30 games in 30 days - games 19 to 23

Introduction
Attempting to play 30 ancient games in 30 days using my own small table fast play rules to test out a programmed opponent.  A few more details at this introductory post.  Game 1 to 5 are here; Games 6 to 12 are here. Game 13 to 18 here.

Note this may be a bit of a dry read - there are only few pictures of each game and a lot of the text is about playtesting lessons learnt.

Game 19  Visigoths Vs Late Romans  (Day 20 - Thursday)

Romans 9left)  Vs Visigoths (right)

Not that happy with the deployment but could not think of a much better one.   There are a lot of skirmishers on the roman side.  I did a few more random force generation with them.  The first one had 1 foot skirmishers.  I think it was just an extreme randomisation to get 5 foot skirmishers.

End positions - Visigoths won by breaking the roman centre.

Well, the Visigoths managed to fairly easily beat the Romans by routing the centre.  The high fortitude warbands charged into the roman line and beat them.  Not their forefathers Romans!  Even though the Romans are armed with bows, they did use them effectively, so it was my fault they lost by not playing with their strengths.

Game 20 - Picts Vs Later Britain/Gaul (Day 21/22 - Friday/Saturday)

British (left) Vs Picts (right)

Centre much reduced of units.

British cavalry cleaned up the Pict left flank.

British wins, just at game end.

A bit of a slogging match - the two lines of infantry warriors have the same CV, and so did the cavalry against the other infantry warriors on the Pict left flank (post first clash).  So there was a few rounds of melee where no much happened, then a string of 6's saw the British centre break, and a string of 1's saw the Picts break. However, the Pictish general rolled a 1 in melee, signifying a leader killed check.  Subsequent roll of a 1 sees the general killed and the Pict army break.  It was another close game as the British were 2 units away from breaking as well.

Game 21 - Ptolemaic Vs Early Selucid (Day 22 - Saturday)

Attacker randomises terrain (based on Defender's terrain type), Defender chooses board edge to deploy and attacker moved first. Deployment is simultaneous and hidden from each side (a little irrelevant for solo play).  The programmed opponent takes care of all of this for you.  If both sides are defenders and so will not really attack one another, the attackers tactics become centre attack, as shown above.

Interesting deployment - almost a mirror image.  The Selucid better fortitude phalanxes and better army command has led to them having less other units.  It will be interesting to see how the game goes.

Selucids (left) Vs Ptolemaic (right)

The generals got locked into combat early on and stayed this way for the entire game (about 6 melees).

Generals in combat from turn 1 on.

Never have I seen so many 1's!  The Ptolemaic army rolled a 1 just about every time they were in melee.  This disordered them and subsequently routed them, and 4 units later they reached their breakpoint.  The Selucids lost some skirmishers and that was it.

End game. Selucid win due to Ptolemaic string of bad dice rolls.

Game 22 - Republican Rome Vs Later Carthage (Day 22/23 - Saturday/Sunday)

Six units for the Romans - the smallest force yet.  But with an army command of +2, it requires the Carthaginians to rout most of them.
Also noticed that I have previously made Triarii drilled (may wheel and move) but it is not showing up on this list.  Fixed it here and for other drilled troops.

Carthaginians (left) Vs Romans (right)

First zone order roll sees the entire Roman force go on the attack and rush for the centre.  No good as this will force them to advance quickly to engage, rather than advancing with the centre and protecting the flanks.  Luckily  the next turn they roll and are less excited - back to start orders.

Romans win, just.

Interesting battle. a close game that the Romans won, themselves only one unit from breaking. The legions won in the centre against the Libyans, but then the Carthaginian Veterans rolled up the centre legions.  finally the citizen infantry succumbed to the Triarii and the game was won by the Romans.  While I thought it would be hard for the Romans, quality does count a lot in the game (as designed).

Game 23 - Archemenid Persia Vs Lydian (Day 23 - Sunday)
I have caught up and now back on track - game 23 on the 23rd day.

