Small versus Large Army AAR

[sIg3b]

This is the 6th stage of the Seleucus Campaign, Legate Progressive difficulty, meaning slightly below Governor at this point. Enemy are the Cappadocians with a horde of Irregulars, quite a few Iranian Cavalry and assorted Lights. A formidable army, very well suited for a double envelopment strategy.

At this campaign stage, my units are very experienced, one of my Veteran Pikes is elite, the others are highly superior; Elephants superior; all Cavalry elite; Camels superior; Cretan Archers elite; Eastern Archers superior and average; the Thorakitai are average. This makes them pricey; together with the difficulty level and the cheap Cappadocian Irregulars, the enemy has 29 units against my 14, as I am soon to find out.

Being outnumbered is bad; being outnumbered >2:1 is very bad; what am I going to do?

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[sIg3b]

This is the setup I decide on.

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[sIg3b]

The plan is to keep my units as closely as possible together, smash through the enemy Left and take it from there. The brilliant simplicity of this plan results from my failure to literally think of anything else.

The map doesn´t love me. A deep stream runs right through the centre.

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[sIg3b]

The Cappadocians do not advance, they want me to make the first move. I advance in all haste to cross the stream before they change their mind.

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[sIg3b]

The AI doesn´t use terrain strategically. In this game, it should have done one of 3 things:

1. Advance and envelop my forces.
Or 2. defend behind the stream.
Or 3. defend the hills on its side of the board.

In the event, it really did neither.

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[sIg3b]

Their Light Cavalry advances to skirmish, but gets the worst of it.

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[sIg3b]

Their Center is now advancing; but most of my troops are safely over the stream and their Light Cavalry has been driven away and partially disrupted.

Maneuvering over the winding stream has created a hole in my line, but the Thorakitai will fill it.

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[sIg3b]

The lines clash. The AI cleverly lines up its Rhomphaia-wielding armour-negating Thracians against my Thorakitai and nearly disrupts them. 2 Cappadocian Irregulars are disrupted on impact.

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[sIg3b]

The Cappadocians take a handful more cohesion hits; they are now threatening my Pikes with a flank attack, though.

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[sIg3b]

Happily, all the Irregulars opposing my Veteran Pikes are sent packing; the AI flank attack will not cause an auto-disruption.

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[sIg3b]

Next turn I notice that moving my Pikemen out of the way will clear a path for my Camels to flank and likely rout the disrupted Irregulars opposing my Elephants.

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[sIg3b]

I rout one AI Cavalry and try to keep the rest in check.

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[sIg3b]

Setting up two more flank attacks; however, my Left is now under pressure by something like 15 units. Hopefully they get stuck in traffic.

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[sIg3b]

By turn 9 I have the advantage; but the battle is not yet over. A bunch of Thracians held out against Thorakitai, Camels and Elephants; I admire their tenacity. My leftmost Pikes form a square to act as a wavebreaker. The Cavalry in the stream falls back 2; not too risky I hoped, because they are undisrupted Elites with a General. Given the not too fast strategic reaction time of the AI, this may buy up to two turns, which could be decisive.

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[sIg3b]

The surrounded Pike square holds out well; most of my centre has now turned left to relieve them.

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[sIg3b]

The biggest weakness of the AI is that it´s not able or willing to get all its units into action at once. I usually manage to fight them one on one, which gives my Veteran/Elite units the edge.

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[sIg3b]

On the other hand, the AI sometimes surprises me with awesome microtactics. Here one Cavalry drives my Camels away, clearing the way for a second Cavalry to attacking my Pikes from behind and disrupt them.

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[sIg3b]

AI Lights focus on my Elephant, which makes sense.

However, the AI doesn´t seem aware that a Pike square has no ZoC; a good half dozen of their units are sticking to it rather than simply going around. I think a deep envelopment is not something the AI is able to do well.

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[sIg3b]

Since the AI does not sufficiently press its advantage on the Left, I can slowly but surely annihilate its Centre.

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[sIg3b]

A couple more Cappadocian units are routed, and a Cavalry is caught between an Elephant and a hard place and fragmented...

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