A Macerater of Macedonians

A Headless Body Production
Venue: On Military Matters Book Store, Hopewell, NJ
Event: Classic Era Theme, 6 horse maximum, Round 2
Players: Phil Gardocki running Republican Roman
               Al Kaplan running Alexandrian Macedonian
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 25mm, 200 points per side.

Dennis runs a military bookstore in Hopewell NJ.  And has an excellent mail service for providing little known tomes since before the internet.  Email him at onmilitarymatters@verizon.net and you'll get a weekly mailing for what's new, what's hot, or what is such a good story it simply must be told!

 

Podcasts I listen to.  Great for those long drives to the next game:

The Ancients.  Over 500 1 hour podcasts about this ancient culture or that.
Our Fake History.  Over 200 1-3 part podcasts about specific events in history.
True Spies.  Over 200 1-3 part podcasts about spies you may of heard of, or not.
Fall of Civilizations.  About 20 3+ hour podcasts about the rise and fall of our favorite armies.
Dan Carlin's Hardcore History.  About 20 3-4 hour podcasts.  Very in depth.  For example, the Pacific War covered in 5, 3+ hour podcasts.  

Non Ancients related, there is Skeptoid, Skeptics Guide to the Universe, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, The Indicator, Inside Science, True Spies, Monster Talk, BBC's Breaking News, The News Quiz, and Dead Ringers.

I didn't link the podcasts as everyone has different methods for acquiring them.  That and my podcast service is phone based, while my blog postings are computer based, so it would be a pain in the asinus.

 

The Forces:

The Romans are commanded by Marius, the Second Founder of Rome, a Strategist.  His son, Marius, the Brilliant, and their cousin, Not-Marius, who is Ordinary.
8 Legionaries, Heavy Sword, Armor, Impact, some Elite
4 Velites, Light Infantry, Javelin, Elite
2 Italians, Javelinmen
4 Equites, Medium Cavalry
2 Numedians, Light Cavalry, Javelin
2 Extraordinarii, Medium Swordsmen, Armor, Elite
Breakpoint of 22
 

Alexander has already shown his skills as a Strategist.  With him are the Competent commanders Antigonus and Craterus.
4 Companions, Heavy Cavalry, Impact, Elite
2 Light Cavalry, Impact
6 Pike, 1 is Elite
4 Thracians, Medium Swordsmen, 2HW
2 Javelinmen
3 Light Infantry, Various
Breakpoint of 24

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Heus!" or "Ωχ!",  this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Deployment:

As the defender, Marius (a Strategist) deploys with his first command.  Nothing subtle here.  His cohorts are hugging a piece of terrain.

Across from him, Antigonus deploys with a force of Medium Infantry.  

That works for me.  Armored Legionnaires against unarmored swordsmen.

Marius's son lines his legionary cohorts next to dads.  His Italians canted to deal with flankers. 

Further afield are the mounted equites.  They will be facing the Elite Companion shock cavalry.  Which the Equites can evade from and hopefully delay for 3 or 4 turns.

The Macedonian phalanx deploys next. 

The third Roman command cannot be seen.

Alexander takes the field last with his famous Companion cavalry.

The view from the SkyCam(tm)

Turn 1:

Antigonus advances his troops,  He may be facing hardened Legionnaires, but there is favorable terrain he can occupy as well.

The Macedonian phalanx advances with an oblique to the left.

While the Companions race forward

Marius's cavalry sweeps around the gully.

Marius and son all advance 1 UD and slide 1 UD.

Light horse pass salutations from different battlefields.  

The Roman equites take advantage of the moments inattention to skulk off.

Not-Marius's command continues not to be seen.

Turn 2:

Antigonus parses of a unit into the plantation to protect the bulk of his force from being flanked by Roman Equites.

The rest advance and peek into the gully.

The Macedonian Phalanx continues to oblique left across the field.

Their horse follows the equites closely.

On the right, the Equites take up a position to flank Antigonus's foot should it enter the gully.

The situation is not as bad as it looks.  The Roman velites have javelins and are elite.  They should stand against Antigonus's javelinmen and swordsmen for a turn or two.

The legionary line advances, obliquing to match the phalanx. 

Their hanging flank should be well secured by 2 cohorts of equites and 2 of Italians.

Not-Marius's command continues not to be seen. 

Turn 3:

Antigonus's troops charge in mass.  The velites decide to pull back to lure them in more.

The phalanx makes a short charge.

