Friday 17 March 2023

Thracians vs Early Achaemenid Persians - posted by Vince Cholewa, 14 March 2023

A big thank you to Paul Graham (the King of Kings, Lord of Thorndon, the Sky Stadium, Wellington Railway Station, and surrounding areas of the Wellington CBD) for an excellent game of toy soldiers at the Hutt Club at the weekend. My Thracians burgled a win against Paul’s Early Achaemenid Persians. In 400AP my Thracians have 104ME and in bound 17, when the game ended, I had lost 50.5ME but got a 17-8 win!
Before the game, my general plan was to use my numbers to mass against one Persian flank. Depending on terrain, I would lead with either the King’s command with the wedges of nobles (irregular inferior knights), or with the sub-general’s command with the superior peltasts (a mix of auxiliaries and psiloi) and plentiful ordinary light horse – this entire command can deploy in a flank. Xenophon with his mercenary hoplites would cover the attacking command’s inside flank and a command entirely of ordinary light horse would either go wide around the outside of the attack or be a mobile reserve.
I was the defender and chose terrain to try to break up the Persians shooting lines and stop the Persian chariots (regular ordinary knights) having a bowling alley to skittle my troops. I was able to place all of my terrain in fairly useful places: two half-sized woods on my right, one half-sized difficult hill on my left, and two normal sized scrubby hills in my centre. Paul had also chosen a difficult hill and a scrubby hill, and a road.
With the woods on the right, I decided to:
· attack from there using the nobles in ambush (the King also has some light horse who would go around the wood)
· have the hoplites immediately to their left
· put the Thracian command with peltasts and light horse in the centre and my left amidst the hills, and
· the light horse command would flank march on the right to support the King and his attack.
Paul had his Bw(X) archers, Immortals and auxiliaries in the centre with chariots and cavalry behind them. His right (my left) was covered by a command of Saka light horse, and on his left, in the open ground in front of the woods, was cavalry and light horse to cover what might be in the woods, protect the centre’s flank and, if the chance came, to go around the woods.
I had the first bound and the nobles leapt out of their ambush with a hiss and a roar to attack the Persian cavalry and light horse. The King’s Own Light Horse moved around the wood to support them. The hoplites advanced and, on the left, the peltasts moved onto the hills with supporting light horse swarming around the outside. The flank march did not arrive.
Over the next bounds the Thracian King’s command and the Persian left got into each other. Unfortunately, after the hiss and a roar, the King’s next four PIP dice were all 1s. It was a very messy fight but with the support of the hoplites the King was able to break the Persian left. However, his own command was disheartened. If there was one crucial combat, it was when a hard-flanked element of Thracian nobles not only fought off the Persian cavalry to its front but doubled them (6-1)! If the nobles had lost, my already disheartened command would have broken before the Persians did. Still, the flank march did not arrive.
On my left, the Thracian light horse scared off the Saka – or the Saka redeployed to support the hard-pressed Persian cavalry on Paul’s left. The combination of Thracian light horse and peltasts started to cause casualties to the Persian centre, which no longer had its light horse cover.
In the middle, the Persian cavalry and chariots eventually came through their shooting line into a to-and-fro fight with the hoplites and Thracian sub-general’s command. Casualties accumulated on both sides.
On my right, the redeployed Saka and the Persian centre did enough to break the Thracian King’s command. Still, the flank march did not arrive.
In my ninth bound, the seventeenth of the game, an element of hoplites was able to get onto the rear of a chariot that had pursued after playing skittles with some of my troops. The chariot was destroyed and that broke the command and the Persian army. Still, the flank march did not arrive and now, as it was after the eighth bound, its 16ME counted towards my losses, that “lucky” number 50.5ME!

I have to say it is so different having big commands after using early 16th Century Polish with four wee commands. The Thracian King’s command and the command with the peltasts are each 27ME. And thank you again to Paul for a game, played quickly, with determination for a result and excellent spirits throughout. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2311517249007854/

Paul surveys the table after initial deployment and before I have had the first bound. The Thracian nobles would shortly erupt from the wood more to the left in the pic and the hoplites would move into the open space between the hills and woods. My flank march is going around the woods - quite where it went, who knows! The Thracian peltasts are about to move onto the hills and their supporting light horse will go around the hills.

My wargaming shirt. When Shakespeare wrote, "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" did he have papillon in mind?

Russell Briant
I’m sure that’s exactly what Kit Marlow had in mind (before Will the plagiariser tea leafed it)

Nasty shooty people (Persian Irr Bw(X))

More nasty shooty people (also Persian Irr Bw(X))

Persian cavalry, Immortals and chariots behind




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