A report on the clash between the forces of Imperial Macedon and the Spartans reflecting the true victorious glory of Alexander, Lord of Asia. A history worthy of the name....
Imperial Alexandrian
Command 1: Alexander (brilliant KnF general)
5xKnF wedges, 2xiLHF Skythians and 8xiAxS Thracians; 24ME
Command 2: 16xPkO; 4xPkS; 1xKnF General; 24ME
Command 3: 2xElO; 6xiLHO; 6xPsS; 4xPsO; 3xiCvO; 1xKnF General; 22ME
Spartans
Command 1: 12(?)xSpS(inc. a general), 6SpO; 12xPsO/S
Command 2: 12(?)xSpO and 4xSpS(inc. a general); 6xiAxS Thracians; a few Ps
Command 3: 12(?)xSpO and 6xSpS(inc. a general); Lots of PsO
6xArmy Baggage
As usual the plucky Macedonians invaded but the vengeful dice gods made them deploy first. Terrain was mostly insignificant, other than a large wood on Alexander's right flank. I went for the fairly classic deployment, with the Pk command in the centre. On the left was Alexander's command ? the Thracians covering the flank of the pike block and the Companians/Skythians in column ready to exploit the open ground on the left. On the right the elephants and CvO covered the flank of the phalanx and the Ps then filled the gap up to the wood on the far right with the light horse in column behind.
The Spartan's deployed Command 2 in the centre with the spear in a two deep line facing the pike. The Greek AxS were facing my elephants and drooling slightly. Command 1 deployed facing Alexander, again in a two deep line of Sp with some PsS in front and a small group of PsO to cover the far flank. The Spartan Command 3 then deployed facing my light troops. The Greek PsO were in a two deep line facing my Agrianian PsS and the spear were in an element wide column behind them. Finally, some Greek Ps squatted in a few patches of rough going to prevent my LH doing a cheeky dash to the Spartan rear and sacking the baggage.
I assigned the highest dice to my right (to give the light troops some mobility to absorb the expected Spartan advance), the middle dice to Alexander (the KnF are impetuous and once in action need relatively few PIPs) and the lowest dice to the pikes (who really only needed to advance). My plan was to hold the centre with the pikes and to use my superior light troops to win the wood on my right and to hold off the massed SpS. Alexander would crush the Spear to my left (whose flank was not anchored on anything and looked very tempting) and roll along the line gathering glory and teaching the Spartans why they should train horses.
Things started well. Good Pips for my right allowed the elephants to skip away from the disappointed AxS. The massed PsS/LhO advanced confidently towards the Spartan PsO. On my left, Alexander trotted casually across the enemy front to outflank the line of spears....
The Spartans had allocated the lowest dice to the command facing Alexander and they could do little more than watch him gallop towards their flank. The Spartan centre command advanced nervously towards the pikes. The command facing my light troops had been allocated the highest dice and sprinted forward- the Sp still in column and the PsO covering their front and edging towards the wood.
On the right I decided to seize the initiative and threw my PsS/O and LH into the Spartans confidently expecting them to carve through the PsO and to disorder the spear behind. Tragedy! (I could have sworn LH quick killed Ps in the open). The LH were cut down in short order and my light troops found themselves enveloped on both flanks by stinking Greeks. The Spartan SpS column expanded in a blink of an eye and cut down the Agrianians where they stood... Within a couple of turns I was desperately herding the elephants into a line with the remaining disheartened LH to hold the SpS off from the flank of the phalanx. Poor PIP dice left me with few opportunities to counterattack- I even had to resort to using a brilliant stroke to double a `2' in order to pull surviving disheartened elements out of the increasingly bloody mess to avoid the command breaking.....
In the centre, the phalanx stood manfully in front of the spear but neither side launched an attack. I didn't want to expose the side of phalanx whilst my right flank was being chopped up and the Spartan general, frankly, lacked a backbone....
On my left, the Skythians had dashed off to neutralise the Ps at the end of the Greek line. Alexander swung the companions around to face the line of spears and a group of Greek Ps somehow found themselves caught between the two opposing lines.....The Companions were let off the leash and, after pausing briefly to butcher the unfortunate Ps, charged into the line of SpS/O. Frontally, the KnF made no headway against the SpS but at the end of the line (where I also had an overlap) the SpO began to go down, slowly at first, then as the Companions wheeled around and started hitting them in the rear and preventing recoils - very quickly. The low PIP dice for the Spartan command meant that they could not turn to face the Companions or counterattack in their turn (where S vs F could have been very nasty). On the last turn of the game, the Spartan CinC himself was skewered by a Companion (whilst doubly overlapped) and his command duly shattered.
A very enjoyable game, and a 15-10 victory to Alexander's glorious empire.
Regular spear performed surprisingly well. They have high combat factors that made them hard to beat frontally - even with the quick kill against them. They died to the KnF eventually- but nobody can fend off a rampant Companion up their rear for long..... However, the SpS column was very effective- straight into the weakest point of my line and then able to expand and swing around to threaten the flank of the phalanx.
The weakness of the Spartan army isn't that they have SpS/O- it is that they have very little else- (especially decent mounted). However, the light troops are plentiful and of pretty good quality- they probably hold the key to making the army viable. I also think that the Spartans could have made better use of terrain. ie: small early-placed DG (the large late-placed pieces failed to go down on the table) on which to anchor flanks and to put the light troops in.
I only used the Imperial Alexandrian army so I could use my new Xyston elephants. This week I'll revert to the Alexandrian Macedonian to give my AxS Hypaspists what may be their last outing before thel list revisions condemn them to boring pikedom.....
D
