So...Pyrrhus' hopes come true and he attacks Antigonas and his Spartans in the open. Antigonas digs in on a low ridge with olive groves on it. By half an hour into the battle, the Spartan artillery has pulled back as the elephants hit the olives and phalanxes. Things have gone very badly for Pyrrhus so far: one commander and 5 elephants have been killed by Eucidas and his Spartans:
Quote from: MengJiao on December 01, 2020, 06:19:53 PM
So...Pyrrhus' hopes come true and he attacks Antigonas and his Spartans in the open. Antigonas digs in on a low ridge with olive groves on it. By half an hour into the battle, the Spartan artillery has pulled back as the elephants hit the olives and phalanxes. Things have gone very badly for Pyrrhus so far: one commander and 5 elephants have been killed by Eucidas and his Spartans:
About 45 minutes into the battle, things are getting pretty brutal. The leader of the Gauls was killed, but Pyrrhus' loses are much greater. Still he is attacking and still has more and better phalanx infantry so he still has a chance to crush Antigonas and get an ahistorical win:
Good stuff from the board game section. I like reading about them. I have too many board games that I never play
Quote from: demjansk1942 on December 03, 2020, 07:25:45 PM
Good stuff from the board game section. I like reading about them. I have too many board games that I never play
Thanks!!!
Quote from: MengJiao on December 03, 2020, 05:47:32 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on December 01, 2020, 06:19:53 PM
So...Pyrrhus' hopes come true and he attacks Antigonas and his Spartans in the open. Antigonas digs in on a low ridge with olive groves on it. By half an hour into the battle, the Spartan artillery has pulled back as the elephants hit the olives and phalanxes. Things have gone very badly for Pyrrhus so far: one commander and 5 elephants have been killed by Eucidas and his Spartans:
About 45 minutes into the battle, things are getting pretty brutal. The leader of the Gauls was killed, but Pyrrhus' loses are much greater. Still he is attacking and still has more and better phalanx infantry so he still has a chance to crush Antigonas and get an ahistorical win:
This did not work out as expected. About an hour into the battle and most of Pyrrhus' troops have routed. The catapults, Cretan archers, Gauls and Argolid Hoplites seem to have done as well as the Spartans in smashing the Macedonian attack. I think the accumulation of disruptive hits and the terrain plus the fact that barbarian medium infantry may not look like much, but they still have combined more cohesion than you would think. Plus they can be rallied and reorganized more easily than phalanxes stuck on slopes in olive groves and under assorted missile attacks.
Maybe I'll give Pyrrhus another chance -- in Sicily! In 277 BC or something.