The Bactrians, in an uncharacteristic a fit of aggression, took the offensive against the Seleucids who, caught on the hop (bad die), found themselves on a mostly open plain with some rough ground on their right flank. Normally this would suit the Seleucids and their mounted arm but their general expected the Bactrians to have an edge in that department and scouting did indeed reveal a Bactrian superiority (56 vs 30 scouting points), so the Seleucids were obliged to deploy first and anchored their right on the rough ground but left a large gap on their left. The Bactrians countered by deploying from their right, overlapping the Seleucid left but leaving a gap on their own left.

 

Both sides advanced cautiously and at the end of three turns the armies were revealed:

 

 

The Bactrian plan was to crush the enemy mounted leaving the infantry isolated and vulnerable to the mounted bows they had in abundance.  Thus once the enemy were revealed they closed rapidly with the heavy cavalry toward the two Seleucid mounted contingents whilst bringing the Arachosians around the right.

 

One contingent of Bactrian light horse moved up to provide archery support, the other was promptly halted to maintain a presence in the face of the enemy lights. The Bactrians did not want to close with enemy archers any more than they wanted to leave the safety of the rough ground. 

 

After some fairly ineffective shooting from the Bactrian cavalry a mass charge took place all along the cavalry front with the Tarantines and Scythians evading the charge of the Arachosians. Casualties were pretty even which came as a disappointment to the Bactrians who found the Seleucid Line cavalry holding their Veteran opposite numbers. The Agema pushed back their opponents but the Companions found themselves assailed by the Bactrian Bodyguard and cavalry and were pushed back although they caused the cavalry to recoil. The Bactrian light horse were meanwhile engaged in some long range shooting with mercenary archers to their front, with the foot coming off best, but were also peppering the sole Line cavalry unit supporting the advancing phalanx.

 

The central melee continued with the Agema shaking their opponents but the Companions in turn were shaken by the Bactrian Bodyguard. Disorder was starting to effect more units as the elephants moved up with the Seleucid beast causing more problems due to a better position. This elephant now charged the recently recoiled Bactrian cavalry opponents of the Agema who wisely decided to use their bows to stop the charge but failed miserably and were only saved by a very poor attack by the pachyderm. 

 

Elsewhere the fights remained even and the Arachosians charged the Tarantines and Scythians once more who were obliged to counter this time as evading would have meant leaving the board. The Scythians found themselves worsted and the Arachosians also held the better equipped, shielded Tarantines. Meanwhile other uncommitted Bactrian units were heading for this flank.

 

The next few minutes were full of incident in the centre as the shooting match on the flank continued. The Agema routed their opponents, could not be held from pursuit but were unable to destroy their enemy who outdistanced them leaving them somewhat isolated. The Bactrian Bodyguard similarly routed the Companions but destroyed them in the rout and killed the enemy cavalry commander to boot. The Bactrians fighting the elephant actually gave as good as they got but then broke off with the elephant ending it's pursuit with a Bactrian elephant on its flank and the Galatians were forced onto the back foot. However, both engaged Seleucid Line now shook their Veteran opponents which was a major blow offset by the efforts of the Arachosians. The rout of the Scythians, another superb effort against the Tarantines and a charge delivered against enemy skirmishers despite 25% losses to shooting.

 

The final turn saw the Arachosians rout the skirmishers but the Tarantines routed the Arachosians facing them. Badly mauled in that fight they now had bow armed Bactrians on their flank. One unit of Bactrian cavalry was routed by the Line cavalry but in an excellent turnaround the other shaken Bactrian cavalry pushed back, and shook, their opponents and the Galatians were routed.

 

At this point, seeing the Bactrians poised to sweep around to his rear, most of his cavalry badly mauled or shot up and his principal cavalry commander dead, the Seleucid general sued for terms.

 

Conclusions

 

A game that went entirely the way I wanted it to, despite the odd problem, and Jon had someone die and I won for the first time since we started VB last October. Hooray!!

 

Jon thought I would go with a lot of mounted so deployed a lot of his own but I got lucky and invaded; the other way around and Jon would have attacked up a river valley with one flank secure. I was still surprised to see the phalanx off centre as it did not get into action but Jon was very worried about me getting behind it earlier. His lights did nothing much as they were, quite rightly, worried about the light horse blocking the way from the rough ground.

 

For a mass of bow armed cavalry we did not inflict too many casualties although the line cavalry halted in support of the phalanx had taken 40% casualties. It was a classic dilemma for them as if they had charged the Bactrians would have evaded then swarmed around them, isolated and in trouble.

 

The bow gave me a tactical edge though. Jon knew that once I had nullified his cavalry we could have stood back and shot the infantry to pieces; a mounted charge against pike was unthinkable.

 

We have stopped using the original scouting calculations and gone for a percentage above the opposition. In this case I had 50% more so Jon was obliged to put down his bases first and not have any false bases. This is because you could have an army with 30 scouting and someone else with 42 which completely outscouts them; I don't think that is such a superiority to warrant the benefits. Take it to the extreme in a big game with two Parthian armies and you could have 100 vs 112 scouting and be completely outscouted. I think the fixed points regardless of game size is too restrictive. 

 

Jon will have to wait a bit for a re-match as he is moving to Texas for a few months. So unless I can find a new opponent this will be my last report for a time.

 

Paul