Luck of The Egyptians: Syrian Campaign Round 2

Last week's game saw Nash and his Romans defeat Anthony and his Parthains to secure Syria and grab the position of King of the Table. This week it was King Btobemy's turn to play on the challenge table and try to unseat the reigning KotT. As per the campaign rules, the attacker and defender were determined before picking an OoB and with Nash electing to stay home and mind the goats, I would be the attacker.

King Btobemy trying out a new mount

In addition to the usual things to think about when planning a battle, the campaign adds two extra elements to consider, bonus points and ally selection.

The winner of each game (on either challenge or side tables) gains a number of bonus points equal to their score using the standard game system (so 13 to 25) which can be saved up and used in future games. They may be used to buy stratagems, TF or PF, up to six horde elements, or elements from the army list at double cost.

Unlike the previous campaign, we don't use the allies from the army list, instead their is a common pool of eight allies that we all choose from. In order to prevent both sides picking the same ally, and to add a very simple element of diplomacy, we all ranked the allies in preference order at the start of the campaign. For any given battle, you may only use those allies you've assigned a higher preference to than your opponent. There is the additional wrinkle that if you lose a game while using an ally (or win but the ally is shattered) you can't use that ally again.

So what should I pick to defeat Nash. His Romans are a very tough versatile army, and he has a lot experience using them. It was no major weaknesses, but there are some avenues of attack. His legions might with a bit of luck be swept away by knights or warbands, the large cavalry wing he habitually employs might be defeated by knights (but not the knight wedges in my army list), and I have more difficult terrain troops. Nash was obviously well aware of the dangers posed by the Sarmatians, picking them as his top ally and thus denying them to me. I'd picked the Galatians as my top ally with the intention of using them against Nash, but elected to keep them in reserve for games in later rounds. I also thought about using a Rhoxolani command to boost my cavalry which would otherwise be outnumbered, but in the end I stuck with a three command army from my own list, very similar to the one from the last game. However, I dropped one of the elephants and instead employed 4 elements of Galation (Warband S) mercenaries to boost my chances against the legions. I spend 19 of my 34 bonus points on scouting and ambush stratagems and and additional 4 points on troops (as my total troop elements came to 402 points).

I picked two sand dunes for my terrain (as they narrow the central portion of the table more than a Waterway) and Nash had a couple of oil wells (minimum size marshes) a BUA and a gentle hill. Most of the significant terrain fell on the right side of the table, with just the hill and the oil well to the left. This gave the Romans a bit more space to run around in than I'd hoped, but at least allowed me to secure one flank the various bits of bad going on the right.

Deployment

 

My plan was to crush the legions with my phalanx and Galatians, and to this end I split the Galations into two pairs with each having a phalanx block on both flanks, the idea being that the pike blocks would push things back giving the Galatians a double overlap and a great chance of a kill. The maximized my offensive potential, but meant that wheeling would be more difficult with irregulars mixed in, and I'd lose my free march move with the pikes.

I expected the terrain on the right to be lousy with Roman light troops, so decided not to waste pips fighting there, but to mask it with the peltasts from my right hand command. The cavalry from that command would be sent to assist the left, and knight wedges would also go left, or attack the legions if they overlapped the right of the phalanx. On the left was a mixed force of peltasts cavalry and a lone elephant whose job was to protect the left of the phalanx, and not to lose to quickly. Many elements were thrown forwards to delay the Romans marching around my left flank.

The Romans deployed with the legions on their left, with a small pip dump command of horde and a couple of blades on their left flank. To the right of the legions was a massed command of Roman cavalry lead by the C in C (Rollius Sixus) and an elephant. On their far left, was the surprise package, a Skythian ally with horse archers and four noble knight elements. I was quite happy to see the latter, as previous experience has shown they meet far more death than glory.

Relief Column

The game opened with the Roman cavalry advancing on my left, and the legions forming column and moving away from my phalanx. I pushed forward with the phalanx, but it suffered a dearth of pips all game, and I was never able to re-orient it properly towards the legions. On my left I withdrew my pickets, and began moving the mounted from right across to reinforce.

It was clear that this going to be one of those games that turned 90 degrees and would be fought along the long axis. With the legions getting away, I pushed the phalanx forward as fast as possible, even at the expense of allowing a flank attack on the left of the line by Roman light horse. It was 3 vs 3, but I lost and had to remove two elements of pike. Still it was a big command, and the Roman cavalry had been lured into a fight.

A messy fight now developed between the Roman cavalry and my peltasts and the leftmost elements of the Phalanx. My elephant did good work bagging a couple of horse, but the Romans had the numbers, and that began to tell. Meanwhile my phalanx command scored 1 on its pip dice for five bounds in a row (it was assigned the lowest dice, but even so it should only get a one about forty percent of the time), and in order to prevent more losses from flank attack, I had to allow the Galatians to rush off impetuously, to their doom I feared.

At this stage, things weren't looking good. My right wing wasn't in the fight, my phalanx was stalled, split into multiple groups nowhere near their target, my left flank was starting to crumble and the Skythians had finally got around the left, and their knights were poised to sweep away my cavalry at the end of the line. However, their was one glimmer of hope, in that the Roman CinC who'd been bringing the elephant up was now in line with it, and a gap in the line allowed my cavalry to flank the elephant, turning it round and placing him in the death zone. One good roll, and the elephants would stampede trampling Rollius Sixtus into the ground. Nash rolls his dice ... a one... maybe I'm still in this, but then I roll mine and it comes up two. Three would have been enough, but Rollius Sixtus lives to scurry away. All seemed lost.

Final Attack on Legion

At this point, Fortuna decided to take a hand. One pair of the Galatians who'd rushed off ahead of the army had been dispatched, but the others were nearing some legionaries. Not wanting to take any chances, Nash moved out his cavalry general in command of the legions to confront them, apparently unaware that cavalry flee from warband if beaten, and failing to leave enough space for them to fully recoil. A bad die roll saw the general defeated, forced to flee, and dying for lack of recoil space. The victorious Galatians then piled into the legionaries, killing a pair of them, and with the C in C King Btobemy himself who'd come up in support, killing another, the legionary command was broken.

Psiloi win the day

On the left my good fortune continued. The Skythain general charged into combat with my cavalry, and promptly died to a six one result. I then counter attacked flanking and killing another Skythian noble, and a dishearten psiloi attacked the Roman elephant, killing it and another Skythain noble behind. With two commands down, the Roman army was defeated, and somehow I'd won the game.

Phew !!!.




So now Btobemy is King of the Table, and awaits the challenge of Waynazab and his Nabateans.