Antigonids vs Seleucids

This 15mm game was played at Tom's at the end of September 2023. 

This game was a battle between Macedonian Successor states. The Antigonids with Thracian allies and Greek mercenaries are facing the Seleucids with Persian cavalry and Parthian allies.

The Antigonids deploy their Thracian allies in the woods on their right with the phalanx to their left, then the Companion Cavalry and Greek mercenaries and finally the Greek mercenary cavalry on the far left. The Seleucids place their Parthian allies on the far right with peltasts and light infantry linking them with the pike phalanx. To their left was another group of peltasts and light infantry forming the link to the Persian cavalry on the left.

The two pike phalanxes find themselves facing their opponent's peltasts who move forward to hold the cultivated land. On the Antigonid left, their cavalry move forward, charging and forcing back the Parthian light horse and the supporting peltasts only to be charged in return by the Parthian cataphracts, losing two units in the process. The remaining Greek cavalry are slowly forced back towards the hill in their deployment area, the peltasts and light troops defending the cultivated land.

On the Antigonid right their C-in-C moves the Companion cavalry across the front of their phalanx to confront the Persian cavalry. The Persian cavalry charges the Companions, initiating a prolonged cavalry melee resulting in three out of the four Companion cavalry units being routed. However, the Persian horse are so weakened that the remaining Companion cavalry unit and the Thracians hold them in check and finally defeat them.

The Antigonid phalanx is first delayed by their own Companion cavalry and then by repeated charges from the Seleucid scythed chariots and elephants but eventually move forward and force back the Seleucid peltasts holding the cultivated land.

The Seleucid phalanx, facing the heavy going, moves their attached chariots and elephants to the left to support the peltasts facing the Antigonid phalanx. They break up their phalanx to move two units in order to support their peltasts and another to move between the cultivated land and the oasis to attack the Antigonid mercenary hoplites, forcing them to retire.

At the end of the game the casualties were about even and both sides had lost their left flanks, so the game ended in a draw.