Slitherine

Geffalrus wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 2:49 pm Division A

Geffalrus (Antigonids) defeats MikeC_81 (Romans and Greeks) 42-12

For context, I learned how to play FoG2 a year(?) or so ago by watching Mike's youtube video where he dismantled a Seleucid pike player with his Roman army. So I was just massively nervous the whole time.

Anyway, the map featured a small stream bisecting the map with a big patch of rough ground in the center and some decent hills on my right/his left flank. Not exactly ideal pike ground if I just AFK marched forward to contact. My initial plan was to screen my left with some cavalry, screen the center with my thureos, and then mass my pikes and lancers on the right flank to quickly cross the stream and seize the hill on his side. Mike had basically the same exact plan, mirrored. This meant that Mike's Romans started on a hill and I'd have to fight up a hill AND over a stream, so that was a no-go. Plus he had a larger force of skirmishers, so a shootout wasn't necessarily a great idea. So my pikes did a hard left turn and everyone marched to the other flank to see if I could pick a fight in a more advantageous situation. Initially, I hoped to use my cavalry to lure some of his mediums out of the rough patch and then catch them with my pikes while his cohorts would have to march a longer route around the rough ground. However, when his cohorts ventured onto the open ground on my side of the stream, I scrapped that plan and turned around again, hoping that I could engage his cohorts before they could backup to the stream. Some of the cohorts withdrew to the stream, but enough were engaged in the open for me to start winning some fights. My cavalry on the left spent their time riding around eating arrows aka "distracting" some of Mike's units, but not much else to be honest. I got the better of the medium melee on the rough ground thanks to the untimely death of Mike's nearby general and some bad cohesion rolls. An elephant charge that I thought for sure would roll up all my thureos ended up pursuing off into the wild blue yonder.

The battle was ultimately decided by the heavy infantry contest on my right where my pikes successfully chewed through the less-scary hastati. The Veteran Hastati reserve came in like a wrecking ball, flanking a veteran pike and double dropping another pike on impact. However, thanks to some timely routs and rallies, I crossed the 25% threshold and my fragmented pikes lived to see another day.

Thank you Mike for the game, and thank you Pete for keeping everything running. That's it for me in the Classical division.

Final positions. Stream, rough ground, and initial Roman hill all visible.
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