Alexander's at it again.

Like the young Phil, I had better things to do than cosy up to the Mrs. on Valentines Day, though I at least was not surrounded by wall to wall specs. You have to go look if you don't know what I'm blathering about. Matt and I were at it again, Macedonian V Persian was the choice for the evening. Actually choosing what to play was not easy as I also would have liked to play another game of Naps using Volley and Bayonet rules and I also want to try Check Your Six at some point. Field of Glory was the right choice though as neither of us have played it for a while and as Matt has only played three games before it needs to be kept a bit fresh. Indeed I think both of us would benefit from a couple of games in fairly quick succession to get the detail held in place. I went for something a little different for both sides with my Persians using a foot heavy force and the Macedonian swapping out the bow armed light horse for bow armed cavalry.

View of my right hand deployment.

View of my left hand deployment.

At 800 points it was a little on the small side as you can see, the brown strip is a gully in front of one of my hills, the green cloth is brush and all hills are gentle except the middle one which was steep (I forget this early on!) All my cavalry are on my left facing off against Matt's. I also have a first in that I am using a couple of scythed chariots deployed near the gully.

Right flank manoeuvres.

Matt was double moving for all he was worth with the pike whilst I was trying to be clever with my cavalry. The idea was to get a regiment beside the gully to be in position to get Matt's cavalry in the flank, shame I really needed another turn, a case of undrilled unfulfilled. Meanwhile my chariots came out and faced off against Matt's bow cavalry who failed to charge home. I charged back and in the impact I won the melee in potential casualties but both of us lost a stand via the dice and as such the surviving chariot was removed. Not the start I had hoped for from these.

Stupid stupid stupid!

Me that is, prior to the chariots failed attack I was reminded by Matt that my hill was steep. Oh great, I had forgotten about that and now I had a lot of hoplites stuck. One turn to turn around and another to get off the hill. I then turned it into a giant column and started to march around the cursed hill. The only plus was that Matt had not covered his pike with his skirmish troops so I was able to slow down the poke by moving within 6 inches of them. I then spent the rest of the game alternatively throwing javelins with no effect and evading charges from the pike.

Neat if strange formations.

Matt took up position in the brush hoping this would keep his lights safe, shame then that Medium Infantry can move into the brush. I would have been better though, leaving the hoplite block behind and moving the MI faster so I would have plenty of time to deal with these guys.

Going my way?

The clash between the Lance armed bad guys and my light spear armed Persians seemed to be going the way it should. I lost a base to Matt's charge and failed test after test till they routed. But the newly painted guys actually won the Agima (Matt's best cavalry) forcing a base loss. Unfortunately they failed the cohesion test for friends routing. The Agima took all the tests in their stride and step by step turned my win into another rout.

Come on if you think your hard enough!

At least I managed to turn round in time for a showdown with Matt's third Lance armed Companions. Matt charged uphill and was met with a resolute block which forced a base loss and more importantly a drop in cohesion. I was struggling though to finish him off and if the game went another full turn I would have had to face a second fairly fresh unit joining the melee.

Those pike won't give up.

I was still slowing Matt's pike down but I could not stop them. Just to take a base off them I needed to throw three hits on three dice and Matt would have to then roll a one to take the loss. Matt never needed to pick up the die. I now needed a quick success on my far left.

We have contact.

I fully expected Matt to evade but his infantry stood firm and tried to stand up to me MI, this they did in the fact they did not rout and in fact in the melee round actually took a base off me but I was winning via failed cohesion tests and this looked to have just the one possible result.

Bow Cavalry does it again.

On the other flank Matt had found his cavalry after smashing the chariots was left vulnerable  Well he should not have worried as his shooting cost me a base and yes again I failed another cohesion test. In fact I failed all but the one test all evening, at least they were fresh before the loss.

Going, gone.

The second cavalry regiment went on my right, though it was a surprise it took so long given it was the Agema they were facing. One attack Matt rolled three 1's being Elite they get to re-roll (superior would have re-rolled these anyway) but then goes on to roll three hits! My poor boys.

I did get the two light regiments on the cusp of routing and if we had played another turn I may well have got one or both on the run but we called it prior to doing my half turn. It was a lot of fun and I know we did a few things wrong which will be caught next time. Matt got a well deserved victory, I want to try the mass infantry tactic again but with more points than before and a better grasp of the terrain!

Matt showed me his Parthian army that has now been rebased for F0G, funny I remember it being a lot bigger. So maybe not that long before I get to tackle these guys. Well that's a guaranteed couple of sleepless nights.