After enjoying our last Alexandrian Lion Rampant game we thought we would try again.
The scenario this time was Hold On Tight. The Macedonains, having regrouped from their early defeat were looking for revenge. Invading Asia Minor again they met their despotic foes in a lightly wooded valley. Both armies would fight for a small rise in the centre of the field. History does not record why but local rumour has it that Dionysus had stood there to gaze on the setting sun.
The armies we used were little modified from last time. We toned down the Companions and used them as Mounted Serjeants. This was mostly to make them more manoeuvrable with a 5+ move activation. The Schiltron's hadn't worked too well as Phalanxes, so we allowed them to move in Schiltron at 4". Lastly the Saka were no longer Expert. and the Kardakes were raised up from Yeoman to Serjeants by virtue of a spare point.
Alexander's men moved quickly across the valley, beating the slow footed eaterners to the mound. It's the probably the effeminate trousers that slowed them down.
Persian arrows did darken the sky, as their general had boasted before the battle, but the fine Greek armour and shields saved many a mountain man's life.
The climax of the battle saw a Macedonian Phalanx on the hill attacked from three sides, until a last desperate cavalry charge was thrown back and the Persian's realised they were beaten. Basking in the glory of holding the hill few Macedonians afterwards recalled how they hadn't killed quite so many Persians as Alexander had boasted they would.
Surrounded by slain Median horsemen the Phalangites looked west into the setting sun as Dionysus had before them. Was this an omen from the gods that all the Persian Empire would fall?
