For this week's game we adopted scenario 1 'The Eagle Soars' from the recent Hail caesar supplement 'The Pyrrhic Wars'. We were using 2 smallish armies of 300 points in two divisions each. The scenario has the two sides attacking each other over a river and a long area of rough ground. I was still using my (never won a game yet) Macedonians and Ian and Charlie were using Ian's Late Hoplite army again. Good news is that Charlie has been out and bought some Spartans although it will be a while before we see them in all their glory.
I only used one unit of companions today, swapping them for a unit of peltats and another skirmish unit which I thought may be of more use in the rough terrain.
The full glory of Macedon.
and some ever victorious Late Greeks.
Ian's division looking strong defending a hill.
Bird's eye view, Macedonians at the bottom, Greeks at the top. Note the river (fordable but could cause disorder ) and the long strip of rough ground, passable but slowed down to just one move and may cause disorder). This was a tough table of terrain to fight over, especially for the phalanx's in any rough terrain.
Hiding somewhere off table is my set of new Royal Macedon Purple dice which were doing brilliantly over the first two turns. Good order throws allowed me to throw my skirmishers and peltasts forward to threaten the enemy.
Over on my left flank the bulk of the macedonians advanced, the red counters showing which units suffered disorder crossing the river.
Ian's Greek hoplites advance more cautiously.
Charlie charged my peltasts with the Theban Sacred Band who failed their evade test and got caught and thus destroyed. This was the start of bad things for Macedon as the purple dice lost their luck.
Risking the rough ground my Hypaspists lost their phalanx rules in the rough stuff and were soundly beaten by Ian's Greek Hoplites.
The Hypaspists about to break.
After much maneuvering over on my right, one of my Mercenary phalanx's had caught one of Charlie's in the flank and pushed them back. Next turn I was able to charge my victorious Hoplites into the Theban Sacred Band and after two rounds of melee destroy them...that felt good, note the good scores on the purple dice, I needed 3+ to hit!
However, elsewhere my right division was broken and the phalanx above became 'shaken' during the melee so with few troops left I conceded the game.
After this very enjoyable game we were left wondering why any army would attack across a river, over rough terrain and up a hill. However, it did create some very interesting situations and we all enjoyed the game.
So far the score is Macedon 0 v Rest of the World 4!
Why indeed? Is the scenario based on any particular historical action, in which case, that should answer the question.
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, the game rules may well not represent how troops actually act on the ground.
Lovely looking minis, the Thebans in particular caught my eye.
The scenario was an actual battle taken from the latest HC supplement on the Pyrrhic Wars. It certainly made us think!
ReplyDeleteHow did that play out, and was the combination of river and difficult terrain have as much of an effect?
ReplyDeleteThe Macedonians in the actual battle had the hill guarded by the rough terrain and it was that advantage that made them give battle to a tougher but less well placed Pyrrhic force. However the Pyrrhic army actually won.
ReplyDeleteSo it was overconfidence on the Macedonian side?
ReplyDeleteThe terrain seems to have been a bit tougher in your game then.