ADLG - Game Report 207

Ptolemaic (43) vs Warring States (80)

One of the most important aspects of the day was that Tony was able to join us, and it was a pleasure to offer him an opponent for his Qin army. I was asked to defend in the plains. I used the same army that I had used earlier in the week against Robin. The terrain fell well for me and allowed me to place the camp in a cunning location. The feature to the right is a hill with a field on it.

On seeing the hordes in front of me I decided to withdraw the cavalry command from the right wing and redeploy it to the centre. To do so I decided to make space by moving the pikes forward; which was not necessarily a wise decision. Not least because the cavalry were relatively unencumbered as they moved across the field on the hill!

And herein lies the problem with moving the pike command forward. It is no longer anchored to the hill, and moreover the medium infantry are not in a position to help defend it and the Greek right flank.

It is left to some Cretan archers to provide some protection. The medium infantry at the end of the line has been overrun by being attacked in the flank and rear, but fortunately the other pikes have succeeded in breaking through and or turning to face the enemy. In the centre the Greek cavalry have charged forward to attack a bow unit and have ended being very much second best against them.

With the Thracians on the left and the Greek cavalry in the centre destroyed (including its commander) the battle is all but over, but while there is till life the Cretan bowmen continue to hold their ground.

Outcome

A Qin win by 9 to 24.

Lessons Learnt

A little better planning and execution would have seen me hold the hill with the medium troops and this preserve a strong centre and right.

There was clearly no need to move the pikes forward from their position.

Morevoer the Legionaries were relatively uncommitted the entire game because of the threat of the Qin heavy chariot.