Persians and Greeks

A nice little game was played in the dark depths of winter recently. Geoff was the Greeks and Roger played the forces of the King of Kings, Xerxes. This historical match up also ended in a historical result; the Persians started well, looked sharped, deployed soundly, moved efficiently....and lost. It must be the '300' effect!

The Deployment: Greeks on the left, Persians on the right,

Ancients 28mm

Gaming has been very thin on the ground recently due to work commitments and the fact that I moved house and need to  reorganize the hallowed gaming space- there’s been no time to Blog, paint or play!!  That should be remedied soon – there wasn’t even time for my Big Christmas Bash- the first omission in 15 years! Disgraceful! I've managed to squeeze in a few games since December and will get around to adding them all.

 I got a quick ancients game in with Ross with my Republican Romans fighting with his Macedonians- a nice historical match. My Romans proved very adaptable, efficient and aggressive. The same could not be said for my generalship. Ross deployed his pikes in depth- historically correct. I deployed my Romans in checker board- historically correct. I put my cavalry on the flanks....right in front of his elephants. Oh sh*t.
I lost.
Something went wrong!
Besides my haphazard deployment , I committed my legionaries piecemeal and my cavalry got stopped by his bl**dy great elephants. Note to self for next time- don't lose.
Admittedly my Legions put up a good fight but it was my cavalry that took a beating. Ross neutralised my elephants with his light troops but I let my boys down by allowing his cavalry to ride my lights down and then expecting my cavalry to defeat his elephants. Stooopid. A narrow victory for the sage from the eastern suburbs......but I'll kick his ass next time.



My Legions- in the center of the picture my Hastati were pushing the pike block back....but it is at the top of the photo you can see my cavalry being swamped. 

Alex and Darius at Gaugemala

The lads got together for a game in early January in the understated elegance of my garage for our usual Christmas bash. It was decided that we would refight Alexander the Great's biggest stoush: Gaugemala. Using Armati we assembled over 900 infantry and around 300 cavalry. I think just about everybody had soemthing to contribute: Thanks guys!!Ralph was Darius and Nick played the ever aggressive Alex...something Nick has no worries about playing. Nick doesn't ask who they are ...but where they are! The above photo shows the initial deployment.

On the left flank of the Persians Phil initially found his light cavalry ridden down by the Thessalian cavalry commanded by Paul, but using his advantage in numbers he held and then counter attacked, driving the Greek allied cavalry from the field. The center was where the battle would be won and lost and true to form it was a bloodbath when the rampaging Hypaspists and the Companions broke through the first Persian line. Initally it looked like it would be a Macedonian walk over but the Persians fought on grimly. On the Persian left Roger fought a long drawn out conflict with the mercenary hoplites and other assorted cavalry commanded by Ross. In the center Ralph managed to get one of his heavy infantry units to wheel ( not all that easy under Armati) and slam several units of the Macedonian phalanx- commanded by Lochlainn- in the flank. The game was completed in 9 turns and took six hours to play on a very pleasant Saturday! With a Macedonian victory- and the death of 2 Macedonian commanders ..and ALL of the Persian senior officers except Darius.....it was a great afternoon- for the Macedonians anyway!!

Persian cavalry.

The Phalanx.

The Phalanx advances!!
Below: Persian skirmishers in front of the main battle line.

Alex with his Companions and the Hypaspists at the rear of the photo.

Another view of Alex hitting the Persian cavalry. In Armati the general's element is attached to the rear of the accompanying unit.
The center of the Persian line- with the horses of Darius' chariot in the foreground.

Greek mercenary hoplites clash with the phalanx in the left center.

The Persian heavy unit that hit the phlanax in the flank!!