Persians invade Aegyptus

Yesterday's game was the invasion of Egypt (Simon) by the Persians (Gordon and Mark). Since I didn't supply any of the figures, I don't know the army compositions in detail; suffice it to say that both sides had a load of mediocrity with a few good units in the mix. Simon allocated me the left wing of the Egyptian army, which is what is represented above. Our centre was lots of infantry, half with bows and half with spears, and our right was loads of light infantry. The Persian army was light on infantry, with many cavalry and skirmishers right across the board (I haven't shown these). Above is the deployment situation on my flank - I have no idea what was going on elsewhere (Egyptians in blue, Persians in red), apart from the sands running red. I had one unit of 12 Horse Archers (HA); one unit of 12 Medium Cavalry (MC); three units of heavy chariots, deployed in units of 3, then 2, then 3 models; and immediately to my right was a large unit of 18 Light Infantry in column, which was part of Billy's central command. Facing me, Gordon had two units of 8 Skythian Horse Archers (S1 and S2); behind them 12 Guard Heavy Cavalry (G) and a larger unit of 16 Persian Heavy cavalry (HC1); three large columns of Colonists (C1: 18 figures; C2: 18 figures; C3: 24 figures); and 36 mercenary Greek Hoplites in 3 ranks. The game was a draw overall, as both armies reached breakpoint in the same turn, which translates into a forced strategic withdrawal by the Persian invaders. The reason we "won", funnily enough, was because of developments in my sector as it linked with Billy to my right. Gordon came forward with his mighty host, albeit with the Hoplites lagging behind a bit. This meant contact right across our front before the Hoplites could get in on the act. Billy gave me more time by throwing in his Light Infantry, who died to a man. But it worked: I broke the big column of Colonist Cavalry (C3), and the Hoplites wavered; my chariots (C3) ploughed into them and drove them from the field. Admittedly, when the dust cleared, all I had left was that unit of chariots and a reserve of Light Cavalry with javelins (I haven't shown these - they did nothing all night). But we saved Egypt. Or at least, the Light Infantry did... At the same time as this was happening in Egypt, a large Carthaginian naval force was badly mauled by storms and so was unable to land and attack Sicily. Next week, a minor town no one has ever heard of called "Roma" (or something like that) will attempt to unify central Italia under its control.