they really didn't need their help & it delayed their victories.  Ptolemy also got a very good run from the dice gods. Good battle though, one of the best eras for ancient wargames with lots of variety of troops.

 

Byzantium v. Arabs take 3

 Chris & I got back early from our rafting trip so had another Sunday school.

This time the Arabs stuck with their deep fromations with a bit more cavalry on their left.
The Byzantiners put most of their cavalry on the right.

The Byzantines attacked on their right & centre & held back their weak left. 
The Arabs are transferring heavy cavalry from right to left.
The infantry are locked in battle.
On the right, the Byzantine cataphracts have engaged the Arab heavy cavalry exposing the flank of the Arab infantry to attack by their supporting heavy cavalry.   

On the far flank the  Arab light cavalry quickly beat the Byzantine light, but Byzantine heavies are winning against light cavalry. 
On the left of the infnatry line the Byzantine medium inf are being beaten by the Arab lights in depth.
On the right flank the Cataphracts are losing against the deep heavy cavalry formations.
In the centre the right hand end of the Arab infantry line has been broken by the flank attack & their line is in danger of being rolled up.  

On the left flank the victorious cavalry of each side have engaged each other.
On the left of the infnatry line, the Arab lights have broken the first line of the Byz'antine mediums. 
On the right flank the cataphracts have been defeated & the victorious Arab haeavy cav is turned towards the Byzantine centre. 
On the right of the infnatry line, the Arabs heavy cav have countered the Byzantiner heavy cav while the Byzantine heavy infantry try to expand the hole in the Arab line. 

On the far flank the Arab light horse defeated the Byzantine heavies & likewise the Arab light infabntry beat the Byzantine medium & heavy infantry in front of them.
In the centre all of the Arab medium infantry & the Arab cavalry that was moved from the other flank have been broken by infantry exploiting the hole in the Arab line. 
On the near flank the Arab cavalry are cleaning up the light troops of the Byzantien second line.

At this point we checked army morale & found the Byzantines just failed.  But it was a close thing, the difference being that in the last turn the Arabs\ light cavalry broke heavy cavalry & Arab light infantry beat heavy infantry in combats where the Byzantines had the advantage.

Byzantium v. Arabs again

 Chris & I delayed our Tarkine rafting trip for a day to allow a wether front to pass, so had a Sunday avfternoon battle using a selection of teh armies used last Tuesday reducing the numbers to about 2/3rds.
Arabs: Chris.
Byzantines: Jim

The Byzantines are on the left.

The Byzantines advanced quickly hoping to break the Arab centre before they could be outflanked by superior numbers.

Contact was made simultaneously all along the line.  The Arabs generally doubled their units to try to counter the better quality of the Byzantines but even so, the Byzantines by using small units in support had an advantage in almost every combat.  The advantges quickly disapeared in an  avalanch of hot dice as the Byzantines won only 2 of 9 combats in the first round.  One Komntaratoi unit broke thru but the rest of the line gradually disintigrated.

The Arabs only lost 2 unts before the Byzantine army failed their army morale test with half their units broken. Chris had a good plan & dice gods so approved of it, it became a crushing victory.

Byzantium v. Arabs

We have stepped another couple of centuries forward this week to pit Byzantium v. Arabs.
Arabs: Mike & Chris
Byzantium: SteveJ & Jim

Byzantines on the left with a symmetrical deployment:  heavy infantry in the centre flanked by medium infantry with archers in support, then cataphracts, then heavy cavalry with light cavalry support.
The arabs have a similar deploymenr, but have weighted their right wing with extra cavalry.

Thye Byzantines advanced quickly on theri right & centre to minimise the effect of the Arab's horse archers. They held their left back a bit where their cavalry was outnumbered.

The combats started on the near flank then quickly extended along the front.

On the near flank the Byzantine cavalry eventually got on top, but at such cost that their victorious cavalry was all shaken & unable to exploit their wins.  But the decisive issue on thsi flank was a gap the Aeabs left in their line between their cavalry & infantry.  They slipped  infnatry thru the gap to swing left to flank the Arab centre,
In the centre, the Arab deployment in two lines held well against the veteran Konaratoi until it was flanked from the left & a single medium infantry unit took out 3 units rolling up theri second line.  On the far flank, a single Byzantine cataphract unit turned the action Byzantium's way by blasting  a hole through the Arab lines taking out 3 enemy units in succession.

The Arabs lost half their units shaken but under our new Army Morale Test could still fight on becasue they had more unshaken units left than the Byzantines.  The Arabs still had a chance of victory if their horse archers could break some of the many shaken Byzantine units, but they lost more units in close combat & lost that advantage to fail the Morale Test first.