Sunday 5 May 2013

Culture Shock In Greece

The Greeks have rebelled against their Macedonian overlords, and invited in the newly rising major power of Rome to try to avoid retribution.  The scene is set for another clash of civilisations - well, in so far as those western or nothern barbarians can be called civilised...
The first photo shows the left of the Roman army (me in charge): skirmishers and some Greek light horse and peltasts out to the left of the combined equites from the Roman expeditionary force.
Next up we have the legions, in their traditional triplex acies (consul Billy in charge).
To their right is the majority of the allied Greek contingent: a large medium phalanx, some heavy cavalry; thorakitai, light cavalry and skirmish slingers (Paul in command).
The Macedonian right, from my perspective: a powerful command of light horse, elite heavy cavalry, and thureophoroi, with expendables out front.  Simon is in charge of this lot.
Gordon is in command of the central phalanx, but the photo was pants so I won't bother.  Above is Willie in charge of the Macedonian left wing, which is basically a mirror image of Simon's troops.
I took the photo above from off to the left of my command.  The initial moves have been made.  I am hanging back to prolong the moment of contact for as long as I can, since I am weaker here than Simon on the other side.  The legions have advanced in the centre, and at the far end of the table you can just about make out our Greeks racing forward - our Paul has superiority of force there.
Romans versus phalanx - a meaty combination.
Paul's guys race into contact and lose spectacularly.  No gamer is immune from what we call the wild dice syndrome: occasionally a situation arises where your dice are rubbish in one part of the field, and the enemy's dice are spectacular, and the combination wipes you out.  Tonight it is the turn of the Greeks to feel the wrath of the dice Gods...
Back on my wing, my troops are selling their lives dearly.
The fight grinds on in the centre.  The much-vaunted Macedonian phalanxes are having a really bad time against the legions.
But the Greeks have all run away, leaving the Roman right hanging in the air.  Notice the hand of Fortuna hovering over the victorious enemy peltasts!
My guys are crumbling.  It looks as though the Romans are going to be on the receiving end of a double envelopment...
Having said that, the two rightmost legions are crushing every phalangite they can find.
But it's not enough, as the weaker enemy triumphs over the Greeks,  Or would do, if they could find any of them.  A victory for the Macedonians ensues, as they turn into the centre and destroy the legions at the cost of two entire divisions of the phalanx.  The Roman expeditionary force is no more, and the Macedonians return to Pella, muttering about horrific belly wounds caused by nasty swordsmen.  The field is clear for a proper Roman return, but only time will tell if that happens before the Macedonians regain their strength and get the Greeks first.  One thing is sure, the Romans now have nothing but contempt for Greek military capability!

Next up, though, is a break from the campaign as we take Chalons to Carronade this Saturday.  When we resume, the Indians will be trying to wipe out the last remnants of pro-Persian power; we'll probably use the Later Seleucid army for that one, given the date and place.  Sure should look pretty!


5 comments:

  1. Do I see one of the new tables there Paul? How did they work out?

    M.

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  2. Hi Michael, they worked very well - your spotting capabilities are most impressive! The one thing I would say is that the 6' length is slightly problematic for our tables at the side entrance (thinking of Gus here). A set of 5' tables would be perfect.

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  3. Hi Paul, very impressive!

    Could I ask, what's the software you use for doing your diagrams, please? Thanks Simon

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  4. Hi Simon, it's called Battle Chronicler:

    http://battlechronicler.com/

    It is a big clunky and has its limitations, but it does provide quite clean battle maps. It also has a built-in force points calculator, so if you use systems with points values it can come in quite handy.

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