Companion cavalry charges.  Roman equites decide it is better to survive, and evade.  Leaving the Italians to their fate.

While cowardly, there is a reason.  The Roman equites can return and ZOC the flanking companions, protecting the legions, which is their main mission.

Where this plan fell apart was the equites evaded long, and would be out of the picture for another turn.

Marius's horse charge Antigonus's right flank.  But that unit was Javelinmen, and were able to evade.

Let the rumble begin.  In a coordinated event not seen today, all 8 Roman legionary cohorts charge, and are either in combat, or supporting one.

The results were somewhat anti-climatic however.  Seven fights, with both sides winning two and losing two on contact.  

Roman armor played a decisive role here however, avoiding a loss in 2 of the contacts.

The Italian cohorts have given their all.  Roman equites have not yet returned to the fight.

I think Marius's son had a shortage of command points here.

Not-Marius's command continues not to be seen.

Turn 4:

The battle on the Roman left is not really confusing, but to the readers eye, know which stand belongs to which side may be difficult.  15mm figures all look alike.  So I'll draw a line to help delineate which side is which.

Antigonus  fragments his line to deal with the multiple threats.

The main scrum continues.  One legionary cohort is flanked and routed.  Two others are heavily disordered.  While the Phalanx is in good order. 

Numidian cavalry makes a long run, catching Antigonus's evading javelinmen.

Velites charge up the gully, engaging a solitary swordsmen.

Marius takes to the front of his troops, disordering a taxis of pike.  But his son is not so brave, watching another cohort rout from the field.

The Equites face off against the Companions.  While it is the Velites that strike the first blow!

The score so far.  

The Romans are at 13 of 22.

The Macedonians are just at 8.

Not-Marius's command continues not to be seen.

Turn 5:

The battle in the gully continues.  Antigonus's swordsmen continue to fragment.

His javelinmen turn to fight, but the Numidians press their advantage.

The Macedonian phalanx pushes through the Roman line.

The Companions charge.  Roman equites are forced to stand.

The Romans are at 18 of 22

The Macedonians hold at 8 of 24.

On Marius's left, twin victories by the Velites and Numedians

Antigonus pushes forward.  Those swordsmen are just short of contact with the Italian javelinmen.

In a masterful stroke, a cohort of legionnaires has turned the phalanx.  One taxis routs on contact, another on pursuit! 

But on the far right, the son of Marius is down to his last legionary cohort.

Not-Marius has arrived!  But way to late to effect an outcome.

You take your chances with a flank march.  It's only two units, but it would have been better served as an on board distraction against the companions.

The Romans are at 19 of 22

The Macedonians are at 16.

Up from 8 is great.  But a loss is still a loss.

Turn 6:

The velites are charge in the flank, and decide to live for another day

Italian javelinmen evade off board.  

The sky lights up as the Macedonians raid the Roman camp.

Ever wonder why I have such obvious ambush markers?  So they can be repurposed to mark looted camps.  

Of course they would be better served place on the camp across the board...

The battle is lost, but the phalanx is going to extract their last gallon of blood.

The Romans sound retreat.  The final score is 22 to 17.  

What went wrong?

First was the flank march.  There was an opportunity to loot the fortified camp, with minimal resources, the flank march command costing only 10 points.  But Alexander's tight control of his superior Companions was not going to be stopped by the forces arrayed against it.  Neither the Equites or Extraordinarii was able to stand before them, or even delay them over much.  But having another command of a couple of horse on the far right side of the board would have force the Macedonian horse to split up.  Protecting the legionary line's flank.  With the phalanx flanked and if the Roman right holds, that could have been a win there.

Another is under performance of the Extraordinarii, again!  One just died on contact against Companion.  But that is just being over matched.  But there was another fight on the left side.  The Extraordinarii had flanked Antigonus's battlegroup left flank.  But Antigonus turned a single medium swordsmen.  And they fought. For the rest of the game.  Despite having armor and elite, the Extraordinarii could not defeat them.  A win there would have have a swordsmen in the rear of Antigonus's group, when that group was so fragmented he couldn't control half his units. 

Another problem may be balance.  The main commands were nearly identical.  Which allowed their legions to present a formidable 8 unit block, each with 2 units of foot flank guards, and two mounted out-riders.  

But that also meant the mounted were seriously outnumbered on the flank of my opponents choice.  Which left the other flank as possibly a point of attack with my own out flankers.  But that other flank often was defanged by either terrain or a solid flank guard.  And so the horse there was just useless.