Battle of Issus

 After the victory at Granicus, Alexander swanned off to Egypt, was crowned Pharoah, founded Alexandria etc. As you do. This of course gave Darius time to raise another army, and eventually Alexander and his new Egyptian allies met Darius at Issus, on the shores of the Mediterranean where modern Syria borders Turkey. Darius was leading the Persians in person this time as after the previous defeat, he couldn't delegate the task to anyone else.

The battle was fought between rugged hills and the sea, which reduced the advantage in numbers the Persians had. This scenario has hills on the left (east) and the coast hexes on the right (west) on the Gulf of Issus. I actually just took some hexes off the table as they are rated impassable and marked the rest with large river hexes. A small river (the Pindarus?) bisects the battlefield, it is fordable at all points but still acts as a brake on movement. Units do not suffer the usual combat penalties when crossing it though.

The scenario starts with the Persians drawn up along the river in depth, all their good stuff at the front and the mass of not so great stuff (modelled here as lots of Light Infantry and Light Cavalry) behind.

Macedonian right. The Pelasts are here, plus some light troops with the Pike Phalanx under Parmenio in the centre. Alexander and the Companions are right on the baseline (centre top left in the photo). It will take some fancy manouvering to get Alexanders panzer division into action with all that friendly infantry in front of it.

The Macedonian left has more cavalry, the rest of the Phalanx and the Hypaspists - two units this time, so I fleshed out my three bases of Hypaspists with an extra stand of pikes. I couldn't be bothered to get down the box of spare Hoplites to make up the numbers.

The Persians are a genuine horde, I've deliberately put a lot more figures in the Persian units (shades of Lost Battles) than the Macedonian ones. Most sensible estimates of the battle reckon Darius fielded 100,000 men vs Alexanders 40,000.

The Persian right has (lots) of cavalry, bows out front and some Auxilia. As I hadn't painted all my Persian Heavy cavalry at this point I had to flesh out the units with second ranks of Horse Archers etc.

While I was setting up, a Jay came to visit. It has been flying around the area for a few days but it is unusual to see them in the city at this time of year. Perhaps it is hunting newly hatched chicks.

The Persian left is anchored on the rugged hills, and has masses of Auxilia, supported by bows and more cavalry.

The centre has all the good stuff. Four units of 'medium infantry' - in reality mainly mercenary Hoplites and the mysterious Kardakes, the elite noble infantry trainees who may or may not have fought as hoplites, depending who you believe. I've done them all as Persian Immortals/Apple Bearers etc. 

Darius' bodyguard are actual Immortals, and are rated as bow armed Medium Infantry, so I added a base of archers to the unit. There are also more archers, Heavy Cavalry (I used my Clibinari figures for these) and Darius is with the Immortals in his chariot. Eagle eyed readers will spot that this is actually an Egyptian Chariot, and indeed it is, one of the horrible old Atlantic chariots, with a Zvezda General stuck in the back. It looks quite regal I think.

After suffering from being overly timid at the Granicus game, the Persians attack. A large cavalry action develops on the right. Meanwhile the Macedonians are trying to figure out how best to turn their rather odd deployment into something game winning - all those Light Troops are actually in the way of the Phalanx. So Alexander plans a series of card plays to get the Light Troops out of the way, and get the Phalanx formed up properly. Alex is holding an 'Order Heavy Troops' and 'Order Four Centre Units' cards, I just need to get the guys lined up to make best use of them.

Meanwhile, it is very hard for both sides to ignore the cavalry battle. It is a bit odd that the Persian leader is deployed here with the Light Cavalry and not the Mediums. This unit formation is designed to allow a missile attack from the Lights, and then a Close Combat with Leader Bonus by the Mediums, and ideally a Momentum follow up. At the Issus the Persian leaders were penalised and could only give bonuses to same hex units, not adjacent ones. No such limits here, which is useful

Typically it goes catastrophically wrong, and the Persian Mediums are routed! They have however inflicted two hits on the Macedonian Mediums, who now look like low hanging fruit. Particularly with those javelin armed Lights sitting in missile range...

The Macedonian Cavalry countercharge.

And somehow in the melee (which I didn't photograph), everybody dies. Both sides Leaders survive however, but the scope for cavalry action on this flank has gone now. I've been playing Command and Colours for years, and I can't help making the same stupid mistakes when it comes to mobile troops. You need to keep them in reserve for later in the battle, but the temptation to chuck them in is so great.... Exactly the same thing happens in Memoir 44 with tanks, players lose them all within a few turns. I think it is just because they have long movement distances and their potential for momentum attacks, but everyone forgets how weak they are against counterattacks, and if you don't destroy the first target, you won't get a momentum attack and will die on the counterattack. Save cavalry/tanks for weakened unit only!

