Alexander Battle Reports

49	Macedonians vs. Persians	Persians	Asia Minor	NavWar	see #49 below
50	Macedonians vs. Persians	Persians	Asia Minor	NavWar	see #50 below
51	Macedonians vs. Indians	Macedonians	India	WAB	see #51 below
52	Macedonians vs. Greeks	Greeks	Northern Greece	DBM	no
53	Macedonians vs. Spartans	Spartans	Pelopnese	WAB	no
54	Macedonians vs. Persians	Macedonians	Middle East	WAB	no
55	Macedonians vs. Persians	Macedonians	Middle East	WAB	no
56	Thebans vs. Spartans	Spartans	Central Greece	WAB	no
57	Persians vs. Macedonians	Macedonians	Persia	WAB	see #57 below
58	Macedonians vs. Greeks	Macedonians	Central Greece	WAB	no
59	Macedonians vs. Thracians	Thracians	Thrace (Northern Greece)	WAB	see #59 below
60	Macedonians vs. Greeks	Greeks	Central Greece	DBM	no
61	Greeks vs. Illyrians	Greeks	Northern Greece	DBM	no
62	Macedonians vs. Illyrians	Macedonians	Northern Greece	DBM	no
63	Macedonians vs. Persians	Macedonians	Asia Minor	WAB	see #63 below
64	Macedonians vs. Indians	Indians	India	WAB	see #64 below
65	Macedonians vs. Thebans	Macedonians	Central Greece	WAB	see #65 below
66	Macedonians vs. Thebans	Thebans	Central Greece	WAB	see #66 below
67	Macedonians vs. Greeks	Macedonians	Peloponese	DBA	no
68	Macedonians vs. Thracians	Macedonians	Thrace (northern Greece)	WAB	no
69	Macedonians vs. Persians	Macedonians	Middle East	WAB	see #69 below
70	Macedonians vs. Persians	Draw	Middle East	WAB	no
71	Macedonains vs. Persian	Macedonians	Asia Minor	WAB	see #71 below
72	Persians vs. Macedonians	Persians	Northern Greece	Piquet	see #72 below
73	Macedonians vs. Greeks	Greeks	Central Greece	DBM	no
74	Macedonians vs. Greeks	Greeks	Central Greece	DBM	no
75	Macedonians vs. Persians	Persians	Asia Minor	Nav War	no
76	Macedonians vs. Spartans	Spartans	Peloponese	WAB	no
77	Macedonians vs. Athenians and Phocians	Macedonians	Northern Greece	WAB	see #77 below
78	Macedonians vs. Phocians	Phocians	Northern Greece	WAB	see #78 below
79	Macedonians vs. Indians	Macedonians	India	DBM	no
80	Macedonians vs. Indians	Macedonians	India	DBM	no
81	Macedonians vs. Illyrians	Illyrians	Northern Greece	WAB	no
82	Macedonians vs. Persians	Persians	Asia Minor	WAB	no
83	Macedonians vs. Persians	Macedonians	Asia Minor	BFA	see #83 below

This battle was fought using a modified version of the navwar rules and we used the Xyston ships. The Persian ships advanced to near the island as the macedonians started to round the island. The wind fouled the macedonian ship while the persians were able to weather it. The persians then moved up on them and fired on the Macedonians. The Macedonian ships suffered some damage from the fire and the ship closest to the Persians was unable to turn himself to ram them and fired but the fire was desultory.

The Persians rammed the lead Macedonian ship in the side doing enough damage to sink it. The Macedonians did not have enough leadership left to mount a boarding action. This left the Macedonians down a ship to the Persians. The Macedonians formed into a line of battle. The Persians went beside them and fired at the ship on the right doing little damage.

The Macedonians tried to ram the Persians. Only one ship was able to ram the Persian ship and got into a boarding action which went in the favor of the Macedonians.

The Persians were able to ram three of the Macedonian vessels as they were out of line. Two of the Macedonians were damaged enough to sink while the three remaining Persian ships poured fire into the close combat resulting between the Macedonian ship ramming the Persian ship. Both many Persians and Macedonians were killed. The Macedonians withdrew to their ship in disorder and pulled away from the wreck.

The remaining Macedonian ships withdrew. The ship that had rammed the Persian ship tried to engage the Persians and fired at them, disordering one of them but was quickly overwhelmed by the three Persian ships. The last of the rammed Macedonian ships to be rammed took over the Persian ship that rammed it but then the Persians rammed that ship and sank it. The ship sank slowly but the Persians were able to disengage before the Macedonians were able to board them.

