I have not played an opposed wargame since lockdown in late March this year. Restrictions are slowly lifting, so Ian kindly invited me around to his house to play a game of Sword and Spear (S&S). We used his figures and army lists. I choose to be Later Greeks with lots of hoplites, generally poor quality, and a reasonable numbers of cavalry and light troops. Ian played the Persians who had more cavalry and, crucially, a strike force comprising scythed chariots and an elephant.
When playing hoplites I am naturally concerned about my flanks, particularly when my hoplites are poor, meaning forward movement is OK but any fancy manoeuvres are nigh on impossible! I was therefore surprised when Ian deployed a river which narrowed the battlefield and gave me one secure flank to deploy against. I was able to deploy a strong hoplite line with my cavalry protecting my potentially exposed flank.
The battle opened with the light troops and flanking cavalry. I have never found shooting to be very effective using S&S, but Ian’s dice rolling showed me the error of my ways! Although I had lost most of my light troops, I had blunted Ian’s flank move and the hoplite line remained firm. Next, Ian’s shock troops piled in and I must admit to some trepidation at this point. The ‘Dice Gods’ turned against Ian, and the Persian scythed chariots bounced and the elephants failed to squash my peltasts. I think both Ian and I thought the game was up for the Persians, but never trust the dice! My peltasts eventually died but I was not concerned because my sole elite hoplite unit was covering the situation as planned. Unfortunately the demise of the peltasts did place a shock on the end unit of poor quality hoplites who were promptly charged by Ian’s elite cavalry (no worries). The combat result was bad and I had 3 discipline tests to take (again, no worries), and I roll three ‘1’s! Result a dead hoplite unit, a dead general and suddenly my front was opened up. My army just fell apart and defeat rapidly ensued.
An enjoyable game that swung one way then another. I think my mistake was to sacrifice my skirmish troops too early and with no specific objective in mind. This leaves you with a deficit which means it only takes a few lost units of formed troops before you are staring defeat in the face. Anyway, it was great to roll some dice again and I must thank Ian for arranging the game and taking the photos. More photos were taken but I'm having great troubles Blogger at the moment and adding photos is proving impossible. I look forward to hosting a return fixture.
