Early Successor vs Late Achaemenid Persians

For our next battle Richard and I upped the points to 800.  I was very happy to run more of my Tin Soldier Hellenistic figures that I had collected and painted back in the second half of the 1980s, particularly my Thracians (although I did I have fill their ranks with some “fanatics”).  I chose the Lysimachus option and even ran two elephants.

The Field of Glory rules worked well and it was really pleasing to see just about every unit engaged.  We had some complexity with interception charges, but a careful reading of the rules got us through it okay – basically if your troops have to do anything other than go straight ahead, then they won’t be intercepting.

This is what the Persians saw:

This is some of the Persians that my army could see:

 

 

My right flank was secured by a steep hill and my left by a wood, neither of which featured in the battle. There was some uneven ground to my left centre, although its effect, with hindsight, is best described as "contextual".

 

The Thracians and elephants who formed the centre left of my army pushed forward.

 

 

 

The pikes and hoplites of my centre right were a bit slower moving up.

 

 

Disaster!

 

 

The left hand unit of Thracians got beat up bad and broke, taking their friends, who had begun to waver, with them.  Perhaps the uneven ground had effected their fighting skills after all?  The Persians were aided by their generals and while the Thracians had failed to make an impression, they were not doing that badly (they did something like 2 casualties but received 3).  However when it came to the cohesion tests they failed badly.

 

The right hand Thracians powered through, defeating their opponents with the help of the elephants.  But then real disaster struck as the elephants had to take a death role as they had been checked by the body of cavalry.  Anything but a 1 would have seen them okay, but they lost a base and were removed.

 

Over on the centre right the pikes fought hard, lead by a general this time, but the attack had gone in with the supporting hoplites lagging which gave the Persians a crucial overlap which coupled with a failed cohesion test saw my main body of infantry disrupted and then fragmented before they finally fled.

On the left flank my Thessalian cavalry fought really well, but on my right I was unable to make use of my lancers.

In retrospect I think my army was just too big for the number of generals I had to command it and keep it under control.