Easter Game of To the Strongest

After a prolonged leave of absence our much-refreshed reporter made his way to Greece, to witness an Easter Bank Holiday TTS game between Polybian Romans and late Macedonians loosely based on the battle of Cynoscephalae during the so-called 2nd Macedonian War. Tony chose the Macedonians leaving me with the Romans.

The Macedonians set up with a pike heavy centre, cavalry on their left and light troops facing the broken ground on the right. I countered with infantry left and centre and cavalry and light archers on the right. 

The Roman right marched boldly forward planning to take the battle to the Phalanxes.

The cavalry also moved forward, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they were outnumbered and of lesser quality. The Roman left stood rooted to the spot halted by a “1” chit which can’t be re-drawn for a group move. Tony countered charging his cavalry to engage and edging the pikes forward. Turn two saw the Roman left again fail to move….was treachery afoot? The cavalry realised their mistake, but it was too late, and two coins were duly handed to Tony. However, the Roman light troops were doing their job and their javelins soon took their toll on Tony’s skirmish screen. Most importantly with a final throw one unit of Velites inflicted a disorder on one of the phalanxes and the Roman heavy infantry charged through.

The disorder meant the Romans struck first and landed two more telling blows which destroyed the phalanx. 

All wasn’t going well for Rome on their right. Tony’s veteran cavalry made short work of the second Roman cavalry unit and the so-called heroic General was soon fleeing to the relative safety of a unit of Cretan archers. More disorders were inflicted on the Phalanxes and Tony began to pull them back to re-group. My attempt to turn and take them in the flank failed. It was all getting very tense and either side could win. It seemed to rest on whether Tony’s victorious cavalry could turn and roll up my army with a flanking attack or could the Romans destroy the Phalanx. With one mighty effort the Roman heavy infantry charged forward and shattered a second Phalanx leaving the camp open. As the Romans marched in Tony’s final three coins were duly handed over.

All in all, a very tense game. Tony expressed his surprise that I had launched a suicide attack by my cavalry. In hindsight a stupid thing to do. They should have stayed back shielding the Roman flank. The pikes have some big advantages but are quite brittle, and once disordered lose their “first strike” advantage. My lucky strike by the Velites might have proved a battle winner.

Next time I might use my “Successors” as Seleucids. These boys can have scythed chariots, elephants, cataphracts, Galatians and Imitation Legionaries. What an army!”

Simon