Persia (left) Vs Lydia (right)

The unlucky Lydian general - a great move but unlucky and killed.

So unlucky!  Lydian General attacks the end unit of the battleline (ignoring the peltasts as they are unlikely to do much damage to the general unit).  It is Combat value 2 + 1(high fortitude) +2 Gerneral) +2 hock impact) - 1 single unit = 6 Vs 3 for the Sparabara. so a difference of 3.  Rolls a 1, gernal killed check - rolls a 1 - killed.  first combat of the game, General gone already!  so the unit survives, the the general ability is gone and each unit undergoes a morale check.

Lydians lose.

It was going to be hard for Lydia with te general gone.  And in fact they lost and Persia lost no units.  Losing a general early on hinders being able to move units and concentration of effort (the general's +2 bonus). The Lydians never recovered and the Persians controlled the game..

Thoughts
Really enjoying these battles and the rules are holding up very well.  I think so I far I have made 2 minor changes to the rules (last time was Game 7) and a few tweaks to the programmed opponent.  Hopefully after the last 8 games the rules can be considered by me stable and won't require much, if any, change from here on in. i feel a bit more confident reaching 30 games in 30 days.  Game 23 was on day 23 and the next 8 days are not very busy (yet!).  

30 games in 30 days - games 13 to 18

Introduction
Attempting to play 30 ancient games in 30 days using my own small table fast play rules to test out a programmed opponent.  A few more details at this introductory post.  Game 1 to 5 are here; Games 6 to 12 are here.

Note this may be a bit of a dry read - there are only few pictures of each game and a lot of the text is about playtesting lessons learnt.

Game 13 Ottonian Franks Vs Vikings (Day 13/14 - Thursday/Friday)
So I get out some Later Franks that have never seen the day and the Vikings again.  I really need to acquire some Bondi archers - I am using stand-in for them.  And more normal Bondi would be good too.

Vikings are on hold so deploy with the Woods anchoring one flank, the skirmisher in front of thee woods just in case.  The Franks are on envelop flanks but the right flank is deployed so they can avoid the woods.

Vikings on left, Franks on the right.

Frankish left flank with the Milites saw off the berserkers (no shieldwall defence), while the left flank lost two units and third stuck in combat with Bondi.  The centre Frank spearmen were finally lost and that is what lost the Franks the game.

End.  The Franks advanced but lost the centre.

Lesson
The WAIT zone order is very similar to HOLD, but after a charge, the order becomes charge.  WAIT is a good order for deployment, but not really much different from HOLD if changing orders.  So WAIT is now a special deployment order, and changing orders (to more aggressive or less aggressive) with ignore WAIT.

I also was concerned when the Frankish right flank cavalry moved to within 4cm of the Vikings with shieldwall ability.  The rules seem to indicate they would move, and hence lose the shieldwall bonus.  but luckily shieldwall is actually considered to be defending terrain, and when defending terrain you do not charge units that comes into your front zone.  I must have actually thought out the shieldwall rules when I wrote it - this is the first game I have used it!

Game 14 - Picts Vs Mid Imperial Rome (Day 15 - Saturday)
I am a currently a day behind :-(

The Pict Warband should be Battle infantry (since fixed).
And The mid-Imperial Romans had a error in the army lists that would generate a lot of Skirmish Auxilia and rarely the normal Auxiliary (sic) Auxilia. So I swapped out 3 of the Skirmish Auxilia for one Auxiliary Auxilia (high fortitude, long spears).

Pict skirmishers are in wood and also uncontrolled.  This means they will not move unless charge but will fire.  This frees up a group deploy that sees the slit between the light cavalry and infantry on the Pict left flank.

Romans on left Vs Picts on the right.

A very one sided battle.  The Picts reached their breakpoint with no  Romans routed.  While initial left flank Roman cavalry charge faltered due to poor die rolls, the Picts rolled so many ones I could scarcely believe it.  Especially for the left flank that rolled 1 for every move command bar the first and so did nothing.  The Picts were hampered by their inability to move and the battle was handed to the Romans.

