Some details are sketchy as I played it over several days and didn't take notes! But the gist is correct even if I've got the details wrong due to lack of memory.
The important thing was it was a fun game. All of my DBMM have been enjoyable. Not sure what it is, but games don't seem to be foregone conclusions as much as they were in DBM. Perhaps it's the lack of death zones that mean getting a flank turned by a faster army isn't so fatal. Dunno.
LA Persians vs Alex Macs 400pts
Persians were led by the inert Darius III. 2 large commands of Cv, LH, and a few Ax & Ps. A smallish command of hoplites, guard bw, elephants, kn, and exp. A smaller command of Hd, bwi, art, and ax behind TF.
Macedonians were led by someone who was not Alexander. Could have been Philip. 2 commands of Companions and Pk plus some light infantry. A smaller command of Thracian AxS, Thessalian Cv, and Prodromoi LhS.
No strategems. Not as much point with solo games.
Not much terrain, a gentle hill on the Persian left, a patch of rough ground in the Persian right centre.
Persians deployed with Cv commands on the wings, TF command in the rough, Greeks to the left of them. PIP priority went to the mounted commands first, then Greeks, then the motley crew behind the TF. (A non-baggage PIP dump ? you can still use them)
Macedonians deployed with the Thracians and Thessalians on the right, C-inC with Pk/Kn in the right centre, and the other Pk/Kn command in the left centre, angled back to the table edge to refuse that flank. This command had the Pk deployed in 2 ranks to take up space, the centre command in 3 ranks.
The Persians attacked on the left, with Cv and LHF, and sent the LHO on the extreme right around to get on the flank of the thin Pk line. In the centre, the scythed chariots took aim at the other phalanx.
The Macedonians moved to counter the Exp with the Hypaspists, who in this battle were AxS. The right command moved forward.
The Persian command system then partially broke down for 4 bounds, rolling 2 ones on the PIP dice. Because the general was inert, PIPs were reduced by one, so the 2 commands with lowest PIP allocation got nothing. That was OK for the cr*p behind the TF, but bad news for the Greeks who wanted to do stuff with the Exp, who wouldn't go spontaneous (another side effect of inertness.)
Nevertheless the Cv commands were able to move. The LH on the right got around the flank of the pike line, spending the rest of the game nibbling off an element here and there. The Cv weren't game to attack frontally until the end, with 3 Companions and the Pk staring them down menacingly. On the left flank, the Persian Cv, LH and Ax clashed with the Thracians/Thessalians/Prodromoi on the gentle hill. Despite an element superiority of 25 to 13 and being uphill, the Persians got the worst of it and eventually broke.
In the meantime the Hypaspists attacked the chariots, killing them off after several turns. They then moved against the elephants and satrapal guards (Kni). The centre Companions attacked the hoplites and guard bowmen. The centre phalanx advanced but soon had no one in front of them.
On the Persian right, the cavalry, supported by Aux, decided to move against the depleted 2-deep pike and Companions. In the centre, the fighting was hard with both sides taking casualties. The Companions should have gone through the Greeks, but some bad rolling saw them take as many losses as they gave.
On the Macedonian right, the Prodromoi galloped for the baggage, while the Thessalians and Thracians moved to take the Greeks in the flank. At the other end of the table, the 3 Companions plus a general took on 11 Persian Cv (6 of it CvI).
At the end, the Greeks were also broken, but the army hung on. Had the Prodromoi been able to kill the baggage, they would have secured victory, but they bounced off shamefaced. The Companions? attack on the Macedonian left turned out to be a mistake. They weren?t supported by the Pk, who were dealing with LH on the flank and had Aux to their front. The Persian Cv swamped them, killing one plus the general. This command broke and took the rest of the army with it. Victory to the Persians 16 to 9.
Conclusions. Early days yet but a) I don't think SpO will disappear from the game b) neither will Ax. They have a particular use that no other troop type has AFAIK
c) you still never know what's going to happen with a LH fight d) there's more than one way to get a regular PIP dump
