4th Century BC India battle

With no game this weekend due to the impending arrival of our second baby girl I have finally got around to putting up the pictures of last weekends game with my dad on to my blog. We ran a Hail Ceaser game using our Macedonian and Indian forces but this time I used my dads Indians for the first time. The game was a straight up battle at 800 points aside.

Indian skirmishes use there javelins to slow the macedonian advance 

Indian infantry ready there bows

The game saw both sides roll blunders in the early stages, half my Indian heavy chariots retired towards my table edge two moves taking a casualty each and my dad saw his Companion cavalry surge to tneir right out of control. Others than this the Macedonians made good progress across the field closing the gap to my Indian infantry lines. The early fighting exchanges were between our skirmish troops who had moved ahead of our main lines.

Indian archers let loose their arrows as the Phalanxs move into charge range

The Greek Hopilites ready themselves as the elephants approach screened by Javlinmen armed skirmishes

After a couple of turns taking fire from the Indian archers The Macedonian Phalanxs stormed into combat, only a couple of units were repulsed by closing fire. My dads Elite Hetairoi blundered on a follow me order and char he'd into a unit of bows on the hill, the following combat was loses and a double one morale throw saw them rout from the table. Unbelievabley the Hypastists also followed suit in rolling really badly in the combat phase and failing on their morale with a double one throw, both elite Macedonian units routed! Along the rest of the line the Indians just about held their ground along tne hill.

The doomed Hetairoi cavalry are beaten by the Indian infantry.

A clash of steel as both battle lines clash in combat

Greek Hopilites engage with the Indian elephants.

After my Indians had initially held the Macedonian pikes in the first rounds of combat my line started to be pushed back, my heavy guard unit failed with the dreaded Double one morale roll, a feat I manged to do on a futher FOUR occasions across my battle line which saw my central infantry division become broken. My infantry division on the right flank of my line managed to beat and destroy two Phalanx's units.

With my Chariots been completely out of the game due to the early blunder it was my elephants on the right Flank that managed to make head way against the Greek Hopilites although close to breaking the Greeks with their Phalanx rule held firm for the remainder of the game.

My Indian line in the centre breaks although it is worth high lighting the Indian bows who were flanked by the Rhomphaia armed Peltasts managed to roll 5 saves of 6 on six dice!

In the last stages of the game I finally managed to get my chariots into a range to charge although they came up short as didn't get the required command roll, taking advantage of this the Macedonian cavalry smashed into my chariots flanks managing to destroying one of them but as a result of becoming disordered in their sweeping advance they were unable to break the remaining chariots.

With this the game was at an end, although the game ended in a draw my Dad was definitely getting the upper hand. The early blunder to my chariot division really hampered my attack as I had great plans for these to smash the Macedonian cavalry and turn onto the Phalanxs flanks. My dad had managed to keep his battle line moving at a pretty good pace so managed to close with my infantry quick enough not to be to disrupted by my massed ranks of Indian bows. Although my Indians fought well the Macedonian infantry is a real tough nut to crack with the Phalanxs special rule meaning even if you win you need to do so by a margin of three or the combat is a draw. Once these troops get amongst your infantry your going to be in trouble, unless of course they are the Hypastists who for some reason despite been elite and stubborn seem to roll a double one and rout when it comes to morale in every game they have played! It was a nice change using the Indians but next time we play hail ceaser I think my dad is going to pit his Chinese against me to see how Alexander's troops fair against them, maybe il leave my elite troops behind for that one 😄