Persian Brother against Persian Brother: Cunaxa, Sept. 3, 401BC

[MengJiao]

A lot is known about this battle, and I blame Xenophon because he was there.  This is the battle that left the 10,000 stranded after their Anabasis (they have to do a katabasis to get back down to the sea, the Sea!

Anyway, there's the 10,000 over on the rebel right (7 brown phalanxes with professional red triangles).  Facing them and Cyrus the rebel leader, is the army of Artaxerxes II the Great King of Persia.  The scenario notes say the rebels have essentially no chance at all and you can sure see why; the right of Artaxerxes's army extends out of the image below and into the mists of time-time-time.  Cyrus' only plan (and a very bad one, but still the best possible under the circumstances) was to use his small band of rag-tag heavy cavalry to kill the Great King, his brother.

So things look bad for the rebellion:

[MengJiao]

So things look bad for the rebellion:

But, the rebels get off to a good start and even make a successful momentum roll!  Here they go!  Yipee!

[MengJiao]

But, the rebels get off to a good start and even make a successful momentum roll!  Here they go!  Yipee!

   Almost the end of turn 2.  The hoplites have paused to reform after being knocked about by a chariot attack.  In the center, the rebels have gotten the best of the skirmishing so far, I think mostly because the loyal Persians have been more concerned about pulling the Great King back out of archery and random chariot range.  Also the rebels did manage momentum roll on the first turn due to Cyrus' being better placed to command things than the Great King is initially.

[MengJiao]

But, the rebels get off to a good start and even make a successful momentum roll!  Here they go!  Yipee!

   Almost the end of turn 2.  The hoplites have paused to reform after being knocked about by a chariot attack.  In the center, the rebels have gotten the best of the skirmishing so far, I think mostly because the loyal Persians have been more concerned about pulling the Great King back out of archery and random chariot range.  Also the rebels did manage momentum roll on the first turn due to Cyrus' being better placed to command things than the Great King is initially.

  At the end of turn 3, the rebels continue to do surprisingly well.  They are at 4 rout points and the Army of the Great King is at 36.  The leader of the Great King's heavy infantry was wounded, but I doubt things are going to keep going well for the rebels.  A lot of their formations are close to breaking and most of the Great King's infantry has yet to engage.

[Martok]

and most of the Great King's infantry has yet to engage.

I was wondering about that.  I noticed the troops forming Artaxerxes' right appeared to not even have been bloodied yet, so I figured he still has plenty more bodies he can throw at Cyrus. 

[MengJiao]

and most of the Great King's infantry has yet to engage.

I was wondering about that.  I noticed the troops forming Artaxerxes' right appeared to not even have been bloodied yet, so I figured he still has plenty more bodies he can throw at Cyrus.

  The initial set ups are pretty cranky.  I adjusted them some, but the armies of the time seem to have deployed with no reserves (and how would they control a reserve -- was it really that hard?  Medieval armies had them and understood them).  The Great King has had to work pretty hard to stay out of the way of enemy arrows and chariots, but the huge lines of Persian infantry are starting to get into the battle, plus (though results of that are not seen photographically yet) the Persian Heavy infantry just routed a big Greek Mercenary phalanx in the center -- so the Greek mercury hoplites are likely to be locked in battle with the heavy infantry while the Great King's medium infantry and Heavy Cavalry (under the Satrap Tissopherenes) rout the rebel center and kill Cyrus, which seems to be close to what actually happened.
Plus the chariots on the right will do some damage to the rebel light infantry.

[MengJiao]

But, the rebels get off to a good start and even make a successful momentum roll!  Here they go!  Yipee!

   Almost the end of turn 2.  The hoplites have paused to reform after being knocked about by a chariot attack.  In the center, the rebels have gotten the best of the skirmishing so far, I think mostly because the loyal Persians have been more concerned about pulling the Great King back out of archery and random chariot range.  Also the rebels did manage momentum roll on the first turn due to Cyrus' being better placed to command things than the Great King is initially.

  At the end of turn 3, the rebels continue to do surprisingly well.  They are at 4 rout points and the Army of the Great King is at 36.  The leader of the Great King's heavy infantry was wounded, but I doubt things are going to keep going well for the rebels.  A lot of their formations are close to breaking and most of the Great King's infantry has yet to engage.

  End of Turn 4,  the rebels are approaching their breaking point.  The Army of the Great King still has more routed formations, but the rebels are at this point about to cave in across the whole front.

[Martok]

What's going on in the middle there?  Looks like a pretty major scrum. 

[MengJiao]

What's going on in the middle there?  Looks like a pretty major scrum.

  That was mostly light troops, light cavalry and archers.  For some reason both commanders deployed (according to Xenophon maybe?) in the center behind archers and light cavalry.  Assuming that's true, maybe it had to do with how the armies deployed from the march.  Anyway, in reality, it gave Cyrus the illusion of his best shot at killing his brother the Great King.  In the actual battle, Cyrus was killed trying to pull that off in the center.  Yet, for various reasons having to do with command die rolls, the rebels did well in the center early on.

  But I'm packing up to go to the beach and tidying up the manloft so I'm not sure how this turned out.  I pretty sure all that medium infantry and those chariots and the unengaged Heavy Cavalry commanded by the somewhat wily satrap Tissaphranes would have finished routing the rebels in a few turns.