The Armies:
II/33 Polybian. 1xCv(Gene), 1xCv, 6x4Bd, 2x3Ax, 2xPs.
II/20 Ptolemaic Egyptian. 1x3Kn(Gen), 1x3Kn, 1xLH, 1xEl,
4x4Pk, 1x4Bd, 2x4Ax, 1xPs.
The Battlefield comprised two Ploughed fields and two
Scrubby areas.
On the left, the Romans placed a line of Blades in the
centre, supported by Auxilia and Psiloi. They held some more Blade and the
Cavalry in reserve.
The Egyptian force set up on the right of picture: Elephant
supported by Pike (seems to be a popular formation), with Auxilia and Psiloi on
the flanks. The Knights remained in reserve.
Turn 1: The Roman’s rolled a 2 for Pips, so I decided to
remove the Plough features as they had no effect (treated as Good Going). Both
sides advanced.
Turn 2: Both sides rolled low again, so continued a steady
advance.
Turn 3: The Romans engaged, destroying a Psiloi on their
left, but being pushed back at points elsewhere, and both sides began to move
their reserve into play.
Turn 4: Both sides took casualties as the fighting became desperate.
The Romans lost a Blade and an Auxilia, the Egyptian lost their Elephant and an
Auxilia.
Turn 5: The Romans took advantage of a high Pip roll and
surrounded a couple of groups, but the tenacious Egyptian resistance held firm –
for a brief moment. But it was the Romans who won the day when a quick check
with the rules confirmed that Blades destroy Knights in tied rolls. Game over.
Conclusion: A Roman victory, 4-2.
Assessment: This is not a compatible pairing, but was quite
an entertaining game. The Egyptian resistance was impressive they would have
survived to a sixth bound and were in a reasonable chance of winning
themselves, but for the nagging memory that made me check the rules. Also, this
is the second game that featured an Elephant and it was destroyed in both, due
to being 6-1’ed each time! Poor effalumps.
Future thoughts: This will be the last one-off battle report
for a while as I am looking at creating a little solo-play mini-campaign using six
compatible armies from book 2 lists. Version 3 does not include the campaign
rules, so I’ll dig out version 2.2
No comments:
Post a Comment