The Ballad of Bradicles

Ouch!

The game was pretty much decided by turn 2 or 3. Alvaro and I lost a lot of break points in pretty rapid order. I was down to my two commanders and a unit of slingers. Alvaro was in better shape but not much.

Here’s the deal. The pikemen,  the armored javelin men and the cavalry all only have 5+ saves. The pikes and cavalry can form close order but do not get shield overlap meaning that the Greeks hoplites I faced are a tougher but to crack with their 4+ saves and – 1 to hit while in close order. And my guys are more expensive because of those pikes.

The pikes get to hit first in both attacks and counterattacks but your counterattacks are limited to half of the attacking unit’s models, so you’re better off in the attack.

The Xyston armed cavalry is great because your target gets a -1 armor save. But it’s  only an initiative 3 weapon. And the Hoplites also have initiative 3 weapons so now it’s a simultaneous strike if he’s in close order AND, if he is, the Xyston armed cavalry also suffer a -1 armor save because you’re literally impaling yourself on the enemy spears. So that 5+ becomes a 6+.

Marcos had a lot of shooting and he was going to shoot me off the board because I have no defense against his shooting because I either don’t have shields (the cavalry) or don’t have Shield Overlap, (the Pezhetairoi javelin and pike men). So my only hope was to engage in melee and take advantage of his troops poor melee and lack of armor.

I knew I’d lose those javelin Pezhetairoi, I do every game, but man, did I have terrible attack rolls and Marcos had amazing saves and grit rolls. My Hetairoi should’ve annihilated that unit of Hoplites but then my attacks just bounced off their shields like rubber balls. My luck tends to run either hot or cold and having no re-rolls when I normally had two was really hurting.  But all of this is luck.  What about strategy?

My left flank should probably have been just the slingers in the woods.  With the trees for cover and their skirmish specialist rule they could’ve been a tough nut for Marcos and his missile troops to dislodge.  Instead I should’ve gone in for wave attacks. Pezhetairoi with javelins in front followed by both pike units with the cavalry as the third wave.  I could have just ground him down the hard way as his units were smaller and I would have had four infantry units and one cavalry unit to take on his three infantry units.

Might’ve worked.

Or not.

For what it’s worth, I’m currently building 12 more Macedonian Hypaspists.  And an elephant.

So, elephants are interesting.  You always have to do a grit test to see if they activate, even with no fatigue.  And they don’t accumulate fatigue.  They only attack by rampaging and that’s a straight forward attack.  And the unit attacked gets a chance to move out of the way but the heavier their armor, the less likely they’ll succeed.  There’s a bunch of other rules but they are a really fun addition to an army.  Probably not worth the points but it’s an elephant!

And elephants are cool.  ?