Graeco Bactrians vs Bretons

This week saw Wayne debut the Breton's Viking ally, so I thought I'd try the Graeco-Bactrians against them so as to have a good infantry match-up.

I've played with the GBs quite a few times this year, but they haven't featured on the blog yet, so lets start with some pictures.

Pikemen, Elephants, and a wedgie general

Pisidian colonists Ax(S) and Mountain Indian Pk(F)

The Bactrian cavalry can shoot all round.

It's a well balanced army, that I like a lot. Kn(X), Kn(F) wedges, pikes and elephants provide hitting power, Ax(S) and Pk(F) take care of the terrain, and plenty of Cv(O) and LH for the flanks. Regular generals mean that at least some of it goes where you want it, when you want it go there.

For this weeks game, I fielded all the available Pk(O) for the simple reason that I'd finally finished the last four elements, after having them sitting half done on the painting table for the last two months.

Once again I was the invader, and the terrain was again quite cluttered. A BUA and large difficult hill clogged up the left flank, a wood in the center of my deployment area was an annoyance, and a couple of bogs and an orchard obstructed the right flank. There was also a long gentle hill in the front center of Wayne's deployment area.

My plan was to seek out the Viking ally with the pikes and elephants, crush it as quickly as possible, then hope to catch enough  mounted Breton elements with cataphracts and elephants to win the game. The pikes and elephants would start the game on the right of the central wood, angled towards the central hill, the Ax(S) and LH command would protect their flank around the bogs n the right, and the Kn(X) and Cv would hold the line on the left.

As expected Wayne deployed the Vikings on the hill, with two Breton commands to the right, and one on the left. A nasty surprise was that some of the Viking frontage on the left was protected by a palisade. A quick totting up of the factors revealed that he'd be fighting at factor 9 in his turn,  but luckily there was plenty of unprotected frontage too.

Nasty wooden sticks. Don't want to go there.

Initial deployment and opening moves

I wanted to sent the phalanx up the hill as quickly as possible, and to do this I'd need to clear out the bunch of Vikings in the bog. I was committed two elephants from the center, and the Ax(S) and Pk(F) from the right to this task. As it turns out I was rather over confident in their ability to do this, as while I remembered that El kill blade even in the rough, I forgot that they themselves would get a -1 factor. Anyway I pressed ahead here as quickly as possible, which meant I was a little short of pips to sort out the light horse on the right, and with Wayne's two commands pressing forwards here, he was able to turn the end of  my Ax line before they reached the bog, and kill one.

However, I pressed on in center and through the bog, and scrambled together a defensive line, while the LH struggled to put the bog between themselves and the on rushing Bretons.

Pikes storm the center, while a mixed force lines up to clear the bog. A hasty defense tries to hold the right

The pikes continued to advance rapidly in the center, and a couple of cataphracts came over from the left to chase of a force of Cv who'd thought about trying to delay the phalanx. The force tasked to take the marsh lined up and charged in, and the same time several Ax(S) , the right hand SG and a light horse lined up and attacked the flanking Bretons, hoping to tie them up, and buy time by ZOCing the cav behind.

The assault on the Vikings in the bog, went badly with the Pk(F)  attacking at 5-4 being beaten and failing to create an overlap for the elephants. The later not only failed to stomp any Vikings, but one of them was killed too. Things looked more promising for a moment on the right, with the wedgie general killing a Breton light horse and advancing to ZOC the general behind. We then rolled for the Ax vs LH combat next to it, with only a 6 - 1 against me posing any danger*. This was duly rolled and the victorious light horse advanced to a position behind my general. In the next bound, he made the obvious move, surrounding and killing the general, causing the right hand command to be disheartened and shortly after broken.

Right hand sub general is surrounded and killed. Bretons pour across the bog.

Despite the disaster on the right, the phalanx pushed on in the center in the way that phalanxes are wont to do. The lone surviving elephant was withdrawn from the bog to provide a modicum of flank support while the Bretons mopped up on the right. Eventually the phalanx stormed up the hill, with support from a cataphract from the left, smashed a big hole in the line, and with the elephant stomping several blade elements who'd ventured out of the bog, the Vikings became disheartened.

Pikes storm the hill

However, the Bretons were pouring across from the right, and the rightmost file of pikemen with little flank support had taken losses, and only the C in C was available to support them. The later did a valiant job, but eventually overwhelmed and killed, breaking the central command and making the game a decisive win to the Bretons.

Looking back, the plan was basically solid, but I was rather over confident in my ability to storm the bog, and pushed on a bit too aggressively there, when I might have done better to spend some pips organizing the defense on the right.

* The decisive moment in the game was an Ax(S) dying on a six to one, and exposing the rear of my general. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle I completely forgot that the Ax was entitled to a +1 wingman bonus for the adjacent general scoring a kill. If I'd remembered this, it wouldn't have died, my general wouldn't have been rear ended, and the right wing wouldn't have broken for several more turns.