Battle of Kalistra 320BC>

For a small club we certainly cover a multitude of periods,actually 32!!! but last night saw my favourite period being played,that of Ancients.We pitted Alexander the Great's Macedonians against the might of Persia and King Darius,and what a game it was.............................

Top photo shows the scenario(which wasn't read properly by some!!) and bottom photo shows the table before any moves-Paul and Graham in deep contemplation,and surveying their battle lines!
Paul and Brian were in charge of the Macedonians,whilst Graham and I were in charge of the Persians.

It was action all the way,with the Macedonian cavalry attempting to win both flanks-in a moment of madness(?) Brian changed his advantageous "wedge formation" into line,and met my cavalry head-on,and lost!!-hurrah!

With the cavalry fighting it out,the Phalanx moves forward-however,the Persians had a trick up their sleeve-a line of low quality Axemen,whose only job was to absorb the archery from the Macedonians,and,if possible,hit the phalanx and inflict a few casualties-this worked to a degree,although the Axemen were wiped out in the process!!!

Graham,with all the best troops,ie Immortals and Cataphracts,had mis-understood the scenario,and was attempting to move these troops to attack the Macedonian left flank,when Paul's out-flanking troops appeared!!!-this caused a certain amount of panic,swearing and changing of plans!!!

As my "fuzzy" cavalry give Alexander's Royal Squadron a right old bashing,Paul and Graham are locked in a fierce fight in the background-wonderful,entertaining stuff!!

As the cavalry battles rage on,the main infantry lines have clashed,the phalanxes,in our rules are given an advantage in the first round of melee,because of their long pikes(sarrisas) but our Axemen had just taken enough casualties off the Phalanxes to cause an upset later on in the game!!

It looked like Graham's "best" troops were gaining an advantage,but Paul kept piling more and more troops into the fray,and eventually drove him back-woe is us!!

The phalanxes are being fragmented! and to the left the Royal squadron(plus Alexander) is being chased off the board-is this a Persian victory??

Well, it would have been,if not for Paul's out-flanking troops!!-they are driving the Immortals and Cataphracts back,thus exposing the whole Persian line-oh well,there's always next time!!

One final shot of the table at the end of the game-the Persians look stronger,but that flank proved too much for the "best",so a draw was called for and given-well done lads,good game.
We finalised arrangements for our trip to Carronade(Falkirk) for next Friday,Saturday and Sunday(we make a good week-end out of it!) and of course a full report will follow.