Back to Syria

After a long rest, Jeff and I got back together to throw down in the next installment of his Syrian Wars compaign. I've been painting quite a bit and wanted to use all my new units, so we decided on a big 3,250 point battle.

Here is what I had for my Seleucids (broken up in Characters, Cavalry, Infantry, Special, Mercs):

Antiochus III - Successor King
Army Standard
Taxiarch

Companions (10)
Elite Light Cavalry (10)

Silver Shields (28)
Katoikoi Phalanx (28)
Katoikoi Phalanx (28)
Elephant Escorts (8)
Euzonoi (10)

Armored Elephant
Normal Elephant
Scythed Chariot

Thureophoroi (18)
Thorakitai (18)
Ne0-Cretans (12)
Thracian Peltasts (10)
Iranian Levies (44)
Arab Cavalry (12)
Arab Archers (12)

Jeff had 5 pike units (3 normal, 1 Machomoi, 1 mercenary), Companions, some cavalry with thrusting spear, Galation Noble cavalry, an African elephant, some Greek allies, thureophoroi, thorakitai, the dreaded Cretan archers, and some other skirmish troops.

We had two new players (Alex and Jen) acting as sub-commanders. Jen had my right and Alex had Jeff's right. So each side had an extra Strategos sub-commander.

Here is our set up. We wrote down our deployment then just set up. Pike in the middle, Jeff's strong right flank with Companions vs my weaker left with Elite Light cavalry and Scythed Chariot, my companions where on my right with the Arab cavalry against his Greeks.

Some random pictures of figures at the start.




Not much happened the first couple turns. Skirmishers ran out. Archers shot some stuff. Both right flanks played a little cautious. My Thracians got their rhomphaia handed to them by some upstart Neo-Agranians. The thureophoroi were in open order so they went stamping through the woods.

On Jeff's right, his Companions were getting pretty shot up by the Arab archers so them and the Ptolemaic cavalry pushed up. I send in my Elite Light cavalry to to punch through his Ptolemaic cavalry and set up my chariot to charge into the Companions if they charged my Arabs. If things went right I could bust open that flank. My elite cavalry couldn't hit a thing though and ended up being run off.

The Arabs ran from the Companions when they charged. I did manage to his Companions with my scythed chariot and bring them down in numbers so they weren't effective anymore. But all I had on that flank to stop his Ptolemaic cavalry now was my massive levy unit with their flank to them... which can't reform due to being levy.

On my right not too much happened. My Companions were in position behind the woods ready to exploit whatever happened on the either side but nothing much happened to expoit. The Arab cavalry and Jeff's Galatian nobles tangled a bit with the Gauls coming out on top after a few turns.

In the center, I turned my Phalanx to try to meet his so Jeff wouldn't get a too much of an overlap on my left. I had my thorakitai, armored elephant and levy to try to hold up his phalanx there. When the pike did meet, my Silver Shields took a beating from his mercenary phalanx and they took off running. Luckily they rallied next turn. Jeff Machimoi phalanx turned out to be WS2 (you roll to determine their WS when they enter combat) but still dealt a lot of damage. I put my king with my center phalanx to make them stubborn (his randomly determined King ability), which they swiftly used. They ended up falling back leaving one one of my pike units in combat.

Alex charged in one phalanx into my thorakitai and another into the elephant. My thorakitai stayed but the elephant got poke in the eye by a pike and stampeded off. Not looking good for the Seleucids. At this time the Ptolemaic cavalry charged by levy in the flank which failed their panic check and all 44 of them ran into the rear of my line.

The stampeding elephant ran through my fleeing levy and destroyed them. The Silver Shields lost again and ran off. The thorakitai couldn't hold the phalanx any longer and broke. Poor Antiochus III decided enough is enough and called it there. A massacre if I ever saw one. Here's a few ending photos.

So the Seleucids were stopped on their run to Alexandria. We'll have to see if I can keep what's left of my army intact fleeing back to Damascus as I'm hounded by the Ptolemaics. The levy only got chased off so I'm looking forward for them to come back and redeem themselves!!