Wot, no Elephants?

With two fingers up to 'The Beast from the East" Kevin braved the freezing wind and arrived at the PO door looking like a survivor from Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole, thermal underwear sufficed for me, spacious it may be but the PO is not always so warm and it is too large an area to heat without taking out a new mortgage.

Kevin has been busy selling boardgames at a furious rate over the last week or so so hasn't managed to organise or paint his new army choices of Republican Roman and Pyrrhic, I suspect we will see the former before the latter as I believe they are complete but need movement trays. So for this weeks game it was back to the Carthaginians for him and Seleucids for me, I had speed painted a new elephant with the intention of hitting him with two but in the end couldn't afford them in the army, I prefer real men to watch my flanks not big, lumbering beasts. Anyway I had four phalanxes, one of which was Levy, supported by skirmishers, horse archers, one cavalry unit, Theurophoroi and some Galatian mercenaries. Opposite was the usual mix of African spearmen, Italian allies, skirmishers and light cavalry also with a large Gaul warband.

I deployed with my cavalry on my left, infantry in the centre and the warband on my right, I was going to be cautious with my left while pushing my right to take the enemy flank, the way the deployment had gone I saw that if I was quick I could possibly outflank the Carthaginian heavy infantry on the centre left, then hopefully roll them up. I was depending on my Galatians who were elite to beat their tribal counterparts on the other side so that I could attempt the flank attack without interference.

Seleucids on the left, Carthaginians on the right.

My army advances as does the enemy left.

Having said all that I also noticed my left was glaringly weak, if it was vigorously attacked I would have to pull a phalanx away from the main line. I managed to get rid of the enemy skirmishers here but made a mess of a cavalry charge which was a couple of inches short. I recovered slightly but Kevin got the next charge in first, my cavalry were solid troopers with high morale, but once again they could not manage to beat the enemy, they failed on several occasions to wipe them out needing only one lousy casualty, they then routed, taking the horse archers with them. Thankfully I managed to get both units back and eventually I destroyed that enemy cavalry, but it was touch and go and very frustrating. Thankfully however there was still no movement from the Italian infantry on that flank.

I chase away the enemy javelinmen.

On the right I did much better, my Galatians caught the Gauls and dispersed them, my swift advance and luck in winning the initiative threw the Carthaginian cavalry into disarray and they retreated, the Galatians also managed to send one of these units packing as well, a terrific first appearance for them. I was brought back to earth however as my 'purple' phalanx charged in to pin a unit of spearmen for the intended flank attack only to be outfought, routed and dispersed! Lucky for me this put the pursuers right in front of the Theurophoroi which then hit them on the flank and took them out, a magnificent feat for such a small unit considering these very same troops had wiped out a phalanx without breaking sweat.

Looking good.

Oh dear, a hole in the line.

I did recover however and as planned I hit the enemy centre and it slowly crumbled, the Italians now moved but it was too late, and once again Kevin's hard luck Italian unit ran on seeing the mayhem in the centre, it was all over.

We start to roll up the enemy line.

Carthaginian morale fails.

 A very good showing by the Seleucids, although I do wonder why my cavalry never seems keen to fight. The surprising loss of the 'purple' phalanx shook me but once again brought home my need to hit these units in the flank at all costs, it is a quirk of the army lists (not the rules) that Hoplite type units with large shields actually have a better chance of beating a real phalanx than the other way around. Dice luck was average but I did win several crucial initiative rolls during the mid phase of the battle when it mattered while Kevin won most during the early part. I am getting ready to add some mercenary peltasts to the army and another unit of javelin armed skirmishers simply for choice and I have the figures anyway. I have my main General and now only need the Companions and cataphracts to complete the army, but I am skint for now so can wait a bit longer for Aventine to get them into production.