It's been a while since the four of us (Steve, Martin, Keith and I) got together so it was great to meet up for another weekend's gaming. To not waste any precious gaming time, apart from the Friday evening which was, as tradition demands, spent down the pub, the first game was already set up and ready to go - see here.
We diced off to determine the order in which each of us got to choose which command we would take in the game: the right of left half of the Seleucid and Ptolemaic armies. I went second and snapped up the power Seleucid right which surprisingly wasn't the first one picked.
So, on to the game - the account of which will focus on the wing where I was busy and thus didn't see much of what was happening on the other wing.
The Battle of Panion 200BC
The Ptolemaics won the toss for initiative at the start and let the Seleucids take the first turn; this meant their movement distances were all halved[1]. The right wing under my command, with a plentiful supply of PIPs, moved forward as far as it could; Steve commanding the left wing was more cautious as the enemy had an edge in troops on that side of the field.
In their first turn the Ptolemaic left (Keith), facing me decided that boldness was the option and advanced his whole command. This boldness perhaps went too far when he also decided not to delay the clash with my superior cavalry but charged right in (action nearest the camera).
I thought he was committing suicide, especially as my cavalry were all uphill of his, but the results were disappointing (to me), with one draw and the other unit only being forced to recoil.
On the other flanks things were going much slower ...
The next turn saw my wing close in the centre and the cavalry (and cataphracts!) charge in, and this time they destroyed both of the opposing units (posed as running away for the photo below).
This, was how I had imagined it would be in my dreams.
In reality, it was primarily driven by my rather good dice rolling and Keith's poor combat throws, which were going to be the other theme running through the game.
While the Ptolemaic right seethed with frustration over a paucity of PIPs ...
... the battle on their left got into full swing with pretty much all units being engaged, apart from the excess Seleucid cavalry now seeking to the Ptolemaic left flank.
After further moves the armies on the Seleucid left still had not come to blows.
By contrast, Antiochus III had led his battalion of the phalanx to burst all the way through the opposing pike[2], but was still a long way from breaking anything.
The next bit of excitement on my wing was the destruction of a Ptolemaic mixed spear and elephant unit. This meant, thanks to my rule changes[3], that before being removed elephant would rampage through all in its path, starting with the light infantry directly behind it.
But light infantry are meant to elephant killers, and so it proved, with the rampage being stopped almost before it had begun.
With the demise of this spear and elephant unit, and the defeat of the remaining cavalry on that wing, the flank of the main Ptolemaic phalanx was left fully exposed.
The writing on the wall was pretty clear at this point, and so it proved with the combat between the light troops on the Seleucid left / Ptolemaic remaining indecisive while the Ptolemaic phalanx shorn of flank protection was hit from all sides and promptly collapsed.
All-in-all, a pretty good match to the account on which this battle was based.
Post Mortem
While the set-up and rules threw up a few issues, it was fast and furious, and fun. All was finished, and the troops returned to their shelves[4] before lunch.
The set-up favoured the Seleucids, but that was historical and deliberate although the dice Gods clearly decided to back a winner and my combat dice were consistently better than Keith's.
On the other side of the battle, I had not given enough thought to how the Ptolemaic force was deployed, and Martin was hampered by a command that needed a lot of PIPs to get moving. Again, the dice amplified my errors, as Martin's PIP die always seemed to roll low.Nonetheless it was a fun and fast game, which was just what I was hoping for, allowing us to get on with setting up and playing the next game, a Lord of the Rings game using Dragon Rampant. But that will have to wait for the next post.
Notes:
[1] Using 6" grids, each equating to 100 paces, means troops move much further than they do in DBM and not limiting the movement of the side that goes first could result in the side that goes second finding itself pinned from the start against their baseline by the enemy's mounted troops. This rule means that troops should, except foot facing mounted, be able to meet up about half-way, PIPs permitting.
[2] Recoiling a whole grid square just doesn't feel right when it disrupts the phalanx as much as this. This is not helped by DBM ruling that pike will always pursue. I think I need to amend this for future games.
1 = it moves diagonally in a direction chosen by the opposing player.2-5 = it moves straight ahead.6 = it moves diagonally in a direction chosen by the owning player.
[4] Ikea Billy Oxberg bookcases with glass doors.
[5] Overlap cannot be provided by a unit in combat or in an enemy zone of control (ZOC).
