Early Successor Seluecids vs. Galatians circa 275BC

[allnud]

I am a new FOG player and will be playing my first Immortal Fire game this Sunday, putting my Early Successor Seluecids up against the Galations. Do any of you experienced FOG players out there have any suggestions for army composition and other advice on how to play against the Galations and use my Seluecids to advantage?

I woule be grateful for any wisdom any of you can share.

Thanks,

Dave

[madmike111]

Galations only have one trick and that is charging foot, after that they are dead-protected-swords meat.

Lancers are good against both their foot and cav.

I haven't got the army list in front of me but assuming there isn't any year restriction issue armoured impact/skilled swordsmen are just plan nasty, fight at evens at impact and then at a +2 POA for melee. Field all you can get, and stick them on the flanks of your pike.

Pike are good, +2 POA at melee, even at impact.

Trick is to not loose those initial impacts, buy 4 commanders and place them in BGs to ensure that even if you don’t win the impact you still get a +1 for cohesion testing.

The Galation might field some scythe chariots, I find the best value troops to stop them are poor light javelinmen, at 2pts each great value.

[peteratjet]

Galations only have one trick and that is charging foot, after that they are dead-protected-swords meat.

Lancers are good against both their foot and cav.

I haven't got the army list in front of me but assuming there isn't any year restriction issue armoured impact/skilled swordsmen are just plan nasty, fight at evens at impact and then at a +2 POA for melee. Field all you can get, and stick them on the flanks of your pike.

No imitation legionaries for an early successor, but you do get a compulsory BG of thureophoroi for the Galatians to chew on. I think you can make them armoured , which might help.

I have an Antigonos Gonatos Macedonian successor army, which comes with allied Galatians, so I have some experience of how to lose with them. Those superior protected HF swordsmen have a lot of staying power, but they don't manoevre well

[SirGarnet]

With enough good MF to control the rough ground (armoured spearmen are quite nice for the ++ potential), situating pikes with their flanks resting on two patches of rough ground on right center and left center can seriously discomfit HF warbands. Your mounted can deploy on the far side of the rough terrain, retiring past its shelter or advancing to envelop the enemy or penetrate gaps as appropriate.

[GHGAustin]

The year is 275 BC, firm. Part of a campaign.

So no imitation legionnaires, no scythed chariots for the Galatians.

[deadtorius]

Pikes pikes and pikes
I have taken on impact foot protected with a Selucid army, not Galatians but similar troops types. If the pikes stay steady you should be up ++ on all combats so its like them facing off against Romans. Your cav is your best weapon I would say as lancers get a + if their target is in open ground and another + if they are MF which I think some of the Galatians are, no army list in front of me at present. If you can do armoured spears go for it they are another not so nice for the Galatians to face troop type. Elephants are good against MF but can be a glass cannon, 1 bad death roll and they are gone.
Main thing to remember is the Galatians are most likely not drilled your troops are so you can run around and they will have problems trying to turn on you.
Good luck, I think most of the combats should be in your favor.

[ShrubMiK]

This is all nice analysis of what happens in frontal combat between high-quality troops and low-quality troops. Surprise surprise, with equal dice, the high-quality troops will win in the end. But bear in mind a couple of things:

1) If the Galatians are superior, they can take a while to break. and the longer the figth goes on, the more bases the pikes are likely to lose, even when often winning the individual rounds of combat. Hence that nice ++ advantage gradually evaporates.

I myself had a single Galatian BG in my Seleucid army hold on for a long time against pikes, which enabled me to win the game from an unpromising position. It was even more annoying for my opponent in that they had been fragged at one point, but were steady again as the game ended. Okay I did devote a genral and some rear-support to helping them out, and the dice were kind, especially when I made precisely enough to avoid breaking the turn after they went fragged, but the point is: don't just assume if you get into contact with them you can simply claim your victory and retire to the pub for an early celebrastion

2) Pikes are significantly more expensive per base of frontage. So you need to try to minimise the opponent's opportunities for overlaps, or even worse outflanking you.

[jonphilp]

In our current club campaign a "classic " Galatian army based on superior warband has beaten, Early Seleucid, Kyrenean Greeks , later Jewish, Syracusan and Pyrrhic forces each lead by a different "General". It has just lost to a drilled Pyrrhic army which achieved good terrain and managed to redeploy on the field of battle to ensure match ups which favoured the Pyrrhic forces. The Galatian "warriors" have shown good staying power due to their superior status even causing pike blocks to route although they have problems in exploiting any local success in a battle line. With a competant general with good dice roles 9 especially re - rolls) this has proved to be a tough army to beat.

[allnud]

In spite of your good advice, I managed to get the Seluecid army totally destroyed yesterday. Bad initial deployement, poor terrain selection, and horrid die rolling all contributated to what went wrong. It was, however, a learning experience, so i guess it wasn't all bad. Thanks to everyone who posted a reply.