Warhammer Ancient Battles. Korupedion 281BC.

On the cusp of 2016 Mr. Ireland & I finally got to put on our first war-game of 2015 & it was a good one, well not for me I lost!

Left wing cavalry combat.

The respective phalanxes advance in line oblique.

Hitting a Walnut with a sledge hammer.

Paul ( Lysimachus) won the initiative & elected for a general advance on his left & in the centre whilst refusing his right flank, I ( Seleucus) elected to advance everywhere resulting in combats on both wings. The fight between the two units of Companions & the Thracians on my right wing ended with the Thracians routing & being destroyed in the subsequent pursuit whilst on the other wing my Tarentines & Paul's Getae fought to a stalemate.

Some desultory archery accompanies the slow plod of the phalanxes

Companions begin to turn a flank

The impasse between the Tarentines & Getae continues for a while on the left, but the balance swings in my favour when the two ridden Elephants hit the flank of the Getae, who are destroyed in the pursuit, another melee develops alongside between Paul's peltasts & my levy infantry. In the centre two of my phalanxes & the towered elephant begin to square off with Paul's hoplites in the broken ground beyond the trees. The remaining heavy infantry continue to eyeball each other in the centre

From the Lysimachid baseline, Hoplites defend the village.

Heavy infantry clash across a stream. Seleucid dross & Lysimachid Peltasts  contest the rough ground beyond.

At this stage things are going pretty much my way with Paul's right flank & right centre broken wide open. At this stage we pause for a hearty lunch of mashed potato, baked beans & decent pork sausages. It would seem my troops also paused for lunch and probably a gallon or two of wine each because the turn after lunch things go tits up fairly rapidly.

Paul's right is in disarray, victory seems to be in my grasp.

The phalanxes finally clash.

The phalanxes in the centre finally get their fingers out & pile into combat, unfortunately for me so does Paul's solitary elephant: result, two of my phalanxes break & my one spare unit of companions also fails a terror test & flees, along with Seleucus. Game over.
Thats it really, a terrible result for me but good fun. For once the elephants on both sides proved decisive, not a solitary stampede despite some missile hits damage early in the game. Both our heavy cavalry units were signally useless, fighting out a stalemated combat for much of the game. Star units were Paul's elephant, his archers & my Tarentine cavalry. Abject failures were three of my phalanxes, but this is not un-expected, I rarely have much luck with them for some reason.