We Went a Wee Bit Mad OR We Played a 24000pts a Side; Seleucid vs Republican Roman WAB Game! Part 2

Image Above- the Seleucid Extreme Left Flank.

Week two brings us to Part 2 of our Republican Roman vs Seleucid game carried on from last week. As the game left last time, the Seleucid left flank (my) was beginning to look a bit shaky; partly because I read the old first draft errata with the rules for Wedges and realised that both my Wedges of cavalry had cheated and taken an About Turn in their last move which is not allowed! And partly because of Martin's (Roman right Flank) crafty cavalry manoeuvres over the river and into a flanking position. We decided to allow the Wedges to make a Reform move just to get them back in the game which seemed fair; if they failed, they would remain facing in the wrong direction until they passed and happily they both did so. 

The Seleucid Line:

The elephant (newly names "Saving Grace") stampeded very early on in the game continues to make it's merry way across the front of the both adversaries lines! One Scythed Chariot is charged by a unit of Velites then flees. The other scythed chariot remains on stand by.

Roman Centre Right:

A nice shot of the Republican Roman Triple Acies/Maniple in action. Or, rather waiting for action while "Saving Grace" plods along the line. The unit of Velites (front) become very annoying to my freshly painted unit of Argyraspides (standing in as a pike block - just off picture to the front).

Seleucid Centre Left:

The larger Phalanx hangs back whilst part moved forward creating a space for the Scythed Chariots and skirmishers to move forward and shoot. And shoot they did taking out a large part of a unit of Hastati!

The Ebb and Flow of Battle:

The Roman Left Flank Consisting Mainly of Cavalry.

The Roman Centre Waiting Patiently for the Mad Ellie to Move Out of the Way!

The Seleucid companion and Agema Wedges begin to roll around the Roman Left causing all sorts of confusion.

Freshly Painted Miniatures Syndrome!

My freshly painted unit of Phalangites wearing the cloaks get slowly whittled away by a unit of very lucky Velites!

The Roman Right closes in on my whittled away flank. My skirmishers largely gone, my elephants chasing down Elephant Wagons or running amok, and my two Agema Wedges just about recovered from the rules faux pas from the previous session! Things were looking grim so I charged the smaller Wedge to clear some Velites out of the way but made a major misjudgement!

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus Contemplates the Battlefield!

The Roman Left begins to look more and more untenable as the Wedges edge around the flank. There was nothing for it except for the Roman Equites class but to retreat! Typical toffs!

A Nice View of Both Armies from Tabletop Height:

Remember my misjudgement? Well, this was it. I forgot the Roman Extraordinarii had a better move distance than most Roman troops and sure enough, they came charging in flattening my main Wedge. I promptly lost the combat, fled but managed to rally at the beginning of my nest turn.

The "Gang"

My Wedge Just Prior to Rallying. 

The (slightly) joyous moment of rallying with enough vision to realise that I was about to be charged again in my next turn! With this in mind I did an About Face with two of my Phanlanx units in order to make sure I could get a charge in on the Roman Extraordinarii in my next turn or they would be in our rear causing all sorts of carnage. It's not a bad idea to turn your back on the enemy, but hopefully i will have time to turn around again! Gulp! 

Seleucid Right:

Overall View:

Again:

A Better View of the Seleucid Right:

Oh yeah, Midgard dropped through my letterbox. A review coming soon.

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.