An Ancient Campaign using Sabin's Empire as a basis and Basic Impetus (augmented) to fight the battles

Fearful of another Roman attempt to invade North Africa the Carthaginians decided to send another expeditionary force to Sicily to forestall the enemy.  The fleet crossed safely and battle against the Legions was joined somewhere near Agrigento.  (Alas our Punic player had decamped to London to see Jeff Lynne and War of the Worlds and the Pink Floyd Exhibition so we had to cobble together a Punic looking army from what we had available)


Overview of the Action

The Romans set their legions on the left and centre with, as usual a unit as reserve and their cavalry on their right, linked to the legion with some Italian Light Infantry.  For their part the Punics sought to destroy the enemy cavalry with their superior cavalry and take on the enemy infantry on the other wing with two elephants and the Celtic mercenaries.  Their hoplite phalanx they kept in reserve(?)


From Behind the Roman Line (the excellent Warbases turning aids can be seen)

Everything that could go wrong for the Carthaginians, did.  They rolled loads of dice in the attack and rarely if ever scored a 6 (eg. Fifteen dice in the elephant attack and not a single hit) but when it came to cohesion tests they rolled a 6 every time.  Their cavalry attack was comprehensively trashed by the Romans with the loss of only one unit (they killed all three Punic cavalry units) apart from the outlier Numidian horse which beat their opponents and tried manfully to get behind the enemy line – but too late to affect the course of the battle.

On the other wing the elephant attack failed miserably (see above) and both stampeded back into their own skirmishers.  


One elephant is already in a bad way as the second comes up to suffer the same fate

The Celts similarly fared disastrously against the legionaries and though they held out for a time, they too were eventually destroyed.  With dead bodies all over the shop and the phalanx unutilised at the rear the Punics admitted defeat with the Romans having lost only one unit.


The Celts are Thrashed

The Romans, exalted by their victory immediately decided to pursue their opponents to North Africa and, in their turn, landed safely on shore.  New tactics will certainly be required by the Punics of the sacred city of Carthage itself is not to fall.

The Roman army landed safely on African soil and immediately marched towards Carthage.  The Punic army assembled under Harreble (or as he was later to become known – the Horrible).  The armies met in the vast open plain before Carthage, (the Punics winning the die roll and were defenders choosing no terrain at all). The Romans set up their legions on their right and centre with some Thracian light infantry on the left of the legionaries.  A Triarii unit was placed in reserve.  Beyond that they placed both units of Cavalry with some light horse between these and the infantry line.


The Two Armies Face Each Other

Having lost badly in all previous combats against the mighty 6 VBU legionary units, the Punic commander determined to face the entire enemy infantry line with only skirmishers and a unit of Numidian horse whom he hoped might get round the right flank of the Romans.  Over on his right he massed all his cavalry and elephants in an attempt to destroy the enemy horse then swing round on to the Roman flank.


The Roman Infantry Line

It would be as well at this point to warn the reader that once again in this battle we were to see a catastrophic series of die rolls for the Punic commanders.  It is clear that, once again, the wrong first-born had been sacrificed previous to the battle, for while the generals were able, almost without exception, to roll no more than a single 6 in each melee, they invariably rolled a 6 whenever they diced for cohesion.  Needless to say the soothsayers accompanying the army who had conducted the sacrifices were crucified some days later after they were apprehended trying to cross the Sahara.


The Punic Right - surely they thought, there are enough here to defeat the Roman Cavalry

On the Punic right therefore the two Roman cavalry units were attacked by both Punic cavalry and one elephant unit.  The combined Punic attack failed miserably with all three units retreating.  The Romans pursued and destroyed the Punic cavalry in short order.  The only Punic success here was the destruction of the Roman light horse by the Numidians who then accompanied one elephant unit towards the roman foot’s left flank. This left the other elephant desperately turning round and round to try to face the victorious Roman cavalry which was now well behind the enemy line.


The victorious Roman cavalry in pursuit while the Punic elephants desperately try to turn to face them. Meanwhile the other elephant unt turns towards the enemy foot

By the time the cavalry had ordered themselves and advance into the centre the elephants were finally able to attack them – only to bounce ignominiously.
Over on the other wing the skirmishers and Numidians were doing a good job of holding off the entire Roman infantry line – but of course they could not defeat their opponents themselves – they were just there to delay them.  Eventually they were forced to evade once too often and off the table.  The Numidians did, however, eventually get round behind the line but even they, attacking a lowly enemy skirmisher unit in flank (and thus unable to evade), were beaten, ignominiously.

