Cunaxa Revisited

Time for one more play-test before we take our Cunaxa game with Alala! to the Society of Ancients Battle Day on 29 March.

The game opens with Artaxerxes’ chariots surging forward against Cyrus’ Greek hoplites. The hoplites are unable to open ranks to let the chariots through as they do not hold an open ranks card (more on this later). Proxenus’ hoplites suffer a fair amount of disorder before the enemy chariots crash.

Not to be outdone Cyrus sends forward his single chariot and we get a bit of chariot on chariot action. Fortunately I had come up with a simple rule to deal with such an unlikely occurrence. The die rolls resulted in mutually assured destruction — both chariots crash and are knocked out of action. Perhaps we should have painted up some crashed chariot models!

One of Artaxerxes’ chariots rampages back towards their own lines and is poised to crash through a unit of Persian infantry. They do have an open ranks card and so the chariot passes harmlessly through. This puzzles me as only Cyrus’ card deck should have had such a card. It turns out I had given the wrong card decks to each side! We took it that a renegade Spartan must have been training the Persians and then swapped the decks to their intended players.

Artaxerxes advances rapidly and aggressively with his right wing. Cyrus leads his bodyguard cavalry to meet them but takes significant missile casualties before the clash and Cyrus himself is seriously wounded. The fight sways back and forth with Cyrus’ and Artaxerxes’ cavarly passing through each others' ranks. Despite light cavalry reinforcements coming up, Cyrus’ outnumbered men are being seriously worn down by weight of numbers and missiles.

On the other wing the Tissaphernes player calls on the Dice Gods to aid his endeavours.

It seems to have worked. His archers score 4 hits on Episthenes’ Paphlagonian light cavalry —  knocking them out of the game.

Undaunted Episthenes leads his peltasts to drive off Tissaphernes’ takabara as Tissaphernes’ cavalry move up to threaten Clearchus’ advancing hoplites.

Tissaphernes’ cavalry charge the hoplites but there could only be one outcome no matter how much the Dice Gods smile upon him this day. The Persian cavalry are driven back with casualties as the Greeks barely flinch.

Now the Greek hoplites charge the Persian Infantry. Proxenus’ men on the Greek left are not in the best of shape. They still feeling some of the effects on the earlier chariot charge and during their advance to contact one of their units takes significant casualties from Persian archery.

In our last test game the Persian infantry broke before contact. This time they give a very good showing. Two of their units hold the Greeks to a standstill and one succeeds in pushing back Proxenus’ hoplites.

On the Persian left the news is not so good. Not only is their left hand unit facing Clearchus’ Spartans, Episthenes’s peltasts have come in on their flank. The Persians are driven back.

The crunch is coming on Artaxerxes’ right were he and his massed heavy cavalry, supported by light troops, have been getting the better of Cyrus. As the two brothers fight it out only one will be king. His bodyguard worn down to only a couple of men Cyrus is captured and I fear he may not survive his captivity.

By capturing Cyrus, Artaxerxes has won a decisive victory despite Clearchus’ and Episthenes’s success on the other wing. It looks like Cyrus’ Greek mercenaries have a long march home. Our previous game saw Cyrus vicrtorious, this time it was Artaxerxes. It seems like we have the balance right.

Although designed for hoplite on hoplite games, Alala! rules with the Persian amendments worked really well. I have published an updated version of the Persian amendments on my website here. One important learning for me was to make sure the right players get the right card decks!