This battle was fought using a modified version of the navwar rules and we used the Xyston ships. The higher leadership of the Persian ships told in this battle. The Persians were fouled early in the game but got their line back in order. The Persians stood off shooting at the Macedonians until the Macedonians advanced getting the first ram in. The Persians then rammed much of the Macedonian line. The Macedonian ships that were not engaged then fled.

This battle was fought between 1500 pts of Indians and 1500 pts of Macedonians. The companions charged into some of the Indian archers after passing their terror test for being close to elephants. The archers were scattered and a unit of spearmen panicked and fled. The Macedonians ran down the archers. The elephants charged the pikemen, killing a few but they stayed. With the companions in their rear the Indians turned around to shoot at them leaving a unit of spearmen to ward of the Thessalians. The Thessalians charged the generals elephant that was fighting the pikemen and between the two managed to kill the general. This was disastrous and after panic tests were taken only three Indian units were not fleeing. We called the game at this point. The Macedonians lost 4 cavalry and 12 infantry.

This battle was fought between 2656 pts of Persians and 2830 pts of Macedonians.

The Macedonian line advanced across the table with a refused right flank. Alexander and the companions hung back screened by the Agrianians.

The Macedonian left engaged the Persians first. The initial charge was repulsed but then the Thessalians charged in and routed all opposition. The Hypaspists dueled with the toughest Takabara on earth for most of the game, the Takabara never fled, the Hypaspists fled twice.

The Agrianians managed to tie up a unit of Persian shock cavalry and some Scythian horse archers for about three turns, eventually destroying the shock cavalry.

The first Phalanx unit came into contact with the Persian infantry and routed them pursuing into the unit behind them. This fight became a grudge match. Another phalanx unit charged into them as well but the Persian infantry stubbornly hung on.

Eventually one of the phalanx units lost their nerves and fled the combat leaving their companions. This caused a general rout with two units of allied Greeks and the Hypaspists all fleeing.

The other phalanx unit ground it out with the Persians though and even though it lost phalanx status it eventually beat them and pursued but not far enough.

While all of this was going on the Agrianians were steadily chewing up Persian unit after Persian unit with the help of the Greeks. The Apple Bearer's fell, then the Indian archers. This was too much for the Thracians and the Scythians who fled, the Thracians never to return. Amid all this success the Greeks took it upon themselves to flee as mentioned above.

The Takabaras, surrounded by a unit of Greek horse and Greek skirmishers faced them down and while not winning at least stood their ground.

But the game was pretty much up for the Persians. The Scythians rallied only to be charged by a Greek hoplite unit routing them.

Finally it was down to three Persian units, two Kardakes, the Takabara and the King. The Phalangites punked out one of the kardakes, which was too much for the King and he fled off the table (rolling an 18! He was really motivated.)

But the remaining units hung on, determined to buy their liege some time to escape with their lives. The last unit fell when the companions, with Alexander at their head, charged them in the flank killing 8 of the 10 left. With no one left to fight back, and obviously not in a position to pass a break test they fled and were run down.

The Macedonians had lost a unit of Thessalians, two units of skirmishers and two phalanxes were no longer phalanxes due to attrition.

The Persian MVU goes to either the Takabara unit that held up most of the Macedonian left, or the kardakes who held off two units of Pezhetairoi taking them both to below 16 models and breaking one of them in combat. They had 11 attacks one time, hit with 9 of them and wounded with 7. The Macedonians failed 5 saves and even though they had a +3 rank bonus vs only a +1 at that point they were off and running. Fortunately for them there was another unit in the combat that didn't break.

The Macedonian MVU goes to the Agrianians, who kept fighting despite being charged by two units of cavalry twice. They finally accounted for 10 Persian heavy cavalry, 4 Indian arhcers, 5 kardakes and 15 slingers.

This battle ended up being something of a surprise. In a 1000 pt a side battle the Thracians had about 80 foot ( a Foundry horde deal actually) and 8 Getae cavalry. The warriors were broken up into two units of 30 lowland warriors and 1 unit of 20 highland warriors with Rhomphaia. A shaman was attached to the highlanders. The army was commanded by a warlord.

The Macedonians represented a "home guard." The Macedonians were led by a Strategos, Antipater, and had 32 Pezhetairoi with light armor, 10 mercenary skirmishers, 10 Light cavalry and 24 Greek Hoplites.

There was some difficult terrain on the table, as we wanted to see how the stealthy rules worked. They worked.