Eventually the Punic commander realised that, with his right beaten and his left almost off the table, he had to commit his infantry.  The elephant and Numidians were approaching the enemy flank as well so he had high hopes of doing some damage against the enemy Triarii and Hastati units there.  But the elephants again recoiled and the flank attack by the Numidians was a complete fiasco. The Gauls were initially successful, destroying the Thracians, but they fell easy meat to a legionary unit behind.  The Libyans and Hoplites fancied their chances against the enemy, coming round the corner, so to speak, into the area where the elephants had failed, but they too were comprehensively thrashed by the Roman foot.  At this point the Punic breakpoint was reached and The Romans claimed victory.


The Punic skirmishers and horse did a stalwart job holding the enemy back but without effective support from the rest of the army . . . well, that's their story anyway.

Great was the rejoicing on the Roman side (in the bar afterwards) but there was much despondency in the Punic camp as they gloomily looked into their half pints (these damn licensing laws!!!)

With the capture of North Africa all the Punic Empire defected and became independent.  Numidia, Iberia, Gallia and Cisalpina now revert to that status.  That ended Turn 12.  Hannibal arrives Turn 14 so the Punics have Turn 13 to roll a 6 to make a successful rebellion and recover their home territory otherwise Hannibal is going to have to spend at least one of his five attacks doing that (or more if he doesn’t roll 5 or 6)  Dark days indeed for Carthage.

Gsame Turn 13 began with a rebellion in Armenia, hitherto controlled by the Macedonians.  Antiochus thought long and hard about whether to crush the rebels or continue his attempts to regain Syria from the Parthians but in the end the prospect of Rome dominating the West impelled him towards a seaborne assault on southern Italy (Magna Graecia).  Alas the Gods determined otherwise and his fleet sank en route. (1 or 2 to sink - he threw a 2)

Next to move were the Parthians.  With the Macedonians committing himself to a forward defence against both Rome and Hannibal (next Game Turn if he rolls right) The Parthian King decided to reduce the rebellious province of Bactria.  He transferred all his elephants back to the East having heard that the invading nomads had bought some from friendly Indians across the Hindu Kush – with any luck he might be able to augment his own ageing stock.


The Protagonists.  From bottom left clockwise we have the Macedonian King, the Roman Dictator, The Punic Commander and the Parthian King surveying the latest battlkefield in Bactria.

The Kings army met the nomad host near the Oxus and the armies were, not surprisingly, pretty similar.  The Nomads placed their horse on their left, elephants in the middle, some light horse on the right and their whole front covered by horse archers, especially their own cavalry.  The Parthians deployed likewise but with some Indian archers and a horse archer unit on their left.


The Initial Deployment - Nomads on the right

Unwilling to delay close action the Nomad Lord ordered his horse archers not to skirmish on his left but to charge straight in on the enemy light horse. This produced a lightweight melee which stuttered to a halt for a couple of turns as the dice determined no advantage to either side.  With most of his cavalry thus pinned behind the skirmish in front of them this allowed one Parthian noble unit to attack the right of the Nomad cavalry line and the elephants to engage.


The melees on the Nomad Left and Centre

Two turns later with no clear winner to either of these melees the Nomad horse finally eliminated the Parthian horse archers and surged round the enemy flank while simultaneously the remaining two Nomad cavalry units attacked the Parthian cavalry.  Stung by arrows the Parthian cavalry were at a definite disadvantage in the melee and eventually all three units were destroyed.  Victory seemed to beckon to the rebels.  But elsewhere things were not going so well.


The Nomad Left as the battle commenced

On the other flank the Indian archers were shot to pieces by enemy horse archers and the opposing horse archer units fired in a desultory fashion at each other for a long time.  So unsettling was the situation here that the King sent his one remaining horse archer unit, which had been covering the elephants, over to the left to help out.  This had a dramatic effect.  Both nomad horse archer units here were soon eliminated.


In the Centre the elephants come to grips

But the vital combat was in the centre where the Parthian elephants finally won both their melees allowing one elephant to turn against the victorious Nomad Nobles and the other to charge and wipe out the nomad light infantry which had been held back in reserve.  When the VD count was made the Nomads had lost despite defeating and destroying ALL the Parthian heavy cavalry.  Considerable head shaking ensued – but the loss of the elephants was a crushing blow which they could not recover from.

Next to play is Rome. With North Africa conquered and the Punic Empire in ruins the Romans sought to regain Cisalpine Gaul.  Some senators had argued they should follow the Macedonians back onto greek soil but fear of yet another fleet sinking soon scuppered that thought.

Inspiring as usual!

Cheers Paul

With the collapse of the Punic Empire the Gauls considered themselves set free and everywhere ousted their Punic governors.  This, the Roman Senate decided, meant they could now expand into Gallia themselves without having to face a Punic army there.  The Gauls they had defeated in the past and the general opinion was that this would be an easy campaign which would bring many thousands of slaves to Rome.


