Graeco-Indians vs Early Achaemenid Persians in ADLG

My Graeco-Indians clash with the Early Achaemenid Persians of my club mate, Mick, King-of-kings.  I forgot to take one at set up, so this is after turn one.

Centre

Left

Right

We started fighting in the fields.  Not ideal to face Javelinmen with my elephant.

 Mick’s immortals drive off my skirmishers

 

We face off on the right.  Lots of bow armed cavalry and some camels pretending to be armoured cavalry.

My other elephant and swordsmen get stuck in.  How hard can come bowmen be to kill.  It goes quite well but disaster strikes on the right.

In the centre my cunning shift to the right crushes the reckless immortals

 

And we’re winning the archery on the right.

After compulsory pursuit the elephant is hit in the flank and destroyed!😱

Everyone else lines up

The collapse in the fields continues

The main lines clash in the centre

In the fields the Persian Javelinmen finally start to break.

As do the Sparabara who have been ground down slowly

The Persian cavalry start to outflank the Graeco-Indian right

Meanwhile a wide sweep by some Arachosian light horse threatens the embarrassingly improvised Persian camp.  Just one more hit on the disguised-camels and the camp sacking points are in the bag!

 A phoenix’ eye view of the closing stages

The last of the Javelinmen break and the Graeco-Indians salvage some honour from the wreckage on the left.

The reverse occurs in the centre as the phalanx flanks collapse.

 

On the right the Persian cavalry finally flank the Graeco-Indian line but it is too little too late.

 

 

Despite a desperate fight, the Arachosians cannot defeat the disguised camels and it is all over.

Both sides broke at this point, for the narrowest of winning draws to the Persians, 24-23.  Grrr!  So close and yet so far.

15mm ADLG Graeco-Indians

This is my new army for Art de la Guerre.  They are Graeco-Indians using 15mm Essex miniatures.  

The Indo-Greek Kingdom was founded by Demterius I of Bactria and ruled parts of the Indian subcontinent until the 1stC AD.

I've put together this little montage video for my army as a bit of fun.  The music is the end credit theme of the TV Series Monkey.

 

The most powerful infantry fighting part of the army is the Greek Phalanx.  They are standard Pikemen in ADLG.

 

The Indian subjects of the Greek Kingdom provide auxiliary infantry and powerful elite elephant units.

The infantry are mixed units of swordsmen and bowmen.  They are mediocre melee units but good at providing a flexible attack and stronger in melee than the standard bowmen.

Additional Indian troops can be medium spearmen or swordsmen.  They provide units that are a bit more reliable in melee.

Oddly, the Graeco-Indian list in ADLG doesn't allow the Indians to provide Skirmishers.  The bases above I have painted so I can use them for a full classical Indian force or as allies.  The Greeks can be skirmishers though.  Colonist Peltasts and 'Cretan' archers.

The Indian cavalry is not great but mediocre medium cavalry are very cheap and can use useful in support or on flanks.

These Greek Horsemen are the Graeco-Indian nobles and provide asmall contingent of elite or standard heavy cavalry.

These light cavalry are Arachosians or Paropamisadae from the far west of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

This is the camp marker and army general.  The Indo-Greeks merged their traditional religion with Buddhism and Gandharan art became very influential.

Alexander Returns

I have started re-basing my Macedonians for Art de la Guerre and adding a few extra figures to make a list legal 200 point army.

Alexander is based at the head of his companions, as an integrated commander in ADLG.  This isn't compulsory but it's where he should be.  The pink clad light cavalry are a base of Prodromoi lancer scouts.  These are all Foundry figures but I have another pack each of Prodromoi and Companions from Crusader to paint eventually.

The Phalangites are six to a base, which is a couple fewer than required under the standard basing but with the lowered pikes I can't fit more on a base.  The archers are going to be used as Cretan mercenaries.

To add more support I have some Thessalian cavalry, Greek Peltasts and some archers that can be Greeks or Macedonians.

Next up are some Agrianian and Thracian light javelinmen, then a separate command base of three figures. 

After that I just need to do some Hypaspists, and maybe one more command base, but I have some Greek Hoplites and Thracian allied swordsmen too.

ADLG first full try

I played my first full one-on-one game of Art de la Guerre ancients rules last week.  100 points of my Numidians versus 100 points of Hellenistic Greeks commanded by my club-mate Freddy.

My Numidian army was:

• 5 Light Cavalry with Javelins, two of which contained my integrated competent generals
• 4 Mediocre Imitation Legionaries
• 4 Javelinmen
• 2 Light Infantry with Javelins
  

The Greeks were:

• 4 Hoplites
• 4 Mediocre Hoplites
• 1 Greek Peltast Javelinmen
• 1 Peltast Light Infantry
• 1 Cretan Archers
• 1 Slingers
• 1 Thracian Javelinmen
• 1 Greek Light Cavalry
• 1 Greek Medium Cavalry
• 2 Independent Competent Generals
  

Both players were still new to the game, so play was a bit slow but we had a blast and were mostly getting the hang of it by the end.  There's a long way to go to be good though.

The Greeks get quite a wall of spears and my infantry isn't great, so I placed my mediocre Legionaries on my left and the bulk of my cavalry of my right.  My intention was to delay contact with the best Hoplites whilst my Legionaries ground through the mediocre Sicilian allied Greek Hoplites.  My cavalry would range out wide looking for gaps to get onto flanks or behind the spears.

Freddy regretted putting his cavalry on the closed flank.  It might have been better to have my light infantry on the hill too but they were actually quite useful in the end.  Essentially we both made deployment mistakes.

 

The 100 point deployment isn't very wide, so my light cavalry started facing the side in column.

This is after a turn's movement.  Both armies advanced quickly, pushing their light troops forward

My mediocre legionaries, sadly my best close combat troops, faced off against the mediocre Sicilian hoplites.  Truly a battle of titans.

With the overlap and impact, I thought my legionaries would cut through the Sicilian hoplites quite quickly but a fist of ones later and the Thracian were the ones who had done the cutting.

On the other flank the Javelinmen, having seen off the Greek skirmishers fell back before the hoplites facing them to try and buy time for the legionaries and cavalry to do their work.

The legionaries slowly ground down one unit of mediocre hoplites but the Greek cavalry launched an attack on their flank.  On the other wing the Javelinmen had run out of space and turned to face the oncoming hoplites.

My light cavalry could easily out-manoeuvre the Greeks but struggled to destroy them.

Running out of space and with a hoplite unit turning to aid their Sicilian comrades the Javelinmen had to try to fight up close.  It didn't go well for them.  Some of the cavalry broke off from the flank fight and came to help.

In the final phase the Numidian light cavalry ran rampant behind the Greek lines, launching two successful attacks. The first slammed into the flank the Greek medium cavalry on the Numidian left.  Then a mirror image attack against a hoplite unit on the Numidian right.  Both targets units were routed but the hoplites on the other wing made short work of the Numidian Javelinmen in close combat.  

A count of break points at the end of this turn found that both sides had simultaneously reached their break point and the game was declared a draw.

I really enjoyed the game and the rules.  It's a very tactical but that was fun and you do get battle lines that slowly disintegrate, which felt historical.  The single dice roll-offs lead to some wild swings of luck, and 6-1 results can be frustrating, but things even out and those are the fortunes of war, even in miniature.  We will be playing ADLG again soon.