Selucus vs Indians 280BC

It was a two game Thursday yesterday,Brian and I played in the morning,and Dave,Paul Brian and I played the same game at night-oh joy of being retired(I am you know!)
In the morning Brian and I took the opportunity of trying a slight rule ammendment,which,as it turned out, was good.
The change involved NOT implementing our normal "push back" move for losing a melee,instead we stood and let the melee run it's course and let our morale rules dictate what happened to the losing unit-not exactly radical but it worked.The reason we decided to implement this change was to eliminate the spectacle of our Ancient armies ending the game with units scattered all over the table,this doesn't look right,especially Roman cohorts!! I have always maintained that in Ancient battles your line must be intact or you lose the game!!

Having successfully tried the new rule,we rolled it out on the unsuspecting duo of Dave and Paul!!
They struggled at first,(old habits etc.),but eventually saw the error of their ways(nothing like a routing unit to do that!!) and we had a good and exciting game-The highlight of the game was the very last dice throw,from Brian(who else!!)-see last photo on blog.

Look at those beautiful lines.Paul and Dave's plan was to hold back with their cavalry on their right flank,and attack our centre with a combination of elephants and phalanx,once the hypaspists had done their bit-our plan was remarkably similar!!

The cavalry are "squaring up" to each other but neither of us wanting to instigate a melee- apart from Dave breaking his line and sending an elephant against my poor cavalry!!

The phalanxes have been ordered forward against the Indian line,however not as a line(old habits etc.) with mixed fortunes! The village is being attacked from land and sea,but Brian put up a staunch defence with a unit of archers,and beat off the attackers.

On the flank,the cavalry have at last clashed,Dave had used his horse archers well and weakened my cavalry before the melee took place,and this told in the ensuing fight!!-in other words,I lost!!

Our cavalry is being hounded,our centre is being smashed,and we are in danger of being outflanked-I suppose a draw is out of the question??
The lines(apart from the units fleeing) are pretty well intact,so I suppose the new rule(still under debate) has worked-we believe in changing and testing as much as possible-all to the good and enjoyment of the game,so we'll give it another try in another game soon.
Now that last dice throw........Brian threw the dice,it bounced off a tree,rolled down a hill,hit a wall,bounced over the wall and landed in the doorway of a house in the village-only Brian could have done that!!!!

And it was a five!!!
Roll on Sunday,probably horse and musket,we should have full turn out,if Graham is fit.