The "Old Man of the Celts" Prepares His Battleline

The Legions marched north in anticipation but the Gauls, realising their freedom was once more at stake, gathered their best troops to face the attack.  North of Milan they formed up with three good units of Gallic  cavalry (VBU=5), three large warbands (two with Soldurii at the front VBU=6) and one with good warriors at the front (VBU=5).  Covered by skirmishers they awaited the Legions near the lakes with their cavalry on their right and the infantry on the left.  They had the benefit of seeing the Roman line-up and  hoped both to defeat the enemy cavalry and hit the Roman left cohorts and defeat them before the rest of the Legion could get into action.


The Battle Opens.  On the left the Roman infantry at the bottom and cavalry at the top.  Opposite then can be seen the Gallic cavalry and the three strong infantry line aimed at the Roman foot.

The Romans had their usual 5 cohorts, three with Pila and two with spear.  Four of these they placed in their front line, spear to their left with a unit of Italian allies linking to the cavalry deployed opposite the enemy horse.  They had only two units of cavalry and a unit of light horse but, they thought, the critical areas would be in the centre, against the Soldurii – the cavalry action was not so important.  Once again the cautious consul placed one unit of Pila behind the line, in reserve, to face any breakthrough the Gallic large units might achieve.

First off the cavalry charged on another while the cohorts turned to fully face the Gallic infantry.  The action here was long and both sides at times had units beaten, only to see them return to the fray.  The Roman light horse covered themselves with glory, holding off the superior enemy cavalry for many turns.  Eventually both sides were so weakened and exhausted that the melee degenerated into a standstill but by the end of the battle both sides had lost two of their three units and two badly damaged cavalry units paused side by side, unable to do anything else.


The Cavalry of both sides get stuck in.  Casualties (red dice) are mounting

Seeing the cavalry action continue without result the Gaulish foot advanced towards the Legion and struck the end two spear armed cohorts and the Italians.(we allow both siders to countercharge)  Again the struggle here went to and fro, the interlocking of the units preventing pursuits when an enemy was forced back.  


The three large units of Gallic Foot azdvance on the Roman Left

Time and again units rallied from disorder and then charged forth once more into the melee.  But the mighty Soldurii were certainly taking their toll of the cohorts, determined to break through before the pila armed units to the Roman right could turn and engaged them in flank.  Here the skirmishers did a great job holding off these cohorts for as long as possible.  But all too soon (one of) the Romans had turned and, brushing aside the pesky skirmishers were advancing on the Gallic flank.  With a might effort (and a reasonable number of sixes) the  Gauls broke through on both left (where the flanking danger was) and on the right (against the weaker Italians)  Even better the Warriors who had destroyed the Italians advanced after combat and attacked the reserve cohort which had come up in support.  In a glorious melee (two player turns) they destroyed the cohort.  With two cohorts, two cavalry and Italian allies defeated the Romans had reached their break point and a Gallic victory was declared.


The Cruicial Infantry Melee - Can the Gauls Break Through before being Outflanked? The Romans  have already suffered heavy losses and the Italians have broken

There was much soul searching in the bar (and on email) later, from both the Romans, wondering if it had just been unlucky dice and from the Carthaginians who were eager to find out how the hitherto invincible Romans had finally been defeated – after all with Hannibal coming next Game Turn the Punic army needs to know!  Eventually the Gauls put it down to the mighty Soldurii and the Carthaginians down to not crucifying enough bad generals in the past.  Perhaps flaying them alive might be a more effective encouragement pour les autres!

Ingram, great report again.
I was just wondering when using Sabin's Empire as the basis for the campaign how you managed the break up of the Macedonians into the various successor states after the death of Alexander?

Cheers Paul

We play it as one state - one player. Given that battles are between same point armies from adjacent provinces there is no need to identify different Successor kingdoms. The only problem is that they do not fight each other - but of course rebellions get more problematic the bigger the empire gets. And, of course we pick and choose which armies to use from the army lists depending on which province is being attackled. So when the Parthians attacked Egypt we picked an appropriate Ptolemaic army to oppose them.

Last to go were the Carthaginians now restricted by the loss of their home area to dicing to rebel. And, of course they rolled a 6! The first born sacrifices are, at last, having some effect!
Game Turn 14 commenced with a revolt in Mesopotamia, cutting the Parthian Empire in half. This will have to be dealt with immediately. But Rome is first to move and has to deal with the Hannibal problem. We will run the “Hannibal Turn” by having him commanding all Punic armies this turn, not just his five offensive campaigns. He will also have a 3 VD advantage in each battle in that any opponent has to kill 3 more VD than normal to defeat him.
The Romans decided to try once more for North Africa in the hope that victory there would severely hamper Hannibal (he would have to throw again to rebel if they won). This time their fleet successfully crossed the Middle Sea and landed in North Africa. Battle will follow.

