Bosporans vs Selucids: Pez's Revenge

[korvus]

Noel (Pezhetaroi) and I met up for another game on Tuesday night. The lineup was

Selucids:

Field Commander
2xTroop Commander

4x Companions (Elite)
4x Cataphracts (Superior)
4x LH Bow (Average)
3x8x Pike Blocks (average)
2x6x LF bow (poor)
8x LF Sling (poor)
8x Theurophori
2xElephants

Wallacho-Bosporans

Inspired Commander
2xTroop Commander

2x4x Superior Lancers
3x6x LH Horse Archers
2x6x LF Bow (poor)
1x8x LF Jls,Light Spear (average)
1x8x MF bow, light spear front range (average)
2x6x MF light spear, swordsmen (average)

I won the approach roll, but the terrain all ended up on Noel's side of the board apart from a gentle hill, which served to anchor my line.

Unfortunately, despite having the advantage, I flubbed my deployment, and found my medium foot and lancers pinned by his cavalry and pike.

On the left The resulting combats were pretty grim, whith the light spear bowmen making the best showing while holding the pivot of my line on the hill against the cataphracts.

On the right, his elephants kept my light cav busy and off his flanks, which was perfect.

All in all we had an excellent game, which played very smoothly until I conceded after 4 hours (it was all over but the crying) The rules seemed to cover the situations which came up, and as we've both had a little more time to familiarize ourselves, when we did look things came up more quickly.

Thoughts for the game: Elites with a general are deadly. I'm glad he only had four bases...

Have fun!
Cole

[korvus]

Oh yes, a few key details missing:

28mm
4x8 table
1" MU

The 8 foot width was nice, as it meant we both had flanks we had to deal with. On the depth side, it still feels shallow, as we were on top of each other on the first turn.

The double move with generals worked well on this size of board, as despite having a rough go of it I was able to extract my uncommitted troops from under the hammer Noel was bringing down on me by a careful combination of double moves and screening.

Christian (Kineas1) and I are going to play on an 8x5 this weekend and I'll post my opinions of that as well...

All good fun!
Cole

[sagji]

I won the approach roll, but the terrain all ended up on Noel's side of the board apart from a gentle hill, which served to anchor my line.

Unfortunately, despite having the advantage, I flubbed my deployment, and found my medium foot and lancers pinned by his cavalry and pike.

Sounds like your opponent won the approch roll - the benefit of moving first outwieghting the benefit of deploying second and more control of the terrain.

[pezhetairoi]

I can't remember who went first. Oh well.

This was my 3rd game, and first victory.
I must say I am enjoying this rules set.

My thoughts:
I'm having trouble against the LH, bow swordsmen types (of any quality). They are a terrible pest, and I can't find a response other than tag-team cataphracts + my own LH.
I'm using my generals better, and screening with my lights. I should definitely use rear support more often, but I find I cant afford to take anything off the line without serious envelopment risk.
The elite companions (+commander) were incredible. They just couldn't lose combat with all the re rolls. I can't wait for Alexander's army ....

8X4 seemed a little too wide for 650pts. I think another 50-100pts could have fit with plenty of flank room. My opponent was happy with the size, but he has lots of mounted evaders. I have a feeling that he'd be happy with a 6'x12' board! The board depth reduced manouver time, but we got into action (the fun part) much quicker.
Terrain played very little part in the battle, other than defending a hill, which contributed a POA.

So far I've played rather aggressively, but I wonder how a defensive stance would play out? The last rule set I played made this very foolish and hard to control. I think this rule set may be more forgiving (remembering the usual caveats for playing defensively) since command is much more flexible.

[MadBanker]

Just an observation: Later Seleucids may have maximum 6 bases of Thureophoroi, not 8.