Hydaspes at Claymore

A little belatedly, perhaps, but then I've just come back from another trip to England. Cheltenham, to be precise - a bit more on that another time...

First up is the Macedonian right wing, taken from the Indian side. Companions. Lots of Companions, led in person by that nasty wee man from somewhere to the north of Greece proper. I bet the Indians were hoping he would have drunk himself to death before getting this far. Oh, and some of the supporting cast: light cavalry and Hypaspists, led by one Seleukos.

The start of the pikemen, with many skirmishers out front. The eagle-eyed will spot a little counter in front of the heavies in this command. This is to denote that they cannot move on Turn One.

The second pike command. This lot can't move for two turns.

The final command: Thracians, Hoplites, and Greek heavy horse. These won't move until Turn Three. I have found by experience that putting troops onto a table in a game this size interrupts the flow, so rather than do that, I've paced them all on to start with, but with specified delays to simulate the command arrivals in the Macedonian army. This will also help to show the echelon advance.

Now for the opposition. This is the right wing of the Indian army, facing the guys in the previous photo. Skirmishers, elephants and massed foot.

More of the same in the Indian centre.

Their left: massed chariots backed up by mediocre cavalry.

We didn't have enough cars to cart everything we would need for the portable sand table as well as the figures, so Willy provided some distressed polystyrene tiles and used some sand to fill in the gaps.  The scenario is the one we used at Carronade, with all 21 elephants on the table this time. It looked rather splendid - 25mm, of course, almost all painted by Simon.

This is how it all looks from the one flank. Indians to the left, Macedonians at the right, with the commands in echelon. We were hoping to put the large ridges I made previously here to denote rising ground and give a sensible boundary to the action, but again lack of space was an issue. Not that it really matters - it's just for aesthetics. The goos thing about the light-coloured boards is that they really helped with the photography.

A gratuitous close-up from Porus' position.

A table-level shot from the extreme right of the Indian army.

I sort of ran the Indian army, with Alan in charge of Porus and the left wing. Alexander's deployment is the perfect way to destroy a ponderous Indian army: load up one flank with the cream of the strike force, crush the enemy there, then turn in and roll up the rest. Having played the game a couple of times previously, I thought that the best thing the Indians could do was hold as long as possible on the left, and charge forwards with everything else in the hope that weight would prevail somewhere else on the field. The photo above shows the left wing after the first move or so.

The elephants charge forward, with the infantry keeping a respectable distance. I am hoping to catch the leftmost of the currently advancing phalanxes with two elephant units. If I get lucky with Impetus here, the foot should be able to finish off what the elephants begin.

The rightmost portion of the Indian army also advances as fast as possible. It is unlikely that these will have the time to be able to do much, due to the Macedonian echelon, but it's worth a try.

How it all looks at this point from the open flank.

The Macedonians start to grind their way through the forces on the Indian left. Ports waits patiently on his large nellie, purchased from a prime dealer with the barbarous-sounding name of Aventine. Apparently they are from off to the west somewhere.

A very successful elephant charge in the centre. The puffs of smoke denote successful Impetus attacks, or copious amounts of elephant gas...

The centre right of the Indian army approaches the rest of the Macedonians as quickly as possible.

Another sideview of the whole field.

The photo above clearly shows how far the Indian centre has advanced, while the left remains engaged.

The elephants continue to do lots of damage as the remainder of the phalanx advances.

At the far right of the Indian army, the Greek cavalry threaten a wide sweeping move while the Thracians try to hold up more of the elephants.

The usual side shot.

The left wing is cracking.

The centre at the same time. It looks as though even the hoplites are going to get into action in this refight.

Sideshow.

The viewpoint of Porus. The Macedonians are inevitably making headway, but the reserve elephants under the direct command of Porus are in a good position to stop their advance, at least for a while. Porus starts chucking javelins, to great effect.

In the centre, the elephants are running out of steam as both sides deal out the damage.

At the far right of the Indian army, the Thracians are having a bad time against elephants.

The Greeks continue to sweep around the far right flank with their cavalry.

More initial success for the elephants as they crash into the hoplites. This battle has been the most successful I've seen for elephant Impetus - almost every Macedonian unit failed to hold firm.

However, it can't last, and gaps begin to appear as the massed pikes finally take their toll - but not without grievous cost to themselves. One of the victorious units above has only one hit left out of a possible 21.

