Sunday 1 September 2013

Successors against Galatians

Finally, it feels as though we are getting back to something near normal.  I managed to take a full set of photos of our campaign game last Tuesday, as the Ptolemaic Successors mounted a counter-offensive against a large Galatian incursion into Syria:
First up is Willie, proud commander of the Galatian right flank, as seen from our side of the table behind the safety of the central phalanx.
The Galatian centre was a huge, deep mass of warriors.  Figures courtesy of Simon.
Their left wing was relatively sparse - some skirmishers and light horse skulking in the vicinity of a low hill.  There is no plan as such - it's obviously just going to be straight in with the warbands.
Above is a purely gratuitous shot of the loonies in all their glory - an impressive sight indeed.
I was deadly dull and boring.  I deployed the Ptolemaics in a sort of balanced array, with the pikes in the centre and two reasonably strong wings of horse and other types on each wing.  The shot above is from my perspective as commander on the right of the army.  David controlled our centre, and Gordon took the far side.
The armies close.  I charged on our right against my meagre opponents with a combination of light and medium horse.  I also threw our elephants straight towards the outermost warband.  The phalanx advanced en echelon and then the majority of it halted to await the inevitable loopy charge.  Gordon was just as aggressive on the far wing as I was on mine.
Gordon managed to use our endmost unit of pike to force the enemy chariots to retire, and swung both units of heavy cavalry into the centre towards the rather inviting flank of the infantry horde.  You can probably see what's coming...
I have cleared my flank, and attacked the Gallic infantry here with a combination of elephants to the front and medium cavalry in the flank.  This doesn't seem to bother them, though, and their morale holds out turn after turn as I grind them down.
The next warband in from my side is led by the chief loony in person, but I manage to slow him down a bit with judicious use of peltasts, the Ptolemaic sacrificial type of choice.  The rest of the pikes shrug off the main assault, and Gordon's heavy cavalry start to destroy everything in front of them.  Billy, in charge of the warbands, rolled really well for morale all evening.
However, the weight of Gordon's heavies was simply too much as they munched their way through the first warband...
...and then a second.  Game over for the Galatians, caught in a double cavalry envelopment.

Next up will be the Indians attempting to go further than they managed in real life, against those pesky Persian loyalists again.  Last time was an easy victory for the plucky defenders, but maybe their time is finally up...

5 comments:

  1. What a great sight, until the poor Gauls got the double pincer move. OUCH!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Nice report, beautiful and impressive armies. I was for the Galatians, but...

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  3. Thanks for dropping by, gents. Even though I was Ptolemy, I was rooting for the Galatians too - they are a colourful addition to our campaign, and it was good to see them on the table. Having said that, it was pretty obvious from the outset what was going to happen, but the brave Gauls' morale held for quite a while. All 240 of them massed together looked really impressive...

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  4. What a great battle and photos! Thanks for sharing :)

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