GBoH – Alexander – Crocus Fields (353 BC)

Another mid-week wargames meeting with Jakub brought to the table Great Battles of History (GBoH) – we planned to play Alexander version, continuing after Erigon Valley 358 BC.  I have to honestly confirm that I am becoming a big fan of the system – while by many treated as overly-complicated, I tend to see this more like a really decent simulation of battlefield, allowing for a lot of tactical and operational maneuvers.

The Scenario

So the plan was to go in chronological order through the Scenario Book – and the time come for Crocus Fields where the might of Macedon under Philip II was started to be built. The usage of combined arms – heavy cavalry, phalanx with sarissa plus normal heavy infantry with all those units screened by light formations were perfected by Philip. Our game show that really to great extent…

The initial set-up of the game:

Couple of more words about scenario – the battle was fought during one of many Sacred Greek Wars, in which Phillip decided to intervene to get the influence in the region. The opponents – Phocians – counted on Athens and reinforcements from them but to no avail. They had to face Macedonians alone and historically, were utterly slaughtered…

The Game

TURN 1

We start slowly; Phocians (Kuba) advances his wings plus slightly moves the center. I am concentrating mainly on right wing preparing cavalry charge. I have there companion cavalry and other elite units which will be a deadly opponent for Phocians.

TURN 2

There is no time to lose – first, Phocians execute very deadly range fire on my center, inflicting many cohesion hits. However, the real drama starts on Macedonian right. The Cavalry attacks with full speed, routing 5 Phocian units. What is worse, the left Phocian wing is exposed, including their hoplites…

TURN 3

This was last turn – the whole left Phocian wing had fallen between anvil (Phalanx + Hypapists) and hammer (Heavy Companion Cavalry). The losses are so great that army collapse ensues. Phocian army is disintegrated.

Final losses:

And Athenians just watch and can do nothing 🙂

Summary

It was only 2nd play of GBOH by me and Jakub – we really like the system. Some errors are of course unavoidable but still they do not stir our joy and fun from the game. That scenario was decisively one-sided but we hope for others, more balanced.