A Seleucid/Antigonidish dust up.

Just liked the idea of using elephants and chariots so threw together nominal Seleucidish and Antigonidish armies - didn't bother about 'accurate' armies or balanced sides. For the table I just cleared a 4' frontage. As usual, rules were generally modifies DBA, to a degree the added ranks were more for show - pikes got a +1 for extra ranks but that's it. I gave 4Kn an extra factor, the Syrian 1 shot wonders a -1 plus needing 4/5/6 to stand if charged. I also used my usual tree system to mark which move I was on. A lot of the figures I used were from my original 70s armies - just wanted to give them a game - though with quite a few more recent additions.

Obvious tactics as each right flank tries to advance and left flank holds backs - more obvious with Antigonids at the bottom.

Move 2 the Antigonid and Seleucid centres are close.

Still a way to go on the other flank.

Initial contact one of the Seleucid chariots died...

But it's move 3 when things happen...

With contact right across the front.

The left flank Seleucid peltasts and Syrian archers die.

Some bouncing of Seleucids in the centre.

While the Seleucid right takes out the Thracians and light javelins. Crucially, the elephant is just pushed back so the flank just holds.

As can be seen here, that elephant is doing it's job - it's an effective block to the Seleucid right, while on the Seleucid left the Antigonids now have a free passage.

And on move 4 the Seleucid phalanx and elephant are in serious trouble while the Antigonid cavalry are coming around the back of the Seleucid army.

Two lots of light infantry from my mid 70s army - and the Antigonid Cretan archers lose to the Seleucid light javelins - only bright spot on the Seleucid left.

At this point the Seleucid centre and left are gone though the Seleucid right is still intact. At this point, seems reasonable to end things as an Antigonid victory.

 

Seleucid/Roman HC update

I've now painted and based the second unit of shielded javelin cavalry. Because I want to be able to use them for both Seleucid and Roman armies I've just given them plain shields - red shields can act as Roman cavalry, green shields as an Allied Italian contingent. Only reason for green shields is that I painted these at the same time as the Indian chariots - no sense in changing paints all the time. Although these two units are enough for my needs there is still my 'original' unit waiting in the wings of course.

I've added standard bearers to both units. Difficult conversion - crossbar cut from a spear and paper flag. Again, I've left them in plain colours. If I did do a third unit I would probably give them blue shields.

Both units consist of a command element and four three figure bases - the command element being present to act as general or subordinate general, the other four elements make up my 'standard' 12 figure unit (standard non-Garrison I should add - most of my Garrison cavalry units are 24 figures.)

Seleucid/Republican Roman Heavy Cavalry

As I think I've mentioned a few times before my various Macedonian armies were (still are) a mess. This is really, really true of the cavalry... Started with shieldless javelin cavalry, added drawing pin shields, then replaced unit with actual shielded, then went to kontos armed... and that's just my Companion cavalry.

So now I'm doing a resort.

The last version of my Successor cavalry have already made an appearance on this blog. However, the heavies are kontos armed, usually Successor heavies are javelin/shield. They can be seen next to a unit of Lamming cataphracts.

So, time to rebuild the javelin/shield force. The first picture shows the 'original' unit - should be 15 strong, some AWOL - followed by a unit I've just painted. I've enough figures to do another unit but still scraping together the 'right' horses.

The 'new' unit have been given red uniforms and plain red shields so they can double as Romans.

 

These are early PB figures - shorter, thicker spear/javelin, cast on horse furniture (means I should have used 'S' Range horses instead of PB).

The longer, thinner spears on my earlier unit shows that they were a slightly later production figure. Not sure what to do with these - try and find the rest I suppose!

 

So at least one other unit still to come, plus some light cavalry - again, the light cavalry are in a bit of a mess. I'm painting some up now so they should be ready in a few days.

Peltasts 2 - the Mercenaries

The standard wargames LTS,J,Sh peltast of the 70s...

This lot started life as 8  psiloi back in the 70's. With a few exceptions, most of my Hellenistic troops wore red tunics.

These ones are ex Harry. Nice shield patterns. I'll probably use these in my Successor armies rather than Alexandrian ones as they carry the thureos. Poor logic as the PB Thracians also carry the thureos.

 

As these ones have pelta rather than thureos, these will find themselves fighting for Alexander.

 

Let battle commence - Seleucid v Antigonid

With the initial rush of orders sorted I managed to pack the casting equipment under the table, dust the table down and start thinking about a game...

Didn't want to put the desert cloth over the table so that limited it to battles involving the Greek/Macedonian/Persian armies.  I grabbed a copy of DBA (turned out to be version 1.1!) and decided on early Seleucid v Antigonid.

It was a very unplanned, ad hoc affair. I grabbed some terrain, placed it with a tree line to mark one edge - basically to make it a 4x4 rather than 6x4 table - then started getting troops together. As I started sorting the Seleucids first, they got the far edge, placed as I got them out. Same with the Antigonids - out they came, oin they went. Bit of fine tuning then thought about what I would do with each side.

The Seleucid force was 3x3Kn, 1x2LH, 4x4Pk, 2xEl, 2x2Ps. Both armies had the general as a Kn element. I went for a slightly traditional setup - strong right flank cavalry, elephants as a link, then phalanx with left flank protected by the lights.

The Antigonid force consisted of 1x3Kn, 1x3Cv, 1x2LC, 6x4Pk, 1x4Aux, 1x2Ps, 1xEl. The Antigonids also had a strong cavalry right flank. The open centre was covered by the phalanx while the wood would be defended by the 4Aux. The elephant and 2Ps covered the left flank. This to me seemed to be a stronger defensive force than the Seleucids so acted accordingly.

This shows the two forces facing each other.

The battle started with Seleucid Right and Centre advancing as the Left held back. They started first. The Antigonids meanwhile took up their defensive central position as the cavalry headed towards the Seleucid Left.

Here, the Seleucids are trying to push the cavalry through while basically holding/avoiding  the  superior Antigonid phalanx. The Seleucid phalanx is meanwhile deploying to thwart the Antigonid cavalry movement.

Both sides elephants got pushed back (I forgot the rule that Knights should follow up ) while the Antigonid cavalry get stuck in on the Seleucid Left Flank.

This is where things went wrong for the Antigonids... the rules about conforming left the Antigonid General in an awkward position...

He promptly threw a 1 and got pushed back onto the Light Cavalry... dead General... and then the Seleucid phalanx took out the Cv element (the 4Aux were too far away to stop this flanking attack). Two elements lost including the General, Seleucid had only lost one element earlier... game over.

I should have taken a better photo to show the Cv element in it's phalanx sandwich!

An enjoyable little action. Everything seemed to flow naturally. The Seleucids got a bit bogged down on their Right, the Antigonids were unfortunate to throw a couple of 1s at the wrong time. The end was very sudden and I didn't expect it, so that worked well.

Now, what next - and when?