First the rebellion in Mesopotamia (fought last month and, alas without a camera in attendance).  The rebels set up with pikes in the centre and horse on the righty flank, the left being covered by areas of rough terrain, the gaps between which were allotted to some horse archers and local badawi camelry.

The Parthians, as usual, swamped their enemy with horse archers but placed their noble cavalry opposite the enemy cavalry (neither side had elephants).  The cavalry charged and the enemy were defeated.  On the other flank the camelry disposed of the hostile archers but felt unable to follow this victory up with an advance as they believed they were now needed on the other flank.  But by the time they got there it was all over.  The pikes were surrounded by horse archers and the victorious Parthian nobility had reorganised and were sweeping round the  rebel rear.  Peace (well, order, anyway), had returned to the land of the two rivers.


A scratch Roman army crossed safely to North Africa, determined to scotch the Punic revolt.  The intended commander was the famous/notorious Daudus Ovalballus but he seems to hasve absented himself from an active part due, he claimed, to "a touch of carpet" and command devolved to Clericus Senior.

Advancing on Carthage itself they found the enemy lined up between the sea and a large patch of rough ground.  Led by Hannibal the rebels (as the Romans termed them) had a solid front of Libyan spears and two large units of mercenaries with elephants to one side and light horse to the other.  Far out on their right they deployed their two units of Punic cavalry.  Clearly they intended a charge upon the Roman cohorts with their foot (and elephants?) and a swing round the Roman left flank with their cavalry.  Hey have tried this tactic before – and it almost always failed.  But not this time.


The two armies line up


The Romans, for their part, set up with spear and pila armed cohorts intermixed, two units of light infantry around the rough (hoping they could emerge and attack any nearby elephants) and with their one cavalry  and single mercenary Numidian horse units behind the foot (until they could discover where the enemy cavalry were placed).  Once this was clear they hastily pulled one pf the cohorts into reserve as well which left the infantry line dangerously weak.  They hoped to compensate for this by a steady advance in the centre and right.


The Roman cohorts advance


Fearful of the light infantry the Punics sent only one elephant unit forward with the foot and kept the second  to the rear facing the rough.  But their cavalry quickly sped forward, round the enemy flank (dodging useless javelins from the lights in the rough) and were charged by both horse and cavalry from the Roman reserve.  The Numidians performed wonderfully, holding off the Punic cavalry for the duration of the battle, but the Roman cavalry were comprehensively thrashed allowing the Punic cavalry to sweep round the flank and engage the reserve cohort.  Things looked very bad for the Consul.


The Numidian Horse hold off the nemey cavalry for the whole battle - then desert to plunder.  Typical!


Meanwhile on the other wing the end cohort had advanced ahead of the line to face off the enemy horse and prevent then getting behind the line.  But in doing so they exposed themselves to attack from the unit of Veteran Libyan spears there and were routed by a crafty flank attack (flip flop move for the Punics!)  All hope now rested for the Republic on the battle in the middle.


Advancing against the horse the cohort find itself attacked in flank by the Libyans


The lights faced off against the elephants and, despite casualties, held them off successfully until the last turn of the battle.  But the Romans failed dismally against the mercenaries.  One cohort was merely pushed back but the others were pushed back again and again  by the other mercenary unit in a see saw motion ( beat one, push back into the other, beat it back and pursue into the first again etc etc) which ended with the latter only losing its rear unit but both cohorts destroyed completely.  Then the other mercenary unit gave the coup-de-gras and smashed the remaining cohort to pieces while the Punic cavalry did likewise to the reserves..  


The two infantry lines collide

To add insult to injury the light infantry were finally destroyed by the elephants and the battle was over.


Al over bar the shouting. Only one damaged cohort is left in the Roman line and the Punic cavalry is about to administer the coup-de-gras to the reserve cohort.


Striving to retreat back to their ships the Roman army was attacked by the Numidians, who had changed sides, and were almost all destroyed.


The Punic elders decided to capitalise upon success immediately and send the victorious army to Sicily but fate decreed a major storm on the crossing and the army was all but wiped out (Hannibal campaign 1).

Immediately they began raising another army and the next year it sailed under the command of Hannibal himself, safely landed near Panormus and marched for Messina.  There the Romans awaited them.  The battle for Sicily had begun. (Hannibal campaign 2)

I'm amazed that this thread has now had over 5,000 hits since it started. I'll be posting the latest battle, Hannibal's conquest of Sicily, later today once the photos are uploaded.

it's a fascinating thread :-)

Hannibal considered that his success thus far had been because of the strength of his Celtic mercenaries. His elephants had been pretty useless in North Africa. So he recruited more Celts, marshalling them into three large units (5 front unit, 4 rear) as well as a unit of excellent Celtiberian lights, a couple of cavalry and a unit of Numidian light horse. With these and a couple of skirmishers he advanced on the Roman army.


