Let battle commence - Seleucid v Antigonid

With the initial rush of orders sorted I managed to pack the casting equipment under the table, dust the table down and start thinking about a game...

Didn't want to put the desert cloth over the table so that limited it to battles involving the Greek/Macedonian/Persian armies.  I grabbed a copy of DBA (turned out to be version 1.1!) and decided on early Seleucid v Antigonid.

It was a very unplanned, ad hoc affair. I grabbed some terrain, placed it with a tree line to mark one edge - basically to make it a 4x4 rather than 6x4 table - then started getting troops together. As I started sorting the Seleucids first, they got the far edge, placed as I got them out. Same with the Antigonids - out they came, oin they went. Bit of fine tuning then thought about what I would do with each side.

The Seleucid force was 3x3Kn, 1x2LH, 4x4Pk, 2xEl, 2x2Ps. Both armies had the general as a Kn element. I went for a slightly traditional setup - strong right flank cavalry, elephants as a link, then phalanx with left flank protected by the lights.

The Antigonid force consisted of 1x3Kn, 1x3Cv, 1x2LC, 6x4Pk, 1x4Aux, 1x2Ps, 1xEl. The Antigonids also had a strong cavalry right flank. The open centre was covered by the phalanx while the wood would be defended by the 4Aux. The elephant and 2Ps covered the left flank. This to me seemed to be a stronger defensive force than the Seleucids so acted accordingly.

This shows the two forces facing each other.

The battle started with Seleucid Right and Centre advancing as the Left held back. They started first. The Antigonids meanwhile took up their defensive central position as the cavalry headed towards the Seleucid Left.

Here, the Seleucids are trying to push the cavalry through while basically holding/avoiding  the  superior Antigonid phalanx. The Seleucid phalanx is meanwhile deploying to thwart the Antigonid cavalry movement.

Both sides elephants got pushed back (I forgot the rule that Knights should follow up ) while the Antigonid cavalry get stuck in on the Seleucid Left Flank.

This is where things went wrong for the Antigonids... the rules about conforming left the Antigonid General in an awkward position...

He promptly threw a 1 and got pushed back onto the Light Cavalry... dead General... and then the Seleucid phalanx took out the Cv element (the 4Aux were too far away to stop this flanking attack). Two elements lost including the General, Seleucid had only lost one element earlier... game over.

I should have taken a better photo to show the Cv element in it's phalanx sandwich!

An enjoyable little action. Everything seemed to flow naturally. The Seleucids got a bit bogged down on their Right, the Antigonids were unfortunate to throw a couple of 1s at the wrong time. The end was very sudden and I didn't expect it, so that worked well.

Now, what next - and when?