Alexander in Italy

‘Now Alex, I have got you a nice, shiny, new army to play with.’

‘Thank you, mummy.’

‘But you must understand, dear, that I’m not made of armies, and if you break this one, I won’t give you another one. You’ve had two already, so you need to be really careful with this one.’

‘Yes, mummy.’

‘Now, I understand the local Greeks are not happy about us being here, especially with an army, so they are gathering to fight us. So you must lead the army bravely into action, but not damage it at all.’

‘No, mummy.’

‘Hm, well, I’m not sure about this at all. I suppose I had better come with you and make sure you do it properly this time.’

‘Yes, mummy. Thank you, mummy.’

*

I seem to have been revisiting some of my more narrative campaigns recently. This indicates either desperation orthe rekindling of my imagination after writing a book. I am not sure which. But the dialogue above indicates the rebirth of the Anabasis of Alexander IV. You can catch up with the detail from the link to the right, but briefly Alexander II of Macedonia’s son, Alex IV, is furthering his father’s plans for the conquest of the Western Mediterranean. Having managed to land at Carthage he defeated a Carthaginian army, and moved on to the Moors, but lost. He then retreated to Ibiza where a relief expedition was defeated by the local Spanish cities. The only option then was a retreat to Italy where he was reunited with his mother, Roxane, after another bit of a sea battle. Now, the locals have banded together to resist the unwelcome intruders, and so we have the next battle in the tale, Macedonians against Italian Greeks.

The photograph shows the battlefield. The Greeks are at the far end, with their hoplites drawn up on a low ridge. I thought that would give them a good defensive bonus against the pikes. Between the ridge and the sea, their light forces are deployed, except a base of peltasts on their left. In reserve are another 4 bases of hoplites and the cavalry.

In the foreground the Macedonians are in two columns, on, on the left, led by Alex IV, while the right hand one is led by his mother. They have to cross the river by the ford, so the plan is that Alex with cross first with the cavalry, while Roxanne follows with the light troops and then the phalanx. While Alex secures the crossing and makes room, Roxanne will order the phalanx. Then, when everything is ready, Alex will take the Companion cavalry to the left, sweep around the flank between the wood and the sea, and triumphantly win the battle, while Roxanne has tied up the rest of the Greeks with the pike phalanx.

There was the awful possibility of the Macedonians getting pinned against the river and destroyed, but I decided that it was better, for the Greeks, to hold their defensive position. Some frantic calculation and consultation of the rules suggested that two deep and uphill, and in a broader formation than the pikes, the hoplites should be able to hold. Meanwhile, the light troops can dispute and disrupt the advancing Macedonians.

The picture above shows the Macedonian plan unfolding. Alex has crossed the river and deployed the light cavalry and some supporting light infantry from Roxanne’s column to cover the Companions and phalanx deploying once they have crossed the river. Roxanne has started to deploy her own troops and has taken control of Alexander’s pikemen as well, the last of the army to ford the river. The skirmishing has damaged some of the light cavalry on each side, but the Macedonian slingers have just started to hit the Tarantine light horse quite hard in the foreground. On the right of the picture, just in front of the phalanx, the Macedonian peltasts have been redirected to the right wing by Roxanne, which will become a little bit more significant than it appears at the moment.

What happened next is reasonably hard to describe, even with pictures. Alex led the Companions forward, aiming to outflank the Greeks. He personally led a base in a charge against the interfering light horse and routed them. I thought he had lost it at that point, but he managed to rally the Companions quickly. Meanwhile, the watchful Greek commander had moved their cavalry into the gap between the end of the phalanx (now reinforced by the reserve hoplites) and the wood and, when opportunity offered, charged the Companions. This was not good, in my view, as Alex had squandered his cavalry advantage and had to fight 2 bases against 2, rather than 4-2 which had been the plan. Still, after the initial shock, the Companions actually prevailed, routing their foes. On the other wing, Roxanne’s peltasts stormed the hill at its steepest part and routed, with the help of a base of light horse, the Greek wing protection. The Greeks had redirected their other base of peltasts to reinforce their left, but they were only halfway there when their compatriots routed.

And then the pike phalanx arrived. Roxanne had kept Alex’s pikemen in a four-deep formation and they ploughed into the Greek hoplites on the ridge. The shock was massive and the dice rolling impressive, and they routed their opponents, including one of the Greek generals. On the Macedonian right edge of the phalanx, a two-deep block of pike hit the end of the hoplites on the hill and, again with impressive dice rolling, routed them.

With both flanks gone and the phalanx penetrated, the Greeks had had enough and decided to withdraw. The picture shows the final position. On the far right the Companions are actually behind the line of the phalanx, although they have, as yet, refused to charge its flank. You can see the hole ripped in the hoplites a bit further left, and at the far left you can see the vaporisation of the Greek right.

I enjoyed that – it was interesting having to deploy the pikes into a phalanx after crossing the river, and actually the timings did not really work as the different components did not hit the Greek lines at the same time. The decent dice rolling and Roxanne’s generalship meant that it did not matter too much. Similarly, Alex got lucky with the Companions on the Macedonian left – they managed to withstand the Greek cavalry charge and then defeat them, so Alex achieved his part of the plan although without the broad flanking maneuver. Overall, as well, the Macedonians did not lose a base in the process. They were, as the scribes recorded, a bit lucky.

*

‘We won, mummy.’

‘You did very well, Alex, dear. Just don’t run off like that again.’

‘But we did win, mummy.’

‘Yes, we did.’

‘And look at this town mummy! Its got an agora, a gymnasium, and baths and everything. It’s civilized! I shall call it Alexville.’

‘Yes, dear. Now go and have a bath. The day’s exertions have made you a bit… rich. Run along, dear.’