Hannibal's Invasion Force Lines Up

Hannibal considered that his success thus far had been because of the strength of his Celtic mercenaries. His elephants had been pretty useless in North Africa. So he recruited more Celts, marshalling them into three large units (5 front unit, 4 rear) as well as a unit of excellent Celtiberian lights, a couple of cavalry and a unit of Numidian light horse. With these and a couple of skirmishers he advanced on the Roman army. For their part they had their usual mix of pila and spear armed cohorts, a unit of light Italians and, like their enemy, two cavalry and a light horse unit. These set up as per usual with the cohorts in the middle with Italians on one flank and the cavalry off to the left. As usual they left a cohort in reserve (a waste in my opinion).


The Roman Army

Hannibal, who generally set up his elements second, conformed to the above with his cavalry opposite the enemy mounted troops and his Celts and Celtiberians in the centre squarely opposite the cohorts. As one neutral(?) observer opined – little subtlety could be expected in this action.

First to classh were the cavalry. This was quite a see-saw action which saw both side lose heavily, leaving a badly damaged light horse unit and a barely surviving Hannibal with his bodyguard on the field. The lights were not capable of doing any further damage and Hannibal retired his bodyguard to escape the attentions of the enemy (he could ill afford to lose the unit).


After the Cavalry Action the Survivors Studiously Ignore Each Other

The real action took placed in the centre where the Celts charged the Roman line which countercharged. (we allow countercharges). A real ding-dong action lasting several melees ensued. In general the Celts drove the Romans back but where the Romans overlapped the Celtiberians these were eventually destroyed along and on the other flank the Celts were also defeated, losing both front and real units for the loss of the cohort facing them. It was the other two large units of Celts that did the real damage, pushing back the cohorts and, for the loss of both their rear units, destroying them.


The Grind in the Centre

With the loss of both cavalry and three infantry units the Romans had reached break point and conceded. Once again the reserve cohort didn’t get into action before the army collapsed. Some radical rethinking by the Romans required, methinks. Hannibal didn’t even need the 3 additional victory point addition.


Various Generals and Hangers-on at the table

We haven’t been able to get going with our ancient campaign since before Xmas.  The Parthian King spent the winter in Spain escaping his arthritis and then a month driving round the desert and mountain states of the USA, The Macedonian monarch went off to the Far East for three months and Hannibal disappeared to London to look after his grandchildren for much of the Spring.  Faced therefore with the prospect of thirteen Great Captain campaigns to come, where the said Great Captains (Hannibal then Scipio) have a considerable superiority over their opponents (and thus dull battles for their opponent) and the likelihood that it would be Xmas 2019 before we got through them we decided to run the rest of this turn (Hannibal) and both the next Turns (Scipio) using the game rules rather than fight the battles on the tabletop.  This is done using modified die rolls and the results were as follows:

Remainder of TURN 14 220-210BC.  Hannibal has already crossed to Sicily (after his first fleet sank) and captured the island

Campaign 3 fails to take Magna Graecia
Campaign 4 takes Magna Graecia
Campaign 5 takes Italia

TURN 15:  Sequence is: Parthia, Carthage,
Macedonia then Rome

Revolt in Graecia

Parthia attacks India and fails

Carthage stands awaiting the Roman onslaught

Macedonia subdues the revolt in Graecia

Rome/Scipio has 5 campaigns

1. Fails to oust Carthaginians from Italia
2. Retakes Italia
3. Takes Magna Graecia
4. Takes Sicily
5. Takes Africa (Carthaginian Empire collapses)

TURN 16 Sequence is Rome, Macedonia, Carthage then Parthia

Revolt in Syria

Rome/Scipio has 5 campaigns

1. Fails to cross to Graecia
2. Takes Graecia
3. Fails to take Macedonia
4. Takes Macedonia
5. Takes Asia

Macedonia fails to rebel against Roman occupation

Carthage fails to rebel against Roman occupation

Parthia subdues rebellion in Syria (needed a 4 plus as was in original Persian Empire)

We can now start again at Turn 17 190-180BC.

Rebellion in Numidia – already independent

First in Sequence is Carthage who roll to rebel and score 3 - a fail

Second is Parthia who choose to liberate Asia from the Roman yoke – battle to be arranged

Hopefully we can get this battle fought in the next few weeks.  Four turns of the Campaign to go!

Eager to prevent further Roman expansion in the East, the Parthian King marched into Anatolia with the aim of expelling the occupying forces.  The Roman legions, supported by Gallic cavalry set up their line with impassable terrain to their right and the horse to their left.  The Parthians placed the bulk of their chivalry opposite the Roman horse with only one such unit on their left and the King with his bodyguard in the centre.  Horse archers were spread all along the line in front.


