Wednesday, January 27, 2021

Rome v. Macedon again

Rome: Mike & Mitch
Macedon: Mark & Chris

The Romans are on the right with 2 legions.  Their Roman cavalry is on their left & Galacian Allies (foot & horse) on their right.  The Macedonian phalanx has hoplites in reserve behind, elephants & peltasts on their left & cavalry on both flanks.
Both sides have advanced in echelon with their right leading.
On the near flnnk the Roman cavalry have been ridden down by the Companions.  In the centre the left edge of the phalanx has contacted the left edge of the RH legion & the Macedonians are moving their hoplites to cover the left flank of the phalanx.
The LH legion is in danger of being outflanked.  The RH legion is fully engaged right of centre.  The Galacian foot is being held up an elephant counterattack.  The Galacian horse is wrapping the Macedonian flank.
On the near flank the LH legion is holding on.  They have beaten off the first charge of the companions.  In the centre 2 phalanx units & the elephants have been broken but hoplites & peltasts are covering the gap.  On the far flank, the poor command rating of the Galacians when doing anything other than charge forward is preventing them from finishing off the Macedonian left.
On the far flank the Galcians still haven't finished off the Macedonian left.  In the centre hoplites & peltasts are still holding the line.  On the near flank, the LH legion is still hanging on, but is outflanked by the companions & verging on being broken.

This was the situation when game time was up, thus nightfall.  It was a hard fought close battle.    The only division broken so far is the Macedonian left flank cavalry, though most divisions of each side are verging on it.  Neither force has failed an Army Break Test. Both are outflanked on their left, but the Roman left is outflanked by Companions & doomed, while the Romans have not been able to exploit their success on the other flank - thwarted by the Galacian's poor command & the hoplite reserve. So arguably a costly Macedonian victory. 

The failure to reach a decisive result in two & a half hours indicates that the battle was a bit big for a rules-test game.  (There were 40 units on the Roman side & 30 Macedonian units & the big units make combats slower to resolve than in later periods).  But the tweaks to the rules generated by last week's experience worked well.  The balance between phalanx & legion now looks right.

1 comment:

James Fisher said...

Two marvellous looking, grand games of ancients!
Regards, James