Yesterday the Mark at the Wargames Holiday Centre very kindly hosted a re-fight the battle of Chaeronea 86BC (i.e. not the better known earlier battle with Alexander and Phillip). This later battle fought between the forces of Mithridates' Pontic army, and Sulla's veteran Roman legions, in Greece in 86 BC.
I won't go into too many details, as the piece will hopefully shortly feature in a wargames magazine, along with some other photos I took, but I can't resist posting a few (clickable) snaps...
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| View from behind the Pontic left. Chaeronea is on the skyline, and the smaller temple is on Mount Thurium |
The Roman army was much smaller than the Pontic, but largely composed of bloodthirsty veterans. The Pontic army included scythed chariots and a phalanx of freed Roman slaves; more than likely the last phalanx ever deployed on an ancient battlefield.
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| Scythed chariots charge... |
Harry, eldest scion of the Miller family, and I led the Pontics against Mark and Paul's Romans. The flow of the game was all-too historical, as the Roman veterans first routed our flank detachment, and then smashed our phalanx with a combination of frontal and flank attacks. It was very entertaining though. We used my "To the Strongest!" card-driven rules; the card play was very entertaining, especially when units got to make multiple attacks (as with Sulla below).
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| Sulla and his cavalry bodyguard got on my flank, turned, and rode down one phalanx after another |
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| The last-surviving Pontic slave phalanx, completely surrounded by the Romans... |
Eventually the final phalanx succumbed (above), and our army routed. As a small compensation, though, it had bought time for my Scythian light cavalry to loot the Roman camp!
Mark was a very kind host and I hope to visit the Wargames Holiday Centre again, next year...
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