Well, last week my Alexandrian Imperials (led by Alexander) took on Jon's Alexandrian Imperials (led by Alexander) to determine who was the real Alexander.
Shifting forwards in time a few years from my Cancon army, I came up with this structure:
Command 1 (27ME)
Brilliant General
4 Irr Ele (O)
3 Irr LH (O)
2 Irr LH (F)
4 Irr Ax (S)
3 Reg Ps (S)
5 Reg Ps (O)
Command 2 (15ME)
Sub
4 Reg Pk (S)
4 Reg Pk (O)
1 Reg Art (O)
Command 3 (27ME)
Sub
4 Reg Kn (F)
1 Irr LH (O)
8 Reg Pk (O)
1 Reg Art (O)
4 Reg Ax (O)
2 Reg Ps (O)
Command 4 (6ME)
6 Irr Bge (I)
Stratagem: Change Deployment
I was the invader, in spring. The table had little terrain: a couple of Enclosed Fields on my right, one on my side of the table and one on Jon's. In the centre of my deployment area was a patch of Rocky Flat. And finally there was a road running across the table through Jon's deployment zone. (If I don't have other plans for a road I like placing one through my opponent's deployment area to make him wonder if I'm planning for an infantry flank march to march down it towards baggage...)
After a bit of dithering I placed C1 on the right, C2 on the left and C3 in the centre. Unfortunately, as the battle started at 11am I wasn't going to be able to use the Change Deployment stratagem.
Jon deployed first. On his right was Alexander with 4 Kn (F) and 2 LH (F). Next to them were 3 Ps (S) and 1 Ele (O), while in the rear were 5 more Ps. In the centre were 4 Pk (S) and 16 Pk (O), with columns of Ax (S) on each side. On his left was a block of about 6 Reg Ax (O), and a similar number of Ps out on the extreme left flank, with a decent group of LH in the rear.
I deployed my Kn (F) and LH facing Jon's, while the Ax (O) faced up to Jon's Ps (S) and Ele. The Pk and Art faced Jon's centre command. On my right the Ele faced the left edge of the centre command and some of the Ax (O), while my Ax (S) and Ps faced the rest of Jon's light troops. My Alexander stayed behind the Ele, the LH behind him.
My initial plan was to lead with the elephants, the Pk and Ax (S) following, the Art advancing only as far as needed to get into range, and the Kn (F) hanging back. When Jon started to move some LH from his left wing to his right to support his Alexander, I decided to do the same. But as Jon advanced his Alexander, his LH also had further to travel.
On my right the Ax and Ps moved out of my Enclosed Field, the Ax column shaking out into a line. The Art were spectacularly unsuccessful early on, achieving something like 2 recoils in the first half-dozen bounds. However, Alexander's LH (O) timed their arrival perfectly, adding their support to the charge of my Companions into Jon's. My one flank hit against the Companions was unsuccessful, and in fact the first three Companion combats resulted in recoils against me. However my sub-general drew with Alexander, getting him pinned in combat, and one Kn (F) destroyed his opponent, while one of my LH (O) also died. Next door, I lost a couple of Ax (O) in attacking the Ps (S) in front of Jon's elephant (which had anyway wheeled away towards the Kn combat).
In the centre the phalanxes met, with an Ax (S) doing a sterling job of holding up one of my Pk columns. At first contact I lost one Pk, and was feeling a bit uncertain of where this might head. High factors on both sides, however, meant no further losses. Next to the phalanx a couple of my elephants crashed into Thracian and Greek peltasts, with again little effect. Next again along the line I charged my Thracian peltasts into the rest of Jon's Greek peltasts, with about one decent result. And at the far end of the line my Ps lost a couple of elements against Jon's.
Jon counter-attacked where he could. I lost another LH and a Kn in the brawl on my left, along with another Ax (O) in return for one Ps (S). In the centre Jon's Pk (S) pushed forward while the adjacent column was recoiled. The fight on my right was inconclusive.
In my next turn I swung an unblocked Kn (F) onto his Alexander's flank, while also hitting another Kn (F) in the rear with a LH. The sub of the centre command charged into an Ax (S) supporting his Ps (S). Meanwhile, on my right the elephants and peltasts continued their fight against Jon's peltasts. The results were deadly. His Alexander died, along with another Kn (F), and this was enough to break his right wing. The centre command sub destroyed the Thracian Ax (S) he faced. On the right my Thracians destroyed a couple of elements of Jon's Greek peltasts. One bolt shooter finally knocked over an element - 1 Ax (S).
Jon's right wing rolled 1 for PIPs, so all troops not in combat immediately fled, opening up that part of the battlefield. The centre continued to be a Pk push-and-shove, although his Pk (S) column pushed well ahead of its neighbouring columns. But on my right Jon achieved some worrying success, killing an elephant, while a charge by his left flank sub and LH destroyed a couple of Ax (S). Both my flank commands had lost quite a few elements, but fortunately mostly low ME troops, so neither command was disheartened.
In my next bound my centre command sub charged into the flank of the Ax (S) still fighting a column of my Pk, while my Alexander hit the flank of Jon's Pk (S). This resulted in the loss of the Ax and 2 Pk. With the additional loss of a couple more Ax (O) from my elephants, Jon decided to concede.
My losses were about 13ME across the army, so under 20% - perhaps a 23-2 result to me. However this isn't a fair indication of the closeness of the game: Jon was quite close to disheartening both of my flank commands. Had his Alexander survived that flank hit he was still in an excellent position to hit the flank of a couple of my Kn (F) elements, and likewise on his left flank his sub was in a position to hit Ax (S) and push that command over to disheartened. The question would have been how quickly I might have reduced his phalanx, with a Kn (F) general grinding in at it from both flanks.
Thank you to Jon for a game played in good wargaming spirit, despite the seemingly one-sided score.
