Romans and Seleucids slugging it out today.

[FierceKitty]

Pixs may follow; stay tuned.

[FierceKitty]

Hmmm, good start. Arab allies unreliable, most of the army refuses to move on first round. Romans may win this one.

[FierceKitty]

Round two. Arabs still unreliable, but Macedonians are lumbering forward. Romans have already deployed into line, and I'm trying to hold back my limited cavalry rather that throw them into a losing contest with Hellenic lancers.

[FierceKitty]

There is a real danger that Antiochus may be nutcrackered in this, round three. There is a lot of pressure on the Roman line, however.

[FierceKitty]

He's alive; not so King Attalus of Pergamon. 

[FierceKitty]

 

[FierceKitty]

The pictures can tell the sad story....

[FierceKitty]

The pictures can tell the sad story....

[FierceKitty]

The pictures can tell the sad story....

[FierceKitty]

The pictures can tell the sad story....

[FierceKitty]

The pictures can tell the sad story....

[FierceKitty]

The pictures can tell the sad story....

[FierceKitty]

Rematch today. Lee and Mike are commanding the Seleucids. Rainy day and a torrent dividing the field down the middle should help the Roman cause against Hellenistic catapults and superior cavalry.

[Techno]

Let's see if there's another  post.

Cheers - Phil 

[FierceKitty]

 

[Techno]

 

Well done, Alexander !

Cheers - Phil

[FierceKitty]

Thanks.

It was a long, hard fight, as the pictures will show, but the constricted frontage let the Romans use all their fancy tricks.

[FierceKitty]

Although outscouted, the Romans were fortunate enough to get a battlefield of half the normal frontage; they (we) attacked during a light rain, intending to reduce the effect of the Seleucid artillery, which was painfully effective last week. A bonus was that the stream you see here was in spate, and very difficult to ford (Seleucids attempting it suffered significant casualties from drowning). But the great advantage was that the limited frontage reduced the effect of the enemy cavalry superiority. In fact, both sides had trouble with cavalry caught in sticky mud when they were required elsewhere.

The architecture is meant to reflect the Hellenic-Asian hybrid culture of the defenders.

[FierceKitty]

The Hellenes sprang a burning pig ambush early on. Too early, in fact, since it disordered our elephants but left them time to rally (the Romans were trying to get better omens, and so were held back, delaying contact). Moral: spring an ambush when you can support any success it has.

[FierceKitty]

The Indians in the centre caused unexpectedly heavy casualties with their shooting when the rain stopped. My legionaries were significantly reduced in melee effect. Indian cavalry crossing the river, however, fell foul of massed Balearic slingers, and were wiped out entirely. The wheels also started falling off the defense when their Arab troops began asking whether the time was right for total Arab commitment to Hellenisation, and went home upon deciding it wasn't.