... or a Greek version of the Sambre from The Ancient War Game...
If Dascyleum, 700 hoplites from a Spartan army were out foraging in Asia Minor - the Spartans under Agesilaus had invaded - when they ambushed by the Persian Pharnabazus with 2 scythed chariots and 400 cavalry. The Spartans lost about 100 men before the rest of the army intervened and drove the Persians off!
Basic DBX rules used but a couple of changes. Persian cavalry used as Knights rather than Cavalry - it's basically a cavalry charge so Knight fits the use better.In combat, - 1 if disorganised, for example, they are foraging and spread out or just surprised. Dice roll of 4-6 for them to get organised. Infantry 6" move, cavalry and chariots 12".
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The Greeks are out foraging with the main camp some distance off table to the left. Spread out, wandering in all directions (OK, very unforage-like behaviour but..), inbetween a river and some lightly wooded hills.
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And behind those low hills, watching and waiting...
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A mad charge catches the Greeks completly unawares!
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And the Persians lose a chariot! On the other hand, the Greeks lose 5 elements!
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The Persian charge continues, cutting down more Greeks.
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As the Greeks start to get better organised some of them start heading back to the camp to get help.
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The Greeks nearest the camp even manage to catch some of the Persian cavalry and destroy them. The Spartan high command would probably be a bit irritated that one of the elements doing the damage seem to be Theban mercenaries!
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At that point the Persians called it a day and left. The casualty count was very much in their favour - took out 15 Greek elements for the loss of 1 chariot and 2 cavalry elements.
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Although it looks like a total rout (OK, it was) the combats were usually quite close, even with the Persians having advantages like starting off uphill, Greeks usually getting -1 for being disorganised and Persians having an overlap.The main advantage the Persians had was making the Persian cavalry Kn. Many combats were won by 1 or 2 but Kn against Sp give an immediate kill then - Cv don't have that effect. Hadn't realized that until after the first combat!
Overall, fast and furious fun game. Enjoyed it.
That always seemed like good scenario fodder. Don't remember if I ever tried it.
ReplyDeleteThe scattering seems to reflect Xenephon's account, apart from looting barns and houses, I suspect they were probably also cutting grain and forage which would recall scattering compared to be in a phalanx :)
Nice little game.
Yes, I was happy with it - it went well.
DeleteAnother comment from Rob Grace:
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this - the Gauls surprising the Romans is one of the more unusual scenarios in the book. Again I'm usure the following comment actually got through...
Cheers, Rob
"All those spears... and not formed up two-deep with secure flanks! My knights dream of such targets but none of my regular opponents tend to field troop types that Knights auto-kill.
You were lucky - they also started quite close did they get into contact in one move?
...and did your Persians suffer from being knights, i.e. irregular and impetuous? Can make them quite a handful to control - 'herding cats' being the obvious analogy."
DBX so doesn't include things like irregular or impetuous - yes, they got into contact first move... everything was basically set up against the Greeks. Helps that it is based on a real event.
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