1. Seleucid Elephant Carnage

Marian Romans vs Seleucids

2.  500 Points In Under Three Hours

Marian Romans vs Seleucids

Seleucid Elephant Carnage!

Marian Romans vs Seleucids

Vespasian 28 looked over the dusty plain towards the Seleucid army moving into position. Having lost  two previous encouters due to the twin threat of heavy cavalry and elephants, today Vespasian had a cunning plan to reverse the situation.

Having positioned his heavy infantry in the centre of his line, he sent his light troops (the light cavalry, slingers & spanish Scutiarii ) to his right flank. To avoid the disruptive Seleucid elephant corps he positioned his cavalry behind his infantry:  the aim being to deploy on the opposite flank to the annoying pachyderms.

Finally the Seleucid deployment became clear, the centre a block of pike with the Seleucid right anchored on a low hill by peltasts and Taratine cavalry.  The surprise was on the Seleucid left:  heavy cavalry, Scythians, Arad levy and the elephants.

Vespasian ordered his line forward trying to send his cavalry against the Seleucid right. The Seleucids came forward with their cavalry and elephants, the infantry line on hold. The initial clash on the Roman right went against them . A combination of line cavalry, and morale tests initiated by the presence of the elephants led to complete route of the flank forces.

The Roman cavalry finally made contact with the Seleucid line routing the peltasts and Tarantine cavalry. The pike block advanced. The Roman heavy infanry line was disrupted  by an attack by the Agema and Companions. The Agema destroyed the opposing heavy infantry whilst the Companions took out the opposing infantry after two rounds of combat although they routed after a flank attack by a third heavy infantry unit.

At this point Vespasian , faced by the advancing pikes (4 pike plus two Argraspids vs 4 heavy infantry), cavalry and elephants advancing on his disrupted right flank decided to withdraw to try and work out how to face up to the threat of the elephant corps.

Jon Philp

500 Points In Under 3 Hours

Marian Romans vs Seleucids

The fourth in our series of clashes testing the rules and we are getting quicker all the time finishing 500 pts in under 3 hours despite numerous interruptions from my 3 yr old!

Fought over a mostly open plain with the Roman left flank having some scrubby terrain on the far side which did not impinge on the battle at all. The Romans elected for a couple of Cretan bow units, as well as the obligatory Balearic slingers, to try and inflict some longer range damage on the inevitable elephants.  As it turned out there was only one jumbo supported by Scythian Light cavalry, Greek MC and peltasts facing the Roman left which consisted of units of legionaries. The Seleucid centre was a solid line of pike facing more Roman legionaries and their right the cavalry Companions, Agema, Line cavalry and Tarantines. The Romans had here their Gallic, German and Numidian cavalry supported by the aforementioned Cretans and Balearics.

The Seleucid rolled forward as usual with their cavalry leading the way, the Roman left being held back to prevent outflanking by the more mobile Seleucid right. The Roman centre came forward slowly, always conscious of what the superior Seleucid cavalry could do on their right.

The initial clash developed here with the Numidians evading an early charge by the Tarantines and line cavalry but then the Agema and Companions charged home against the Gauls.  Without the looming presence of a Seleucid elephant the Gauls did well  to hold their own against the Companions but became shaken against the better armored Agema.  Disaster then struck with the Numidian leader becoming badly wounded and the Gallic cavalry leader being killed which led to the rout of one Gallic unit and the other becoming shaken.  Effectively the whole Roman right was leaderless but the general threw in his bodyguard and personally ordered up the German cavalry reserve.

Meanwhile the two centres were closing, with some casualties caused by Roman skirmishers, and the Seleucid right was coming up to try and outflank the Roman left, which caused a gap to develop in the Roman lines as they edged left to block this move off.

Next the Seleucids drove off the Numidians as the reserve of fresh Romans and Germans went in against the Agema and Companions at the same time as the centres clashed home.  The fresh cavalry had the upper hand against tired Seleucid cavalry and saw off the Companions and drove back the Agema.

However all was decided in the centre as, despite stiff resistance from Veteran legionaries, the Seleucids outflanked the Romans on both ends destroying the centre.

A much closer result than before as the elephant only came up against Legionaries and was easily seen off.  One difference in all these games is how the Seleucid line always matches the Roman one whereas in other rules Seleucid pike depth is achieved at the cost of a shorter line.  Also we have tried a local rule allowing LS at exclusion zone range of 3 being at short not long range.  This actually caused the odd casualty to be inflicted forcing some units to charge and chase off skirmishers rather than just sitting there invulnerable. 

Also noted under the current order structure is that skirmishers with long range weapons can be forced to attack if the proportion of units in a command falls below the acceptable ratio of alternate orders.  I cannot see any situation where a skirmisher with a bow is going to throw himself onto a pike block despite what his orders are!

Paul Marsh