Apologies in advance for the lack of details of the Roman army - I didn't get my hands on the order of battle, but it included an Inert General with a brilliant Sub-General and had approximately 90 ME with a huge camp of baggage (and the Bg pip dump), and no allies. The Romans invaded Antigonus Gonatas in Spring, but were unfortunate enough to have to deploy first given the Macedonians were hurriedly using up their quota of 1's and 2's on the first few rounds of dice throwing. From my side of the table there were 2 woods on the left flank, one in the middle of the table and the other on the Roman base edge. There was a small scrub on my left flank (on my side of the table) and a large area of scrub in the middle of the table. The intended river never made it out of the box so I was stuck with a huge open flank and little hope of defending it.
The Roman army consisted of BdS and AxS on the terrain flank with the Army Bg etc behind, a large number of BdS with supporting Ps, 2 x ArtF, and a handful of Cav in the middle, and a number of Cav, LH, more BdS and an El on the open flank. On the terrain flank, I had 12 x AxS, 12 x Ps (O/I), 2 x ArtO and a KnF wedge SubG. The centre command included 12 x WbS (Galatians, pointed at the opposing AxS in the centre rough), 8 veteran PkS lurking at the rear and a KnF CNC (who pushed the Art forward with his high PIP dice). The open command had 3 x KnF (plus a 4th KnF as SubG), 2 x CvO, 8 x PkO (Phalangites, again lurking at the rear) and 4AxS. I took 3 x 2 command Bg. No ally and no stratagems for me.
Knowing my Pk were mince meat for the Bd, I kept them as a rear-guard to shore up the inevitable collapse of my open flank, where I was out-numbered and out-qualitied. I purposely decided to push hard on my left (the terrain side) and middle by launching my WbS at the AxS in the rough - needless to say it was all over for the Ax once combat was initiated (despite my receiving the first charge) when I got the counter-charge (i.e. dishing out a -1 in my bound for my 2nd rank, plus another -1 when I won for my S, and killing 2 at a time!) plus I had managed to wrap a couple of flanks once I had punched a hole into the Ax line. Meanwhile my Ps pushed through the DG to support the flank of my Ax (who were supporting my Wb in the middle), but the AxS found the BdS tough going - I lost about 3 AxS & 1 PsO to 2 Roman BdS and I lost 1 WbS to approx 8 Roman Ax S - not a bad return in my opinion given his command was broken and I had only lost 4.5 ME from 2 commands. The Art from both sides did nothing more than push a few elements back.
Meanwhile the Pk S and O were busy erecting a 2 rank line at the rear to protect the Bg while the Kn and Cv were sent out to buy time and hopefully a couple of kills. The KnF were wedges so I could fly into contact from outside charge reach, dice for a QK without any overlaps, and if unsuccessful I could bounce out of charge reach again. This happened a couple of times and I got 2 BdS using this method. Meanwhile, the Cav had a very hard time holding back all of the other mounted and 1 went down after losing a combat and subsequently having his flanks wrapped by LH. The other Roman LH stood off from the Pk and never made contact. The Roman El and some Cv were chasing wind at the far end of the battle line and never saw the battle - there were also about half a dozen BdS out there that also did nothing. Meanwhile Cv number 2 was forced to join the battle line to support the KnF that had compulsorily followed-up and blow me down he took out a BdS with a 6:1 and no overlap in my bound! Meanwhile the pressure was mounting on the open flank and the KnF and surviving Cv were being surrounded and having recoils blocked by Bd and Cv - but they survived this situation for 2 or 3 combats. The brilliant Roman SubG then declared a brilliant stroke, made a charge and ended up in a tie with a KnF - which sort of summed up the day for the Romans - they promised much but didn't quite deliver.
Back in the centre, the Wb almost had a free run to the Roman Bg (there were a couple of Ps and a Cv Gen in the way), but some BdS were brought across from the Roman centre command to stem the tide and turn some Wb. One Wb went down to the Bd but the impetuous moves meant 2 BdS were QK'd in the inevitable counter-charge. This was enough to break a 2nd command of the Romans, which took the army down. The 2ME of the BdS and the number of kills inflicted by the Wb meant the Romans went from ok to broken in 1 bound and jumped the 'disheartened' phase.
All-in-all very satisfying for me. I lost 7.5ME out of 84.
Lessons?
1. KnF wedges are great for charging foot because they either get a QK (on Bd) or bounce out of charge reach if they fail.
2. BdS at 2ME each are very expensive to lose!
3. AxS is an effective yet relatively cheap troop capable of killing superior troops once you start to get the inevitable overlaps - plus they can handle the difficult terrain.
4. IMO WbS are pretty powerful troops, given the ability to kill 2 at a time.
5. Don't do what your opponent expects! My opponent had expected a push with my Pk, who never saw combat for the entire game. Not very accurate historically but hey, it got the desired result!
Cheers
Andrew
