Thursday's Game: WRG 6th Edition

Last night David Knight and I refought the Battle of Magnesia using David's 25mm figures and WRG 6th Edition Rules. This battle is interesting because it is one of the few times where Roman heavy infantry armed with Pilum faced the Macedonian pike phalanx in a pitched battle.

In the battle, Antiochus III lead the cavalry charge on the Seleucid right flank which annihilated the Roman left flank. Unfortunately, Antiochus charged off with his cavalry to loot the Roman camp, leaving the rest of his army to be destroyed by the Romans!



We started the battle with a historical deployment, which had each army split into three forces each under a general. The Roman general, Lucius Cornelius Scipio, was accompanied by his uncle Scipio Africanus, who had defeated Hannibal in Africa.

The first turn saw the Romans advancing aggressively on the right and in the centre, while the loose order infantry on the left held back. The Seleucids responded with a general advance. The Numidians engaged one of the scythed chariots with javelins causing heavy casualties.

The general advance continued in the second turn, with the scythed chariots attempting to charge the Numidians and the Pergamene heavy cavalry. The scythed chariot that had taken casualties failed its morale test and refused to charge and was charged in turn by the Numidians. The Pergamene cavalry counter charged and managed to ensure that the scythed chariot didn't get up enough speed to do any real damage. One chariot was destroyed and the other took 19 out of 2o casualties, causing it to rout.

In turn three the infantry in the centre all charged, the Seleucid cavalry charged the slingers, who evaded and pursued into the Aeotolian peltasts. The slower Agema cataphracts, not being close enough to charge the Greeks yet, continued to advance. On the right the Italian cavalry charged the Kappadocian peltasts and the Kappadocian skirmishers tried to charge the rallying Pergemene heavy cavalry but failed and routed!

Seleucids in Trouble on the Right

Big Fight in the Centre

The heavily armoured Seleucid cavalry had no trouble breaking both units of Aeotolians on the left. In the centre the Romans managed to break the leftmost phalanx which was spread out in two ranks and thus more vulnerable. The elephant on the right was pushed back but the Seleucids won all the other combats and pushed back most of the Roman infantry.

In the fourth turn, the Seleucid Agema charged and destroyed the Greek peltasts, leaving Gracchus all alone with no troops! In the centre a desperate Philippos charged the unengaged Roman Triarii to prevent them from charging into the flank of the rightmost phalanx. The elephant that had been pushed back failed its morale test for seeing the phalanx routing and joined in the rout. The combat in the centre continued with one of the Roman units breaking but the rest of the line holding. On the right, the Italian cavalry broke while the remaining Roman units positioned themselves for charges. Surrounded by cavalry, the Peltasts formed a square around Seleucus.

At this point, we ran out of time and had to call a draw. I think if we had continued the Romans would have been defeated. The battle in the centre could have gone either way at this point but the Seleucid heavy cavalry were now in a position to start moving towards the centre and to hit the Romans in the flank. Philippos would have been almost certain to die in turn five as the Roman Triarii lapped around onto both flanks but his sacrifice prevented the flank charge which would have rolled up and destroyed the Seleucid centre.