I elected to take Alexandrian Macedonian as I had the army and I thought it had a good degree of flexibility. My list for all games was an IC, 2 x TC, 1 x 8 Pike, 2 x 10 Pike, 1 x 10 Sup Pike, 2 x 8 Thracians with HW, 1 x 6 LF Jav, 1 x 4 LF Sling, 1 x 4 LH Jav, 1 x 4 Sup Armd Cav, LSp, Sw & 2 x 4 Sup Armd Cav Lance, Sw. All troops are Avg unless stated. The pike are mainly in 10s as I expected to be outnumbered in pike and the impact from Romans was likely to result in base losses so this made my pikes a little more resilient.
Game 1 was vs Classical Indian so a good historical match up. Chad’s army was as follows: 6 x 2 Elephants, 1 x 4 Cav, 1 x 6 Poor LF Bow, 1 x 8 MF Lsp Sw, 2 x 8 & 3 x 6 MF Prot Bow, 1 x 4 Sup Hvy Ch Bow. I think the generals were 2 x FC & 1 TC
I won initiative and elected for Agricultural which included a Coast to reduce the table size. The Indians are typically linear and my last batch were my cavalry and I think Chad was a little discomforted to see so many quality cavalry on my right flank. My left flank was anchored on the coast with Thracians in an enclosed field linking with the cavalry wing.
I moved first and attacked on both flanks whilst holding back in the centre.
The LF slingers & Thracian LH combined well to shoot off a base of the opposing Indian cavalry.
Chad started to move some Elephants across to counter my cavalry whilst moving his Chariots into the centre.
Chad’s flank was under pressure and I pushed the Thracian MF forward to engage an Elephant BG. The other MF BG headed for the safety of the field as the chariots got closer. On my left my Sup Pike were making a bee line for the Elephants and archers with the other pike in echelon behind. Chad was trying to bring to bring his archery to bear and a couple of my BGs went disrupted.
The Thracians hit the Elephants and expanded into the archers alongside. On the left the Sup Pike hit the elephants and archers.
Chad was unlucky with death rolls and after the melee round both Elephant BGs had lost a base and were routing. On my right Chad’s MF Jav BG disrupted and was then burst through by a routing elephant. Despite repeated efforts Chad would be unable to rally them for the remainder of the game.
The Chariots decided they wished to charge before their bow fire had any effect and promptly lost a base at impact.
Unfortunately for me the remaining 3 chariots delivered 5 hits in the melee and the pikes disrupted. In the following round they dropped to fragmented even though help was almost at hand.
Back on my left and the Superior Pikes kept going to hit another BG of archers.
The supporting pikes also hit home and Chad’s flank was disintegrating. 4 BGs had been removed or were in rout with another fragmented due to being shot down by the LF.
The game is now almost over. The Thessalians are poised to charge the fragmented MF whilst the Indian cavalry and LF have also been routed. The Elephant BG is effectively surrounded and neutralised. A very similar situation will occur in game 6.
At game’s end I had lost another BG to fragmented and I think the score is 32-6 so a vey good start to the weekend. Elephants in 2’s are still very fragile but more effective in 3’s if permitted. Tactically this was probably my best game of the weekend as you will see later.
