Ancient Naval: Diadochi Campaign

Both myself (Antipater) and PeterW (Antigonus) moved their fleets to the Cylades & not being allied this meant we had to fight even though we are both allied to Mark & had no intention of going to war with each other.  Opinion is divided whether this was a Machevelian ploy by Mark or just another stuff up.  Peter W being in Canberra the battle was fought at Camp Cromwell with Mark commanding Peter's fleet & PeterC umpiring.  Each fleet had 6 ships, but we made the battle 12 v. 12 to make it more interesting.

The two fleets approach in quite different formations.  Antigonus' fleet is on the far side.

The fleets clash head on with both sides outflanking the enemy's right.

It's a face to face slog along most of the line, but Antigonus' flank attack went well while Antipater's did not.  Antipater's triremes on the left were smashed by ballista fire whereas Antigonus' on the other flank had a charmed life.

It all got pretty confused, made worse by Mark's propensity to confuse left and right turns making his moves totally unpredictable, but in the usual way of ancient naval battles, once you get behind it's very hard to come back.  Both sides took prizes, but it was Antipater's ships getting sunk.   

In the end Antipater only got 3 ships & 2 prizes away while Antigonus lost just one ship sunk and took 5 prizes.