“Having Another Go At Hydaspes”

[Chris]

The following account is a narrative of a modified replay of Hydaspes using ADLG (L'Art de la Guerre). This exercise was adapted from the excellent Battle Day Report written by Mr. Dan Hazelwood. (See the September 2015 issue of Slingshot, pages 25-26.)

Thinking it somewhat unusual that Alexander would not be riding with his Companions, I transferred him from leading a corps of infantry to leading a cavalry command. In addition, I deployed Alexander on the right of his army. The centre and left consisted of pike formations, reinforced by Thracians and light troops.

For the Indian commander on the scene, King Porus, I placed his command in the centre of the line, the chariots to his left (thus facing Alexander and the Companions), and a strong mixed unit command (including a stampeding herd) on the right.

For terrain, I placed some marshy ground to the left of the Indian chariots. There was a small wood behind the centre of the Macedonian line. There was a largish patch of brush or scrub behind the right wing of the Indian army. Otherwise, the field was open.

Summary -
On Alexander's right flank, his light cavalry took on the Indian medium horse and won the melee. The Companions faced a harder task going against the Indian heavy chariots. Alexander was in the thick of it, as usual, but his Companions were taking heavy losses. A flanking attack by the light horse was no more effective than a buzzing fly. Indeed, one unit of heavy chariots was able to swat away the javelin-armed light horse. This result convinced the Scythians to run away to fight another day. The fall of the dice did not favour Alexander. He got himself run over by a heavy chariot with the rout of a second unit of Companions (out of a total strength of three units).

In the centre and on the left wing, the Indians chose to stand their ground and launch flights of arrows as the pikemen and Thracian medium swordsmen advanced. Hits landed on a skirmisher unit or two as well as on the Thracians and phalanx. When the Macedonians came closer, the one Indian command goaded its collection of cattle to stampede in the direction of one pike unit. Horns and hooves caused some disorder, as might be imagined. Arrow volleys continued to tell, as the Thracians made contact with points of the Indian battle line, but did little damage overall. Eventually, the phalanx reached the enemy line. The pikemen pushed through their screen and forced the Indian light troops to evade. Elephants, guardsmen with 2HW, and mixed units of swordsmen and bowmen met with multiple units of pike. The close combats swayed back and forth. Generally speaking, the Indians had the better of it. A tally of routed and disordered units showed the the Macedonians were well and truly broken. The Indians had lost their cavalry and a unit of mixed swordsmen and bowmen. Several other formations had suffered casualties, but compared to Alexander's army, the Indian army had only suffered a scratch.

Thoughts -
It appears quite evident that engaging the heavy chariots with the Companions was a grievous as well as costly tactical error. Advancing against a rain of arrows proved costly as well, but without any counter to the archer-heavy formations of the Indians, there was not much for Alexander's subordinates to do.

This wargame did not take very long to play. The scale of the units (counters) was 60 mm across the front, so there was some "heft" to the formations, even though they were made from coloured cardstock. (I will try to include a couple of photos, but based on past experience, I am not confident that any will be accepted.  )




Questions/Thoughts that arose during play:
1. It seemed odd that non-phasing player impetuous units could not pursue after winning a melee. An impetuous unit is an impetuous unit is an impetuous unit. They should be required to pursue regardless of what side is active.

2. The game move sequence is move, missile, melee, morale. During one turn, I advanced a unit of Thracians 3 uds (18 cm) into contact with a mixed unit of Indian infantry. Given that missile resolution comes after movement, the Indians were not able to launch a volley or volleys at the Thracians as they were now in melee. I wonder if I might experiment with a "defensive fire" amendment or simply adjust the move sequence so that it resembles that used in Armati? Seems to me that some arrows would have been let go as the Thracians trotted those 18 cm of table top.

3. Thought it somewhat strange that the stampeding herd would have disordered the pike phalanx in the way it did. I guess I am thinking that bovines might be like equines in the way that they do not like to run into barriers. Would have thought that a serried rank of pike points would have convinced the cattle to turn to the left or right. Then again, I do see that once the cows are moving, it might be difficult for the leading animals to change direction and or stop of a sudden.

[Erpingham]

The game move sequence is move, missile, melee, morale. During one turn, I advanced a unit of Thracians 3 uds (18 cm) into contact with a mixed unit of Indian infantry. Given that missile resolution comes after movement, the Indians were not able to launch a volley or volleys at the Thracians as they were now in melee. I wonder if I might experiment with a "defensive fire" amendment or simply adjust the move sequence so that it resembles that used in Armati? Seems to me that some arrows would have been let go as the Thracians trotted those 18 cm of table top.

This is a problem of strict sequencing.  If you have shooting before movement (which Dux Bellorum has) you can have units outside shooting distance in the shooting phase who then charge to contact in the move phase, so just changing the order doesn't solve the issue. You need some kind of sequence breaker, like your "defensive fire".  Another "Old School" solution (used particularly in WWII games) was to allow a "challenge" by the shooter against the mover.  This was especially to stop units moving across the line of fire of weapons during movement (e.g. from cover to cover) without risk.

[Chris]

Quite so. Hail Caesar has a mechanism for this. I don't have the rule book in front of me, but I think it is referred to as "closing fire". The unit launching missiles is penalized (slightly), as the target is moving and there is, evidently, the "worry" on the part of the ones with the missiles about the impending melee.

In the specific instance mentioned or referenced, the Thracians were able to cut through the defenders. In the conforming melee with the neighbouring elephants, the Thracians were punished. Anyway. Something to think about with future ADLG games or scenarios.

Cheers,
Chris