alexander unleashed

8/12/2019 Alexander Unleashed

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INTRODUCTIONHaving been sorely unimpressed by the

Hollywood movie of Alexander I almostlost an interest in the actions of the greatGeneral as he stormed his way acrossPersia and on into India.

I use the word sorely because I hadenjoyed the historical fiction books byValerio Massimo Manfredi so much thatI was excited by the opportunity to seeAlexander brought to the Big Screen.

Sadly it wasnt to be and my hopes weredashed.

But then a chance visit from an oldwargaming acquaintance got me thinkingof a large, yet easy to play battle and sothe boxes of 6mm Ancients were dustedoff.

Before the game we sat and chatted

about the Alexander movie, how we hadboth been so unimpressed by the movie,hideously amused by the Irish accents(right lads, lets go how grim to hear aMacedonian Commander utter such wordsas if he was from Dublin) and flummoxedby many other misdemeanours. Thereis a right place to hear an Irish accent;well actually its from the lips of an Irishperson. Not the greatest General there hasever been.

Not even the nice battlefield shots couldconvince either of us to watch it again ever!

So there we where, fed up Alexander when

I said lets have a game and we can usemy 6mm Persians and Macedonians. Itwas almost one of those moments whenyou could hear nothing, then a suddenlya dog barks in the distance and a ball oftumbleweed blows gently across the room.Next we found ourselves in my gamingroom and digging out the figures.

Id been working on this scenario around

the time I watched Alexander and hadnever gone back to the Word document.But it took me half an hour or so to finishit off and Id now like to offer it to you toplay:

THE GAME BACKGROUNDThe backdrop of this game is Alexanderand Darius failing to engage their armies atIssus. We have covered this engagement in

Wargames Journal and the fact that Dariusconsidered that the sheer size of his armywould scare off the invader Alexander.

As we know this was a mistake and hisown inexperience, no doubt coupled withan overwhelming level of arrogance, led tohis failure at Issus and subsequent failureat Guagamela.

NOTE:Speaking of Guagamela, one of ourfavourite games at Wargames Journal, wehave commissioned Dave Robotham (ourresident painter) to redo our armies in15mm scale. Its going to be a rather large

A chance gaming session led to the creation of this scenario which is offeredfor the Warmaster rules but can be easily converted to any other set ofancient wargaming rules. The Great General Alexander approaches thearmy of the Persian King Darius who is blissfully unaware of a flankingcavalry action that is about to make his life somewhat difficult!

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undertaking, but were confident hell riseto the challenge.

Our fictional game has it that Dariuschose to advance and meet Alexanderfarther down the coastline, still with theAmanus Mountains to his left flank and theMediterranean Sea to his right, but electingto engage on a wider front.

To be honest you can easily play this gamewith neither sea or mountain terrain in use,opting to simply use an undulating set ofdesert terrain boards.

RULES AND ORBATSWe used a modified version of theWarmaster rules to play this game. Ourown army lists were created long before

the Warmaster Ancients rulebook came outand we strove to add diversity to the armylists. It was interesting to see that the rulebook uses many of the mechanics we use,for units like Cavalry and Phalanxes.

The following orders of battle (Page 59)are for two 1,600 Point armies. Weve alsoincluded the complete Army Lists that wecreated for the Guagamela game we played

during 2004/05:

You can find the PDFs with the full statisticsand special rules at:

Macedonian ArmyPersian Army

The gaming table for this scenario isvery simple, with hardly any definingcharacteristics. We played it on a 6 x 6table, but you can play on a smaller table.

But whatever you do please use a tablethat will give the cavalry plenty of room to

b r e a t h .It was the ideaof those glorious cavalrycharges around the flanksthat inspired this thinking.

THE GAMING TABLE

So having said that the terrain is verysimple ...what can we do to spice it up?Well we need to cuase those cavalry someproblems and impact their flow, for wantof a better word.

What we have also done is provide graphicalterrain elements that represent randombattlefield events. These include ShiftingSands and Sand Storm. You can find thetemplates at the end of this article which

you can print out and use, or if you fancybeing creative you could try making somefor yourself.

Other than this the gaming table is verysimple and easy to make. We used 9 TSSdesert tiles during our play testing andthey did the job nicely.

DEPLOYMENT

The deployment of the forces is madewithin the Army Zones marked on the mapand no player can place a unit any fartherthan 12 inches into the gaming table. Iwould recommend that the players deploya unit at a time, alternating until all unitsare on the table.

The Macedonian player has two deploymentzones to choose from, but the one marked

M2 can only have cavalry arriving in it.The player can choose to have these unitsarrive during any of the first THREE Turnsof play. If they forget to deploy in one ofthese Turns then the units are deemed to

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http://www.wargamesjournal.com/ancients/images/Guagamela_Revised_Army_Lists_Macedonians.pdfhttp://www.wargamesjournal.com/ancients/images/Guagamela_Revised_Army_Lists_Persian.pdfhttp://www.wargamesjournal.com/ancients/images/Guagamela_Revised_Army_Lists_Persian.pdfhttp://www.wargamesjournal.com/ancients/images/Guagamela_Revised_Army_Lists_Macedonians.pdf


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be lost and will not take part in the battle so if you hold them back try not to forgetthem.

SPECIAL RULESThe army PDFs you can download fromwithin this article detail any special rulespertinent to the two armies. The onlyother thing to think about is the concept ofwinning the game!

The simplest way to sort this out is to addup all the units deployed within an armyand half the number, rounding up. Thisprovides a nice Break Point and as this is abattle to the death then there is no otherfinish to the game other than an armyrunning off the field of battle.

As stated earlier we have added 2 templatesto the gaming mechanics namelyShifting Sand and Sand Storm. You canuse these templates a variety of ways, butwe recommend that you use TWOof eachand make sure they are only used ONCE.

