Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Greeks?

The missus left for a week of outdoor pursuits in the Lakes on Saturday so naturally I organised a game, back to War and Conquest with Kevin seeking revenge despite beating me at Bolt Action.

I decided to use my terrain builder and the Greeks managed to pull out a couple of marshes and a village, these were immediately set down to protect the ever vulnerable Greek flanks, a good move, I got a hill and a wood, I was quite happy to have the wood in the middle to hopefully break the Greek line. I had to deploy first so I put all my legionary cohorts on my right supported by the massed archers, the left I thought could hold the hill and see how the battle developed, it wasn't as strong as I would have liked but neither was it weak. To hold this gap I had an auxiliary cohort, horse archers, heavy cavalry and my excellent Lanciarii. The enemy put all their hoplites opposite my legionaries, the rest of the army, peltasts, cavalry and a large warband were opposite my weak left, I felt that the left would hold.

My right slowly organised itself as three phalanxes swept forward, the fourth seemed to get confused and couldn't find the room to form up on the end of the line due to the wood, I took advantage of this and advanced in echelon with my extreme right, the massed archers I decided would get stuck in once I had engaged the first phalanx and take them in the flank.

Things at first looked good on the left, my heavy cavalry went after some light cavalry while I hoped my slingers in the wood would damage the Greek heavy cavalry, this didn't happen but it forced them to turn on the slingers. Meanwhile the Auxiliaries formed up on top of the hill in plenty of time to receive the warband, the Lanciarii took up a position to flank the warband, what could go wrong. Well the cohort on the hill broke and fled, luckily outdistancing the pursuers and rallying at the end of the turn, but my left suddenly looked very dodgy. I had to pull the horse archers away from trouble once again so they really had still to take part in the fight, my slingers also fled but this left the Greek cavalry with the Lanciarii on their flank throwing javelins and a good chance to rush them so things were not too bad.

Once again however the warband hit the rallying auxiliaries and although these men fought bravely they once again ran, and once again outdistanced their tormentors and rallied, it was not to happen a third time as, caught again, they dispersed. They had however managed to delay the victorious warband. As I surveyed the fighting on the left I realised I had left my cavalry in a very precarious position and expected to lose them, but through some incredible luck I got the drop on the Peltasts and charged through and over them. Now I would lose the cavalry as they were surrounded by missile troops, twice these forces missed with everything they threw at them, allowing the cavalry to continue on their victorious ride and claim the archers tormenting them. Now the Lanciarii hit the heavy cavalry and another enemy unit took to its heels, the danger had been averted.

Meanwhile on the right my veterans hit a weakened phalanx and destroyed it, next in line, Cohors I, did not do so well but again stood their ground for a long time before running. The crises was reached as the Greek reserve phalanx was hit and routed by the Lanciarii, this once again left me with spare units to surround the remaining hoplites. Way over on the left the warband too was being surrounded by my skirmishers as it tried to catch my horse archers, it could not ignore these troops to go to the left and help its friends. It was all over for the Greeks.

This was Kevin's best game so far I think and if he had managed to wipe out the auxiliary cohort on the hill in the first clash he could have turned the warband against my main line, but it didn't happen, the dice gods did him no favours either when shooting at my cavalry, for two turns he failed to kill even one figure. So there you go, the Greeks continue to mature and get closer to that ever elusive victory.