DBMM Forum
General Category => Battle Reports => Topic started by: Barritus on September 15, 2012, 01:30:00 PM
-
Not many people would know that in 325BC Alexander the Great and his army and allies made a little detour to the South Pacific, where they took on a Polynesian confederation. My game against Dave T was a recreation of this battle.
My army featured a bit of elephanty goodness:
Command 1 (18 ME)
Alexander
3 Ele (O)
Some Ps and LH
Command 2 (33 ME)
Craterus
4 Pk (S)
12 Pk (O)
3 Kn (F) SBW
Some Ps and LH
Command 3 (12 ME)
Porus on an elephant
3 Ele (S)
2 Cv (I)
Stratagems: Scouts, Ambush and Concealed Command (Brilliant Invader)
Yep, 7 elephants.
I was the invader, invading in autumn, and selected a 1FE enclosed fields and a 1FE wood. Dave selected the compulsory sea, along with 1 FE BUA and wood. The sea went down on my right flank, the BUA on the shore on Dave's side of the table and one wood also near the water on my side of the table. The other wood sat in the middle of Dave's table edge, and the enclosed fields in the centre of the triangle formed by the two woods and the BUA. So the right hand side of the table was a bit crowded, while the left of the table was bare.
I deployed Alexander on the right with his elephants in ambush in the wood and the light troops facing the fields. Craterus sat on the left with the Ps facing the fields, the phalanx next to them and the mounted troops in column to the rear. Porus was on the left. My plan was to keep some of Craterus's mounted troops in reserve and send the rest outside Porus's flank to protect the elephants. Alexander would move across to the phalanx to help manage Craterus's command. With the Macedonian elephants hidden in ambush, Alexander's command would look unthreatening, while the fourth dummy PIP dice would hopefully convince Dave that I had a flank march.
Dave, deploying first, placed three similar commands of massed Bd (F) and some Ps (O) across the table. The right wing command was in three ranks, facing Porus. The centre command was more in columns to cross the fields (difficult terrain). The left wing detached some Bd to sit in the BUA, while the rest stood between the BUA and the fields, along with 6 boats and their crew, paddles at the ready.
Dave's scouts found one elephant in ambush, and I assume he guessed there were more. My scouts found nothing.
Things got off to a bad start for Dave with his left wing command unreliable. He advanced his centre and right wing. Fortunately for me Porus was reliable, and I steadily advanced the whole army. This included breaking the three Macedonian elephants out of ambush, but keeping them well away from the unreliable Polynesians in front of them.
Dave hurried his right wing command across the table while I managed to only get Craterus's LH outside Porus's flank. One Kn (F) wedge fitted into the gap between Porus and the phalanx, while one of Porus's Cv (I) moved out to sit on the outside flank of the elephants. I also got the Macedonian Ps near or into the fields, where Dave's centre command Bd (F) were still in columns.
Dave's next piece of bad luck was that he was never able to spare the PIPs from his centre command to attempt to activate his ally.
Then Porus's command and Craterus's mounted troops hit Dave's right wing command. Carnage. Five dead Bd (F) in one round of combat. And another couple after Dave's round of combat. Having Porus in combat was great - factor 5 to 4 with a quick kill, handing a +1 to the adjacent elephants so they also fought at 5 to 4 with a QK.
A couple more bounds of combat was enough to break Dave's right wing, just as the centre commands made contact. The high combat factors of the Pk was enough to shove the Bd (F) back, while the Ps were able to contain a couple of other columns.
At this point Dave offered to resign, which I accepted. My losses were 1 LH dead and 1 Ps spent from Craterus's command.
The game had taken barely 90 minutes, so he would have had little prospect of playing out time: Craterus would have had few problems gathering his Kn (F) to hit the accessible open flank of Dave's centre command, with enough Bd (F) available as targets that I should have been able to break it. Even if Dave had been able to activate his left wing, they likely would've taken several bounds to get into a position to achieve much, by which time I could have brought Alexander back to support the Macedonian elephants.
Thanks to Dave for an interesting game, but which must have been intensely frustrating for him.