Cynocephalae
(Republican
Romans vs Macedonians)
The Plan
The Macedonians
put their Cavalry on the left of the right advanced flank. They planned to use
their speed to be able to protect the gap between their left and right flank.
The Romans were planning to
advance as quick as possible on their right flank to hold the top of the ridge.
They were confident that they could crush the enemy there.
On the left they decided to
attack the Phalanx hoping to be able to sneek into a gap by drawing the enemy
forward. With the cavalry on the extreme left in position and a unit (that was
drawn from the right flank to the left) on the other side. By the way, this was
the unit that got the bonus LD for the unnamed tribune.
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Roman Hastati
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Learn more about the
Roman Tactical Checkerboard Formation here.
The Setup
The table was
80". It turned out to be just a little to small to deploy the cavalry the way we
wanted.
We played
with two 4000 points armies. Click here
for the scenario we used.
The armies are ready
to engage. Macedonians this side, Romans at the right top, Aetolians at the left
top.
(move over the picture to get unit info)
A Battle on 2 Flanks
Macedonian Backward Flank |
Macedonian
Advanced Flank |
The Aetolian peltasts threw a
devastating round of javelins. But no Macedonian light troops fled. The
Cretans, however, were reduced to 3 models. |
The Romans advanced quickly here.
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Nicanor encouraged his
phalanx units to march up the hill.
The light troops managed to rout the Roman cavalry on this flank.
(Because the Aetolian general could only use his LD on his own troops,
they broke and fled of the table.) |
Macedonia arrived on the top of the
ridge. They were looking down at the Romans struggling to get rid of the
skirmishers. |
All units that could charge,
engaged the enemy. Elephants, cavalry and peltasts alike. |
The Romans were joined by a unit of
principes from the other flank (The light
blue unit). The need was higher here. |
The Phalanx had to reform
into a phalanx because the Romans were about to break through the light
troops. |
The Macedonian cavalry realised they
were in a difficult position should the Romans break through the light
troops. they decided to draw back a await their chance.
The Phalanx steadily advanced downhill. |
Romans in Blue - Aetolians in Purple
Macedonians in Orange - Galatians in brown
(Move over the picture to see unit legend)
The Galatians were the first
to be charged by the Roman heavy troops. An elephant charged the
Galatian infantry, while a Roman unit got engaged with the Galatian
cavalry. |
The light troops finally out of the way
the battle was about to start here too.
The Roman cavalry hid in the woods. |
A Macedonian phalanx charged and joined
the fight with the Galatian cavalry against the Romans.
The Galatian infantry got destroyed by the elephant.
The Thessalians were moved to the other flank where help was needed. |
The Thesssalian cavalry decided that the
time was right and charged the Romans. Another Phalanx charged also.
Philip joined a phalanx on his extreme right, thus making his range of
command less affective.
The Romans lost the combat against the phalanx but did not
break. They decided to FBIGO instead. The phalanx followed and got in
combat with another Roman unit. |
The Romans got their second elephant in
range and charged the Galatian cavalry that quickly routed. After that
the phalanx also lost the combat and fled. |
The engaged phalanx got a flank attack
from a Roman cavalry unit but stood their ground.
The Thessalians did the same. They got caught in the flank by the Roman
unit with the unnamed tribune and lost badly. Fled and were destroyed. |
The Phalanx advances...
Luckily all Macedonian units
rallied. But they were in a unfavourable position, surrounded by
elephants and Romans.
The Romans attacked another phalanx unit. |
The cavalry that charged the Macedonian
phalanx was on his turn charged by a phalanx. They were cut down to the
last man.This was to much for the Romans. They fled.
Another Phalanx also charged the Romans. But this Roman Triarii unit was
stubborn and stayed. |
(Move over the picture to see unit legend)
Two Roman Elephants joined
forces an attacked a phalanx frontally. They should not have done this.
They lost the combat and stampeded! |
The Romans were loosing badly on their
extreme left, but on the centre left they were not doing so badly.
Another unit of Romans charged here and got a phalanx in the flank.
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The phalanx in combat was
attacked in the flank, but they stayed. Due to the leadership of Nicanor
they passed every break test. |
On the Macedonian turn the last phalanx
not engaged (the Macedonian guard unit) attacked the Roman flanking unit
in its flank. The Romans
stood firm. A fierce battle was evolving here. |
(Move over the picture to see unit legend)
The stampeding elephants ran
into the Aetolian cavalry and a skirmish unit, that fled. things were
looking up for the Macedonians on this side.
Two phalanx were again ready to counter, and they were now joined by the
Macedonian cavalry.
The one phalanx unit in combat passed their breaktest again and again. |
The last Roman cavalry unit attacked the
Macedonians in the flank.
And, again the unit with the unnamed tribune, got in the flank of a Macedonian unit. All
Macedonians stayed put.
But the combat itself turned out to be too much for one Macedonian
phalanx. They
fled. |
Unfortunatly the Macedonians were faced with the two Aetolian phalanxes.
And on their flank two Roman
units were approaching.
We could imagine that this flank was going to loose in the end. |
The Macedonian guard was now surrounded
by 5 Roman units.
On the other side of this flank the phalanx was winning convincingly.
But they would be too late to prevent the collapse of the Macedonian
guard. |
Roman Principes get into the flank of a Veteran Phalanx
The Result
The battle ended after 6 hours of playing in a defeat for the Macedonians. Strangely
this went almost exactly as it historically did.
The Macedonian backward
flank did not manage to develop into a solid front. This gave the agile Roman
maniples the opportunity to wreck havoc.
The Macedonian advanced flank pushed the Romans right of the
hill. And back to Italy, had the help from the Roman right, attacking the flank
of the phalanx not resulted into the defeat of the Macedonian forward flank. In
the end only the Macedonian extreme right were victorious.
The Aftermath
The
most important unit on the Roman side was the unit with the unnamed tribune.
They were responsible for smashing the Thessalian Wedge, and giving the death
blow to the Macedonian guard.
For the
Macedonians the dice were probably the best part. Throwing snake eyes (2) for
break tests four or five times is really something nobody can reckon with.
But it surely
wasn't an easy win for the Romans. The tides turned several times during the
battle. We think that it is a scenario worth playing.
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