End game.  Romans destroyed the Pict centre.

Game 15 - Greece Vs Macedonian Early Successor (Day 15 - Saturday)
I am back on track - halfway for the games, halfway through the time.

This is a battle of the skirmishers! I had a look at the army lists and random generator and generated some more random battles with these lists and the number of skirmishers appearing here is unusual, on both sides.
Hoplites should have some MP (now fixed).

Fairly standard setup for both sides, and both have centre attack.  I finally saw the stream on the deployment map!Streams reduce movement by 4cm and the banks provide a defence bonus.  They are not rivers, that I only use in scenarios.

Successor Macedonians on left Vs Greece on the right

I acquired this pikes last year from friend Andy Bryant - a brilliant painter.

Nicely painted - not my me but Andy Bryant - pikes and cavalry (not the skirmishers in front - I painted them about 20 years ago).

Greek win.  It was very close - The Greeks were only one away from their breakpoint    The Macedonians cleared their right flank, the Greeks cleared their right flank.  In the centre a few units of both sides were routed and it came down to the side that could get the flankers onto the centre units first.  It was the Greeks.  There was some terrible rolls at inconvenient times for both sides.

Note: no end picture - forgot.

Game 16 - Later Babylonian Vs Early Assyrian (Day 16 - Sunday)

The Assyrians have +2 command and lots of chariots and heavy spearmen.  It does not look good for the Babylonians.

Babylonians on left Vs Assyrians on right.

Well, I was wrong.  The Babylonians won. another close game - the Babylonians where one unit away from breaking.  Archery proved the decisive arm for the Babylonians - consistently out-shooting the Assyrians and even causing a few depletes and routs.  This is normally uncommon but with archers Vs archers it happens more.  The Assyrians easily won their right flank, helped by the fact the cautious general went to DELAY on turn 2 and never wavered (with DELAY, you do cannot advance).  The surprise was the Babylonian cavalry taking out a chariot and then going on the hit a Assyrian spearmen in the flank for another rout.

End game with a lot of routed units.

Lessons: none, working great.

Game 17 -  Later Imperial Rome Vs Sasanian Persia (Day 17/18 - Monday/Tuesday)
Ok, so I played five games with these civilisations the only other time I tested out the programmed opponent (in 2014).  But I like these armies, and Sasanian Persia is one of my favourites.  Yes, The army list uses Sassanid not the more recent Sasanian - I have gone and changed it.
camels should be CV 2, a carry over from older version of the rules.

The Sasanians seem very outnumbered but in quality hard hitters they are about the same.  The Sasanians have only 8 units and so are allowed to not deploy on one flank, in this case the left.  They are still going for envelop flanks though.  The high fortitude elephant in the centre will be interesting - it is one of the best units on the table!

Sasanian Persia (left) Vs Romans (right)

Another close game.  While I should be sick of writing that, it is always a good thing as I feel the rules are working for me. The Sasanian Persians, the side I was cheering for, lost.  The Romans were only one unit away from breaking.  The Romans managed to breakthrough on their right flank and then charged into the flank of the levy for the final win.  The Elephant was unlucky and was routed by the Legionaries.  The Roman Camel and Light Cavalry on the left flank managed to hold-up the Persian cavalry on that side.  The Persians should have done better but rolled poorly for both command rolls and combat.

Note: no end picture - forgot.

No lessons.

Game 18 -  Avars Vs Merovingian Franks (Day 19 - Wednesday)
The Franks and the "generic European dark age warriors (acquired in 1993) seem to be getting a good workout in this series of games.

While the Franks could have deployed in only two zones due to having less than 11 units, they (OK, me) chose not to, staying true to the envelop flanks tactics.  The centre is very light.  I do not think it may go well for the Franks.

Avars on right Vs Franks on the left.

Another close game and the Franks won by routing the Avar general.  The Franks were one unit away from breaking.  There were a lot of 1s and 6s in combat.  The Avar cavalry is not great and was outclassed, their bow-fire helping only slightly.  Against the infantry they did OK when two on one.

