ADLG - Game Report 323

Seleucid (42) vs Alexandrian Macedonian (39)

For my second game it was refight against Robin's Alexandrian Macedonian army, a redesigned and revamped army which was now up to 26 units against my 24. I was invited to defend in the mountains. The brush on the left and the impassable terrain on the right rather naturally constrained the battlefield for an infantry battle. I deployed the CinC to the left with his medium and light troops to contest the brush, while the foot and elephants swung round to face of against the enemy wall of pikes.

The CinC rather gamely let his lighter troops forward while he remained in the rear with the cavalry and his pikes. Meanwhile the remainder of the army advanced.

Both lines are well aligned, and it looks like it will not be a simple merging of the two lines but a series of disconnected clashes as bits of the line contact each other; where is the drill master when you need them?

Who should worry about alignment, it all comes together when you need it to. That is apart from the Thracians in the brush who have failed to impede their Thracian opponents at all!

In the first clash of pikes on the left of our line the elephant won its combat and advanced into the enemy position. At the same time the Seleucid heavy cavalry engaged their opponents and has damaged them. A sole light cavalry unit is protecting their flank from the enemy Thracians now happily playing in the brush.

The Seleucid heavy cavalry has soundly beaten their opponents and can now move into the backfield, although one of their numbers was forced to fight the Thracians as they emerged from the brush. The remainder of the enemy Thracians are now trying to move into our own rear. As for the infantry battle, the Macedonian pikes have destroyed one of our own pikes but it doesn't yet look like they can gain much advantage from it. The rest of the pikes have engaged; a whole lot of shoving going on!

In this battle the Seleucid Thracians destroyed one enemy pike block thanks to their two-handed cutters. While the rest of the overlaps we had won were able to manoeuvre against the flanks of the Macedonian pikes and destroy them. The highlight of the battle, but not from Robin's perspective, were the Seleucid Light cavalry which destroyed two of the three enemy Thracians emerging from the brush without taking any losses

themselves.

Outcome

A Seleucid victory losing 20 of 24.

Lessons Learnt

A game of "ifs" for both of us; if my heavy cavalry hadn't won so quickly; if Robin's Thracians hadn't been held and then defeated by the light cavalry.

Can I make the CinC a strategist?