Hordes and Heroes Ancients; Greeks v Republican Roman

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Paul K
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Hordes and Heroes Ancients; Greeks v Republican Roman

Post by Paul K »

This epic game was based on the battle of Ascalum 279BC, and was fought using Tony’s 6mm collection of Greek and Roman miniatures. The terrain table was approximately 10 foot by 5 foot and included the river over which the Roman army must cross in order to engage the Pyrric Greek force.
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The generalship of the Romans was given to James, Tony and Tim, while Steve and myself commanded the Greeks. The initial deployment saw the Greek army deployed a third of the way across the table with the extended continuous line of the Greek phalanx making a very impressive sight indeed. Steve and I decided to echo the historical deployment with the light and medium cavalry, along with archers and light troops deployed on the wing to protect the flanks of the phalanx. The 2 units of elephants were stationed on the left wing. Again, keeping in tune with the Greek historical deployment, the Greek armoured cavalry was positioned behind the centre of the phalanx as an insurance policy against any potential Roman breakthrough.
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The Romans deployed the bulk of their legionary units behind a thin vanguard of light infantry and cavalry which again extended across the full width of the table. The lighter Roman units would lead the attack across the river and against the extended wings of the Greek army beyond the ends of the phalanx.
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Initial moves
Steve and I had a simple plan of advancing the massed Greek phalanx forward and in so doing squeeze any Roman units that successfully crossed the river into a restricted space which would hopefully severely restrict their maneuverability. This plan required the light troops and cavalry to advance ahead of the phalanx on either wing and engage their Roman opponents as quickly as possible. I made the mistake of advancing 2 of my cavalry units too close to their own elephants and the horses panicked and routed.
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The Roman commanders had little choice but to push their infantry units into and across the river while on the wings a cavalry duel ensued. Because the Greek army had already stolen a lot of ground and in doing so the initiative, the combat taking part on either wing became the key to any potential Roman victory. However, the Roman task was made difficult because of extensive areas of woodland on either edge of the table which bolstered the defensive abilities of the Greek light units.
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Steve’s Greek cavalry held their ground against Tim’s Romans on our right wing and my light units, which included 2 units of elephants held against James’s units on the left wing aided I must say by some very good dice results from my missile troops causing plenty of disruption. In the centre the Roman advanced light troops and first legionary units gained a foot hold on the Greek side of the river. Tony had established a bridge-head and the resulting combats started to break up the Greek phalanx in the centre.
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The battle of attrition continued on the flanks and Steve and I had worked out that as long as we had spare units to keep feeding into the ‘meat grinder’ the Romans would not be able to out-flank our central phalanx which was already looking a little ragged! This central part of the battle is where the Romans achieved a good degree of success destroying many light units and a unit of ‘A’ class phalangites. A hole in the phalanx appeared in the centre and with more units of legionaries successfully crossing the river things started to look a little challenging for the Greeks.
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In a repeat of the historical battle, or rather the accounts of the battle, we charged the Greek armoured cavalry reserve into the centre to plug the gap. A round of very favourable hand-to-hand combats for the Greeks stopped the Roman central advance, but more significantly, bought time for the Greeks to re-organise the central phalanx, and in doing so close the gap in the line. This enabled large sections of the phalanx to eventually advance once more, and in doing so squeeze the Roman legionaries back against the river. This resulted in substantial Roman losses in the centre and prevented the bulk of the Roman army from ever successfully crossing the river at this point – the opposite bank would soon be bristling with multitudes of Greek phalangites. So, at this point the game was concluded.
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Game analysis
On reflection, the initial deployment of the Greek army, a third of the way across the table, did not enable the Romans to have sufficient time in which to cross the river and deploy. Also, the’ luck of the dice’ did help the Greek cause at key moments. When the Romans had the opportunity to break through the Greek centre, they simply didn’t achieve the combat results needed to establish a viable battle line on the Greek side of the river. As a result, the Romans were not able to challenge the phalanx head-to-head which would have probably produced a different outcome.
Kind regards
Paul

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http://www.kallistra.co.uk
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