On the tournament I decided to play with an Indo-Greek army instead of my usual Bactrians.
Here is the roster:
I had more than a fair share of shooting units. And they can stand for a while in a close combat too. Army should do well in a dense terrain, a bit worse in open, but it is rather fleixble force that fears no terrain setup. The main drawback of this army is lack of solid punching unit, with only 1 superior cavalry and an elephant. And the latter has its clear limitations when facing elite infantry.
1st Battle - Imperial Romans
I do not have the roster of my opponent, but if my memory is right there were:
2 units of average cavalry, 4 units of average infantry, 2 superiors and 1 exceptional. Supported by 1 SuG of cavalry and 3 generals (talented, competent and mediocre).
We ended up in a dense terrain, but most features could not have been placed due to unlucky rolls. Since both armies consisted of many Flexible/Loose units it wasn't that important.
My left wing was vastly superior to Romans. My cavalry is better in CC and Elephant tramples horse units with easy. On the other hand, my right wing infantry could not hope to last for long against elite legionaries who had a numerical advantage. So the plan was to harrass Romans with my light cavalry, delay as much as possible, break Roman cavalry on my left asap and try to outflank the opponent before he does the same to me on my other wing.
Roman force pushed forward. My right wing started to wheel in order to avoid flank attack later on. My left did not push to hard to check what roman cavalry is up to...
The next round was all forward assault on my left, hoping to catch enemy horsemen with an elephant. As there was a gap in the center of Roman line, 2 units of my Indians moved forward to try flanking manoeuvre.
After 2 turns, from the Roman right cavalry remained only skulls and bones... But those were only 2 TuGs broken, so it was clear that situation on the other side of the battlefield will be decisive for an overll outcome.
It took Romans a while (I was stalling here as much as I could with my light horse) but finally they reached my battleline with a rather minimal losses from my volleys. Fortunately my phalanx is not easily broken and the help was already on the way.
Here is the flanking manoeuvre of my Indians completed. Romans reaction was too little, too late (the furthest unit to the Roman left turned around to help threaten units).
Here it the situation after the Romans were broken. My sarrisophoroi suffered some losses, but KaBs demolished Roman lines. In total I lost only Cretan archers who must have been frozen by the sight of elite Legionaries as they didn't even react when charged (yeap, rolled 1 on skirmish move).
2nd Battle - Later Carthaginian
Again oponnents roster from memory only: 3 Tugs of Celtiberians, 3 TuGs of cavalry, 3 TuGs of spearmen 2 SuG of skilled cavalry, 3 SuGs of slingers.
Oh, wow, I really loved this battle! Although not much of actual fighting it was very tactical, calculated and there were so many moves and countermoves. Especially it is visible in the end how armies developed. I wish a had more photos from each of the phase... but I hope what I have will give you the general picture of the battle.
There was some inconvenient terrain on my side of the table but it didn't play a major role in the battle. I hoped to lure enemy near my battleline, especially since Carthaginian cavalry was facing my elephant and pikemen. So any push there was to my advantage. However I was oounumbered on the flanks, so I had to be careful to do not expose my army for a flanking actions.
The first round of the battle did not change much in th general view of the battlefield except the armies got a little closer to each other. Mostly keeping original battleline. Since the round 2 started to happen a lot!
As I was affraid, both flanks of Carthaginian army wen't for an offensive. And cavalry center kept safe distance from my pikemen (which is well adviced for horses;)). I had to react by taking more offensive stance by my light infantry on the left, with cavalry support.
My left cavalry punched through Iberian infantry, at the same time Carthaginian counterparts stucked in my light Indians, but smartly retreated shortly after that, avoiding flank charge. Meanwhile I drew back 1 cavalry unit on my right to cover the flank (my other SuG was destroyed with shooting). And probably for the first time, my phalanx line was so dispersed in an attempt to push cavalry out of the field.
Carthaginian general used reserve force of spearmen in the center and joined the to the fight.
And here it the very end of the battle (time down). I drew a line to connect my front line - Euzenoi were so much to the front! Unfortunately my cavalry lost against Carthaginian one that was able to break from the fight with my infantry and then with a skirmish move face frontally my originally flanking charge...
End result was a minor defeat 4:5.
3rd battle - against the Mid Republican Romans
There were 2 TuGs of Superior Principes, 2 TuGs of Average Hastati, 1 Tug of Triari, 2 TuG of cavalry and 3 SuGs of light infantry.
The description will be very short as I miss some key photos, sorry...
I basically lost PBS and no terrain, except for a river on the flank meant that I can not gain any advantage against close formations of Romans...
The idea was to break through on my right wing and delay fight on my left as much as possible, assuming my center should do fine in a fair fight. And nothing went as planned ;)
So here is my left, about already in the fight against Roman cavalry (but it was rather suicidal actions by Romans). My right was pushing, but as it turned out, will stuck for a few rounds of fighting with no results on either side. My best hope was to catch triari on the flank when they go for my elephant. What is the chance, my elephant will go down in charge fight, right?
Well, the chance doesn't matter, it fell down and KaBs wrecked havoc on my forces. Also I suffered wounds on a phalanx with wounds on the enemy. At least my Indians are still in good condition.
And here is Roman right ready to attack my Indians, which they will, but both sides will suffer losses.
No more photos, sorry... My center was partially broken in the end, Indians suffered heavily, but my right wing cavalry finally broke Roman horsemen. End result was a minor defeat again 7:8.
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