Slitherine

I did a search for Hydaspes in the forum but no links. I was checking out some of the battles in the Immortal Fire module. My difficulty setting is set at numero 3, Legate. Macedonians number about 17,000 vs about 42,000 Indians and there a number of average quality units for the Macedonians so I can't see quality offsetting the difference in numbers. Considering that the historical outcome was a Macedonian victory I am wondering if anyone has been able to defeat the Indians when playing against the AI at the difficulty level I have set. I assume that if it was multiplayer the Indian army would always win.

i have played this scenario in mp a few times as the Macedonians and have won( but only just). It tends to turn into a grueling slugfest between the pikes and hordes of bowmen. The key is the Macedonian cav. If Macedon can keep its cavalry intact, they make short work of the Indian bowman once the phalanx has engaged them. The elephants are horrible however and inflict a lot of pain on the phalanx- hence why my battles, playing both sides have been very close. I stress this is MP i havnt played this scenario in SP

ps - engage the phalanx into direct melee as quickly as possible , if you allow them to get shot at for any length of time they will be pin cushioned. the depth of the phalanx and their unit size more than offsets them being average quality - especially vs bowmen

The challange is accepted, I command the Macedonians against your Indians. I set up the game with password: challenge

In singleplayer, the way I eked out a victory is with a mad rush against the bowmen. They can't stand up to your troops in close combat. Even the light javelin horse can flank/disrupt bowmen if you get a good charge in, and they usually fall back so you don't lose too many.

Cavalry helps but lighter cav worked best for me since heavy cav was disordered often.

I love Indian archers.

Hendricus, I want to hear how your Mac vs Ind game is going. It sounds interesting.

GiveWarAchance wrote:I love Indian archers.

Hendricus, I want to hear how your Mac vs Ind game is going. It sounds interesting.

Even more interesting would be to face your Indians, I set up a battle password: interesting.

I've just played this on Emperor level and won, 30% to 56%. It was very daunting, and much harder than the rout percentages would suggest. In fact, at the end my Macedonian army looked more wrecked than the enemies! I had a lot of bad luck though: routed chariots rallying right in front of a phalanx and therefore preventing it charging into some archers, archer units charged by several heavy cavalry units and holding out for several turns despite losing every melee badly, etc.

The successful tactic was to make a rapid Frederickian (for those who are familiar with the SYW!) style oblique attack on the Indian left flank, and then roll them up from there. That cuts down on the amount of received archer fire, as the Indian archer units have to turn left to face the angle of your attack, and the AI just stacks them up behind one another. I still took a lot damage from their archery, there is no way of avoiding it completely, you just have to accept that you will take a lot of casualties and get stuck in. If you are afraid of it and delay, you will lose.

Paul59 wrote:The successful tactic was to make a rapid Frederickian (for those who are familiar with the SYW!) style oblique attack on the Indian left flank, and then roll them up from there.

Pah "Frederickian" indeed! He was a plagiarist!!

Flavius Vegetius Renatus recommends this as the best tactic in his Epitoma Rei Militaris written at the end of the 4th century AD. (You can see the relevant excerpt at the back of the rule book). And since Vegetius was very definitely a plagiarist, someone else must have written it down even earlier! (Sadly this original genius's work has been lost).

Hi Hendricus - sorry i didn't see your challenge , if you want ot re issue it i will gladly accept

FightingPoultry wrote:Hi Hendricus - sorry i didn't see your challenge , if you want ot re issue it i will gladly accept

I am fighting as the Macedonians atm so I set up a challenge for you as the Macedonians, let's see if your Phalanx has swift enough feet to croos the shooting range in the wink of an eye.

rbodleyscott wrote:

Paul59 wrote:The successful tactic was to make a rapid Frederickian (for those who are familiar with the SYW!) style oblique attack on the Indian left flank, and then roll them up from there.

Pah "Frederickian" indeed! He was a plagiarist!!

Flavius Vegetius Renatus recommends this as the best tactic in his Epitoma Rei Militaris written at the end of the 4th century AD. (You can see the relevant excerpt at the back of the rule book). And since Vegetius was very definitely a plagiarist, someone else must have written it down even earlier! (Sadly this original genius's work has been lost).

Epaminondas?

vakarr wrote:

rbodleyscott wrote:

Paul59 wrote:The successful tactic was to make a rapid Frederickian (for those who are familiar with the SYW!) style oblique attack on the Indian left flank, and then roll them up from there.

Pah "Frederickian" indeed! He was a plagiarist!!

Flavius Vegetius Renatus recommends this as the best tactic in his Epitoma Rei Militaris written at the end of the 4th century AD. (You can see the relevant excerpt at the back of the rule book). And since Vegetius was very definitely a plagiarist, someone else must have written it down even earlier! (Sadly this original genius's work has been lost).

Epaminondas?

True