Sunday 4 December 2022

Victory in Greece, Darius remains undefeated - posted by dirk Heinsius, 28 November 2022

Victory in Greece,
(Darius remains undefeated)
Saturday 26th November, Darius took on Allen Yaxley's Achaian League (Bk2/31 Hellenistic Greek)at the Hutt Club.
The Achaian League league army is quite interesting, with a solid core of Pike, lots of superior Auxila and Psiloi, and Cavalry fighting in a Macedonian style, grades as Reg Kn(F).
Pretty tough for Darius to take on frontally, although with an overall superiority of numbers, and a superiority in mounted, Darius was hoping to delay any clash in the centre and work the flanks with the Cavalry wing.
The wily Greeks however, with the advantage of fighting at home, chose a field, with rough or difficult hills in all four corners of the table, and a very annoying patch of rocky ground, in the centre of the Persian deployment area. Basically a field completely unsuited to large mounted actions.
Darius' plan therefore was to sit back, and the hope that the Greeks would expose their flanks, whilst advancing, whereas the Greek plan, seems to be to advance quickly, to lock the Persians down, and use their superior close combat ability, to break through the Persian centre.
The game opened with a lightning quick advance by the Greek army, with only the mounted holding back somewhat, to avoid coming within bow range too quickly. This locked down the Persian cavalry wing, who were trying to redeploy to move the Chariots away from the pike, and the get Cavalry out to slow the pike advance.
By the third bound, contact had been made in the centre. Persian Cavalry had managed to delay one of the pike columns, however another column had managed to contact the "elite" Chaldean Archers (Reg Bw(I)), who managed to survive the combat merely giving ground, and bringing the pike column forward.
In the centre Greek Psiloi, and Auxilia were exchanging blows with their Persian counterparts, and honours remained fairly even. On the left the Persian Chariots and the Kaspian Horse archers, were able to threaten the Greek Auxilia, to keep them back thus exposing the flank of the Pikes, and on the right the Greek light horse made forays against the Sparabara, acting as a screen whilst the Greek knights advanced into a position for a charge.
The Persian cavalry, finally managed to get into the flank of the pike, and their supporting Psiloi, but failed to do much damage, with a series of very poor combat rolls. To be fair however, the Greek combat dice in the centre were equally poor, so honours were pretty much even.
Things eventually came to a head when the Persian Cavalry finally gained some success against the pikes, with a series of hard flank, supported by the Chaldean Archers, and the Greek centre stared to look a bit shaky, however on the right the Greek knights were in contact with the Sparabara, who fortunately managed to hold most of the line, and the only breakthrough saw the Greek General pursue into the Assyrian Spearmen.
The Greek general at this point, charged in and rode down a Persian cavalry element, exposing him to a number of potential hard flaking options, Allen appeared confident, however and said, "you could throw three ones for pips", and lo and behold I did, which left the Persian army paralyzed with immobility for a bound.
Ahura-Mazda however, returned his favour to the Persians shortly after, and the Assyrian Spearmen managed to 6-1 the Greek cavalry general on the right wing, and with pips in the next Persian bound, the Persian Cavalry managed to swamp the exposed Greek General, and break the Greek army. 23-2 to Darius, having lost 10%.
Luck was fairly even with 3 6-1s for the Persians and 2 for the Greeks, and the game was one of the most "pretty" games I have seen for awhile.
All in all a great game to play, really enjoyable, and Allen as always was a great opponent. This report can't really to the game justice, as it was to and fro for most of the game, with luck swinging both ways.

Finally unit of the match, has to go the Chaldean Archers again, who stood up to a pike column, to allow the cavalry to get into action, and then provided much needed hard-flank support to break the Greek centre. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2227803104045936/

Overview of the Terrain

Awaiting the Greek Advance in the centre

Overview of the initial Greek Advance

The Persian Mounted try to redeploy with 400 paces of the enemy

A relaxed atmosphere in the Persian camp

On the right wing the Greek cavalry advance more cautiously against the Sparabara

Initial delaying actions in the centre

The Chaldeans having been pushed back lure a column of pikes forward into an exposed position.

The centre-right holds steady against continuous Greek attacks.

The cursed luck of the pip dice. My hands were shaking too much to take a good picture, however note the exposed Greek general, surrounded by Persian Cavalry.

Finally some luck in the action against the Pike column.

And finally, after being attacked on three sides the Greek general succumbs


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