The Ballad of Bradicles

“Brother, what have you done?”  The shock on Eeyoricles face was comical.  Well, at least Bradicles thought so.

Bradicles just beamed as he gestured with a flourish, “May I present Ares! King of Battle!  And this is his handler, Erastus.” The mahout gave a curt salute as he loaded up the beast’s feed trough.

“Are you mad?”

”Possibly.  But now I have an elephant.”

This one model is literally the reason I built this army. He’s the center piece and everyone else is there just to bask in his glory.

The figures are from Victrix. The transfers are from Little Big Man Studios. The mahout’s shield is from Aventine miniatures.

In game term, elephants have multiple options  primarily centered around whether they have a crew or not, what that crew is armed with and whether the crew has a Howdah (tower) to fight from. Mechanically, the crew is a separate unit consisting of two soldiers. As the Howdah is a bit small, I’m just putting in one figure in the tower and I’ll track casualties separately. And because I wanted to swap out figures based on what they’re armed with, I put them on their own bases.

Elephants have a number of special rules but essentially you just sort of aim them in the general direction of the enemy and hope you don’t get trampled. If they crash into an enemy unit, the enemy has a chance to dodge away but it’s harder the more armor they have. That’s one way to break up those damned armored formations!

When I made the Xyston armed cavalry I still had six figures left over so I decided to make the remainder as Greek style heavy cavalry armed with javelins. With better armor, the same fight skill plus the bonus of having some missile fire, they should complement the Xyston cavalry or make a good alternative cavalry force.

The figures are by Victrix, the shield transfers are by Little Big Man Studios and the banner transfer is from Relic Miniatures. I chose an Epirotes banner so thematically they’d work with a Phyrric force but I deliberately gave everyone different shield designs and color schemes to represent a more ad hoc force so I can also use it with my generic Greek army.

Oh, that was rough!

The first mistake was leaving my cavalry in charge range. I honestly didn’t think he’d charge, I thought he’d shoot and retire. None of my cavalry should have survived but enough did that at least I had something to threaten him with. The Hetairoi aren’t a scout unit and harrying through the backfield isn’t really their thing. But countering the Roman cavalry and secondarily securing the backfield became their de facto role.

The one group of Psiloi did well to take out the Roman cavalry but that’s more to luck and is tricky to pull off. Missile troops suffer a penalty when shooting at moving cavalry so reactive shooting is only hitting on 6+ most of the time.

The other group of Psiloi didn’t fare well. With so many Roman units with the Overlapping Shields rule, cracking that formation is tough. The slingers were also uncommonly ineffective. Usually the only unit to survive a battle, they got slaughtered to a man. I think they only got one or two kills.

The pikemen were a mixed bag. One unit survived intact but did little more than push one unit back. The other did weaken an enemy unit but got trounced in turn. In general they performed subpar in getting hits, have weak armor and lack the overlapping shields rule. And are more expensive than Hoplites. Really not sure what to do about them.

My veterans just whiffed. They should have wiped out that disrupted and fatigued Roman unit in one round. After two rounds of combat they managed to kill two of four soldiers then died to a lone soldier on horseback. Even with re-rolls.

At this point of the battle, turn 3 or maybe 4, I had lost 3 break points and the center objective giving me 4 total. Brett had lost 1 plus my cavalry in the backfield for a net 2 break points so we called it there and the Romans got a major victory.

Bradicles saw the Romans exit the woods directly in front of him and form up. Some of their light troops lingered in the woods while the more disciplined troops dressed their lines and began to move forward. Off to his right, some of the Roman’s allies flitted through the woods.

“Pezhetairoi, wheel right! Psiloi, forward and engage those troops by the farmhouse.  Slingers, forward and stand ready. Hypaspists, stand fast, your time of glory is nigh!”

Bradicles watched as the troops moved like a well oiled machine. The Psiloi struck first but their javelins just glanced off the Roman’s shields. No matter, he only wanted to disrupt their lines, maybe make them more cautious. He turned to the slingers.

“These Romans seem overly fond of their noses. Perhaps we should rearrange them?” The slingers laughed and loaded their stones.

“My lord,” called out one of the slingers, “this is most fortuitous! I’ve engraved this bullet with ‘May you be blessed by Aphrodite’ “, as he held up the lead projectile.

Bradicles laughed, “For Aphrodite!”

”Aphrodite!” And with that, they loosed. Wave after wave of stones arced over the field and towards the Romans. A few staggered an unfortunate soldier but the Romans redressed their lines and came on.

More Roman units moved through the woods on the right but one unit on the plains had overextended itself. Bradicles ordered the Pezhetairoi to were left and engage. They came on and forced the Romans back, disrupting their formation but as they advanced, Roman units exited the woods and began to move forward.

