Blog-44: Gaugamela – 331 BC

On July 14th I will be at The Joy of Six (link) in Sheffield, UK. The aim is to showcase The Arguing when… wargame rules at the world’s biggest small-scale wargames show run by Baccus6mm. Together with my Friend Robert I’ll be hosting a Gaugamela participation game.

The reason for going to JoS is that Robert has been working on Alexander versus Darius in 6mm for some time now. Yes, all Baccus6mm miniatures!

Yesterday was the first on-table encounter between the two small-scale larger than life characters. The first test of the participation game we are planning. It went very well.

The first learning is that small scale wargaming may still require a large table… Robert has been very busy painting and when we deployed element after element it quickly became clear that… hmmm… Robert painted really a lot! Anyways, we’ll think of something.

The other learning is that we will be able to host up to 6 players. We can do a 3-against-3 game, with each player having a command of either the Macedonian or Persian army. The size of Robert’s collection is large enough for each player then to have a fine number of units to take care off.

We are still looking at the exact setup of how participants can step in. On our case the game took some three hours, but we talk a lot… and I expect that with the participants at JoS this will not be much different… So perhaps two full games, or something else, more creative, a setup allowing even more people to participate… We’ll need to think of something.

And we will do another something… but that is for those attending the show…

Our test game proved to be an interesting twist compared to the historic battle. As I mentioned, a Gaugamela table needs to be large. Ours wasn’t. As a result Alexander’s opening move, the one Bessos reacted to, couldn’t really materialize. And so Alexander decided to go in head first. Straight on to the Bactrian and Scythian heavies.

But before that we had the scythed chariots phase. The Persian wunderwaffe. In our game short and simple, and with the historic outcome, which had an effect on the Persian plans. I took care of Darius III and his host. The plan was to send in the scythed chariots, have them wreak havoc amongst the Macedonians, and then push forwards with the rest of the army by making use of the chaos and disruption amongst the Macedonians. It was not to be. The scythed chariots were quickly neutralized by the Macedonian skirmishers. And while we were judging that we concluded there really could not have been any other way this would have ended. What were the Persians thinking! Like Darius we send them in unsupported. And like that these things are defenseless against nearly everything. Alternatively, they could charge the skirmishers, but that also neutralizes them as the horses will then be blown before reaching any real target. In other words, like every other wunderwaffe, or gamechanger as today’s news channels call them, they performed less than advertised.

The effect this had on the plans was that, after this event had happened, Robert proposed that the Persian commands were now clueless as to what to do. The plan included chaos and mayhem at the Macedonians, followed by being walked over by the Persians. Now the first bit hadn’t materialized and so… Dear King of Kings: what are you orders? I found that a very strong proposal except for one part of the Persian army. I disputed and proposed to adjust to Mazaeus still starting to advance as he was further away and would not have seen the actual result. We rolled for it and the counterargument clinched it. Mazaeus stuck to the plan. The rest looked to Darius for guidance and wise words. But that takes time. Reconsidering the new situation, concluding what to do, and then sending out orders takes a lot of time. It is not without reason that many councils of war took place the evening before the battle.

In in our case the Macedonians were already on the move… There simply wasn’t any time. Alexander was already onto Bessos, the phalanx advancing, and Parmenion held back a bit to cover the Macedonian left flank. Darius had clearly lost the initiative. All he could do was hope for the best, trust Bessos and Mazaeus would do their job, and let him focus on the center.

Darius set his chariot in motion, galloped pass the rank and file of the center units, shouting words of encouragement, promising rewards, showing their King was with them.

But Alexander had already charged his companions into the Bactrian and Scythian nobles. A tough fight developed. One in which the Macedonian elite did not perform well. The unit by Alexander being forced back… thrice! Further to the flank the Greek mercenary cavalry and the Prodromoi were pushing the Scythian horse archers before them, but at a very slow pace. The whole engagement took more than halve an hour without either side clearly gaining the upper hand. Bessos was wounded leading a charge on Alexander, but without breaking the Macedonians, and Alexander remaining unhurt. Several times there was the real possibility for Alexander to get killed, but it was not to be. Eventually a single unit of companions, not the one led by Alexander (!), succeeded in breaking through. But it proved too little, too late.

As Alexander was struggling the Macedonian phalanx had moved into contact with the Persian center. Oblique in order to keep their left flank safe to envelopment by Mazaeus. The engagement was one of pushing and shoving. For this scenario I had given both the Pezetaroi, hypaspists and the Greek mercenary hoplites in Persian service the PHALANX keyword. Not the Persian Apple Bearers, not the Carian foot. This keywords states that such units are hard to pushback, it at al. And if they do it’s a break, not a fall back. On the advance such units take great care on keeping formation, rather than keeping in contact. In the game this worked out perfectly and made the Macedonian phalanx very hard to stop, but also slow in actually defeating the opposition. But they did. After several rounds of pushing and shoving the Persian center gave way. Darius exchanged his chariot for a horse, because it is faster, and was escorted from the field of battle by his closest guardsmen. Although Mazaeus had been able to score some small tactical successes against Parmenion, the battle was clearly lost for Darius. His center was gone, his left (Bessos) hanging in the balance, but not looking good, and his right stalled against Parmenion. We called it a day.

All in all a good first outing of Robert’s armies and very promising for the JoS participation game. If you are attending and would like to join us, or just pass by, or anything else, then please drop me a note via janwillemboots@gmail.com