Raphia...almost!

 Today we replayed Raphia - the great battle in 217BC between the Seleucids and Ptolemaics, part of the long wars of the Diadochi (Successors) of Alexander the great.

Tony had been painting overtime to get the armies ready, but he didn't finish a block of Seleucid Pikemen, so substituted an equal points unit of Line Cavalry , and he forgot to pack a unit of Asiatic bow armed skirmishers, so the Ptolemies discarded one of their light archer units.

The Seleucids got to be 'attacker' so went first each turn.

Tony sorting the armies! and after correcting the small deficiencies!!!

Gotta love his painting, the Seleucid elephant was spectacular!

Phil took the Seleucid left, with the Companions (Hetairoi) some Skythians and Asiatic archers.

The Seleucid centre had the Pikemen and that Elephant!

Tony had the 2 units of Line Cavalry and the Argyraspides (Elite Pikemen), he also had some Thracian peltasts and a unit of Galatians.

Facing Tony, Lawrence had the Cleruch elite cavalry, the Ethikoi (Light Cavalry), Agema pikemen and ordinary Macedonian Pikes.

Rhod, taking the Ptolemaic right had the Machimoi (Egyptian Phalanx), Theureophoroi, Peltasts and Archers.

The Egyptian phalanx were newly raised, but as they did so well in the real battle, I had made them as Macedonian Phalangites.

The table at game start! -(as you may have noticed, I sat this game out as I didn't get much sleep in the heat last night...)

Phil flung his Skythians round the flank.

The Phalanx stayed put against the greater number of the Ptolemaic phalanx.

Tony, as Ptolemy IV Philopator (in truth a bit of a drunken dabauched leader! - totally unlike Tony!!!) sent his line Cavalry forward on either side of his Peltasts.

Their archers and slingers - supported by the Theurophoroi, moved forward.

The Ptolemaic phalanx advanced in a staggered formation.

The Ethnikoi skirmished forward against the Seleucid heavy cavalry.

At the end of turn 1.

The Skythians skirmished at long range.

The Seleucid phalanx stayed where they had started!

On the Seleucid right, the Line cavalry charged the Ethikoi, who evaded onto their flank!

Phil sent his Companions to support the Skythians.

The Ethnikoi charged the flank of the blown Line cavalry!

The Seleucid cavalry broke and ran!

The Skythian cavalry had driven the Peltasts through the Pikes.

As can be seen here, Tony got his other Line Cavalry unit to face the Ptolemaic Cleruch cavalry.

The Line Cavalry charged the Cleruch cavalry, who counter-charged.

The Ptolemaic Theureophoroi held off the Seleucid cavalry, allowing their archers to engage the Seleucid slingers.

On the Seleucid right, Tony charged his Hypaspists in!

The Skythians were now skirmishing with the Peltasts, while the Companions sat back, keeping the Theureophoroi under observation.

The Seleucid phalanx moved forward to support their Argyraspides.

The battle of the Cleruch and Line cavalry was initially indecisive.

Rhod turned a Phalanx Taxis to help against the Skythians.

The Seleucid phalanx stayed back.

The initial battle of the Argyraspides and Macedonian Phalangites was a damp squib! the Argyraspides had awful dice!

The Cleruch cavalry finished off the Line cavalry!

All seemed quiet on Phil and Rhod's wing...for now!

The Cretan archers damaged the slingers.

On the Seleucid right, the Argyraspides were swamped by another Phalanx Taxis and the Elephant!, to protect them the Cleruch cavalry charged the Galatians.

They damaged the Galatians, but were destroyed themselves!!!

On the other wing the Companions charged (and caught!) the Cretans in the rear, this was not going to end well for the poor archers...

Tony had sent an extra Pike block in to help the Argyraspides, but they were too damaged and broke!

The victorious Galatians moved to outflank the Elephant, which was stamping on pikemen!!!

The Skythians were unable to shoot down those peltasts for fear of getting caught by the Pikes.

It didn't matter though, as Phil was at -1 Rep, where the Ptolemaics were +12!!!

Most of the Phalangites had not got into contact!

The right wing of the Seleucids was a fair disaster though!

The poor Seleucid elephant hadn't contributed apart from a little missile shooting!

Never mind, everyone enjoyed the game, and at the end of the day that is what matters in gaming!!!

 

On to Bagradas!

