I tweaked my Scythian (#77) army from earlier in the year - basically the Saka option to represent Yuezhi cataphracts with a Mountain Indian ally. I swapped a lot of the light horse I had used for infantry bowmen to give myself a little more flexibility if there was terrain in the game (and also to push myself to paint the unused Nepalese bow elements I had for this army - original build as a Tibetan one, but easily morphable to other Central Asian options).
First game in the morning was against Michael and his Achaemenid Persian (#64). On my left flank I placed my Mountain Indian command opposite his infantry command (that included two units of Immortals), in the middle my infantry bowmen with cavalry and light horse support faced off mainly against heavy cavalry bow Persians, and on my right my cataphracts were opposite a bowmen and a mix of heavy cavalry and light horse command.
I was lucky with the shooting I received early in the game being ineffective, but in turn three I took a bit of a hammering - and it delayed my charge of the Mountain Indians.
But charge they eventually did (photo above is from just beforehand), hammering in and cutting open the lines (first time seeing the benefit of an elephant in ADLG). Meanwhile on the other flank I managed to use my most expensive units to chase light horse around the board. I wasn't thinking (again!).
Unsurprisingly I lost the game, but a few simple corrections in deployment and tactics could've seen a vast improvement in results.
In the afternoon I played against Tyler with his Cyrenian Greek (#58). His army seemed to be pretty much unchanged from the game earlier in the year. I deployed my Mountain Indian command opposite the terrain (off to the left in the photo below), with my cataphracts opposite two foot commands.
On my right flank I placed my archers and supporting mounted elements, slightly refused (but not enough as it turned out). There's also three unpainted elements in the back (the horror, the horror!).
Because these guys would come thundering in. Again.
I was able to shoot, retreat and shoot again a few times and take down two of the chariots, but my infantry bowmen suffered rightly for being in the open. They got crushed under hoof and steel, with the remaining Greek chariots and elite horsemen mopping up the leftovers.
Meanwhile, back in the middle of the battle, there was a bit of chaos with my poor rules knowledge showed as I was flank charged a few times for particular set ups (slides and semi-exposed flanks).
However, my elephant did have success again and punched through the lines to cause cohesion drops on the Greek hoplites behind the main line.
But yet again, this was all not enough - I failed to keep my troops together; "look at all these little things! So busy now! Notice how each one is [not] useful. A lovely ballet ensues, so full of form and colour." The game was a lot closer as I had a plan (charge with the cataphracts and elephant), although the cataphracts all got destroyed (as Tyler divided them up to deal with each one in turn).
A few tweaks to the list is needed, but nothing major. The elephant and supporting medium spearmen were good performers, the infantry bowmen were just poorly utilised. Let's see what next month brings.
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