They are good luck templates, linked tothe successful roll of a double 1 when

command dice are being used. If thishappens consult the following table afteryou have a thrown a D6:

1 Nothing. Just keep playing2 Shifting Sands Template - Use this gameTurn3 Sand Storm Template Use this gameTurn4 - Shifting Sands Template Keep and useat any time

5 Sand Storm Keep and use at any time6 Nothing. Just keep playing

Shifting Sands:As a unit advances the player with thetemplate can deploy it anywhere theywant to. This could be directly in front ofthe unit, to its flank or rear, or it could beplaced in front of one of their own units.

Once deployed the template is left inplace and should be avoided at all costs.If a player is dumb enough to pass a unitthrough the template then a D6 is rolledand the following table consulted:

1-3: 1 point of permanent damage to theunit4-6: 2 points of permanent damage to theunit

Sand Storm:As we all know sand gets everywhere andthis is amplified when a sand storm brewsup. So when the Sand Storm template islaid there is going to be trouble. Roll a D6and this is the number of Turns the stormis around for (mark it with a small dice)and then lay the template down.

This is where the fun begins as winds are

a little unpredictable in the desert! It couldwell head back towards your own army, sobe careful where u deploy it.

So roll for its direction of travel. Again aD6 is rolled:

1-2: North3-4: South5: West

6: East


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Macedonian Army - 1,630 points

Unit Type No PointsGuard Phalanx x1 80

Hypaspists x1 90Phalanax x4 65 (260)Veteran Hoplites x1 80Hoplites x1 60Archers x1 50Hypaspist Skirmishers x1 80Agrianians x1 60Skirmishers x2 50 (100)

Agema Cavalry x1 110Companion Cavalry x2 80 (160)Scout Cavalry x1 70Officer x2 80 (160)Deputy Commander x1 100Alexander x1 170

Persian Army - 1,650

Unit Type No PointsImmortals x1 85Heavy Infantry x1 60Warriors x2 45 (90)Hoplites x1 60Levy x6 25 (150)Levy Bowmen x2 35 (70)Archers x1 55

Skirmishers x1 50Noble Cavalry x1 120Medium Cavalry x2 90 (180)Light Cavalry x2 80 (160)Horse Archers x2 70 (140)Chariots x1 95Elephants x1 180Foot Officer x1 30

Mounted Officer x1 45Deputy General x1 80

A Sand Storm template movesat a speed of 15cm and does sountil its time on the table ends.Any unit that its comes intocontact with MUST make a D6roll and on anything but a 6 itbecomes Confused, as per theusual Warmaster rules.

ConclusionThis is a simple game really, anexcuse to have a large battlewith a few little tweaks thrownin along the way. Our Army Listsgive a diverse feel to the armiesand the use of the templates canmake the game take some odddeviations.

I had a nightmare with theSand Storm template in thefirst 3 games I played, but onone occasion the Shifting Sandstemplate saved my bacon from abunch of Persian cavalry hell benton riding my troops down.

This is not a small game and can

be easily modified to play usingless Points on the table. Have funplaying it ...maybe Darius can winthis time around!

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The vast bulk of the Persian armys cavalry

was massed near to the sea with the

Kardakes, the Greek Hoplite mercenaries

and Darius with Royal Horse and Foot

Guard positioned just before the kink in

the line. On the kink was more Kardakes

with cavalry support and in front of thearmy were positioned archers.

Behind the army were the light infantry,

although these were generally regarded as

next to useless. The kink was formed

from more light infantry that held a loose

crescent shape running South from the

Persian line.

The river formed a strong natural defence

and the infantry in the centre made this

even stronger by building stockades. The

natural crossing point was right next to

the sea, but as weve said the Persians

cleverly bunched cavalry here. It all

looked like a tough day for Alexander.

As usual the Macedonian Commanders

spent hours manoeuvring the foot troops,

the giant Phalanx, into position in front

of the Persians, cleverly ensuring that

no gaps were left, negating the risk of

roaming cavalry getting amongst them.

Alexander had looked carefully at Persian

disposition and moved his Thessalian

cavalry to his left flank to counter the

threat of the Persian cavalry and his own

plan had him starting the battle on theright flank, making rippling movements

towards the sea.

As to his extreme right flank Alexander

moved some cavalry and around 300

Agrianian foot troops towards the Persian

crescent to protect against attack.

When Alexander made his move it must

have been an amazing sight to behold. He

himself led the right-centre across the river

and into the kink in the Persian line. The

Kardakes were the first to discover that

the right flank was Alexanders starting

point and as this action occurred the next

phase of the plan came into play as the

Macedonian Companion cavalry hit the

left flank hard, which was simultaneously

attacked by a mixed force of lancers, light

cavalry and Agrianian foot.

It was too much the Persian left flank

started to buckle. The battle wasnt over

though and the Persians plan of smashing

the Macedonian left flank with their

massed cavalry near to the sea was going

well. The Thessalian cavalry was fighting

a courageous delaying action here. The

Macedonian line was bending out ofshape but not breaking. This left wing

was commanded by the trusted leader

Parmenio.

It was now time for the centre to come

into play and the Phalanx moved to cross

the river, holding its tight formation.

The combat in the centre was bloody

against the Greek Hoplites, and many

Macedonians were slain, but the Phalanx

was holding its ground.

Now it was time for Alexander to strike his

killer blow in this battle. Putting himself

at the head of his Royal Guard cavalry he

charged diagonally across the battlefield

straight at Darius. Who after a very brief

fight chose to flee the battlefield.

The Persian army crumbled away.

THE REAL BATTLE OF ISSUS

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alexander unleashed

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