 Today we replayed the Battle of Bagradas - the follow up to the battle of Adys last week, we had Phil back so we had 2 a side. This time I was a Roman, with Phil as Consul Marcus Atilius Regulus. Tony had Xanthippus with Lawrence as his sub commander. (Xanthippus had come over with Greek mercenaries after the battle of Adys to help reinforce the Carthaginian army... for more info hit this link)

The Romans got to be attackers, probably historically.

The Table for today, (we were having a try out with my new Neoprine mat) Carthaginians to the right.

The Carthaginians deployed with a centre of Spanish backing up the African Spearmen and Punic infantry, Lawrence had his flank guarded by Libyan Javelinmen, Balearic slingers, and Numidian cavalry.

Tony took their right with half the Phalanx, Punic Cavalry, and Greek Bows and Slings. 

I had my Leves on the left flank, the Allied Cavalry and 2 Legions.

Phil on my right had 2 units of Leves, Roman Equites, and the other 2 Legions.

I moved my Leves on the flank of the Punic line, my Horse followed and I brought my Triarii to the end of my Legions and extend the line to help with the larger number of Punic Cavalry I was facing, let alone the Elephants!

Phil did the same on his wing.

At least we had a good solid line at this stage!

Tony advanced his Punic Cavalry, flanked by his light infantry.

Lawrence began moving his Spanish to extend his line too...but they were slow to act!

The Numidians were quickly on the flank trying to interfere with Phil's redeployment. 

My Leves were a little slow moving forward, which slowed the following cavalry.

In the centre, the Roman Legions stepped forward a little.

The right wing deployed to engage the Numidians.

Tony got his Punic Cavalry right to avoid my Legionarii and hopefully overwhelm my cavalry and Leves?

Lawrence was STILL having trouble getting his Spanish moving!!!

The light troops, did seem unwilling to advance without their support.

I advanced my Legions to pin the Punic Cavalry, and prevent them attacking my Allied Cavalry and light troops.

I kept 2 units of Legionarii back as I was unsure where the Elephant was going!

Phil halted with a line well able to contest any Carthaginian light troops, we hoped!

Things were developing on my left, I was skirmishing with light infantry and doing better than I expected.

I hoped to be able to fight the Elephants with 2 units of Legionarii.

Phil held back, waiting to see if my wing would prevail. 

This meant of course, he was under shot from the Balearic slingers.

My Principes tried to dislodge the Greek archers with their supporting Leves.

The Balearics hit a Levis unit

I kept my Allied Cavalry back to avoid getting hit by the 2 Carthaginian Cavalry units!

However, I was able to charge the Greek slingers (who failed to evade), with my Allied Levis.

The other Levis unit charged the Greek Archers, who fell back through their Elephants, which left them unable to evade a Legionary maniple!

My Allied Levis were damaged, but destroyed the Greek slingers!

No surprise, the Archers didn't hang around long either!

However my Roman Leves, having chased the archers to their doom, now got caught by a unit of Punic Cavalry, but amazingly they held, both sides taking 1 Stamina loss!

In the centre, my victorious Principes were charged by some Punic infantry, but held them.

Phil began to advance his Legions too.

I charged the Hastati next to the Principes who had held and as we were doing throughout the day, I rolled rather well! (9 out of 14 dice)

This wiped out the Punic infantry unit!

Along the line, both Punics and Romans were clashing!

On my left, my Allied Cavalry had charged to support the Leves and wiped out the Punic Cavalry...only my damaged Levis unit protected their flank from the other Punic Cavalry though!

The Roman infantry were beating their Punic opponents.

Our right wing was being held by those Balearics and the Numidians.

A Punic infantry unit broke and ran!

The Balearics destroyed a Levis unit on the right with shot! The Numidians were beaten by the Allied Levis unit on the table edge!

Phil charged and broke another Punic Infantry unit!

Along the line, yet another unit broke, these were African Spears.

The Numidians fled disgracefully! The Balearics desperately charged the Roman Equites.

On my wing the Elephants finally charged a unit of Hastati...

...Yet another African Spear unit succumbed to the might of Rome!...

...as did the Hoplites next to them!

The Elephants beat my Hastati, but at least my men injured the Elephants!

However, this ended the game Rome +14, Carthage -6.

A final look across the bloody field...

I felt really bad for the poor Carthaginian players, they rolled really badly much of the day, where Rome definitely had the gods with them!!!