Run down like dogs

I had the my first battle with the Seleucids and it wasn't pretty! It was 1500 points but built like a frontier force so mostly cavalry and light units. The scenario was I had to take and hold a Arab caravan in the center of the table. The armies came on in a marching order (1D6 units per turn) entering the table from a 12" section in the middle of the table side.

I had the Old Man, Army Battle Standard, 1 Phalanx, 2 Thureophoroi, 2 Euzonoi (skirmishers), 1 unit of slingers, 1 Politikoi Cav (med cav), 1 Tarentine Cav (oh so nice light cav), and 1 Skythian cav unit. Jeff had a similar army to mine except I had a bit lighter but more maneuverable cav.

Here's the objective and end of first turn. We both got 5 units on the board. Seleucids on the left, Ptolemaic army on the right.


This is the end of Turn 2.



By the 2nd and 3rd turn, I shot the Thracian light cav on the right enough to cause them to break and run off. My Tarentines were charged by the Ptolemaic heavy cav, caught after they fire and fleed (rolled a 5 for distance ugg), were beaten and ran from combat only to get run down again (rolled a 3 this time). So there went my left flank guard.


My 2nd Thureophoroi unit finally came on and I had to send it over to my left flank to try to hold up the Ptolemaic cav. The middle infantry units marched closer and some Galation Nobles cavalry that marched on earlier failed their Warband roll and moved up into charge range of my Politikoi cavalry. I ended up charging them, they fled and rolled high enough to exit the table.

After this it all went downhill.

The Ptolemaic heavy cav turned around to go save their flank and a unit of Cretan archers shot a few cavalry models. When it was my turn to go I thought my cavalry could run down the Cretans without much trouble but I couldn't hit the buggers and ended up fleeing before them. My Phalanx charged the Ptolemaic phalanx but lost and failed both their rout checks only to get run down. The Old Man thought behind the Phalanx would be save ran away, only the ASB stuck around bewildered to see a Phalanx charge into him. My Thureophoroi did do my proud though. They stuck around two turns fighting a enemy Thureophoroi and Thorakitai unit. But finally it was too much and they too got run down.



It all ended with my last Thureophoroi breaking the beat up Ptolemaic Thureophoroi unit that slammed into it from running my other unit down. The Politikoi rallied but can't do anything against a Phalanx blocking it's path. My last Thureophoroi hit the Thorakitai, cried because their lord didn't care enough to give them any armor and ran off the field. So the Ptolemaic army kept the caravan in the end.

It was a good battle. It could of went either way.