Huge Units = Big Difference

[Didz]

A Close Run thing

My first major battle with a Seleucid Field Army and huge units lived up to my expectations as something completely different. The battle took place on the border near Palmyra and was a big mistake from the start.

It was intended to be a simple action to drive off a Seleucid General and his bodyguard who had wandered over the border and was a perfect chance for the Pharoah's youngest son Meryre (19) to get a bit of combat experience.

The force sent to do the job consisted of the long suffering survivors of the Eastern Infantry who had survived the storming of Damascus reinforced by a newly hired unit plus two units of Horse Archers, a unit of Arab Cavalry and two units of mercenary javelins. More than enough troops to deal with a single general and his light cavalry bodyguard.

Unfortunately, the young Meryre got lost, or rather I clicked on the enemy unit only to have one of those annoying moments when you realise that the enemy are on the other side of a river and and nearest ford is two days march away.

So, Meryre and his mercenaries marched off across the desert and ran smack bang into a very large Seleucid army which had been hiding just out of detection range. I hit the backspace and hoped that the Seleucids would ignore the young prince, needless to say they didn't and during the Seleucid's next turn Meryre found himself under serious attack.

I thought about withdrawing but decided that would be a really bad start for a Royal Prince in his first battle and so decided to at least make a show of it.

The two units of Eastern Infantry were drawn up on a small hillock in the middle of a totally flat and featureless desert screened by the two units of javelinmen and with a unit of horse archers covering each flank. Meryre and the Arab cavalry were held in reserve behind each flank.

The enemy deployed on the plain. I have no idea how many there were, my only impression was of an absolute sea of pikes that looked like a mobile forest. I suspect there must have been eight phalanx units flanked by light cavalry but fortunately no missile troops as far as I could see.

The battle opened with the Arab Horse Archers galloping forward to begin harassing the enemy phalanxes.

The enemy began their slow advance and sent their light cavalry to chase off the horse archers. I countered by committing my Arab Cavalry to drive off their lancers and they countered by sending in their elephants. Which amazingly I hadn't noticed until then as they had been hiding behind the forest of pikes.

I read somewhere that the best counter for elephants was light javelins and so I committed one unit to the escalating battle on my left flank, where a fierce whirling skirmish was being played out. I was surprised shortly afterwards to find that my men seemed to have won and that both the enemy elephants and lancers were fleeing for the map edge pursued by the Arab cavalry.

I redirected my missile troops to the business of thinning out the phalanxes trudging up the hill but the skirmish on the left had bought them the time they needed and as the screening javelin unit withdrew before them they closed heavily with the hapless Eastern infantry who began to die very quickly.

In an act of desperation I hurled a unit of Horse Archers into the flank of the phalanx attacking the left hand unit and after a brief resistance it broke and fled back down the slope. However, it was only a temporary reprieve and it was quickly replaced by a phalanx from their second line which pinioned the Horse Archers against my own infantry and routed them.

The Eastern infantry quickly followed their example and a charge by the enemy general drove off the other horse archer unit leaving Meryre and a single unit of Javelins to face the entire enemy army.

A desperate message was sent recalling the Arab Cavalry from their pursuit of the Seleucid cavalry and in the meanwhile Meryre and the javelinmen conducted a slow fighting withdrawal before the mass of enemy pikes.

Several charges by the enemy generals bodyguard were driven off each suffering heavy losses from Meryre's chariot archers until finally the Arab Cavalry turned up and descended on the enemy general, killing him and driving off his bodyguard. The success was short lived and the arab cavalry promptly decided to loot the generals corpse and scarper before the enemy infantry caught them or the their young Eygptian leader tried to get them to do something really dangerous. Like charge a phalanx.

The javelin men threw their last javelins and Meryre order them to withdraw.

Now it was just him and eight Seleucid phalanx's and he kept taking them down until he ran out of arrows. At that point he was about to withdraw and cede the battle when he noticed a Seleucid unit all alone in the middle of the battle field. A quick recon confirmed it to be a large mass of peasants who had been distracted by the temptations of looting the dead and had fallen behind the enemies main body.

Sensing a fitting end to the day Meryre wasted no time but rushed his chariot and its bodyguard around the flanks of the slow moving phalanx's and descended like an avenging hawk upon the enemy peasants. The slaughter was brief and bloody with Meryre pursuing the enemy and killing every single one.

As the timer ticked down to zero and dusk fell Meryre began composing his story of how he had won a great victory. Though in truth is was hardly a victory at all and a very close run thing in any event.

But the young prince had gained his combat expereince.