Indians vs Palmyrans

We played a 850 pts game yesterday between my Indians and my friend Jos’ Palmyrans.

The Indian army was built from left to right of 4 mixed brigades of one bowmen, spearmen, elephants, heavy chariot and skirmishers each, with a separate elephant brigade and 2 cavalry brigades in support on the right flank.

The Palmyrans faced the regular brigades with bowmen and light infantry and faced the centre and the cavalry with their dreaded cataphracts and light horse in support. Since they out scouted the Indians somewhere 8 to 1 they had a flank attack of light horse and a bolt thrower base in the centre of the playing field. The flanking base would ultimately arrive at turn 3.

The battle started with an cavalry fight on the Indian right flank where the Palmyran cataphracts slaughtered the Indian levy medium horse. The Indian elephants slaughtered the Palmyran light horse and ultimately 6 bases of levy Indian horse and 5 bases of Palmyran light horse were routed. The cataphracts and the elephants still going strong.

In the centre the bolt shooters managed to kill a skirmisher base and damaged heavily a bow base before they were charged and driven off. This left a hole in the Palmyran centre to be exploited by one of the regular Indian brigades.

On the left flank the Indians were far stronger than the Palmyran light infantry and bowmen and rolled over the line with chariots, elephants and spearmen. This was quite costly in shooting damage, but in the end the charges broke through the line and dispersed the Palmyran right flank.

The Palmyran flanking manoeuvre entered on the Indian right flank, behind the cavalry and elephants fighting with the Palmyran cataphracts.

Fortunately the Indian commander had kept a regular brigade in reserve which turned to the right to stop the new threat. Unfortunately for the Palmyran horse they entered with Attack orders and had no time to change. So the light horse was met by a mix of elephants, chariots, spearmen and longbow bases and seen off.

In the end the Palmyran army would have lost all infantry, artillery and about 60% of its light horse and 20% of its cataphracts. The Indian army lost all cavalry, and had about 50% of its elephants and chariots damaged by fire and/or combat.

We concluded the fight to be a tactical Indian victory, as the next stage would have put the cataphracts on their own against an Indian army with full infantry and bow support with elephants and chariots to boot.

A nice game, thanks to my opponent (who is an experienced war gamer, but played VB for the first time) and the lessons learned:

· Combination of elephants and chariots can be deadly. Pachyderms are

· Good News against cavalry!

· Bolt throwers are very bad news (he had four)!

· Cataphracts are scary and two cataphract bases easily disposed of six levy medium horse bases.

· If you out scout the enemy you can do some very nasty things. In hindsight, had Jos placed his infantry against my elephants and had given his flanking manoeuvre F orders, than I would have had quite a problem on my hands.

This was the second time I played VB, and the third time will be next week as my Indians will meet Achaemic Persians with their dreaded Immortals!

Peter Schulein

Immortals Are Indeed Immortal!

Last week I met the Achaeminid Persians with my Indians for a 700 pts battle.

The Indian army deployed four mixed brigades (spear, bow, elephant, heavy chariot) in the centre, and on the right flank two mixed brigades of elephants and levy cavalry.

The Persians deployed two infantry brigades built on two bases of Immortals with infantry and skirmisher support each, an additional mixed infantry brigade and a heavy and a light cavalry brigade on his left flank.

The battle started with a cavalry battle. The Indian cavalry was levy but got help from the veteran elephants. The Persian cavalry was veteran and average. In the end the disorders from the elephants and the shields from the Indian cavalry won the day. The mostly shieldless Persian cavalry was ground down with the loss of an elephant and an Indian cavalry base.

While this took place the centres closed and since both the Indians and Persians had kept a brigade in reserve, the reserves would decide the battle.

The Immortals advanced and turned out somewhat of an moving machinegun battalion. Strength 16, elite with bow and shield saw two of those bases chewing up a regular Indian base with bowfire in less then two turns.

The Indian commander put his reserve in the centre to give more weight, the Persian commander was obliged to use his reserves to counter the Indian cavalry and elephant force that had regrouped after seeing off the Persian cavalry, since it threatened to turn his flank.

We stopped the battle when the Persian supporting bases were routed and the situation basically ended in four bases of Immortals against the Indian army minus five bases. It would have been an extremly costly affair to finish of the Immortals, as each base that comes within bowrange gets chewed up. We decided on an Indian tactical victory, because of the other losses of the Persian army.

Lessons learned:

· Combination of elephants and cavalry works out well.

· Elite HI Shield and Bow are terrible, even close order Indian longbow bases get blasted away

· The Persian Commander should have put his infantry against the elephant/cavalry brigade.

Peter Schulein

Martial Maritals Battle It Out!

Yesterday me and my wife played a 700 pts battle between my Indians and her Parthian all cavalry force.

The Indian army deployed 4 mixed brigades (spear, bow, elephant, heavy chariots) and on the left flank a mixed brigade of elephants and levy cavalry. The centre of the Indian army made a stand around a hill.

The Parthian army advanced with four mixed brigades of two cataphracts and three horse archers each. The guards were attached to the general as reserve. One of the brigades made a flank attack and arrived at the Indian flank on turn two.

Since the flank attack arrived early and close to the Indian army, the Indian reserve brigade was turned towards the enemy and battle ensued. The flank attack was beaten off with heavy losses for the Indian brigade which lost an elephant and a chariot base.

On the left a large cavalry, elephant furball was generated with a single Parthian cataphract stopping an Indian cavalry and two elephants in its tracks while his collegue disposed of another two cavalry bases.

The Indian Commander had no reserves left and decided to attack with his centre.

The Parthian light horse was no match for Indian longbows, but were extremely nasty in flank and rear charges on existing melees. By combining bases the frontal assault on the Indian hill by cataphracts could be stopped, but the Indian bases got chewed up by extended cataphracts multi-melees at a fearsome rate.

In the end the Parthian right flank consisted of a cataphract base against two elephants and a spearman base , the centre contained two cataphracts and four chewed up light horse and the Parthian Left flank was beaten. The Indian army centre contained five bases (badly mauled) and the Guards against the Parthian centre.

We decided on a draw since the Parthians lost six of their nine heavy bases, but the Indians lost three of their six elephants, three of the four heavy chariots, and the remaining six infantry bases would have had quite a job against the Parthian cataphracts.

Lessons learned:

· Combination of elephants and cavalry works out well.

· Cataphracts are almost unbeatable by average CO infantry, even when the infantry survives the initial charge the -9 armour save makes cataphracts almost invulnerable for infantry in the melee. Even with a two to one flank melee, the cataphract at least chews up one infantry base.

· If the flanking move would have arrived in turn 4, and consequently would have arrived when the contact in the centre was already established, we think the Parthians would have won.

· Even with elephants, the Parthian army is difficult to engage when you have mostly average CO troops.

Peter Schulein