I had the Seleucids, under the noble
Philofilo, consisting of 20 pike, 4 Galates, 4 THorakitai, 2 Heffalumps,
3 Wheels-o-death, half a dozen Bactrians and sundry, and half a dozen Companions/Agema/Idiots
with pointy
sticks, plus a smattering of
javelin-armed & bow armed nuts.
My opponent, Q Caecilis Metallica, brought a truckload of legionnaires, both roman and latin, 4 spanish hilltribes, a dozen or so Cav, a couple of Numidians, and a _huge_ number of psychics (PsI :-) ).
The only real effect of DBM was in
the terrain as he was incursing into the Imperial domain of Alexander,
the choice of battlefield fell to me. He placed a small river down the
left flank, 600p from the table edge. I put a
village beside the river, a wood on
the far side of the board, outside his deployment area, and a couple of
irrelevant gentle rises, one in my deployment area, and one on the extreme
left edge of the table, beyond the
river.
I deployed my centre full of pike, with a screen of Pss, a right wing of KnF preceded by LhO & LhF, with an ambush of PsO in the wood edge, and a left wing of Aux, El, Exp, a couple of KtF, and 3 LH across the river. The village was filled with Ax, and 1 Wheel-o-Death lurking on the edge. My plan was the usual anti-Roman agenda: hang back in the middle, chew away at supports on the flanks., then take from front & rear.
The paterfamilias deployed a single line of BdO across the centre, covered his left wing with a second, echelon line of blade & Triarii spearmen, and his right wing of Spanish, Triarii, and a few PsO, facing the village. The main line was preceded by a line of PsI, and he massed his Cav behind the join of his centre and right wings.
On the right, my Psiloi amush delayed his wing briefly before expiring noisily. Meanwhile the Bactrians & Skythians sallied out, croaked a large number of Psiloi ( and a few of themselves through incaution at the same time), and gave the end element of Blades in teh centre a nasty fright. His main line ground forward relatively slowly, but a gap opened a bit between this and his left flank blades (held up by PS and LH action). My centre advanced at a stately waddle, just enough to keep the Galates happy, and the Romans interested.
On my left, the LH started marching up the river, but were delayed by a bunch of bowmen, who they mostly killed, but never got much further. The Scythed Chariot in the village lashed out and killed a Spaniard, then took the subgen & triarii line in flank: it died valiantly, disorganizing the triarii line and forcing 2 more spaniards to flee when it messily died. The mixed left flank rolled forward, causing a massive PIP drain for the cursing Philofilo. However, the remaining WHeels-o-death charged forward, croaking a stray Numidian, then died messily on the spears of the Triarii.
However, this further disorganized
& slowed his right wing, and a gap developed between it and the centre:
the general, Poly/Ester (the renegade Palestinian) led forward a force
of Elephants, javelinmen and lancers, to
try to further widen this. THe javelinmen
died rapidly to a small force of Numidians, but cleared enough of the Roman
lights to relieve the concerns of the mahouts. The ELephants then contacted
the end of the roman centre of Blades: I then discovered the disadvantage
of Tin Soldier (TM) figures - the Elephants' trunks projecting a good 20mm
beyond the front of the base, I was forced to reverse the model to show
contact - this occasioned much comment about the buttocks of death, &
being in the s**t again :) However, they crunched the end of the line easily.
Q Caecilius then led forward some Cav to try and slow the Elephants. Poly/Ester responded by driving his lancers into one group of them, while the Elephants lurched forward into Q Caecilius and his companion Cav. At the same time Philofilo lead the companions and lancers of the right wing in a charge to clear away the last of the Roman Left Wing Numidians and skirmishers. Q Caecilius himself died by bad luck: the howdah fell on him!
With that, the disheartened Roman centre,
seeing the field covered with young dead Romans (psiloi) decided that discretion
was the better part of valour, and sheathed swords: As this was the bulk
of the army, and both
wings had suffered some losses, the
Roman army disintegrated with scarcely a pilum tossed, or a sword drawn.
The puzzled Philofilo, muttering "But
I haven't charged yet!" decreed the erection of a statue on the spot where
Q Caecilius Metallica last drew breath, consisting of a pair of bronze
Elephant buttocks, and a small sign
(Beware of Falling Howdahs) to commemorate
the victory.
As a minimum, I'd like to see more
choice of invasion route for the attackers: eg Road following gentle hills
and/or gully, not just steep hills; and perhaps Road through brush or sand
dunes; and reduce the naval
requirement for the attacker to (eg)
half of max allowed - thus allowing to those without explicit naval strength
- for instance, invading Egypt & not following the Nile seems like
a fancy method of suicide; and large rivers
seemed to dictate so many invasion
routes that were customary - eg Tigris, Euphrates. when in Mesopotamia
Possibly a better method might be complete randomisation/ dice rolling for each piece of terrain? Dunno, this has memorably not worked in other sets of rules, I know, but might have possibilities.