Gaugamela

Version 1.0
Modified 01/20/07

The Right Flank at Gaugamela
(A Scenario for WAB)
By Jeff Jonas

The battle of Gaugamela was the decisive clash between Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Alexander's forces blunted all of Darius' attacks, and he then launched an unstoppable charge that caused the Persian King to flee and his huge army collapsed around him. Later Darius was assassinated and Alexander assumed the throne of Persia.

The battle itself was a huge affair even if the outrageous claims of historians are reduced. My Historical Macedonian OOB Gaugamela puts the Macedonian strength at near 48,000, the Persian force could have exceeded 150-200,000 and up to 40,000 cavalry, even if we discount the millions credited to them. In any event playing out Gaugamela at a scale of 1:100 is a challenge, the thousands of figures and large area needed defers this to the occasional "club" game where players may pool their armies and play in a large room with maybe a twenty four foot table! (Been there done that!).

This scenario is an attempt to allow the player to recreate some of the hardest fighting at Gaugamela, between the Macedonian right flank guard and the Persian attempt by Bessus to surround them, break into the phalanx's rear and stop Alexander's attack cold. Alexander's forces were extremely thin initially and held masses of heavily armored Persians at bay long enough for him to determine the weak spot in the Persian main battle line, and get his forces close enough to charge and overwhelm Darius before he could react. The right wing troops did hold but their efforts were costly (possibly the heaviest casualties in the whole battle were suffered here), an example of which was the 16 arrow wounds suffered by the Greek officer Menidas in the vanguard.

Not only is this a decisive sector, but it is also a decent sized tabletop game that can be played in a reasonable time frame, but the game will still need a lot of cavalry figures, especially to fill out the Persian host!

The Scenario

The scenario is a Pitched battle.
This game can be played with 2000+ points.
The AoA lists may be used or my Macedonian and Persian lists.

Deployment:
Both sides may deploy in their designated deployment zones.

The Persian player will place all the troops of the "Light Wing" in their deployment zone. The Macedonian player then places all the troops of the "Vanguard" in his deployment zone. Roll high die to determine who goes first.

The Persian player must bring on the "Heavy Wing" on turn two. Each regiment may be placed anywhere on the Persian baseline in their deployment zone. Units may charge on the turn they are placed.
After turn one, the Macedonian player may bring on the "Lancers". Starting on turn two the "Reserves" may arrive on a D6 roll of 6+ they will arrive immediately.
On turn three they will arrive on a 4+, and on turn four they arrive automatically.

All these reinforcements are placed on the baseline of each side's deployment zone.

Game play will last 7 turns, after the 7^th turn the Macedonian will roll a D6 at the start of each turn, on a 4+ the game continues, 1-3 night falls and the game ends.

Victory:
The Persians gain 200 victory points for every unit of the "Heavy Wing" that exits off the Macedonian baseline in the Red tinted area. Doing so would have resulted in Alexander having to divert troops from his decisive attack to deal with this break through, this could have resulted in Darius gaining enough time to react to Alexander's moves and make the overall battle more hotly contested!

Forces:
The Macedonian forces may be drawn from my Macedonian list or the AoA list. The quantities below follow roughly a 1:50 scale for the Macedonian force, the Persians are slightly less rigid in their "scale" to represent combat effectiveness. (Points below are from AoA except for the sub leaders).

Macedonian Right wing forces:

"Vanguard"
1 Menidas (General or Commander) @ 185.0 pts 150.0 pts
Warhorse, Thrusting Spear; Heavy Armor; Army General

1 HIPPARCH (Ariston of the Paeonians)...... 50 points
Warhorse, Light armor, Throwing spear javelins

10 Greek Heavy Cavalry (Greek list) @ 190.0 pts
Leader; Musician; Thrusting Spear; Heavy Armor

6 Paeonians (Elite Light Cavalry) @ 148.0 pts
Leader; Musician; Throwing Spear; Javelin; Light Troops; Skirmish

10 Agrianians (Peltasts) @ 75.0 pts
Leader; Javelin; Shield; Light Troops; Skirmish

12 Macedonian Archers (Mercenary Skirmishers) @ 72.0 pts
Bow; Skirmish

"Lancers"
1 HIPPARCH (Aretes of the Lancers)...... 50 points
Warhorse, Light armor, Kontos

6 Lancers (Elite Light Cavalry) @ 153.0 pts
Leader; Standard; Musician; Kontos; Light Troops; Skirmish

6 Lancers (Elite Light Cavalry) @ 153.0 pts
Leader; Standard; Musician; Kontos; Light Troops; Skirmish

"Reserves"
1 TAXIARCH (Cleander of the Mercenary Hoplites)...... 48 points
Thrusting spear, Large Shield, Light armor

