Battle of Charonea: an Ancient & Medieval Warfare refight

Since my first game wasn't entirely satisfactory, I decided to replay Charonea immediately with the Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargaming rules, with an improvised scenarion based on the previous game. I supposed that the much simpler and more intuitive Neil Thomas' rules would probably suit my brain state much better!

 

 

 

I used the following forces:

 

The Pontic Army:

1 unit of Pike (Elite, Medium Armour)

4 units of Pike (Raw, Medium Armour) 

2 units of Auxiliaries (Raw, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Heavy Cavalry (Raw, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Light Cavalry (Raw, Light Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Heavy Archers (Raw, Light Armour)

1 unit of Light Infantry (Raw, Light Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Scythed Chariots (Special) 

 

The Roman Army:

3 units of Legionaries (Elite, Heavy Armour, Javelins)

1 unit of Auxiliaries (Average, Medium Armour)

1 unit of Heavy Cavalry (Elite, Heavy Armour)  

 

So some heavily outnumbered but stronger Roman units facing a variety of weaker Pontic units.

 

One side of the board is the slopes of Mount Thurion, whereas the other side is the bank of the River Cephisus (not represented, but keep in mind that that flank was fixed for both sides). 

The Set-Up: 

Pontic Army to the left and bottom, Romans to the right, with the Thracians on their left, slightly refused (i.e. right of the photo); the Pontic camp is to the top-left.

Another view

And another of the main Pontic host

Looking past the Pontics towards the smaller Roman force

The Battle

The Pontic advanced forces (chariots, cavalry, stratiota detachment) advance on the Romans and Thracians.

Another view

The Roman Cavalry takes the initiative on the far flank (bounded off-table by the River Cephisus) and charges the Pontic Light Horse; ordinarily the Light Horse would have avoided being in charge reach of the heavier Roman cavalry, but they are somewaht boxed in by the Stratiota and the archers.

The scythed chariots did their work well - note the damage done to the centre unit of Roman Legionaries (right); now the Javelinmen are moving up to take their turn

On the far (Pontic Left) flank, the Pontic Light Horse have inflicted more damage than might have been expected; they are still getting the worst of it, however.

Meanwhile, the Stratiota are fighting the Thracians on the Roman left (centre-bottom); the Thracians might be thought of as being ahead on points, at this stage.

The left-hand Pontic phalanx is moving up, to try and get at that disrupted Roman centre

The Roman leginaries have taken additional casualties from the Pontic archers and javelinmen in the centre; on the other hand, the Thracians seem to have gained the upper hand on the Roman Left (centre-bottom right)

Taking a calculated risk, the right-hand Legion attacks the leading Pontic phalanx in the flank, exposing its own flank to the Pontic bowmen; its rear is still protected by the threat of the Roman cavalry, who retired to regroup (top-right); the flank attack has been somewhat successful, but the phalanx is still intact

Proving once again that fortune favours the bold, the Pontic archers ran off!! The left-hand phalanx is therefore in a sticky situation; with the defeat of the Stratiotas imminent on the Pontic Right (bottom right), the Pontic Cavalry advance in support (centre)

And in short order, the left-hand phalanx (see gap near Roman L-shape, top-centre) and the stratiotas (centre-right) have been defeated and run-off; the Pontic reserves move up to compensate

The battle has run on a little here; the Pontic Right (bottom-centre) sees the Pontic cavalry engaging the Thracians; two more phalanxes have engaged the two central, and quite weakened, Roman legions (centre); the stratiotas on the Pontic Left (top-left) are facing off against a Legion and the Roman Cavalry; the Pontic javelinmen have moved to the back to get out of the way (bottom-left); the Pontic reserves (a Phalanx and a group of Stratiotas) are moving towards the centre to assist.

The main fight in the centre is weakening both sides equally; in the bloody struggle in the foreground, both Thracians and Pontic horsemen are falling in droves, but slighly more of the latter than the former

However, that Pontic Cavalry unit seems to be fighting down to the last man!  This was matched by the heroism of the Stratiotas on the other flank (top) who have seen off the Roman Right in its entirety - just!

Can't be long now for the Roman centre...

And another legion goes down! The Romans are defeated, with only one legion and the Thracians still in viable units, and both of them heavily understrength

Game Notes:

A nice, fun game with a distinctly lower level of complexity than Polemos SPQR. Because of if, Neil Thomas' Ancient & Medieval Wargamning is really easy to pick up and play from the shelf after a period of absence, because there really is not that much to remember; in particular, there are very few exceptions and special rules. It does probably lead to an unrealistically 'zippy' game, with the mighty phalanxes easier to start and stop; but on the other hand it didn't seem to make that much difference: in this game, maybe some of the actions on the Pontic Left (top of the board) were slightly more complex than a set which focused more on command would allow, but apart from that, it wasn't so jarring. Neil Thomas' rules are generally fairly attritional, and these are no exception, although the possible of cascading unit morale failure is always there and happened a few times in this game.  Light troops are much easier to use and more effective than in other games, although other troops will crush them if they can catch them. The 'no interpenetration' rules do ensure that there are significant control, if not command, problems. Of course, given the emphasis on attrition, the Romans in this scenario were always going to be in for a thin time, it is extremely difficult to win in these games unless a force is at least 75% strong as its opponent, with some morale or tactical advantages to assist.

But genuinely really nice to get these rules to the table again.