The (Unofficial) Great Battles of History
The Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucids, 166-160 BC
This module covers six battles of the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucids, and was published as a two-parter, in C3i issues 2 & 3. The battles are:
I generally prefer GBoH's smaller scenarios, so at first I was pleased to see this module published. Figuring that these would make great teaching scenarios, I gave them a shot.
Unfortunately, they're not very competitive. I like the elaborate production values -- background history, die-cut counters (from War Elephant), even a cover sheet in the magazine, but I'm disappointed that so much effort went for so many trivial scenarios.
Balance: 99.99% Judean
Attraction: A small Seleucid detachment gets ambushed on the march by an elite Judean force.
Judean Advantages: Mobility, surprise, leadership, high TQ.
Seleucid Advantages: The scenario will be mercifully short.
Two Seleucid Phalanxes face the Maccabeans with two each MI and LI.
Let's ignore the scenario's numerous special rules and pretend it's a straight up fight. Looking at the combat tables, you'd think PH should mop up MI, much less LI. But since the MI/LI are faster, they can orderly withdraw whenever the PH advance. And since they move faster, and don't pay cohesion penalties for turning, and the PH have no one guarding their flanks, the MI/LI can pretty easily manuever for a flank attack vs the PH.
An MI/LI attack on a PH flank (guaranteed attack superiority) stands an excellent chance of routing a TQ6 PH in a single round of combat.
Now remember that the Seleucids will take extra Cohesion hits from Pre-Shock TQ checks and Judean missile fire. And it's not a straight-up fight: the Seleucids must march in column, lowering their TQ to 4. There's a 20% chance they'll rout from the Pre-Shock TQ check!
The TQ9 Judeans are effectively immune to Pre-Shock checks, and each unit has its own leader, adding a minimum of 5 to the shock resolution die roll. (The sole Seleucid leader is useless in shock combat.)
With all these handicaps, the only way the Seleucid can win is if all the Judean leaders die in melee. Not very likely. Not very fun.
Don't even bother.
Balance: 99.99% Judean
Attraction: A slightly larger Seleucid detachment gets ambushed on the march by an elite Judean force.
Virtually the same (map, special rules, etc.) as Nahal el-Haramiah, except that there are twice as many units on both sides. Some Maccabeans will be TQ8 instead of TQ9, and Seleucid leadership is marginally better. But these minor additions make no difference; the scenario is still a blowout.
Balance: 90% Judean
Attraction: An encamped Seleucid force sends out a heavily-armed detachment to engage the Judean army camping nearby. But the Judean campfires are a ruse! As the detachment runs off on a wild goose chase, the main Judean army attacks the Seleucid camp, now denuded of heavy troops....
Judean Advantages: Mobility, surprise, leadership, high TQ
Seleucid Advantages: Camp effects, unit size
The scenario begins with a five-turn prelude as the Seleucid heavy detachment (4 HI, 2 LI, led by Gorgias) attempts to engage the Judean rear guard (2 LI under Simon). The 3:1 Seleucid advantage in units (38:4 in size points!) is not as overwhelming as it appears, given the superior Judean TQ and mobility. Simon can either OW off the map, or try to get around an exposed flank and knock off two HIs and an LI to rout the detachment.
Ordinarily, Simon's choice would be obvious if a flank is open, but much depends on the interpretation of what happens to leaders of a routed contingent when the rest of the army stays in place? In other words, is Gorgias then free to join the main force, instead of trying to engage the Judean rear-guard with his now-nonexistant troops? If so, Simon should exit the board just to keep Gorgias (the only decent Seleucid leader) out of play.
At dawn (turn 6), the Judean main force enters play and the battle proper begins. Unable to take advantage of momentum on the turn he enters play, Judah's arrival will awaken the Seleucid camp (shown in the diagram) in time for at least one activation per leader.
Here the Seleucids face their first problem: their inferior initiative ratings. They can automatically get Line Commands in the camp (although they can't use Ragged Line), but with initiatives of two and three they aren't going to be getting much momentum (or, later on, doing much rallying). Since the Judeans can get over the walls on the turn after they enter, there's not much time to get prepared.
Worse, the Seleucid initial deployment is, ahem, suboptimal. What do you expect for a surprise attack? The phalanxes will need to do some wheeling maneuvers to get into position, and for the double-size units that means TQ hits. Worse, lots of infantry and cavalry are blocking the PH's path to the walls, so has to be moved out of the way first, using up those precious Seleucid activations.
The light cavalry really wants to fight in the open, out of the way of the phalanxes and where its extra mobility may allow some flank attacks. But as soon as they're out of the camp, the automatic Line Command capability disappears, too, and the resulting movement possibilities look pretty feeble. I think they're better off used, ironically enough, to man the walls.
If one leader moves the cavalry, that leaves the other leader to do something with the LI. Those units, with only TQ 4, aren't much help versus the Judeans, but it's best to get them out of the way rather than trying to work the phalanxes around them.
Seleucid leadership is so bad that there's little reason to not try for Momentum. Who knows, maybe the Judeans will blow their Trump roll?
The quicker the Judeans can reach the camp walls, the more disorganized the defense will be, making it easier to infiltrate. The tradeoff is the extra cohesion hits from moving units again during the same turn. Fortunately, the outstanding Judean TQ levels (mostly 8, with the few 7s and 6s balanced by a couple of 9s) allow the two leaders (Judah and Johanan) to push hard without ruining their army.
Still, too many moves in too few turns, combined with terrain effects on cohesion, can rack up a good number of hits in a hurry. The TQ levels are high enough that you can shrug off one, two, maybe even three hits. But once you get four, even those TQ 8 units are vulnerable in combat. Consider: the most common combat results are 2s and 3s. Sure, your unit can handle another two hits (six total), but you're then terribly vulnerable to counterattack. The Seleucid won't think twice about risking a measly 4 TQ unit to rout one of yours worth twice as much.
In spite of the caveats above, the Judean should have little trouble routing the Seleucids. His leadership and TQ advantages are just too great.
I didn't try the Free Setup scenario, which leaves the Seleucid heavy force in camp and takes away some of their idiocy rules, but it looks like it might be a reasonably balanced variation of the historical scenario.
Clarifications:
Balance: 98% Judean
Attraction:
Judean Advantages: Mobility, surprise, leadership, high TQ
Seleucid Advantages: Judeans may quit from boredom before routing your army
This scenario is for those of you that couldn't get enough of Nahal el Haramiah or Beth Horon. This time an army of impressive size, if zero strategic sense, gets vivisected by those sneaky Judeans. You'd think the Seleucids would have learned not to go through mountain passes without scouting first.
The scenario rules allow the Seleucid to take a tortuous path, filling up as many level five hexes as possible with a snaking column to deny deployment areas to the Judeans. But at some point, you've got to go through that tiny mountain pass, and then the Judeans have you.
If you've got to play an ambush scenario, stick with Nahal el Haramieh. You'll get the same results with much less effort.
Not much to say here. The scenario instructions make this out to be such a foregone conclusion that there's no setup instructions (hence no map to show you) or withdrawal levels. I don't mind giving some thought to an S&M scenario, but I'm certainly not going to do so if I have to wing it.