Valley of the Gods 335BC

Last night Paul and I had another great Ancients game,with Brian acting as Umpire!

Scenario and table before any movement-Paul was in command of the Greeks and I was Alexander.
We wrote our battle plans out,and we almost "mirror-imaged" each other's plan-My plan was to hold on my right until the left and centre had advanced and beaten the opposition-Paul's plan was to hold on his left until his right and centre had advanced and beaten the opposition!!

The cavalry clash!! Initially I had the best of the melees,but then Paul threw in his reserve cavalry and forced me back,however It wasn't until move number 7 that I was truly beaten-this was long enough for my Hypaspists and central phalanx to advance and give the Greeks hell!!

In a bout of "never seen before dice throwing!!" I won every first round melee-even against the dreaded Spartans-hurrah!!!(however the hurrahs were not to last very long,as the Spartans got their act together and proceeded to tear the phalanx to pieces!!!

This photo shows the initial clash of Hypaspists and phalanx against Greek hoplites-note Paul's "Spartan" t-shirt,and Brian's supressed laughter!-this was spectacular stuff!

Paul has won the cavalry battle on the flank,and is now reforming to threaten my rear,but I am steadily pushing the Athenians back,putting a bit of distance between me and the cavalry.

This is a good overview of the table,showing my central phalanx in all kinds of trouble-Alexander and his Royal body guard are "lurking" hoping for a Spartan unit to expose a flank-they will strike,and Alexander will ride to the temple and win the game-hurrah!!-not so fast!!
A Spartan unit did expose a flank,the Bodyguard did strike,but were held and then beaten!!-bloody Spartans!!!

My right flank phalanx is moving to the far right,hoping to take some pressure off my centre-this worked and Paul massed his Corinthians ready to melee as soon as I had crossed the stream.

And cross the stream they did!!-the power of the pike,once again, proved too much for the Hoplites,and I won all of the first round melees-by this time Alexander had extricated himself from the Bodyguard vs Spartans melee,and proceeded to the Minoan Temple-hurrah!! with no opposition left,Paul had no choice but to give in-another hurrah!!-however the Greeks had given the rest of the Macedonian army a right old "battering",so really a draw would be the proper result-well done to Paul and a big thanks to Brian.

Alexander about to enter the Minoan Temple,and game over-is that a Greek urn?what's a Greek urn?-about 5 Euros a day!!!-I got that one in before Brian does!!
Roll on Sunday,probably a 7YW battle.