Meanwhile, on the left, the Romans unloosed their pilums at the Psiloi. They then charged the Psiloi and forced them back. The light troops fought back and then retired losing half their numbers in the retreat.

The Samnites had cleared the woods and charged the Pezhetairoi with a mighty roar. Caught while exhausted and unaware, they made short work of them but the Samnites weren’t done. Into the slingers they came and performed a great slaughter before being exhausted, leaving some slingers to scamper away.

Bradicles tried to order the Psiloi back into the fight but they just looked at him blankly panting with fear and exhaustion.

“Hypaspists, this is your time! This is your opportunity! The pikes have disrupted their lines! Seize your glory! Forward!”

Forward indeed. Bypassing one Roman unit to go straight for the hard pressed center of the enemy line. Clash! went the shields into the enemy’s chest. Clash! went the spears into the enemy armor. Clash! went the swords on the enemy’s armor. But alas!, to no avail, for none of their weapons bit flesh. The Romans just fell back, and fell back again.

And then he came. Like Thanatos himself, astride a pale horse, he came.

And Bradicles wept. For it was beautiful.

Down came the Gladius, and down went the Hypaspists. Again and again until there were none left. But his red rage was not satiated. On to the slingers, the beloved slingers. So often the key to victory but now part of a gory tableau.

With only himself, his trumpeter and a few Psiloi ineffectively trying to flank one of the Roman units, there was but one thing Bradicles could do. He removed his helmet and handed it to Aias, then his shield and finally, he thrust his spear into the ground.

And he bowed.

Eeyoricles spurred the horse forward clearing the forest edge. He saw the Roman equites beginning to move, likely to throw a few javelins and retire. No matter, he’d return the favor and waved the Psiloi forward.

Uncertain if leaving the safety of the woods was wise, they moved forward realizing that the Hetairoi were likely the object of the equites wrath. A few ranging shots to little effect gave the equites no concern. They gathered speed and then at the last minute drew their swords and charged the Hetairoi. Caught flat footed the Hetairoi had little recourse other than to abandon their Xystons and draw swords themselves. Badly bloodied but still standing, they held but were much reduced.

The Psiloi continued to move, clearing the way for a possible charge by their own cavalry. As they did, they crossed the paths of the Equites and loosed more javelins, bringing them down!

“Now, Pezhetairoi, now is the time! Forward the pikes!,” and with that, the pikemen came on, leveling their pikes at the last moment. They pushed the Romans back, reformed again and and again. There were few casualties on either side but both sides were exhausted.

Eeyoricles saw that the Hetairoi had sorted themselves out and gotten reorganized. He ordered them to rampage in the enemy’s rear. He hoped it would be enough.

I played against Brett Buckstaff and his Romans. The Romans are exceptionally tough opponents but I did well against him last time so history might repeat itself. Or at least I’m hoping it will.

New campaign turn, new list. I’m not entirely convinced that pikemen are worth their points but they’re pretty iconic so I’ll be keeping some in the list. And since I made some veteran Hypaspists they’re going into the list as well. And I have that recently completed Pyrrus mounted figure so he’s being added too. I don’t yet have a mounted musician or bannerman so Eeyoricles rides this time. And I had the points so I gave him a javelin. I do like my Pezhetairoi with javelins but they’re expensive and I wanted more javelins in the list so I replaced them with psiloi, unarmored javelin men with the skirmish specialist rule.

Bradicles- Level 4 with full armor, large shield, thrusting spear, large shield, musician.

Eeyoricles – Level 4, full armor, shield, horse, javelins.

TimToo – Soothsayer

6 Veteran Hoplites

2 x 8 Pezhetairoi with pikes

2 x 6 Psiloi with javelins

Total points: 1000

10 Slingers

6 Hetairoi with Xystons

Eeyoricles frowned at the horse. He looked to his brother.

“What is this?”

Bradicles smiled, “A horse of course!  What did you think it was?”

”I can see that, what do you want me to do with it?”

“Ride it.  Now get up there.”

Eeyoricles frowned at his brother. “Why don’t you ride him? The image will be fitting for your future monuments.”

Bradicles laughed, them smiled that insanely beautiful smile, “Perhaps something to consider. A nice bronze in the central square?  But today I’ll be afoot. Aias hasn’t learned to ride and manage the salpinx at the same time.”

“More likely riding disturbs the line of your pteruges.”

Bradicles laughed, “Perhaps, but mount up. And here, take this,” and with that, he deftly tossed a javelin to Eeyoricles.  “You’ll need it.  We are to meet the Romans today and they are well equipped with these as well and I would match their capabilities this day”.