We Went a Wee Bit Mad OR We Played a 24000pts a Side; Seleucid vs Republican Roman WAB Game! Part 1

Eight players; four per side. 24000pts of miniatures; 12000pts of  Republican Romans and 12000pts of Seleucids facing off against one another! A mammoth game indeed! I was a little concerned as how the command and control would work but we decided each person in charge of 3000pts would have a Sub General at -1 Leadership (paid for the cost of a normal general's points) who would have the normal 12" range of a general in WAB. so, effectively an Army General but with a minus 1 to their Leadership characteristic. 

The plan is to play such game over a series of weeks at the club so despite setting up, tactical discussions and getting through three turns we did very well in getting things underway.

Please forgive my poor #attempt at describing the game. It was a huge battle and I suppose part of the fun was the friction created by not knowing what members of your own side were doing- at least not exactly or how successfully. 

The Republican Roman set up at the Start of the Game:

The Seleucid Side of the Table:

Both the Republican Roman and Seleucid Armies Facing Off:

We decided the river would be at low tide so whilst Elephants would move as normal in the river everything else would move as if in Difficult Ground. 

One of the many advantages of big games with lots of toys is the ability to set the armies up as we believe they would have deployed neatly shown in the image below where the Republican Romans could deploy in their key formation for the era; the Triple Line, or Triplex Acies. WAB 2. does not make explicit the rules for the Republican Roman units replacing that of the units in the fighting so we decided to allow such units to Disengage from the enemy whilst utilising the specific army list Republican Roman rule that units can a unit may advance or retire through a legionary unit so long as it does not charge. We have kind of fudged the charge bit but wanted to experiment a bit and see if we could get the Republican Roman army list fit for purpose, even if that does mean we have to increase the point values for legionary units further down the line.

Skirmisher Moves:

The Romans Seized to the Initiative and Took the First Move:

Those who were within missile range loosed but the effect was minimal. 

The First Seleucid Move:

Very much the same idea regarding missiles with the Seleucid turn, and minimal damage too boot! The elephants edges forward while the Saka took a few shots before retreating.

A Better Idea of the Preliminary fighting- on my flank!

From Graeme and Graeme's End- the Seleucid Right Flank:

A Close Up of Jim's Smartly Painted Romans:

Four Agema and Companion Wedges and Plus Two Units of Saka Swirl Around the Roman Left Flank!

The "Grumps" in Person!

The Romans did good work with archers and slingshot in stampeding one of the Seleucid Elephants which luckily for Antigonid (moi) went of at approximately 90 degrees avoiding the Phalanx! 

The Roman Cavalry cleverly try to avoid the elephants of the enemy by crossing the river at it's furthest point on the table. The Elephants turn (grindingly slowly) towards the roman Cav.!

Roman Velites valiantly charge the Elephant (sorry, no pic- I forgot!) losing the combat, fleeing and causing a few more skirmishing units to scarper with the Elephant in pursuit gaining ground but not unable to catch them. Still, at least this got the beast away from the Phalanx! 

The Inexorable Roman Advance Continues:

The Phalanx stands, Unchallenged:

Roman Velites and Skirishers of all types keep trying to chip away at their Seleucid counterparts.

The Pride of the Seleucid Empire continue to make their move on the Roman Left Flank.