Looking towards the Roman right with horse archers shooting at ther Romans as they advance

The Roman plan was simple.  Hold off the enemy cavalry with their own horse while the legions advanced as quickly as possible to drive off the horse archers and defeat the Parthian heavy cavalry to their front.  Their hope was that though their own horse might be defeated it would take so long for the enemy cavalry to turn in towards the cohorts that the enemy line could be destroye


From behind the Roman right

By and large this went well for a large part of the battle.  Their horse were soundly beaten but having inflicted only minimal damage on the enemy.  In the centre the legions advanced, the horse archers did little damage to the Cohorts though they did scatter some lights in front and the left and central Parthian cavalry, along with some supporting light troops were forced to charge the advancing cohorts.  But from this point things began to ngo wrong.  With the horse archers either scattered or  evading behind their cavalry the romans charged forward, to be met by the two Parthian cavalry units.  Both acquitted themselves well, but without defeating the Romans they faced.  To and fro the melees raged.  On the Roman right each ruined their opponent and both units were lost and in the centre, the King himself, faced by two cohorts and damaged by pila fire, only succumbed after a prolonged combat and taking one cohort with him.  The remaining, victorious cohorts now advanced, driving the enemy horse archers largely from the battlefield.

But retribution was at hand.  The victorious Parthian right, despite taking some damage defeating the Gallic cavalry’ had been given enough time to turn and  face the rear of the Legions.  These now turned and, depleted by their efforts, fought their attackers.  The battle here was long and bloody and eventually both sides broke at the end of the same game turn and the battle was adjudged a draw.

The Parthians had failed to evict the Romans from Asia.  But rumour had it that the remaining Seleucid kingdom to the north had also mobilised and was even now ready to throw their glove into the lists.

(apologies for ther lack of photos but I had battery failure at the wrong moment)

Seleucid Success in Syria.

Perched in his last capital in the hills of Anatolia Seleucus viewed the impasse between Romans and Parthians with pleasure.  He had rebuilt his army after the debacle of losing all of his European possessions and now hoped to thrust the Romans from Asia.  But this was not to be.  His wily advisors suggested that to take on the Romans, against who he had lost so many times, would be a mistake.  Better to pursue the fleeing Parthians into Syria and regain his ancestral capital, Antioch.  And so it was that he sent his army south.  To say that the Parthians had not expected this would be a considerable understatement.  His cavalry had suffered many losses and his horse archers wanted to return east.  But his elephants had finally arrived and so the King turned once more north to face his enemies.
Seeking to take the great city of Antioch Seleucus  advanced with his phalanx on his right alongside the lake near the city.  In his centre he placed a mixture of thureos, elephants and – to the surprise of all – a scythed chariot unit.  On his left he had his own Agema of cataphracts plus more heavy cavalry and a unit of horse archers.  These reached to another small pond on the army’s left.


Seleucids and Parthians face each other outside Antioch


When the Parthian kings scouts reported all this his majesty was convinced that this novelty, the scythed chariots, must be some super weapon and  sought to defeat these, even if it meant lessening his army’s effectiveness elsewhere.    

As in previous encounters he placed only horse archers against the phalanx on his left, put two good units of chivalry against the enemy cavalry, backed by more horse archers and, in the centre to face the enemy elephants, thureos and chariot he placed his own elephants and some archers backed by even more horse archers.


The Seleucid Centre

The chariots, even though they made it through the hail of arrows that assailed them were easily destroyed by the archers but no sooner had the king raised a stirrup cup to celebrate this than everything else went wrong for him.  After the battle there was much discussion about what exactly went wrong but the Majority opinion was that the ability of Seleucus to score at least one hit in every single combat (rolling at least one six and often many more)  and rolling nothing but ones (with the occasional 2 and ONLY one 6 the whole battle) for cohesion  was the critical reason for the Parthian defeat.  Time after time, melee after melee, the Parthians would see their reasonable score matched by inferior troops overscoring sixes and fives and then calmly rolling a one for cohesion. Almost every time! The end result was disaster – for Parthia.


The Chariot which caused terror amongst the Parhians - unnecessarily!

In the centre first one elephant was hit and stampeded back leaving the other hapless while the Parthian cavalry here failed against the weakest of opposition and were destroyed.  On the cavalry wing both Parthian units were destroyed, despite at first having success against the Agema and on the other flank the phalanx marched steadily forward and  almost pushed the horse archers off the battlefield.  


Despite losses but with tremendcous die rolls the Agema destroyed both units of Parthian Chivalry (red is permanent losses, blue disorder)

With one elephant and all three Cavalry units lost by the Parthians, the Seleucids claimed victory and the Parthians retired across the deserts to lick their wounds in Mesopotamia.

