6mm Fantastic Battles - Seleukids vs Gauls/Galatians

This week Roger and I dusted off our 6mm collections for a 1,000 point historical game of Fantastic Battles, pitting his Gauls (Galatians really, if they are this far east) against my Seleukids. 

The army breakdowns, and deployment after rolling for mishaps appear in the photo above. The Gauls had a tough centre and powerful left, while the Seleukid strength was heavily biased to their own right.

The opening turns saw the Gallic racial trope of 'impulsive' adding a nice bit of spice, as some units such as the two warbands hurled themselves towards the Seleukid line, with both the medium and heavy warbands receiving volleys of missile fire as they approached.

 The Gallic light horse on their extreme right entered the woods that anchored the Seleukid left flank. The Seleukid heavy cavalry on the right opened out in preparation for the assault of the Gaestati.

Across the line, the Gallic infantry crashed into the Seleukid line. On the left, the medium warband charged the Arab camelry and Asiatic archers, both of which chose to stand and shoot.

In the centre, the Seleukid phalanx pre-empted the heavy warband by charging forward themselves. They therefore lost their own bonuses for receiving a charge with pikes, but also stopped the Gauls getting their furious charge. The elephants stationed between the Seleukid heavy infantry also joined the fray with a well-placed flank charge - being charged in turn by impulsive javelineers.

On the right, the Seleukid line cavalry were charged, and counter-charged, the Gaestati, as the Gallic heavy cavalry (in column) charged and were counter-charged by the combined unit of elite Agema and Hetairoi. As the photo above shows, the dice gods were certainly on the side of the Seleukids, at least for the first 2/3 of the battle; 9 hits out of 11 dice rolled against the Gallic heavy cavalry's defence of 5+!

The heavy warband in the centre could not hold against the large pike phalanx and an elephant on the flank, scattering, and causing a ripple of resolve loss to echo across the Gallic line, causing the nearby javelineers to likewise scatter.

In turn four, the Gallic chariots on the flank march appeared and pinned the Seleukid line cavalry in place. While they had survived the first round of melee against the Gaestati with their resolve intact, the situation now looked very different. The Gallic heavy cavalry reformed into line to press their attack on the Agema and Hetairoi, but the exchange of dice in the previous melee was repeated and they soon scattered. 

Over on the Seleukid left, the camelry could not hold against the medium warband and broke. Slightly too late, the other company of Seleukid elephants charged into the warband's rear. 

In the centre, the Seleukid phalanx and the Gallic imitation legionaries started the slow manoeuvres to face each other. Meanwhile, the Seleukid Agyraspides found themselves without a foe and so just pushed on, forcing a company of Gallic javelineers to skip backwards.

The heavy infantry in the centre met, the elephant there was charge in the rear by foolhardy Gallic javelineers. The Seleukid Agema and Hetairoi turned to take the Gaestati in the flank.

In the following turn, the combined assault of the elephant in the rear and Asiatic archer to their front managed to rout the Gallic medium warband, while the other elephant in the centre destroyed the Gallic javelineers. On the Seleukid right, the heavy line cavalry could take no more of the assault of the Gaestati and chariots and scattered. But by then, it was all too late, the Gallic army reached its breakpoint of 10/10 and broke en masse, leaving the Seleukids (at 4/11) the clear winners of the day. 

So, repeating the result of the Battle of the Elephants (c.275 BC), the noble Seleukids have managed to repulse the hairy horde. However, Roger has more Gauls in his Gaul box, and I've more than 3,000 points worth of Selukids, so I'm hoping for a larger battle for our next rematch! 😁