Middle Imperial Roman vs Classical Indian

A friend of mine has finished to paint a very nice Classical Indian army, and wanted to test some new ideas against a tough enemy. Romans with artillery fast suited perfectly, so we met to decide who would rule indian continent (I was the invader)

To my surprise, the Indian set up a very open battlefield, dominated by a large gentle hill. On this feature he deployed his central corps, with Elephants interspersed with Hordes and IBdI as reserve. Both wing were made by archers and cavalry deployed in defensive stance. This is the first time I see a formation with hordes used as first line troops, so, albeit skeptical, was curious to see if it was effective. I deployed to attack with my cavalry wing while the infantry should mostly defend the position and use the artillery.

This is the indian right wing, where I planned to execute my main attack

The enemy left was my defensive wing, where I would use the gully to help RAxO to hold back the indians. This task would be helped by the long distance the indian troops had to march to reach my lines. The Elephants were not screened, so my priority was to put artillery fast in action

The defensive position between the gully and the boggy was very strong. Should the enemy wheel and advance against it, it would have exposed ven more the right to my cavalry corps. The Artillery role was important to keep the indian under pressure.

A close up of the Romans. In the first turns the pips were very low, so just the mounted arm could be manouvered. The two infantry commands were static, but the artillery did its job well

Indian right wing had excellent pip all game long, and could manouver to counter roman outflanking

Once the indian redeployed their right, romans were forced to press home the attack with the light cavalry. The odds were not good

The immobile roman left wing was now the target of a cumbersome indian attack

On the right indian combat dice were terrible and losses mounted. Indian decided to gamble a chariots charge against the cataphracts

On the left finally reinforcements arrived. RBdS would surely stabilize the line

With the situation getting desperate the chariots risked it all.

Again the indian faced hot roman combat dice. The cataphract charge broke the indian right corps and the ME transimission disheartend the indian center

The battle was over, with the Indian scattered infantry from central corps pursued and decimated by the romans.

The Indian army composition was good, but the two experiments tried by the indian did not work. Next game test will be a linear deployment with flank protected by terrain and elephants screened by IBdI