On the last Player Turn of Turn 17 (190-180BC) the Roman Legions in Italia sought to emulate their victorious confreres in the East and conquer Cisalpina (northern Italy) Alas the Soldurii of the Gauls, and not for the first time) soon put paid to that effort. Though the Legions fought valiantly they were rebuffed and forced to retreat (in a rare draw on the tabletop).

Game Turn 18 (180-170BC) commenced with news of a rebellion against Roman rule in Magna Graecia, no doubt aided by news of the Roman discomfiture in the north. This effectively cuts Sicilia off.

First player turn saw the Parhians seek to dislodge the Macedonians from their new province in Syria. This too was a sad failure which saw the Parthiaan army beaten all over the battlefield. Both the elephants and the heavy cavalry were soundly thrashed by their opponents. Once again they retreated across the desert to lick their wounds. Will Seleucus follow them in his turn?

Next up are the Romans who must decide whether to try again for Cisalpina, to subdue the rebellion in the south or even to disregard both and extend their conquests in the East.

The revolting Roman legions, led by Alanus, eager to stake their claim to the Eternal City,  marched across Greece and landed in Apulia.  The legions loyal to the Senate, under Sholtus Architecturos meanwhile had assembled to defend the capital, Hearing of the enemy’s landfall, they marched south to fight them.  The two armies met somewhere north of Napolis.  The Senatorial forces were the usual mix of  pila and spear armed cohorts, with Gallic cavalry and Horse and with a few Italian light infantry in support.  The rebels were much the same save for a unit of mercenary Thorakitai in their ranks.

There was little subtlety in either side’s battle array.


The Cavalry Action

Cohort faced cohort, Thorakitai faced Lights and Cavalry faced Cavalry.  The rebel cavalry fought a long hard fight against their enemies and eventually prevailed, destroying their opponents, although this left the two surviving rebel units dangerously weak.  Their commander desperately sought to reorder his units once more and turn into the centre to strike the enemy foot . . . but it was too late.


Thorakitai charge the Italian Lights

The infantry fight had been an even longer, more brutal, and more even struggle.  High value cohort against high value cohort, pilas thrown and then a set to, shield against shield.  Despite heavy losses the battle here swayed forward and back and looked to have little chance of ending before nightfall.


The Bruising Encounter between the Infantry Lines

But just before both generals thought about giving up the struggle, the rightmost Senatorial unit, personally led by Sholtus himself, finally made the breakthrough and broke their opponents.  This critical loss rippled right down the line and, unit by unit, the rebel foot broke and routed to the rear.  Rome had been saved.  But for the Republic?

Seleucus, emboldened by his recent defeat of the Parthians and hoping that the attentions of Rome were solely on their rebellion in Magna Graecia, struck into Asia Minor.  But the Romans were not found napping.  Their forces there quickly assembled under the leadership of the well known Sholtus Architecturos who raced to fight the enemy.


View from the Roman right

On the field of battle the Romans set up as usual with their cohorts extending from a small lake on their left towards rough ground on their right with one cohort in reserve and a unit of lights linking the infantry line with the cavalry and one light horse unit to their right against the rough.  They were expecting the usual Seleucid army of cavalry, elephants and pikes but, somewhat to their surprise, they found that Seleucus had left the elephants behind this time and was fielding a deep unit of Galatians instead.

Seleucus, fearful of these being outflanked, placed them hard up against the lake on his right, then the deep unit of pikes, some thorakitai and then his main strike force of Agema and Cataphracts on his left supported by a unit of horse archers.  Both infantry lines were covered by skirmishers of various types.


Anbd from the Seleucid right

After some preliminary skirmishing between the respective units of light horse, the cavalry charged each other and a long and bloody struggle ensued.  So much so that although the Greeks were bested, so weakened was the remaining Roman cavalry that they could do little to aid their friends in the infantry battle that raged across the battlefield.  The Galatians were, as in previous battles, victorious against their opponents, destroying the elite cohort and forcing Sholtos himself to the ground, badly wounded.  This had a very negative effect on Roman morale at a crucial point in the battle.  However the reserve cohort had managed to get over to this threatened flank and held off the combined attentions of both the victorious, though weakened, Galatians and the Pike phalanx..  But eventually it too was swept from the field by force of numbers and even though the rest of the Roman line succeeded in beating their opponents, such was the overall loss of units that the Romans were forced to concede.  Seleucus was ecstatic.  In successive campaigns he had beaten the famed Roman armies and the Parthian hordes.  Where next he thought.

That ended the Turn.  At the beginning of the next turn (second last in the campaign) there was a rebellion in Armenia (Will Seleucus turn aside from his expansion to his west and south to bring Armenia back under control?)

First to move was the Carthaginians who once again refused to rebel against their Roman occupiers.

Next came the rampant Seleucus who, turning aside from his pursuit of the Romans, decided to “liberate” Egypt from Parthian rule.  The latter still have a substantial garrison in this rich province so it is unlikely their King will abandon it to his enemies without a struggle.

