Magnesia Playtest

Using some stand-ins until we get our actual figures in and painted, my buddy Adrian and I ran a playtest this morning. Bruce D. also was there and he played the Seleucids. It was a really good to play this game as we were all a little rusty with WAB; having not played it for quite some time. Only Adrian has the newer 2nd Edition rulebook, but we managed to incorporate the changes as we stumbled upon them.

Bruce played the Seleucids very well and Adrian played his Romans somewhat (too) conservatively. This led to us calling it at the top of Turn 6, as most of the heavy infantry hadn't even moved into contact yet.

The skirmishers on both sides did very well. Although the Dahae (or their Samurai stand-ins) were a bit too intimidating with their BS4. So much so that the Roman left hardly budged. The screen from the light horse even prevented the newly painted Companion wedge from entering the fray.

On the Roman right, their allied forces under Eumenes did very well. They had a strong contingent of Cretan archers who pretty much scared the Tarentines and Scythed Chariot (actually a Trojan War model standing in) from getting to close. They also destroyed a small Thracian Peltast unit. But the Peltasts did well in holding them off for awhile.

The Velites on the Roman right didn't fare too well against a small unit of Guard Hypaspists - well the Hypaspists do have a BS4 and had heavy armor and shields. Good for them!

In the center, as already noted - the heavy infantry didn't come into contact. The only blood the phalanxes drew was actual blood from Bruce's hand when he was moving his skirmishers. A pike actually stuck into his hand with the poor phalangite dangling below it. Too bad I didn't get a picture of it.

The elephants did manage to cause some fear in the Romans though.

Bruce's plan to move them out of stampede range of his own troops worked out when one of them lost its round of combat. They are practically indestructible with their metal barding, but didn't get enough lucky dice to kill enough Romans to win.

Again, the game was a great refresher of the basic and special rules. We will definitely be having another playtest or maybe two if we have time. When I got home the Old Glory figures I've been waiting on have also arrived!

As the Cable Guy (Jim Carey's version) would say, "Red knight's going down, down, down, down."