Phokian Game 2
The Phokians were now against the most popular army in the period - Alexander The Great. This was the chance for the Artillery to come up against Pikemen - would I know what to do ? How would they fare ? How the hell should I try and use them....!
The Greeks had a Pike heavy list - but there was also a very terrain heavy table. Messy
With half of my deployment zone out of play, and many orchards and a large vineyard cluttering things for the Macedonians there was an obvious route of attack. I set up with the artillery positioned to pour raking fire onto anyone advancing down it, but also expecting them to die before my waiting spearmen could crash into the hopefully by-then disrupted enemy.
| The Macedonians had seen little of such ostentatious use of technology, and advanced cautiously into range as the fearsome engines of war wound up their torsion ropes, then loaded their buckets with grapeshot... ooops, wrong war! |
Martin van Tol gazed longingly over the battlefield, as his own staggering incompetence had already placed him into a losing position, as our game was barely beginning.
Meanwhile a detachment of Spartiates again had spotted a Thermopalaye opportunity, and were racing forwards to try and prevent the Macedonian pikemen from getting out of the narrow pass between terrain features that they had boldly decided to try and storm, as the artillery also swung slowly round to bring their fire to bear.
Meanwhile the main Phalanx was advancing slowly into range of the artillery. A video showing its maneuverability and seaworthyness following a few well placed bolts and stones is available below:
The Phokian peasants were retreating deeper into their orchards as far more competent Macedonian mercenary auxilia pushed onwards - - but found themselves struggling to come to terms with keeping formation whilst negotiating the fruit trees
The thoroughly bewildered Greek hoplites aiding Alexander decided that they should try and push forwards, armed with spanners to dismantle the shoddy scaffolding before them - but were badly rattled by a hail of stones and bolts that disrupted their formation as they drew into range
Meanwhile, things were getting sticky for the sneaky column of pikemen. The Spartans, even thinned down into one rank, were no pushover and it was starting to look like the pikemen could find themselves in an embarrassing jam.
At least their auxila had the advantage, only facing a handful of ignorant peasants and some Ipakratean Ax (X), the 9 Macedonians who had swept out of the vineyard looked set to turn the Spartans flanks.
But The Ipakrateans had other ideas. Instead oif combat, they elected to have a "who has the hardest name to spell competition" and won hands down, shocking the rather unfortunate Ax(S) they were facing with some stunning wins! The flank attack was in tatters, and the Macedonian Pike command was shedding elements faster than they wanted to.
More Phokians joined the fray - and with the General firmly enmeshed deep in the middle ranks of the pike block, things looked grim.
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Adding insult to injury, the rather pathetic and comedically challenged flank march then decided to make a belated appearance.
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Would 17 Ps (I) have time to make a dash for the baggage?
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Would then even be able to add some value and close down the retreat route for the Macedonian pikemen
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Or even could they sweep across the board and nail any lurking psiloi who had hoped to find themselves safe bahind the main battle lines
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And could they do all this without losing 7 elements in combat!
It was still all to play for
With the pikemen in the middle stalled, and the Macedonian attack through the orchard also faltering, the game focused in on the Spartans clash with the Pikes.
The Spartans were now being eroded, as heroism was proving only a temporary match for 3 ranks against 1.
After valiant effort, the Spartans started to run out of space, and their command also started to teeter on the brink of defeat
Finally, with the clock ticking away, the two armies both poised to exploit each others weaknesses, the end of the battle was called. An honorable draw, 16-16.
Post Match Summary
A great game for the artillery - they managed to inflict 5 casualties, but more importantly they severely disrupted the Macedonians plans, and largely neutralized their potentially game winning pikemen as pips were poured into reacting and avoiding the rain of missiles. Arguably the effect was too good, as the Macedonians were unable or unwilling/unprepared to even close onto the artillery - which had been part of my plan, as I expected to lose the stonethrowers, but disrupt the oncoming enemy sufficiently to then sweep forwards with my own spearmen.
Even with this the Phokians can consider themselves lucky not to have lost at least 6-4 with the Ipakratean auxilia and Ps (I) recording an unlikely breakthrough in 2 combats against Ax(S) and against the odds - which brought an outflanking move to an abrupt halt.
In the end an unusual game plan for me - defensive - and an unusual but very interesting game.