24 Hoplites (gk) @ 298.0 pts
Leader; Musician; Thrusting Spear; Light Armor; Large Shield; Phalanx

24 Hoplites (gk) @ 298.0 pts
Leader; Musician; Thrusting Spear; Light Armor; Large Shield; Phalanx

12 Peltasts (gk) @ 89.0 pts
Leader; Javelin; Shield; Light Troops; Skirmish

Total Army Cost: 2380.0

Persian Left wing forces:

"Light Wing"
10 Scythians (Scythian/Dahae Cavalry) @ 150.0 pts
Dagger; Javelin; Parthian Shot; Skirmish

10 Dahae (Scythian/Dahae Cavalry) @ 190.0 pts
Dagger; Composite Bow; Javelin; Parthian Shot; Skirmish

10 Bactrian Light cavalry (Skirmish Cavalry) @ 130.0 pts
Dagger; Javelin; Parthian Shot; Skirmish

10 Arachosians (Skirmish Cavalry) @ 130.0 pts
Dagger; Javelin; Parthian Shot; Skirmish

"Heavy Wing"
1 Bessus (General) @ 140.0 pts
Thrusting Spear; Javelin; Light Armor; Warhorse, Barding; Army General.

20 Skythian/ Nobles (Bactrian/Noble Cavalry) @ 455.0 pts
Leader; Standard; Musician; ShortBow; Thrusting spear, Javelin; Light Armor; Barding (Levies)

20 Bactrian Nobles (Bactrian/Noble Cavalry) @ 435.0 pts
Leader; Standard; Musician; Thrusting Spear; Javelin; Light Armor; Barding (Levies)

20 Massagetai (Shock Cavalry) @ 335.0 pts
Leader; Standard; Musician; Javelin; Light Armor; Barding (Levies)

10 Skirmishers @ 50.0 pts
Javelin; Shield; Skirmish (Levies)

Total Army Cost: 2400.0

The actual battle:
Darius had ordered Bessus to send his light cavalry to turn Alexander's flanking movement. Bessus energetically followed this order and sent the light horse Bactrians and Scythians to the front. Alexander countered by sending the newly arrived and untested Greek Mercenary horse to stop the Persians from turning the line. Menidas charged and scattered the light horse but the Dahae and other horse archers peppered them with bowfire, the Greeks with help from the Paeonians were just able to hold them back. Meanwhile Alexander was hustling forward the "Veteran" Mercenaries under Cleander to help build a wall of phalanx's to stop the Persians cold, immediately in hand he sent half of the Agrianians and the "Macedonian archers" out to support the cavalry.
Bessus arrived with his armored Bactrians followed by the Massagetai and Menidas' cavalry was overwhelmed, falling back along with the Paeonians covered by the Peltasts. Bessus sent some of his force to his left to further turn the Macedonian flank (some say to attempt to rescue Darius's mother in Alexander's camp), and the rest bore down on the fleeing Greeks. Alexander ordered his last cavalry reserve, the lancers under Aretes to charge the Bactrians, and squadron by squadron in their compact wedges they were able to stop the larger Bactrian brigade. The rest of Bessus's cavalry plowed through the clouds of swirling dust, but suddenly came upon the massed phalanx's of Cleander which had formed a new line in echelon which anchored Alexander's flank. The heavy horsemen could not dent these troops and backed off, the Paeonians and the Lancers were holding the rest of the Bactrians at bay further to the right flank. Peltasts, Agrianians, and the archers solidified the line, and the Persian threat began to wane. Menidas and his decimated Greeks fell back behind Cleander.
Eventually more Persian cavalry drifted towards Bessus' attack, whether by order or just the natural tendency of cavalry to become impetuous! This thinned their front or even created the fateful gap that Alexander threw his Elite Companions and Hypaspist into and snatched victory from what seemed stalemate or even defeat just moments before. Alexander's attention to this right flank action is a shining example of his generalship, his 'feeding' of just enough troops into it to stave off being overrun, and yet to preserve enough troops to maintain his decisive charge shows how tight a balancing act he had to manage to pull off such a decisive victory, a true master tactician.
Once the decisive stroke had driven off Darius, Alexander turned and crumpled up Bessus' right wing, which soon turned and fled when they realized their King had fled once again. Many of Bessus' wing escaped unpursued as Alexander turned yet again and rode to aid Parmenio's endangered troops.

I really want to hear your comments and criticisms. If you use this list for a game please give me any details you can!

JJartist@earthlink.net

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Created by Jeff Jonas 9/00