The Final Alexandrian

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Harve de Grace Community Center
Event: Cold Barrage 2026
Theme: US Nationals, 2nd Period
Round: 5
Players: Phil Gardocki running Republican Roman, list 58
              Al Kaplan ("Jersey Boys") running Alexander the Great, list 40
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
The army of Alexander the Great are led by  'C-in-C', the Competent, 'Blank', the Ordinary and his brother, "Blank', the Competent
3 Companions, Heavy Cavalry, Impact, Elite 
2 Elephants
1 Greek Cavalry, Heavy Cavalry
1 Sogdians, Light Cavalry, Bow
1 Hippakontistai, Light Cavalry, Javelin
5 Phalangites
1 Hypastpist, Medium Spearmen, Elite
1 Hoplite, Heavy Spearmen  
3 Thracians, Medium Sword, 2HW 
3 Agrianians, Light Infantry, Javelin
Breakpoint of 22

The legions are commanded by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, Consul of Rome, a Strategist, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, Son of Tiberius Sempronius Longus, Consul of Rome, Defeater of the Boli, regarded as Competent, and Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, also rated Competent despite his years.

2 Equites, Medium Cavalry
2 Numidians, Light Cavalry, Javelins
8 Hastati or Principes, Heavy Swordsmen, Impact, 1/2 Armored
2 Newly Recruited Hastati, Heavy Swordsmen, Impact, Mediocre
2 Extraordinarii, Medium Swordsmen, Elite
2 Other Italians, Medium Swordsmen
6 Velites, Light Infantry Javelin, most Elite
2 Syracusians, Light Infantry sling
Breakpoint...26

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Heus!", or "Ωχ!", this implies a disorder caused by missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some up or downgrade 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.

Any ambiguity as to what was moved or who is being referred to is to be considered Fog of War and part of the fun. 

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

Deployment:

Scipio wins the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

The Ares or Mars eye view.

" " takes the point of honor on the right with his elephantry and Thracians

The center taken by the Phalanx

While "C-in-C" takes the left with a goodly number of horse.

Scipio defends the camp on the left.

Tiberius the center with 5 cohorts of legionnaires 

On the terrain strewn right, Marcus commands the Italians.

Turn 1:

Scipio sends his horse forward to slow down the elephantry.  His legionaries advance just a pace and oblique to the right.

Tiberius however is making a futile attempt to take the hill.  

Marcus's Italians also rush to occupy the rough.

The Elephantry make their predictable advance.

The edge of the phalanx is solidly on the hill.

The Companion horse cross the crest of the hill, staring down at the Velites.

Not too bad a result.  If the Italians can get in the rough, and the Legionaries the bottom of the hill, the Companions will be forced to engage with units firmly on their flank.

Turn 2:

Not waiting to be charged off, the Roman horse withdraws, but the Velites still will keep the Elephants slowed down.

Scipio's cohorts line up on Tiberius's.

The Italians split their foot in twain.  Basically challenging the Companion and Greek cavalry to run them down, while offering their flanks to Roman horse.

The Numidians charge the Hippakontistai and Sogdians, causing one to flee on contact.

The Pachyderms push forward. 

The phalanx splits into two parts.  Its left lining up with the Companions.

Companions engage the Italians, nearly routing them.

The Hippakontistai are heavily pressed.

Turn 3:

Velites move forward and engage in javelin throwing.

Scipio's legions advance, just out of charge reach of the bulk of the phalanx.

Tiberius's cohorts advance, both ZOC'ing the Companions, and turning the flank of their horse engaged with the Italians.

The Numidians have defeated their foes.  The Macedonian camp is fortified, so they will have to look for their next target elsewhere. 

" "'s Elephants split up.  One block is solidly behind the flank of Scipio's legions.

For al the maneuvering, it's just going to be just one massive scrum.

The troop of Companions fighting the Italians Disengages.  The Greek horse is assigned to keep the Italians honest.

Ares and Mars come back from microwaving popcorn.

At the bottom of the 3rd, the score is Alexander with 6 points towards their demoralization level of 23, to just 3 of 26 for the Romans.

Turn 4:

Scipio's Newly raised legions cover the flank of his main body.

While the rest of the legions charge in.  Winning just two contacts and losing 5!

The Extraordinarii charge in.  The Greek horse holds, but is flanked by Roman horse.  The numbers were -1 for the Greeks, +armor, to 4 for the Extraordinarii.  But fate was fickle that day, and the Greeks held.

The elephantry make their final approach on to the camp.

Disaster upon disaster.  Macedonian elephants rout the newly raised legions on charge.  A legionary cohort is routed by pike.

Companions Disengage from the legions.  But one routs the Roman horse, just in time to see their Greek horse flee the field.

Turn 4:

The last great act of defiance?

Two more of Scipio's cohorts fall.  The remainder have Pachyderms threatening their rear.

Tiberius's cohorts hold.  The Hill is now solidly in the Italians hands.

The score for the Romans is 15 of 26

To the Macedonian's 13 of 23.

A virtual tie.

The Velites fail to evade off the board, putting the Roman score at 22!

Elephants charge the rear of Scipio's last cohort, adding one to the Roman score to 23.

The Phalanx has firmly turned Tiberius's legions, adding three more to the Roman score and the game.

The Companions on the hill decide there is no need to risk anything, and vacate.

What went wrong?  

Being too aggressive and having the left flank exposed.  The thought of engaging the center and right while slowing the elephant command was a good enough idea.  But the Macedonians held up their advance as well.  Delaying engagement until the Roman flank was well and truly turned.  

That would be <lower case> ok, but the initial engagements with the pike ran 2 out of 3 in favor of the pike and Companions,  and there wasn't much recovery from that.

The Romans did turn the flank of the Companions on the right, but after taking a couple of losses, the rest skedaddled, so no more points were to be had there.

This Roman army did not perform well.  Neither in this tournament, nor all the practice games.  The concept of partially armoring the legions were largely a waste of points.  And the army was "light heavy".  It was nice having a break point of 26.  But once the main battles were developing, the Velites were mostly useless.  And most of the time the Legions were just outnumbered by the enemy heavies and horse.

But also, and this is my fault for not expecting this, almost everyone tuned their armies to defeat the normal armies for their periods.  So lots of elephant armies facing the knights, and cataphract armies in my period.

Of course, by doing that, there was a lot of cataphract on cataphract matchups, and elephants butting heads.