01/20/07
Scenarios and Historical battles:
Tony Edward's refights the scenario
From: Anthony Edwards <aedwards@tripos.com>
Date: Tue Apr 24, 2001 1:07 pm
Subject: 2500 Chaeronea refight
I took Phillip, Bob took the Grecian alliance.
Roughly the armies were & were based from Jeff's web lists:
Phillip's Macedonian Host:
Phillip (general)
ASB
Prince Alexander, heading the companions
Parmenion, a strategos & Phillip's right hand man
8 companions
8 light cavalry
25 veteran phalanx
25 phalanx
25 phalanx
25 phalanx
15 peltasts
15 skirmishers w/ javelins
12 thracians
12 cretan archers
And that was my deployment, from left to right. The skirmishers
with javelins were out front screening my phalanxes. And my companions
were kept back as a reserve.
Greek League:
12 skirmish archers
12 skirmishers
15 peltasts
General
32 hoplite phalanx
32 hoplite phalanx
32 hoplite phalanx
32 hoplite phalanx
12 sacred band hoplites
12 skirmishers
6 peltasts
6 peltasts
6 peltasts
And thus was Bob's deployment, from my left to right.
His 6 man peltast units were all 'attached' and screening
a particular hoplite unit.
We used Jeff's map, hit the link below for details.
Chaeronea scenario
Unlike the real battle I advanced in a left echelon. Like the real battle Bob's hoplites
slowly crept forward as a line, unwilling to 'unachor' themselves from the terrain.
It was on my right flank that the real battle began - despite my cretan archers taking
careful aim on their skirmishing javelin counterparts the thracians decided to skip the
maneuvering formalities and charged
straight into battle. They drove off the skirmishers and followed through around to the
rear of the greek line (scaring the begeebes out of the Sacred Band in the process), but
apparently the great drive wore them out as they were easily rebuked by one of the hoplite
guarding peltast units. But the Cretans only smiled, as the insane barbarians cleared the
way for unhindered archery practice on the large shields of the Sacred Band.
On my left events were also happening according to plan. The light cavalry exploded
through the greek skirmishers and archers, and became engaged in a javelin chucking
contest with the big peltast unit. (That was useful because
the now-skirmishing peltasts could no longer threaten the flanks of my phalanxes.)
As the left echelon neared engagement Alexander led the companions forth to be in a
position to support. Phillip, as he actually did, joined with the left-most phalanx.
Now at this point I got a little carried away playing "Phillip" rather than
playing WAB. When the hoplite phalanx charged, the phalanx with Phillip fled. (I think
Jeff had a special rule for this but it was forgotten.) Naturally they rallied
immediately, but that left his phalanx free to move and kept mine from getting into
contact for a few rounds. Which screwed up the supporting unhindered companion charge I
normally would have done.
Thus, after winning the javelin contest and sending my light cavalry into the hills,
Bob was able to move his large Peltast unit directly in front of the Companions. That
blocked my charge into the flank of his hoplites. The remainder of our lines gradually
became frontally engaged, me moving my phalanxes forward once I realised the gig was
up. For three more rounds Bob was kept feeding peltast units to the companions (between
Alex and the wedge the peltasts were no match) keeping the companions from coming to
the aid of the incredibly hard pressed phalangites.
The combat was so fierce that even Parmenion went down to the prowess of the Athenian
general. But luckily Bob ran out of peltasts before I ran out of companions, and Alex was
able to deliver the killing blow into the rear of the Allied center.
Phillip, exhausted, simply smiled. That was incredibly close, and not quite like how
he remembered it happening. :)
I learned a good lesson last night - "reenacting" is fun and all but once the
dice start rolling you need to play the game. I had no reason to flee Phillip & co
as I already had my companions in position. I did it only because that is what
he did. The flight and recovery time really hurt me, mostly by giving Bob a little
bit more time to react to my attempt at rolling his lines. Not to mention I
fled like 11", meaning it now would take me two turns to get back into action. Had
I
charged immediately, both the companions and phalanx would have caught his
hoplites between a rock and a hard place, allowing me to simply roll up his line. As
it
was Bob almost managed to turn a poor start into a comeback, my hat goes off to him
for that. He quickly saw (with a little friendly prodding :) and capitalized on my
mistake.