Seleucus and Lysimachus Reprise

Yesterday was a refight of the Early Seleucids match up against Lysimachus. The latter's army in blue:

LI: 12 Peltasts in two ranks

LC1-3: 8 Light Cavalry in two ranks

X1 and X2: 12 Xystophoroi elite heavy lancers in two ranks

E1 and E2: 2 Elephants

P1: 32 Elite Phalangites in four ranks

P2 and P3: 32 Veteran Phalangites in four ranks

WB1 and WB2: 36 Thracian warriors in six ranks

T1 and T2: 18 Thracian medium cavalry in three ranks

SI1: 12 skirmish archers

SI2: 12 skirmish slingers

SI3: 10 skirmish javelinmen.

The Seleucids in red:

P1-4: 12 Light Infantry in two ranks (peltasts)

T1 and T2: 8 Tarantine light cavalry in two ranks

C1-C3: 12 elite Xystophoroi heavy lancers in two ranks

E1 and E2: 2 Elephants

Ph1-3: 24 Elite Phalangites in three ranks

Ph4 and Ph5: 36 Veteran Phalangites in three ranks

Sk1 and Sk2: 8 Skything light horse archers in two ranks

A1 and A2: 10 skirmish archers

J1 and J2: 8 skirmish javelinmen

Terrain was some rough ground in front of the Lysimachid right and a long stretch of rolling hills across the centre, closer to Seleucus.

The Seleucid commanders were myself on the left; Billy in the middle; and Mark on the right. I was facing Simon. Billy matched up against William, and Mark was playing Gordon. We won, according to the end result, as a major victory, because we only lost one unit of Skythians, two units of Peltasts, and one of the Elephant units. However, the tally does not tell the whole story. We advanced all along the front, intending to take possession of the hills and use our strong wings to envelop the enemy. They spotted this well in advance, and advanced their right and centre to deny us; their left held back a little. On my flank, the enemy lancers became bogged down against waves of light troops, along with my sole unit of Xystophoroi. The elephants effectively cancelled each other out on this flank, and it all ended up with my lancers poised to take the Lysimachid phalanx in the flank. On our right, Mark slowly but surely devoured all in front of him. Our superiority in light troops told as the Lysimachid elephants there took 50% losses before being engaged and quickly destroyed by our elephants. The left of their phalanx was now exposed, and our rightmost elite phalanx took full advantage. This won us the game, deciding what had become a real grudge match across the infantry centre; every single one of our frontally engaged phalanxes was close to breaking by the time the enemy centre caved in due to pressure from our right.