The Battle of Seleukeia

The Great King Bamdada of Pamphylia has amassed his army to launch a decisive strike on  Shabaan el-shabazz, Satrap of Seleukeia.

The forces of  Bambada (Matt)

The brave and loyal forces of Shabaan el-shabazz (that'll be me then). Rivers are passable to all except chariots. Luckily I have loads of chariots

My right flank

Facing Matt's left

My centre - lots of phalanx and archers. I have a lot of missile troops

Matt's right - lots of sweaty barbarian types and heavy cavalry

Matt launches a general advance

My cavalry charge as Matt's barbarians cross the river

I have lots of cavalry here

Chariots to the fore I charge into Matt's left

I have great dice all morning and matt has terrible dice. My missile troops are causing serious damage and I'm marking great nerve rolls

 

Matt is forcing a crossing but I'm ready and waiting. Time for lunch. Nice soup for which I forsake my dice rolling.

I'm still around but Matt is moving troops from the centre to support his flanks. This was my plan all along and nice to see it coming to fruition

Matt is across but not worried

Some battered infantry approach my heavy cavalry

I seize the initiative and cross the river in the centre

at this exact moment my dice rolls petered out

I'm across the river but my flank is threatened. A single shot from my stone thrower has destroyed a Numidian cavalry regiment

But my left is wrecked and i'm trapped

My right is a bloody mess of fractured bones and wet sand, both sides have fought to a standstill.

This was an utterly brilliant battle that ebbed and flowed dramatically, played using KoW. I need to split my forces better and I'm overly cautious with phalanx troops. The mix of my missile troops and Matt's shock troops gives a really interesting battle. We will play a follow up in December hopefully.

On the downside my exhaust broke and an emergency stop on the way home sent the army flying and I have a desk full of shields, spears and dismounted horses. Time to get the glue out

The Battle for Iola's hand, and possibly the nicer bits as well

This is what it is all about

Queen Iola about to be "swanned"

After the attempted ambush by by King Pelopidas on his gifts to Iola King Fartous marched his army to crush the measly forces of King Pelopidas. Fartous was determined to prove Pelopidas as eunoch or make him  one.  Prince Tutak met a small skirmishing force on the banks of the river.

Unfortunately Tutak was unable to win this skirmish and it gave control to  on of the 3 objectives to Pelopidas. 2 units of skirmishers were left to harry the Greeks and Tutak left to join the army.

And what armies they were. Both sides had arrived with their full panolpy

The army of Fartous, Persian style with lots of archers, light cavalry, camels, steadfast spearmen and elephants.

The army of Pelopidas was mainly spearmen with some good cavalry

Both sides advance to control the town at the top and the olive covered tree in the centre. Fartous sent out a skirmishing screen whereas Pelopidas just marched forward

The 1st clash was on the hill with a unit of greek spearmen attacking the Immortals on the hill. The immortals withstood the 1st attack and them followed up with a light camel unit launching a flank attack

To the left the elephants with the support of a horde of spearmen and a legion of spearmen advance and threaten the line

The elephants charge home and rock the spearmen

On the right naked Galatian berserkers of Pelopidas attack the 2 pike blocks and a long and bloody fight ensues

Fighting is still going on on the hill and the elephants are being engulfed, but the legion of spearmen in just behind. The legion charges home and catches one of the units attacking the elephants in  the flank. In Kings of war if you charge somebody in the flank you get double the number of attacks. A legion gets 30 attacks so in the flank it gets this many attacks 

I could only just hold all the dice..

The result is a massive hole in the greek right. However one of the elephants had run amok and it spoiled the opportunity

The legion crashes into another unit but the elephants are gone and I'm too weak to exploit the hole

All along the line the numbers are thinning but I still hold the hill in the centre 

However the Immortals eventually run and leave Fartous alone on the hill. Everywhere else the line of his great army is breaking

Fartous and Tutak flee with his cavalry.

This was a fantastic battle that was won and lost about 4 times. The Kings of war rules are brilliant, very very playable and melees are full of ebbs and flows, just as I like them. As always Matt put on a great table and some nice soup. One of the best battles ever. Fartous will be back