Two 'classic' armies in action this week, my 25mm Early Carthaginians against Gordon's Early Achaemenid Persians. Not quite historical but certainly a meeting of old-school armies from the dim and distant past where the availability of figures and army lists was much more limited!
Looking at the Persian list I thought that I'd go for a spear-heavy list myself, it worked for the Greeks and the Carthaginians were not that much different. Last time I'd used the list in 15mm I was unimpressed with the chariots so didn't select any (also I don't possess any 25mm Carthaginian chariots anyway) so the army consisted of two commands mainly of spearmen (one of Greeks and one of Africans) with the third command had impetuous Gallic and Spanish swordsmen. A few medium and light cavalry plus elite light infantry made up the rest of the force.
As ever given that the Persians were likely to include many mounted bowmen I tried for the waterway and failed. However, the rest of the terrain fell quite nicely for the Carthaginian defenders and they deployed with the African spearmen on the left, the Greeks in the centre and the Gauls and Spanish on the right. The Persians had infantry and cavalry on both flanks with a rather weakly held centre:
On the right the Persians quickly advanced probably looking to outflank the Carthaginian line:
They appeared to be following the same plan on my left:
Having seen Gordon's complicated redeployment attempt collapse in our last game I optimistically decided that this week I'd try it! The Gauls and Spanish move over to the centre while the Greeks fill the gap left by their departure:
On the left the Persians prepare to attack the flank of the Carthaginians. A few poor command dice have resulted in the Carthaginians being slow to react:
On the right encouraged by the departure of the Gauls and Spanish the Persians advance towards the orchard. it isn't ideal terrain for them though as it limits their shooting and is still held by substantial Carthaginian forces:
Units are becoming scattered and, deciding that perhaps the Gauls will be needed in the orchard after all, they reverse direction and begin to march back. Both sides are going to be needing an awful lot of command points to carry out their plans!:
Mercenary Italian cavalry look on nervously as they attempt to defend the camp from superior numbers of superior quality Persian mounted:
The Carthaginians are starting to suffer badly from Persian archery and take hits all over the place. On the left the Persian cavalry close in on the flank of the African spearmen who turn to face just in time. The Persians on this flank are not as numerous or well equipped though:
The Greeks and Gauls form a coherent line and prepare to attack the somewhat isolated Persian infantry:
On the left the hits from shooting continue to mount but the Persian cavalry are looking a little exposed:
On the right the Persian foot enter the orchard while their cavalry prepare to overwhelm the Italian mercenaries:
The African spearmen facing the Persian foot are taking a bit of a battering from well-aimed fire and have not managed to close on the Persians. On the other hand the Persian cavalry has been largely wiped out and in the distance the Greeks are starting to push past the Persian flanks:
On the right there are also mixed results, things are looking bad for the Persians holding the orchard while the Italian mercenary cavalry are unlikely to last long defending the camp:
The Italian cavalry manage to take some Persians with them but the camp will soon fall. The fight in the orchard is going the way of the Greeks and Gauls though as they cut through the Persian foot:
Shooting hits continue to mount for the African spearmen and Hoplites, if this continues they will fall without even getting into combat:
The end is in sight for the Persians in the orchard though:
The last Italian cavalry unit survives again!:
In the centre nothing much has happened really, the Greeks have driven back the Persian cavalry and picked a few of them off:
The orchard is finally cleared of Persians. The camp has fallen but the Carthaginian army is large and can easily absorb the losses:
On the left the Persian cavalry has been defeated and the African spearmen prepare to make an attack on the Persian foot assuming they survive the archery storm to get into contact:
The battered remnants of the African spearmen finally make it into contact!:
One kills their opponent, the other is lost which isn't that bad considering they were almost gone when they got into combat:
Persian morale is close to collapse as the battle nears it's end:
The Carthaginians gain the last few hits needed to tip the Persians into defeat:
My third ADLG win in a row after a whole series of defeats has certainly increased my confidence and I'm really enjoying using my old 25mm armies again, I find it far more interesting than playing in 15mm for some reason though in theory it should be exactly the same (just bigger!). I've even started a new project to add to my 25mm armies which is under construction at the moment.....
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