The Thracians formed up on the table with the cavalry on the right hand side and the two lowland warriors units next and the highlanders on the left. The macedonians set their cavalry up opposite the Thracian cavalry followed by the Greeks and then the Pezhetairoi. The skirmishers were placed in front of the Pezhetairoi and to their right flank. As the armies advanced the Thracian cavalry managed to beat back the Macedonian cavalry. The Macedonian phalanxes kept together and advanced steadily. They managed to make contact with one unit of lowland warriors driving them off. But then the highlanders emerged from the wood and, brushing the skirmishers aside, fell on the flank of the Pezhetairoi. With the Shaman and the warlord in the unit they were able to inflict a decisive beating to the Pezhetairoi. This cause them to run. The Thracians were not able to catch them.

The Greeks did not panic but were charged to the front by the remaining lowland warriors and the flank by the remaining cavlary. This was not enough. The Greeks were able to hold on and win the combat. The Cavalry broke and fled but the lowlanders hung on. On the Greek turn they were able to break the lowlanders but could not catch them (they rolled a 3.)

The highlanders then managed to charge the Greeks in the rear routing them and catching them in the pursuit.

At this point the only troops on the table and not fleeing were the Thracian highlanders and the Getae cavalry, who had rallied.

Its amazing what a strip of woods can do to your strategy when there are Thracians on the table.

The Macedonians cavalry arm consisted on 9 Companions led by Alexander behind a unit of 6 light cavalry. They charged across the battlefield into the center of the Persian line. Screened by the cavalry (who took 4 casualties and fled eventually) the companions charged into the middle Persian kardakes unit. With a stunning display of martial skill on one side and martial ineptitude on the other the companions manged to inflict 6 wounds on the kardakes and didn't take any in return. This was more than the Persian warriors could stomach and they broke and fled. The two units their to right and left panicked and fled also.

The companions ran the unit they faced down, in the Persian turn the other two units kept going, one making it off the table the other one ending very close to the table edge.

The Persian commander took stock of what was left to him. There was a unit of Heavy Cavalry that had failed to get to grips with Alexander because they were posted too far on the flank. They could likely charge the companions in the rear. The problem was the rest of the Macedonian line was only two turns from charging the rest of the army.

The cavalry did that and in a brief battle the companions lost the combat by 3. They failed their leadership test and fled. The Persians pursued but did not catch them. The companions rallied in their turn and turned to face the Persian cavalry. The Persians charged and this time the fight was fairly even, the Macedonians lost by only one and with a Ld of 10 they passed the test. Two unit of Pezhetairoi were able to charge the Persian cavalry and did so.

That was pretty much it. The Persian heavy cav broke and fled. The rest of the Persian army was obviously no match for the entire Macedonian army and schlepped their way back to Susa.

The Macedonian army had Taxiarch leading 5 Hyspaspists. They faced 10 mercenary with double handed weapons and light armour led by a Padika with light armour and a broadsword and shield.

The Hyspastipists were able to overcome a few of the guards but a lucky couple of movements and the guards had sounded the alarm.

It was a fun game though. We are going to try to do more of the scenarios out of that book.

This battle took place within the walls of Thebes. The Thebans were trying to escape past Alexander's closing forces. The Thebans main force flanked to the left initially and headed that way while a smaller detachment was sent forwards.

The detachment sent forwards ran into heavy missile fire from skirmishers. Despite have a pretty good save (4+) it seemed that every missile that hit killed someone. Still the two units struggled forward. The main force enjoyed more success until a unit of cavalry came around a building and managed to catch one of the main unit in the flank and destroyed it. A unit of peltasts with the strategos managed to drive off the cavalry in a couple of turns but by then the main force had been delayed enough for the Macedonians to catch up to them. A pitched battle was fought and while the Greeks came out ahead they did not have the strength required to meet the victory conditions (half of the units had to make it off the other side of the table.)

Within Thebes anarchy prevailed and the two forces moved through twisting streets of this ancient city to fight each other.

The two forces advanced steadily towards each other and some desultory skirmishing took place initially. When the phalanxes met the Macedonians managed to kill the Theban strategos but the Thebans hung on and after a little pushing forced all but three units of Macedonians from the table. A unit of peltasts and a taxiarch remained entrenched in a building.

The Thebans sent in the skirmishers and despite the enemy attacking first and the skirmishers needing a 6 to hit the skirmishers drove the enemy from the building (no wounds from the Macedonians, the skirmishers inflicted two, the Macedonians broke and fled.) They were then chased from the table by the two remaining Theban units.