Though the Parthians in Egypt were cut off from their homelands they managed to communicate with the King via the desert Badawi who were willing, for a price, to pass on any messages and even to help the Parthians move reinforcements across Sinai. The King could not countenance the loss of face (not to say taxes) that a defeat on the Nile would entail so he paid the Arab price and forwarded troops including his beloved elephants across the sands to Alexandria.


The Elephants have arrived but the Seleucid Cavalry have yet to appear

For his part Seleucus was eager to take Egypt, his wife’s homeland.  Delighted with the achievements (as he saw them) of both his Galatians and his troops trained in the Roman Fashion he sent them with his horse and pikes south, his army being led by his eldest son Antiochus.  Some of his advisors, remembering the Parthian elephants, suggested that they should send elephants too but the King could not be convinced that they would be met in Egypt and thus left his behind.


So it was a surprise to the young prince Antiochus, when he assembled his army after an arduous crossing of the Nile, to find the Parthians in battle array with their centre full of elephants, a few foot in with them and most of their Noble Cavalry on their left.  To meet the threat of the latter he put his pike phalanx opposite them backed up by his “Romans” and, after some delay getting them forward, placed his own cavalry on his left leaving the centre to the Galatians and other light infantry.


The armies line up

On the Parthian left the Nobles held off, fearing tangling with the pikes until vistory could be achieved elsewhere on the battlefierld.  On the right and centre the elephants and one unit of Parthian Nobles routed both Macedonian cavalry units and the elephants turned in to assail the enemy centre (who had no pike)  


The Elephants head for the enemy centre while beyond them the Parthian Cavalry hold off

With the defeat of both left and centre and word coming down the line that Antiochis own Agema had been routed and himself taken prisoner after a fall from his fleeing horse, the spark went out from his host and they retired in some disorder.


The Parthian Noble Cavalry finally get stuck in as the Pikes are contained by horse archers beyond

Most got away safely to Syria after paying stupendous sums to the “ever helpful” Arabs of the desert, who kindly guided them safely back across Sinai.


The Rammy in the Middle

Elated by his success in defending Egypt the Parthian Prince governing Egypt decided to pursue the enemy into Syria.  Again the Arabs made lucrative deals to guide the Parthian host, Elephants and all, safely across Sinai and  the Seleucids sent urgent pleas north to Seleucus for reinforcements.  He sent more Galatians and filled up the ranks of his defeated cavalry with his own Agema and more Cataphracts.  By the time these arrived the Parthians were almost at the gates of Antioch.

Seleucus, realizing that his son had completely mishandled his army dispositions in Egypt, swore he would not make the same mistake.  


Two Cautious Opponents Set Up

He placed his foot solidly in the centre and right and placed his cavalry behind and to the left, hoping to move them to wherever they might best intervene once he had seen the enemy cavalry dispositions.  The Parthians having placed their elephants before they could tell where the Seleucid cavalry was placed them on their left but found only enemy foot opposed to them there.  


The Parthian Elephants

Once the Parthian cavalry deployed on their right the Agema and Cataphracts moved sideways to face them on that flank.

Once again the elephants disgraced themselves.  Advancing into a storm of javelins half of them panicked and routed to the rear and the rest, despite advancing bravely were crowded on all sides by enemy foot and destroyed.  Only the horse archers on this flank were successful I getting round the enemy flank and rear.


The Seleucid Foot hold the Centre

On the other flank the horse archers were similarly successful in getting round the enemy’s flank but otherwise the Parthian attack was a failure  The Seleucids had cunningly(?) placed a light infantry unit in front of their horse and though these were eventually destroyed they had caused so much damage to their opponents that the weakened Nobles, though they fought bravely, could not hold against the charge of the Seleucid cavalry behind.  Neither side could organise a coherent cavalry line and the battle here swayed back and forth before the Parthians were routed.  The Seleucid cavalry, although down to only one strength point apiece, suvived, even if exhausted and the Parthian horse archers, now on both their front and rear consistently failed to cause either of the enemy units the one casualty needed to eliminate them


On the Parthian Right the Two Cavalry Hosts attack

Even worse, in the centre the rest of the Parthian cavalry failed to make any impact on the enemy foot there and were thrust back ignominiously.


While the Cavalry fight it out on the flank the "reserve" Parthian Cavalry prepare to attack the Galatians - unsuccessfully, alas

Though most of the Seleucid units were down to one or two strength points only by the end, the Parthians had lost units all across the battlefield and conceded defeat. The invasion of Syria had, once again failed.

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This left only the Romans to move this Game Turn.  And they, seeing the ongoing war between Seleucids and Parthians thought they could intervene profitably and, once again invaded Asia.  Seleucus will, of course, respond.