Wednesday 30 April 2014

Ionian War pt2

The Basic Impetus campaign in Anatolia continues and concludes.

The Spartans incursion into Lycia provokes a response from the aggrieved neutrals, while the Cadians return to defend their borders. Meanwhile the Ionians and Persians raid into each others lands to try and gain enough loot to bring in reinforcements after both taking heavy losses in last weeks battle.

From Furness Wargamers with Spears

Battle 2 - Lycians vs Spartans. @ B16


Battle starts off with the usual light unit action on the flanks. A unit of skirmishers covering the Spartan right died a hero's death as they took out a quality cavalry unit that attempted to charge them.

The Hoplites of Sparta marched onwards and hit the enemy line en masse. After initial success on the left of the line, the assault ground to a halt in the centre, and the battle bogged down for the next couple of turns into one of attrition.

The Lycian cavalry, the pride of their army, had attempted to go around the Spartan right but now found themselves out of place and unable to assist in the struggle at the centre.


The Spartan Phalanx finally started advancing again as their quality kicked in, causing enough casualties to flip the Lycians over their break point.

Sparta's total loss in the battle amounted to two skirmish units.


As the map moves continue the Spartans move out of Lycia and head further inland to loot the Persians. The Persians are too far away to do anything as they are looting the Ionians of Lydia. The Ionians, after looting a large part of Persia, head home to the sea to pick up some reinforcements before travelling down the coast into Caria where they march against the Carians.

Battle 3 - Carians vs Ionians   @ A12


The Ionian line advances across the field to attack the Cadians, who also advanced, sending their cavalry and skirmishers out on their left rather than remain in the cover of some rough terrain. Initially it had looked like the Carians were just going to hold the line between the patchs of rough.


Both units of Ionian Cavalry are routed, and it is down to a single infantry unit to defend the flank. On the other flank the roles are reversed as the Ionian light troops saw off the opposing Carians.


Carians win after the failure of the Ionian Hoplite line to disrupt the opposing infantry, the Ionian infantry not being of the same quality as their Spartan allies. Despite being badly mauled it is the Carians who hold on and drive the Ionians off their land.




The campaign ends at this point as Jim won't be around for the next club night.

Final tallies
Spartans: 25pts
Persians: 13pts
Ionians: 5pts
Carians: -13pts

Everyone agreed that the points system was unfair on the Carians, who could only really gain them in battle as they can never get enough points from looting to offset the penalty for being looted themselves. (They were the only ones who could suffer from it this badly). The Ionian points total is low as they spent a lot to regain their strength after the first battle, replacing a lost unit costing twice it's VBU in Victory Points. The Persians took the risk of not reinforcing and it earned them second place.

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