3000 pts of Persians faced off against 3000 pts of Alexander and his Greek mercenaries. The Greeks and Macedonians advance and sent the skirmishers ahead to absorb some of the Persian missile fire. This plan back fired when the skirmishers were forced back onto the Macedonian ranks and rallied right in front of the line tying up the advance for a turn.

The Persians took this opportunity to surge forward and after a turn off advancing drove the skirmishers back through the Macedonian lines and then charged into the Macedonians.

In the meantime Alexander was getting kicked around with his companions on the other side of the table. After taking care of the Persian heavy cavalry he was harassed by skirmish cavalry and eventually charged some levy troops. He got hung up here for a couple of turns, just barely not killing enough to break them.

The Skythian cavalry on the right flank of the Persian army, along with the Lykians dealt with the Thessalian cavalry on Alexanders left flank.

The conflict in the middle of the table went both ways, with the Persians winning some of the combats and the Macedonians winning others. Some Greeks managed to break through the Persian by causing the Thracians opposite them to flee. Unfortunately for the Greeks the Thracians rallied in their turn and then when charged by the hoplites were able to hold their charge and break them in turn. The Thracians then ran the fleeing hoplites down. Continuing their pursuit the Thracians made it to the other side of the table and chased of a unit of skirmishers before being surround by skirmishers and having so many troops whittled away that they eventually panicked and fled.

But the stalemate in the center was broken at last when the Hypaspists intervened. Seeing that Alexander needed no more protection they snuck through the Persian lines and launching their javelins at the Great King himself, struck down the enemy general.

The Persian army was thrown into disarray. With the death of their general about half of the Persian units broke. Their Greek hoplite held fast as did two other Persian infantry units. But outnumbered now by their Macedonian enemies and quickly becoming surrounded they eventually broke and fled. The Greeks did manage to rally before the tables edge but their heroic last stand ended in a slaughter as they were charged in the flank and the front and destroyed.

That pretty much put the poke in the party pig as far as the Persians were concerned.

Persian army: 20 Kardakes with spears and shields, 20 Melophorai with spears and shields and light armor, 10 Kinsmen cavalry, 3 x 10 Takabara, Persian King on chariot.

Macedonian army: 2 x 20 Pezheteroi, Alexander and 9 companions, 12 Agrianians.

The Agrianians were driven off by the Kinsmen but rallied in their turn and Alexander charged the Kinsmen eventually killing them all. The Takabara were pushed back and back by the Pezheteroi until they fled behind the Persian foot.

With some rank bonus lost the Macedonians had a tough time dealing with the Persian foot until Alexander and companions charged the Melophorai in the side and they broke. This panicked the Kardakes and they ran away too.

At first it looked as if the Macedonians had it in the bag but then the Persians started moving like crazy and caught the Macedonians in the flank with some cavalry. This took care of some of the bigger units and the rest fell like cards.

This game used the scenario from the Alexander book. The forces used were 80 Greek hoplites divided into 4 units of 20 and 1 Athenian hoplite unit of 20 that would be naval support. The Greeks also had 30 skirmishers in three units of 10, a unit of Greek cavalry with 9 models in it and a general.

The Macedonian army had 4 units of pezheteroi of 20 each, a unit of companion cavalry led by philip, 10 skirmishers and 10 light cavalry.

The battle started with both armies moving towards each other. The Greek cavalry was quickly driven off but the skirmishers inflicted serious damage on the companions, destroying half of their number.

The skirmishers fell back before the phalanx and ran behind the Greek lines. The Athenians came on and moved towards the flank of the Macedonian phalanx. The Macedonian skirmishers then moved up and threw javelins at the Athenians and prevented them from marching. This gave Philip time to wheel his cavalry and interpose it between the Athenians and the phalanx. If the Athenians charged they would have to receive a charge by the companions in the next turn. The Greek forces wheeled to allow lanes for the skirmishers to move through and the Athenians charged the pezheteroi to the flank. But they were short by about half an inch. The Macedonian phalanx charged the Greek skirmishers who fled, the companions charged the Athenians in the flank but were repulsed.

The Athenians failed their leadership test and went tearing off after Philip and his men, rolling an abysmal 5 compared to the companion's 14.

None of the pezheteroi panicked and instead received the Greek charge in the next turn. One unit of Greeks lost the combat while the other units tied (actually it was more complicated than that as the Greeks overlapped three units to two Macedonians while the 4 Greek unit overlapped two Macedonian units. The Greeks who lost broke and were run down causing a panic in another unit which fled.