On the left, Porus leads the reserve into combat in person. And promptly dies. A great roar goes up from the opposition, which leads to an embarrassing moment as everyone else in the hall turns round to see what on earth is going on. And, totally by chance, a ray of light beams down directly onto his spot on the table. Zeus obviously approves.

Elsewhere, the elephants have finally been cleared out of the way.

One lone unit does manage to break through after stomping the Thracians, only to succumb to a hail of arrows from the Macedonian skirmishers. They had retired behind the main lines to wait for just such an opportunity.

And so, purely by chance, we achieved a historically accurate replay. The elephants did vast amounts of damage before being destroyed; the Macedonians crushed the Indian left wing; and Porus was carried from the field before the Indian foot engaged. Some unnamed Companion got lucky with his sarissa; if that hadn't happened, the Macedonians would probably still have won, but at least one phalanx would have gone down.

Hydaspes at Carronade

On the portable sand table, no less:

A side shot of the whole thing looking towards the river in the distance. The unit cards show tasteful photos of the various killers, along with their game stats. I made these in case we ended up with people playing who didn't know the rules, although Tactica is elegant enough that really you don't need them. We removed them for game play and further photos.

The Indian right: elephants with skirmishers out front and massed foot behind.

The Indian centre: more of the same.

The Indian left: chariots out front with cavalry behind, egged on by Porus and his own elephant unit. Simon supplied almost the entire Indian army, almost all by Irregular miniatures (25mm). There were 20 elephants in total.

Companions led in person by that nasty wee man Alexander, fronted by horse archers and light cavalry. This lot comprises the Macedonian right punch, and is facing off against the chariots.

The Macedonian centre right: a large block of Hypaspists led by a certain Seleukos, then three taxeis of the phalanx. Agrianes and archers out front.

Next up sees another two phalanx units, and then the Macedonian left (above): Greek hopes, Thracians and heavy cavalry. Unlike the Indians, the Macedonians are deployed en echelon, leading with their right. Figures supplied by Simon, Willie, Gordon and Graham, with a few by me.

 Another side shot of the whole thing, this time from the Macedonian right and with the unit cards removed. I hope you can make out the relative deployments. Macedonians to the left as you look at it. The idea is that the Macedonians move out in order, starting from their right, with the various commands activating n a cascade. Technically most of the army isn't meant to be on the field yet, but it's much easier at a show to try to place them in advance - less hassle for later. We were helped by the 6' table depth, and by deliberately setting the Indians quite far back on their side.

A gratuitous close-up of the horrible little man and his superb cavalry.

A photo taken from the other end of the field after a couple of turns - I hope you can see how the echelon is working.

The fight is on, and the Indians have thrown some of their reserve cavalry wide. At the bottom left of the picture you can see some of the foliage I bought from Hugh on the day - useful!

A long shot, again from the other flank, of the developing battle.

Phalanx against elephants. The dust clouds denote extra impetus effect. Not that it matters - Billy is running the pikemen and he is clearly favoured by the dice gods. I like this photo - it shows Gordon's newly painted phalangites in action. Meanwhile, on the Macedonian right, the Companions have broken through. Even though they are being led by Alexander, though, they go tearing off in pursuit. This will stop them turning in and rolling up the Indian army for a while.

On the other wing, the Greeks are taking on the elephants. I was quite pleased about this - the previous time we played this scenario, it was all over before this point. I have beefed up the Indians a bit to make it more of a game based on that experience.

A slightly elevated shot taken from the same place at the same time - a lot of combat!

Alexander has rallied the Companions from pursuit and is riding like a madman for the Indian left rear.

Back to the other side of the table. The elephants here died under the combined onslaught of Thracians and cavalry - the latter, although badly mauled, have just gone into the flank of an Indian unit fighting the hoplites. It's looking like a double envelopment.

More fighting in the centre. The changes to the Indian army have made sure that the elephants are lasting a bit longer this time.

Rampaging elephants. This was quite funny - they found a gap in between victorious bits of the phalanx and did a runner. At the top of the photo you can see the impending arrival of Alexander and his pals.

Poros fights on bravely, taking on the Hypaspists as well as some of the Companions!

Well done to Colin for constructing the portable sand table, and for providing the flock to lighten it up a bit. Several people commented on how good it looked, especially since it makes the flat plain look interesting. We also had the river and foliage down one side, and some hills down the other t represent high ground off in the distance. It made it a bit more interesting. Hoping to take the game to Claymore in August.