Basic Battle of Kynoscephalae in 6mm

EDIT I had wrongly named this the battle of Thermopylae, but I stand corrected.  

Mark Woods, using his fabulous 6mm collection of Romans and Macedonians, created army lists to allow a big battle using Basic Impetus 2.0 (note: not so much the Great Battles option in those rules, just a really big Basic game).

Mark and Michael were the Romans (left and right respectively) while Karl and I were the Greeks (right and left).

It is also nice to have some historical context to game (which is most missing in my Ancients games).  In 191 BC, Roman forces led by Manius Acilius Glabrio defeated Antiochus III the Great and forced him to leave Greece 

The Battle of Cynoscephalae (Greek: Μάχη τῶν Κυνὸς Κεφαλῶν) was an encounter battle fought in Thessaly in 197 BC between the Roman army, led by Titus Quinctius Flamininus, and the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon, led by Philip V, during the Second Macedonian War. It was a decisive Roman victory and marked the end of the conflict.

This was my force.

It consisted of:

• Six units of  Agrianians
• Two units of Illyrians
• Four units of Thracians
• Three units of cavalry and
• Three large units of Phalangites

With games of this size, capturing everything in one image is a challenge,

but here is the deployment.

Greek infantry are holding a hill in the centre.

The first couple of moves I spent shuffling my cavalry to the left to avoid the elephants.

Checking distance till contact.

It took a while.

Little legs after all.

The elephants. 

Things got off to a good start with the rout of the Roman light cavalry.

On the right the Greek cavalry didn't do so well.

The skirmishers really earned their pay.

Things have started to happen, and the results are somewhat mixed.

The wheeling Roman unit on the right-hand side of the image will win them the game.

The right wing's right flank has been compromised.

The Macedonian pike armed infantry are hard at work,

the Galatians however lacked staying power.

At this stage I was quietly confident...

The Roman left is starting to collapse.

But it also rapidly went pear-shaped on the Greek left.

The Greek right fell apart as well after a flank charge on a pike block

 by the previously identified Roman unit.

I also put a link to this post in the Impetus forum and included the army lists which I will reproduce here as well:

Roman White Legion  (right flank)
									VDU				I			VD
Hastati						4xFP			5				2			3			Pilum						12
Principes						4xFP			6				2			3			Pilum						12
Triarii						2xFP			6				2			3			Long spear						6
Velites						4xS			2				0			1			Javelin						4
Cavalry						1xCM			4				2			1									1
Elephants						1xEL			5				3			2									2
Aetolian cavalry						1xCL			4				1			2			Javelin						2
Aetolian peltastoi						1xFL			4				2			2			Javelin						2
																ARMY TOTAL									41

 

Roman Red Legion (left flank)
									VDU			I			VD
Hastati						4xFP			5			2			3			Pilum					12
Principes						4xFP			6			2			3			Pilum					12
Triarii						2xFP			6			2			3			Long spear					6
Velites						4xS			2			0			1			Javelin					4
Cavalry						1xCM			4			2			1								1
Aetolian peltastoi						1xFL			4			2			2			Javelin					2
															ARMY TOTAL								37

 

Macedonian left flank
Macedonian cavalry						3xCM			5			2			2									6
Agema						2xFP			5			1			3			Pike						6
Phalanx (front rank)						2xFP			5			1			3			Pike						6
Phalanx (rear rank)						2xFP			4			1			2			Pike						4
Illyrians						4xFL			4			1			2			Javelin						8
Agrianians						6xS			2			0			1			Javelin						6
Thracians						2xFL			4			2			2			Javelin						4
															ARMY TOTAL									40

 

Macedonian right flank
Thracian and Galatian cavalry						2xCM			4			1			2									4
Illyrian cavalry						1xCL			3			1			1			Javelin						1
Phalanx (front rank)						4xFP			5			1			3			Pike						12
Phalanx (rear rank)						4xFP			4			1			2			Pike						8
Galatians						4xFL			4			4			2			Impetuous						8
Cretans						4xS			3			0			1			Short bow						4
Thorakitai						1xFL			5			1			3			Long spear						3
															ARMY TOTAL									40

The boxes under each army list are to cross of the VD value of each unit that is routed.  When all boxes filled the army is broken.