Now that they're painted to an acceptable standard, I thought I'd take my Galatians out for a spin. My opponent was Michael, who's still a bit new to DBMM, and his Norman (William the Conqueror) army.
My army was largely the same as I took to Wintercon, trimmed to 400 points:
Galatian 279BC
Command 1: 12ME
General as Irr Cv (O) chariot
3 Irr Cv (O)
3 Irr Cv (I)
2 Irr Cv (O) chariots
Command 2: 45ME
Sub as Irr Cv (O) chariot
38 Irr Wb (S)
6 Irr Ps (I)
Command 3: 12ME
as command 1
Command 4: 9ME
Ally general as Irr Cv (O)
3 Irr Cv (O)
4 Irr Ps (S)
Scouts
Ambush
Army: 78ME
Michael's army contained three commands. The C-in-C commanded abour 12 Irr Kn (F) and 3 Irr LH (I) scouts. Command 2 contained about 18 milites dismounted as Irr Bd (O), supported by some Ps (O) and Breton Cv (O), and led by a dismounted Norman general. Command 3 was led by a Breton sub-general and contained the rest of the Breton Cv, some Bw (O) and a bunch more Ps.
I was the invader in spring, and weather and time of day played no part in the game. I chose to place a river and a road, while Michael selected a couple of woods, a couple of hills and a patch of rough. The river cut off my back left corner of the table in a long arc, so covered my flank reasonably well. One wood sat in my deployment zone, and the road ran between the long table edges on my right flank. The other terrain played no part in the game.
I chose to deploy in standard formation - the warband in front, the two mounted commands behind and the Greek allies in ambush in the wood. Michael deployed first, with his Kn command in the centre, the Bd on his left and the Bw/Cv Bretons on his right. My Wb command, the Wb themselves in three ranks, faced nearly all of the Kn and Bd, and the two mounted commands peeked out from behind the Wb to cover its flanks. Michael's scouts found my ambush, while my scouts found nothing.
Michael pushed forward with his Kn, initially leaving the flank commands back. He then held the Kn until the flanks caught up. I wanted to get the Wb into the Bd, but didn't have the PIPs to push them forward while holding the Wb facing the Kn. Accordingly, and a little uncharacteristically, I held the entire Wb block. Michael moved his column of scouts in front of the Bretons and across the river.
The Bretons' Bw started to shoot at the mounted on my left, and immediately knocked over one element. I charged the chariots and Cv in, but had no luck. Michael then charged the Kn in, and had a small amount of success, destroying three elements of Wb, losing nothing of his own. He also pushed his Ps ahead of his Bd and tempted my Wb there to charge. It seemed a shame to waste the opportunity. The result was four repulsed Ps and two spent. More importantly it meant that the six wide block of Wb now had two pairs of columns pushed forward of their neighbours, meaning that Michael was able to charge his Bd into my Wb with overlaps everywhere. That destroyed a few more elements of Wb, along with the steady destruction being wrought by the Kn. But the Kn-Wb fight wasn't all one way - the naked lads were able to pull a couple of Kn elements off with them.
Over on my left, the Breton Bw were making a mess of my mounted command there, eventually breaking it, and that in turn causing the Greek allies to become disheartened. In desperation I charged the Greek ally general into a Kn who had William right behind. The Greek got lucky, and was able to pursue into contact with the Norman C-in-C. Meanwhile, over on my right, the Wb there were able to stack into the Bd and cause their own mayhem.
By this time it was getting late, so we had to call time. I'd lost my left wing command, and the Thessalians were close to cracking too. The Wb command had lost 9ME of the 11.5ME it needed to become disheartened. The C-in-C's command had lost nothing. Michael's Breton command had lost nothing; his C-in-C's command had lost four Kn - two more would break it; and he'd lost about 6 Bd from his left wing, which broke on losses of 11. This was a game balanced on a knife edge. Had it played on, I think I was a reasonable chance of getting the Kn and Bd I needed to break his left and centre, but Michael was very close to breaking the Greek ally and thus uncovering the flank of the Wb for the Breton Cv to swarm all over.
My Galatians are a fun army to play, but I think they're a little to restricted to use at Cancon. I have other ideas for that event...
