Hellenistic Greek vs Early Visigothic
This is an interesting game played in my club between an hellenistic greek army heavy on pikes and a gothic army with large number of warbands. Often this match up results in pikes cowering well back and trying to avoid the fight. In this battle the greeks took the initiative and attacked head on the barbarians, using light troops and cavalry to support their phalanx.
The Greek defended and set up a terrain with some difficult and rough features on the flank to protect and set in ambush the wings made mostly by psiloi. The big gentle hill was choosen by the gothic player. The Visigoth deployed second with the CiC mounted command delayed. Imho the offset to left warband position was not a good idea, because the lefternmost corps had nothing to hit, while the largest central corps faced all the enemy army. The Greek deployed the AxS and CvO corpsin the center to shiled a bit the two big phalanxs. An excellent set up.
Moving first, Greeks pressed forward in echelon, using a phalanx to gain room and position to outflank the gothic right wing
Visigothic CiC corps entered and was sent to support the right wing. The enter formation was defensive, with the IKnF in the center positioned to cover the center should it break. A second option could be to use the IKnF to engage frontally the greel right phalanx, outflanking it with the mass of RLhO.
The second greek ambush, more psiloi on the right, was used to cover the phalanx side. In the center the combat was quite bloody, with the greek having the upper hand thanks to the committment of three corps versus just an enemy one.
The right phalanx advance created a salient threatening the Wb in the center and any future IKnF charge in that sector
After more combat bounds, the visigothic center broke. IKnF from the CiC corps now could engage the enemy
Gothic cavalry charge was successful. Greek center was broken and the ME loss transmission disheartened the smaller greek left corps. The gothic knights saved the day.
The gothic CiC corps had already suffered some losses due the pikes attacks versus the LhO, so the visigothic player decided to feign flight the IKnF corps to avoid flank attacks from the pikes and further casualties. The game time was almost expired, and after another bound the battle was over. 13-12 for the Visigoth
Imho the greek played a very good game, exploiting the wrong gothic deployment. Visigothic left wing did almost nothing due low pips and offset position. This left the gothic center face too many enemies in too shallow formation. The corps was doomed. The gothic reserve did an excellent job, but it was a restoring of a losing postion. Maybe with both the gothic corps taking the brunt of fight, the gothic CiC could be used offensively against the enemy right looking for a victory instead of a draw.
A very interesting game