Daniel (my eldest son) joined in for a bit - taking the Persian cavalry, while Russ took control of all the Persian foot troops and I took the Macedonians.
Russ' Persians amount to 644 points so I could add an extra 44 points to take him on. I invested in another block of pikemen (although in hindsight I think I should have gone for hoplites).
Starting Positions
With no scenery, we played with a completely flat board - which led to one of the best games we've ever head. I lost initiative so had to deploy first. I put out my podromoroi, slingers and javelinmen and one BG of pikes. I made the basic error of not putting my pike in rows of 4 (to get a + at impact) and so had a wide frontage but this proved to a fragile crust which Russ exploited. On the right I put my hypaspists to protect the flank and put all my heavy cavalry on the left (away from the massed Persian cavalry).
Russ put his skirmishers in front of his hoplites and Apple Bearers.
The Macedonians line up with a huge block of spears in the centre...
The opening saw the Persian cavalry rush forward on the left as my Macedonian cavalry rushed forward on my left. The skirmishers also sprinted forward to engage their opposite numbers.
Russ' archers inflicted some serious damage on the prodomoroi (who lost a base) but as the Macedonians got close the Persians ran for it - including the archers who decided to evade into the path of the Agema and Thessalian cavalry. I made the mistake of having the Agema in a line - taking away some flexibility in movement and it showed here.
Meanwhile Russ' Guard cavalry took on the hypaspists. The impact and melee did not go well for the cavalry and they lost a base. Russ' other Persian cavalry lined up to take on the rightmost pikes on the flank - so I turned them to face.
The Agema bang down the left as the centres coverge.
The Persian cavalry converge on the Macedonian flank - and one set of pikes turn to face.
After a bit of fighting and bouncing off, Russ found his best cavalry severely depleted. The cavalry that hit the pikes got Disrupted in the impact and Fragmented in the melee and looked in bad shape. Similary the Guard cavalry had lost a base.
The centre saw a to and fro battle of skirmishers as Russ' ducked behind the battle line and back again. The Macedonian skirmishers got some shots in but caused no damage.
The key action was on my left. The Agema's eyes opened as the Persian archers ran in front of them. They charged, the archers evaded and the Agema impacted on the hoplite line.
To cut a long story short, my dice started misbehaving from here. The Agema hit nothing, lost the impact then threw 1,1 for the cohesion test and dropped to Fragmented! This really blew my plans. Instead of crumbling the Persian right, my own left now looked vulnerable.
The Agema mess up spectacularly.
The only saving grace was that my slingers disrupted the Persian slingers - and made the Apple Bearers charge them. Amazingly, the slingers managed to disrupt the Apple Bearers in the shooting phase - they'd come out alone and so were isolated. They then hit my rightmost pikes - who'd just sent the Fragmented Persian cavalry packing and found themselves in trouble.
Then (in one of those incidents that make FOG great - when they happen to you!) a drama unfolded. The Fragmented cavalry were charged by the hypaspists. They immediately dropped to Broken - and the cohesion tests for nearby Persian units were almost all failed.
All kinds of awfulness in the Persian ranks.
This pretty much secured the right flank. The Persian Guard cavalry attacked the hypaspists again and both went Disrupted but the spearmen held their own and took another base off them.
This was just as well as the Macedonian centre was turning to mush. The middle pikes fell quickly to the Persian hoplites, the prodomoroi were crushed as the other hoplites and Apple Bearers kicked them to death while the Fragmented Agema were doing nothing apart from going Broken and running away (disrupting the Macedonian hoplites in the process). Not long after this the leftmost pikes also succumbed to a hoplite / Apple Bearer sandwich and went to Fragmented.
At least the Thessalian cavalry were having fun. They caught up with the archers in the rear and dealt some serious damage. They lost a base and went Disrupted - then Fragmented - then Broken in rapid succession. This left the path to the Persian camp open.
Russ saw his cavalry all in various stages of disarray - not helped as his Apple Bearers taking on the pikes went Fragmented and were pretty much doomed. The Macedonian slingers got round behind them and - as the Bearers Broke trapped them and destroyed the elite infantry.
A general view of the battle. The Agema running away, the centre looking
good for Persia but their flanks are both gone.
The hypaspists followed up their success by charging the cavalry again - and Fragmented another BG in the process. The right pikes took on the remaining cavalry - who had been bolstered by Darius. But they still held the upper hand.
Then came a game-saving throw. The commander running away with the Agema managed to bolster them and rose them to Fragmented. This was crucial. As they stayed on the field it was the deciding factor in the final reckoning.
As time was getting on, the battle was decided. On countback, Russ had lost 3 BG and had a couple of Fragmented on the field. His camp was also in touching distance.
I had lost the Prodomoroi and one of the Pikes were broken and another Fragmented. The centre certainly belonged to Persia but as the cavalry were decimated and the Macedonians still had the power of Alexander around, we decided that it was a victory to Macedonia.
But it was a close run thing!
Conclusions
We both felt that we'd made mistakes. The loss of the Agema was my own fault - they were badly deployed and weren't used properly. Russ thinks he should have attacked the spears with 2BG each - alone they failed to have the clout to affect the outcome.
I was stupid to allow the prodomoroi to get trapped. They disrupted their own troops and stopped the pikes getting in quick enough. I'll keep them out of the way next time.
Similary I should have held the pikes in a narrower and deeper formation. Having said that, the rightmost pikes did stirling work - killing the Apple Bearers and knocking away another BG of cavalry.
The hypaspists did brilliantly - essentially taking on the cream of Darius' cavalry and sending them packing.
For the Persians, the hoplites were superb - taking on all comers and winning (getting rid of 2BG of pikes virtually unscathed).
And Alexander was great - helping me pass innumerable cohesion tests that otherwise would have led to a rapid loss.
And most importantly we had a tremendous time. A fabulous battle that could have gone either way and which both of us really enjoyed!