Alexander showed how it should be done in the previous Granicus game. 

After that pointless interlude, back to the main action. Both sides have been shuffling units around to clear fields of fire, avoid units getting trapped and to optimise the matchups. I'm actually quite good at this now, but there are so many units in the way. Both sides have archers and it is always so tempting to blaze away at 3 hex range, particularly against units which can't retreat.

The Macedonians have signposted their intentions by moving all their light stuff out of the way of the Phalanx. The Persians can't do much more to shore up their defence, and their Archer units on the far side of the stream continue to pepper the Phalangites with arrows. Now Alex has put his Lights next to them, they won't be able to do that due to the target proximity rules.

The Persians pull their master stroke. Their Auxilia on the left flank dash forwards through the hills and fall on the Macedonian left flank. Alexander is puzzled as they have advanced two hexes, they can't fight. What are the Persians up to? Auxilia aren't overly bothered by hills as they can attack with 3 combat dice downhill, but only 2 uphill.

Anyway, enough of that, Alex plays 'Order Heavy Troops'. All four Pike units roll forwards, putting them adjacent to some Persian Lights who all evade, apart from one unfortunate Bow unit who is blocked by all the guys behind them.

All is revealed on the Persian left. 'Clash of Shields'! +2 Combat Dice to all units adjacent to the enemy...

Quite a lot of the Persian Army is next to the enemy at the moment. Maybe they should have waited until the Pikes were adjacent too, but that is really tempting fate.

Darius views the battle with equanimity from his position with the Immortals. Here they come in the same old way....

Sadly the great 'Clash of Shields' isn't quite as devastating as hoped. The Macedonian Auxilia can't evade as they aren't cavalry or Light troops, but only one is routed while the other is pushed back damaged. The Macedonian archers choose to evade and take a hit as they run away.

The Persian Auxilia are completely unscathed however, and now Alexander is within range of three javelin armed units. Who might possibly have a 'Darken the Skies' card in their hand.... 

Well, as Foch said, if you left is routed and your right is collapsing, the best thing to do is attack. Alex plays 'Four Units Centre' and Parmenions Phalanx gets stuck in. Four Heavy Infantry rolling 5 Combat Dice each, supported by two Leaders and no terrain penalties for the river this time....

It is all deeply unpleasant, although like the Persian Auxilia attack, not as devastating as it might be. One of the Immortals are routed and Parmenion advances into the river. Otherwise the Persians and Macedonians just trade hits along the river. The two isolated Persian archer units in front are unable to evade as they are blocked and are wiped out by the heavy Phalangites though.

With most of their best troops left intact, Darius personally leads the counterattack. The Immortals surge forwards, and the Clibinari advance over the river to cut off Parmenions retreat.

Permenion's Phalanx is routed, but he survives and joins another unit. The momentum attack by the Clibinari goes down in a sea of Pikes, but Parmenions (new) unit is down to just one hit left. The Macedonians are back on the wrong side of the river now, which is running red and choked with dead horses.

The Macedonians can stop and regroup, or keep attacking. They have six banners now though, just two more.... the Phalanx rolls forwards again, focussing on the Immortals in front of Darius who have their retreat blocked, and Darius himself, whose unit has two hits on it.

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The first unit of Immortals goes down. There isn't much you can do about a dice roll like that. The statisticians among us can work out the odds of rolling four Leader Bonus hits on five dice.

Parmenion gets stuck into Darius, and rolls three hits against the two left. The Immortals rout, and to add insult to injury, Darius fails his Leader Risk roll and goes down as well. Probably just a flesh wound.  Victory to the Macedonians, although that was a much closer fight than Issus, that last attack could easily have gone horribly wrong. The banner count was 8:3 this time.

There is still an awful lot of Persian Army left, which makes Parmenions last three Phalangite units look very vulnerable. That was a very risky move by the Macedonians, but they got away with it.

And Alexander is under serious threat on the left. The Persians could easily have picked up three more banners here as the Macedonians haven't got much room left to retreat or evade.

What a great scenario, I'd really like to play that one again. I should have made better use of the Persian numerical superiority. Although it appears that the Macedonians are on the defensive, in fact they need to attack to win, or the Persians can just park them into corner and wear them down.

As at Granicus, the Macedonian card advantage gives them more flexibility, and in all the CnC games, it is very hard to translate numerical superiority into combat power as units activate in groups. Numbers do give you depth though, and the opportunity for favourable match ups of unit types as the side with superior numbers has more of all types. I'm glad I'm getting better at remembering to evade with Light units, it can be a real life saver at times, and incredibly frustrating for the enemy. 

That was a really interesting battle, which the Macedonians only won by the skin of their teeth. Well worth a replay, particularly as unlike so many CnC scenarios, it actually has some interesting terrain.