Lysimachus was not a good man

 

As one might expect with the sidekicks of a megalomaniacal, murdering conqueror, the successors of Alexander III of Macedon were a pretty rum bunch and Lysimachus may have been the rummiest.  After being installed in Thrace and gaining chunks of Anatolia as his prize for helping do in Antigonus at Ipsus, Lysimachus spent his golden years murdering the sons of his second wife, then murdering his son by his first wife at the instigation of his third wife before himself receiving his come-uppance at the Battle of Korupedion.  But that is all by the by.

For the purpose of a war game scenario, finding that the 'Alexander and His Successors' supplement to Philip Garton's 'Three Ages of Rome' rules has a Lysimachid army, blending Macedonian pike blocks with Rhomphaia wielding Thracians we decided to give this a go, pitching it against a horde of Galatian war bands.

Before fighting this battle at the regular Tuesday game evening, my son and I set up a quick play through to learn the rules, using Alexander's army against the Persians.  This was an interesting experience.  I learned first that unlike Twilight of Divine Right there is no reward for having rear support.  Rather, any second line needs to be placed well back so that it is not disrupted by front line troops routing through it.  That wrote off my superior Persian cavalry command, though they got themselves off to a bad start by failing to kill off a unit of skirmishers they charged at the start and letting themselves be outflanked.

Persian cavalry needing anything except a 1 to beat the Macedonian's light infantry

After I had been embarrassed by the Macedonian light troops, it was my turn to frustrate the Macedonians with my light infantry.  A solitary section of archers first managed to win a melée against a pike block after disrupting them with bow fire, then, when the Macedonians had sorted themselves out and attacked again, it managed to draw two further rounds of melée before being overwhelmed!

Plucky little archers about to push back part of the Macedonian phalanx all by themselves, much to the relief of their mates behind.

That was the high point for the Persians, things going downhill very quickly for them after that.

Persian infantry about to see the point of a sarissa or two.

Having gained some knowledge of the rules from this first trial we prepared the terrain and armies for the main event.

Terrain was set up on a 9' by 5' table.  The rules contain a terrain generator and this gave us a stream running about 3' in from one short edge, three low hills distributed fairly evenly along the centre of the table, one with a wood on top, the others with patches of rough ground near them, and a couple more small woods.

The scenario selected was a blocking action, with the Macedonians aiming to stop the Galatians getting past them.  After setting up, we could not find an explanation of what the Galatians needed to do to count as having got past the enemy, so settled on two out of their three commands having got to within 15" of the Macedonian entry edge and having no enemy forces between them and that edge.

Lysimachus was rated as a Veteran general with strong will.  His two subordinates were found to be political types with no particular strengths.  Lysimachus took command of a wing of heavy cavalry, one of them a veteran lancer unit, supported by a detachment of Thracian javelin men.  The three units of Macedonian pike phalanx, each supported by a unit of Thracian light infantry, formed another command, while the Thracian light cavalry, two units of raw Thracian heavy infantry and a unit of spearman made up the last command.

Lysimachus and his subordinates pose with their men before deploying for battle

The Galatian force is also divided into three commands.  Apart from a couple of light infantry units, one light and one heavy cavalry unit and an adaptable unit (able to operate as massed infantry or divide into two light skirmish units) the great mass of the army is made up of war bands, three of which are armoured.  One of the war bands was rated as veteran, as was a unit of slingers.  All the rest were trained, none raw.  The army commander and one of his subordinates were ordinary generals with no particular attributes but the second subordinate was a veteran hero.

The Galatian commander leads out his war bands

Lysimachus deployed his army conventionally, the pikes in the centre, Thracians to the left and his own cavalry wing on the right.  The Galatians eschewed convention, massing two of their commands far to their left, the other well out to the right, clearly wanting to keep as far from the phalanx as possible.

Initial deployments, Lysimachus on the right, Galatians to the left.

A forbidding sight, to be avoided if possible by the Galatians.

Initial movement on the Galatian left.  The Army commander's formation moves up to the stream while the hero commander deploys around the wooded hill beyond.

On the right, two war bands and light infantry advance directly ahead while two more war bands swing even further out, avoiding rough ground.

The Macedonian phalanx turns to move towards the main enemy concentration while Lysimachus leads his cavalry swiftly towards the stream.  They leave the Thracian command to deal with the smaller enemy force on the other flank.

Lysimachus leads his command into action to try to halt the enemy deployment around the wooded hill and defend the stream bank to try to stop the enemy crossing.  He is heavily outnumbered but the stream will slow down the Galatian advance

Lysimachus leads his lancers (from the rear) into a band of armoured warriors while his Thracian javelin men take on a band of rather under-dressed Galatians.

The lancers get two hits on their opponents, who fail to save either...

...but in return the war band get two hits as well and the lancers don't save them either!  A draw!

The Thracians also draw with the men who forgot to put their trousers on.

Closing in on the far side of the field

Four Galatian war bands advance into the stream, but can they press an attack before the phalanx gets into action?

The phalanx is closing in on the centre, but is worried about the difficult terrain on the hill.

As the phalanx divides to pass either side of the wood, Lysimachus' cavalry charge in try to hold back the wave of Galatians crossing the stream.

Fierce fighting in the fords

The fortune of battle does not favour the Galatians.  Lysimachus' lancers defeat their opponents badly, forcing them to recoil across the stream, which causes them to go from simply disrupted to routed!

In a 2 to 1 fight against the other Macedonian cavalry unit, another Galatian war band is driven back while the other only hangs on through the intervention of their commander.

On the other wing,  Galatian and Thracian infantry charge together while Thracian light cavalry sweep in on the Galatian flank. 

But here, fickle fortune deserts the Thracians.  Two infantry units are driven back and their light cavalry are beaten off contemptuously.

Success on the far side of the battle is no consolation for the Galatian commander.  With one of his own units routed, he has to take a command test and fails, causing the command to become fatigued - which means that it can no longer attack!

Pressure from the phalanx is now mounting in the centre

Another Galatian war band routs

On the far wing, the Galatians rout a Thracian unit and pursue it off the field

Back in the centre of the action, the heroic untrousered war band forces a pike block to recoil (don't ask how)

But with pike men now on his flank, the hero general is unable to prevent his command from becoming fatigued as well.  With two out of three commands now unable to attack, it is impossible for the Galatians to break through the block.  Lysimachus has won!

As the clash of battle died away, what did we think of the game?  On the plus side, movement is swift.  Troops get into action quickly and the combat system is easy to pick up and quick to resolve.  On the other hand, light infantry seem to be more able to disrupt action by massed infantry than I am used to in other game systems and commanders are able to move units around more easily than I am comfortable with.  We will certainly try these rules out again with different forces and a different scenario, while also re-reading to make sure we are not missing anything we should have grasped earlier.