The Ballad of Bradicles

“They have cavalry,” sighed Eeyoricles.

“I know brother.  I foresaw this. But not this thrice damned treachery of the Romans.”

Eeyoricles considered his brother. He’d rarely seen Bradicles angry before. This was a first. Well, at least in recent memory.

“Brother, you know the drill. Take the left flank, block the cavalry. The Hypaspists and Pezhetairoi will press the center and the slingers will support as needed.”

Eeyoricles nodded glumly. Seeing this Bradicles flashed his radiant smile, “Brother! Consider this, perhaps this will be an opportunity for TimToo to grill some horse flesh!”

And with that, Bradicles strode off, musician in tow. Eeyoricles glanced at the priest. He was clearly flustered by Bradicles comments on his culinary proclivities. The altar boy just drooled. He’d never eaten horse.

My units from left to right; Pezhetairoi with javelins, Eeyoricles, Hoplites, Slingers with Bradicles and musician behind them, Pezhetairoi with pikes to the right of the slingers and on the far right another unit of Pezhetairoi with javelins.

This scenario has two objectives. The center of the table and your opponents deployment area. Being able to control them adds a break point to your opponent.

I’m worried by the speed of the cavalry and it’s ability to get into my rear so I deployed the javelin men on the flanks as their speed and javelins will make up, somewhat, for my opponents speed advantage. My Hoplites and Pikemen should be able to hold the center and the slingers are there to add to the mayhem. If my opponent gets tired of being pelted he’ll have to advance to silence them giving my heavy infantry an opportunity wreck some havoc.

The Romans are arrayed, left to right, a unit of Equites, a unit of Principes, Hastati, Velites on the far side of the woods and a unit of Samnite allies.

This will be the first game of campaign turn 2.  Points are upped to 800 per side. I’ll be fighting my erstwhile allies, the Romans. As I feared he brought cavalry. In fact a lot of my fellow campaigners added cavalry to their lists.

Below are photos of my list for this turn. Lead by Bradicles and a musician, backed by Eeyoricles, I’ve beefed up the two Pezhetairoi units with javelins, and added another slinger.  The hard core of the army remains the Hoplites but the new Gus are the Pezhetairoi with pikes.

And of course TimToo will serve up the gods will with his mobile altar, or serve up lunch, on his mobile grill, whichever is needed at the time.

Here ya go @avernos

Armed with a significantly longer spear called a Xyston, probably held two handed, the Hetairoi, or Companion Cavalry, of the Macedonians was a corner stone of Alexander the Great’s success. I’m hoping a little of that success will rub off on my warband. In game terms, this will be a hard hitting but fragile unit. It won’t be added into the current list. Maybe campaign turn 3 or 4.

With the next campaign turne bumped up to 200 points and Bradicles being promoted to a Level 4 commander, I have a couple of options. Basically, I can add one unit to the current list. Now, the nice thing is, I can completely re-work my list and don’t actually have to keep the same units. But, I’m pretty happy with the current makeup. I’ll add one Pezhetairoi with javelins to each unit to make those units 7 men each and one more slinger to make that a 10 man unit.

Bradicles got promoted to a Level 4 and Eeyoricles stays at level 2.  I’ll add heavy shields to both because I have the points. It’ll improve their armor saves.

I have enough points to add one more unit. It’s basically a choice between taking an 8 man Pezhetairoi unit with pikes or a six man Heiatori cavalry unit armed with Xystons. Both units are classic Macedonian units and both would give a needed boost to my melee capabilities but both are a bit light on armor. The cavalry unit is probably going to be a glass hammer. I can get one good charge in and then they die to a counter attack.

And here’s a link to my army list.
https://cilliancleland.github.io/clashculator/?punic=c13o1004-78-78-9b-a7-89-11o1g_Phyrric%20Campaign%20800