The (Unofficial) Great Battles of History
The Macedonian Art of War, 338-326 BC
The original Alexander was the first game in the Great Battles of History system, back in the days of monochrome counters. It included only the four battles against the Persians, none of which was very balanced.
This greatly expanded version includes everything in the original edition, and its expansion module, plus five additional scenarios cover Alexander's minor battles. Updated counters, more maps, revised rules. Some of the scenarios are even balanced!
Balance: 75% Macedonians
Attraction: A moderate-sized Macedonian combined arms force meets a Greek infantry army, including the Theban Sacred Band. Alexander wins his spurs.
Macedonian Advantages: Command range & initiative, high TQ, hypaspists
Greek Advantages: Theban Sacred Band's TQ, LP performance vs HC, board edges
When I first wrote this, I typed out "Theban Scared Band" instead of "Theban Sacred Band". It must have been a Freudian slip, as the Greeks have their work cut out for them in this scenario.
The historical notes might lead you to believe that the Macedonian left (with the HC and Alexander) is the decisive flank, but the notes are misleading. A look at the Shock Superiority Chart shows why -- against the peltasts guarding the Greek flanks, cavalry suffers Defense Superiority. The hypaspists, on the other hand (and flank), are Attack Superior vs peltasts.
So the Macedonian plan should be to attack on their right. The peltasts protect the hypaspists from the enemy LC, while the hypaspists sweep away the enemy LP and then fall on the flanks of the hoplites.
The double-depth phalanxes look impressive, but I've found them more useful defensively (preventing a Greek advance) than offensively. The streams across the battlefield are highly annoying to the PH, which take a hit for each stream they cross.
The Greeks do have a couple of tricks up their sleeve. They can anchor their right flank on the board edge, preventing the Macedonian HC from making an end run around their flank. (It's unfortunate that the board edges are so important in this scenario. The Greeks also suffer from their rout edge being so close to their line.)
The Theban Sacred Band and the two LPs should be able to drive off the Macedonian LPs, although they must be careful not to expose their flanks to the Macedonian HC.
On the Greek left, Demosthenes can use the Reverse Face Maneuver [6.44] to use his rearward hoplites to extend his line and guard his flanks.
The Greeks still need a few good dierolls to prevent this from being a total blowout.
Balance: 99% Persians
Attraction: A Persian cavalry force slaughters a weak Macedonian column. For Hellenophobes only.
Macedonian Advantages: OC with '1' initiative has some humor value
Persian Advantages: Terrain, Victory Conditions, TQ, Troop Type, etc.
I found two sentences in the rules for this scenario a bit strange.
First, the Balance assessment, which reads "If the Persian player can properly use his cavalry, the Persians clearly have the edge." It's technically true but considerably understates the case, like saying "a drop of water contains a few atoms". Given their superiority in manueverability, missile fire, numbers, troop type, and troop quality, the Persians should easily massacre the Macedonians.
The deployment rules seem to imply that the Persians might want to set up near the Macedonians, but it's better (albeit more boring) to wait behind the river and let the enemy come to you. After all, they've got to cross the river and exit by turn 20 or you win. Unfortunately for Pharnaces, the river is a formidable obstacle which stops any units that crosses it, setting them up for Persian attacks. Plus forders take 2 cohesion hits, and the double-sized units have to cross in column! To use the word "massacre" here is truly no hyperbole.
The second sentence that left me puzzled was the historical note: "This
is not really an 'Alexander' battle, but it does show how even the best
of armies can be misled." Macedonian leadership is poor, but
here the troops are nothing to write home about either. One Macedonian
unit has a TQ of '6', and the other five units are TQ '5'. Alexander should
be glad that this "best of armies" isn't representative of what he's
leading at Gaugemela.
[Note: The following is the beginning of a real analysis for this scenario. It's incomplete; I hope to return to it sometime.]
Balance: ????
Attraction: The Macedonians battle an Indian army laden with chariots and elephants. Alexander's last big battle.
Macedonian Advantages: TQ, heavier units, leadership
Indian Advantages: Unprotected Macedonian left flank, good defensive abilities of chariots and elephants.
The Indians actually have one small deployment decision to make, namely where to deploy the six archers among their otherwise javelin-armed MI. Given the slippage rule, the archers probably won't cause as much casualties as the high hit numbers on the missile tables would otherwise indicate. But notice their magnificent range (five hexes), and remember that units in range of enemy missile units can't recover. So place the archers where you're sure the Macedonians are going to attack (i.e. your left), with perhaps a couple on the other flank, to prevent them from recovering from your attack.
The extreme imbalance between the Macedonian wings dictates their strategy. The right flank is where decisive attack is going to happen, with the phalanxes chewing up the Indian MI if the game goes on long enough.
Conversely, the Indians are exactly balanced between their flanks. And although chariots don't get much respect in the designer's notes (or in their TQ rating of '4'), they do have some nuisance value. If nothing else, they're hard to attack frontally, as no unit type has superiority (well, SK do, but they're only on column '1') nor does anyone attack on a column better than '5'.
The elephants are somewhat in the same category, albeit more manueverable and with decent TQ ('6'). As usual, elephants won't win the game for you, but they can be a real pain for cavalry, they're hard to attack frontally, and even when they rout they've got a good chance of tapping an enemy unit for a few more cohesion hits.
Still, an army's in trouble when the EL have the highest TQ. And this army is facing Alexander.
(Indian right wing is strongest, so Abisares should join Spitaces)
(Abisares sends the EL forward obliquely, to block the Mac cav)
Clarifications: You really need the errata from
Diadochoi to play this battle, as several special
rules were omitted. (Grrr...)