The Athenians had at this point turned around and were able to watch as the Macedonian phalanx turned and smashed into the Greek flank, destroying first one unit and then the other.

This game used the same forces as the last game except we took out one of the units of hoplites and replaced them with two catapults.

The catapults were deadly. On the first two turns they managed one direct hit on a phalanx and a glancing hit on another one, killing 7 pezheteroi. They would not be of much more use for most of the rest of the game only killing a couple of skirmishers who were fleeing and 2 more pezheteroi before combat was initiated. But the reduced rank bonus of the one phalanx was enough to put the ball into the Greeks court and they managed to break the weakened phalanx and run it down.

A stalemate had ensued along the rest of the line and the terrain prevented Philips cavalry from really having more effect than driving off the Greek cavalry. The Macedonian Cavalry moved to attack the Greek phalanx that burst through the line. The Greek unit about faced in it's turn and some skirmishers moved through the hole they had created and blocked the companion's path. Philip charged the skirmishers but destroyed them preventing him from getting a pursuit move (there were 6 skirmishers, the companions and Philip killed 8)

The Greeks then charged a pezheteroi unit in the rear on the next turn and it broke, which caused a panic in the unit further away from Philip.

This is when the catapults came back into use. Landing a stone right in the middle of the companions they destroyed three of the horsemen.

The Greeks failed to chase either unit down but with the Macedonian right flank destroyed it would be difficult for them to win. With only four models in the companion unit it was unlikely they would be able to break a hoplite phalanx, especially with Philips reduced attacks. So while the Greek Phalanxes were coming about Philip moved his cavalry to behind the Greek line.

He managed to charge one of the Greek phalanx in the rear while it was being pressed to the front, but even with an additional 6 attacks to their side the Macedonians only managed to beat the Greeks by 1. The Greeks passed their test and fought on. The next turn the first Greek unit from the Greek left smashed into the closest pezheteroi unit.

With the combined loss of being a phalanx, being charged in the flank and the extra attacks the pezheteroi lost the combat by 5. Even Philips steely will could not keep them in combat and they fled, as did Philip and his companions. The companions escaped destruction but the pezheteroi did not. Rolling an 8 they beat one Greek phalanx but not the other.

The game ended there as we figured the last unit of pezheteroi would not be able to stand up to 4 units of Greek hoplites on all four sides, even if Philip did bring his cavalry back (and they weren't smashed by stone throwing catapults.)

This game was played out using the Battlefleet Agean rules that I will at some point post to this website.

The game consisted of a small force of Macedonian ships trying to break through a larger force of Persian vessels.

The Macedonian fleet managed to surprise the Persian crews big time and got to move two moves before the Persians were able to react. The Macedonians used this to slip one ship past as the other engaged the Persian fleet.

Outnumbered two to one would be a difficult chore. Fortunately the Macedonian ships were able to get within bow range and fired on the Persian ships, one getting a deck cleared result. The Persians launched forward and were able to ram one of the Macedonian ships, crippling it while the other got within bow range of the remaining three ships and scored a deck cleared result on two of the ships.

At this point the Persians dispatched two ships to chase down the Macedonian galley that had "all ahead fulled" past them.

The Persian ship that rammed the Macedonian one got stuck and was involved in some heavy HTH fighting with the crew. The Macedonians won out.

The Macedonians managed to take the Persian ship that had rammed them and the last Macedonian ship slipped away from it's pursuers to get off the table. Now all the Macedonians would have to do is destroy two more Persian ships and they would win the scenario.

The captured Persian ship was now starting to be surrounded by the other Persian ships. They had left the two returning Persian ships to finish off the three confused Macedonian ships.

It didn't work. One of the ships passed a leadership test and managed to get under oars. With the Persians failing their squadron test only one was able to shoot at the approaching enemy and rolled horribly. Ramming the Persian ship in the side the Macedonians took the fight to the crew and over powered them eventually.

Meanwhile the other two Macedonian ships were starting to come to their senses. This forced the Persians to send their ships over from the captured Persian ship (which only had a crew strength of 1 left anyway) to deal with them.

In the resulting clash all three Macedonian ships went down but so did one Persian ship (it sank after getting stuck in the Macedonian ship and having it's prow torn off.)

So it was a kamikaze Macedonian victory, destroying more than a third of the enemy force and getting a ship off the opposite table edge.