Unpleasantness on the Thessalian-Thacian Border

After a short sojourn away our intrepid war reporter rushed to Northern Greece to witness the ongoing border conflict between Thessaly and Thrace. Several weeks ago the Thessalians took a hell of a beating and this game would be fought over the same ground. Would they have learned lessons and changed tactics? Once again Chris led the Thessalians, so the answer to our rhetorical question would probably be “no”. The wily old fox Phil deployed the Thracians.

Going first, Tony’s Thracian right wing stubbornly refused to move despite orders from the centre. Was the stench of treachery in the air, or was it just Tony’s old gilet? Nobody knows, but there was some communication between the opposing commanders. Undaunted by his underlings tardiness, Phil pushed the Thracian centre forward occupying the small wood to their front, whilst Rob advanced his cavalry on the Thracian left. In response the Thessalian hoplite-heavy centre started to tramp forward in the hope that they could break through before the Thracian cavalry advantage told on the flanks.

This time the Thracian javelins didn’t appear as effective as two weeks ago, and the Thessalians seemed to be weathering the missile barrage reasonably well. However Malcolm lost his light cavalry and the Thracians saw their chance to charge through the gap. An ominous development……

Just as the Chris’ Thessalian centre was starting to inflict serious damage on their Thracian opponents, they saw that to their rear, both camps had fallen to the marauding light cavalry unit and thus had to re-deploy their own light troops to try to re-take them. The advance was starting to falter.

Finally, the Thracians managed to turn the Thessalian left flank and in the ensuing melee wounded their general by judicious use of their Stratagem, and the resulting chit forced him to retire from the field yielding another two coins and victory on the day to the Thracians.

 

The game was actually closer than it looked. One more turn would almost certainly have seen at least one camp and three coins retaken by the Thessalians, and several Thracian units were in dire need of a “rally”. That said, the Thessalian flanks were irreparably gone and their victory was just a matter of time.

Simon