End. Another close game.

Lessons: No lessons, but I am happy with how bow armed shock cavalry is now working a lot better since I changed it due to looking into it further after the few few games in this series of battles.

Over half way!
I was doing really well the first couple of weeks but work has just got really busy and more stressful and has been for this week. It does mean I find it hard to be motivated to play the games, rather than just de-stressing by catching up on some TV shows.  I was also being good and not catching up much on the internet blogs and forums but I have succumbed.  I am still on track but not sure how I am going to go for the next 7-10 games.  They are still fun and absorbing to play, I am currently one day behind and the weekend is going to be busy doing other things so who knows if I will make it..  All the games seem to be close and I should get to the end if I can still find the time, and I may have to go over time :-(.

200,000 posts and a short retrospective

Introduction
Well, here I am at 200,000 and time for a short retrospective. i never thought I would get to 200, let alone 200,000!

It took nearly four years to get to 100,000 and only 22 months to get the next 100,000. I won’t go over the same ground as when I got to 100,000 and just really cover the last 22 months. Hits per month have been fairly consistent over the last two years months (3500-4000 per month) so I expect it will take about two years to get to 300,000.

Stats
Comments are about 500 on 140 posts. I respond to most comments but that still means I get about 1.5 comments not by me per post. Same as at 100,000. I have looked back over the last 5 years and I post about once a fortnight on average.  Sometimes I make posts quicker, or miss a few months but 24-28 posts per year seemed to be what I do. I cannot see an increase to this, at least for the next few years.

Most popular posts/pages (via Google Analytics, not Blogger):

1. WW2 rules ramblings and draft rules
2. Starfire with miniatures game
3. Take Cover!! WW2 rules review
4. Peter Sides ancient Scenarios list
5. Rally Round the King: Persians V Romans
6. Irregular Miniatures Ancients Rules Review
7. Ancient Battlelines Clash (rules)
8. WW2 1943 Eastern Front Take Cover report
9. Callinicum refight with Mighty Armies Ancients
10. Wars Ancient rules overview and battle report - Persians Vs Romans

Don't use Google Analytics if you love your blogger stats! While you can do far more analysis and detailed drill downs on blog data via Analytics, the hits are only about 50% (or are for me) than reported by blogger due to not recording bot or known spammers.

Similar to at 100,000, except for two:

• The Starfire game is really high and had only been posted for bout 6 months back then, so seems to be popular.  I am in the middle of playing 5 more Starfire games so will see how that goes when posted.
• The Peter Sides ancient scenarios list I had only started about 6-12 momths before the 100,000th post - it was early days for that too. 

Gaming overview
I have lost my way from original intent of the blog that was do some testing of various ancient rules.  I got sidetracked into writing my own solo friendly rules and began testing them about 3 years ago.

I did some WW2 during the first 100,000 but in the last few years also got sidetracked into writing my own WW2 rules (spot the pattern).

So, the last two years has been spent doing very little ancient wargaming but I played a lot of WW2, mostly solo but not always.

This year, I have been spurred to dig out very old minis for some games:

• Cold War (1980 vintage British and I acquired Soviet opponents via eBay)
• Medieval naval warfare in the channel  (also from 1980, played but not posted)
• 15mm SF skirmish (1988 SF figures I got from a friend)
• Bit more Starfire (recent miniatures acquisition but have been playing the game since the ziplocked bag version in the 80’s). I am halfway through a 5 game mini-campaign, not yet posted.

My best friend (also a gamer) moved back to Brisbane at the start of the year and we got in a few face to face games of Command and Colors: Ancients, and then he moved 3000 km away again :-(

But the "distractions" are nearly over.  I am back to ancients as of this month and concentrating on getting my own rules and programmed opponent ready.  I also have had ready for a while four ancient rulesets to try out but have been waiting for the ancient mojo to return. The only other side project I want to keep going with is 6mm WW2 my own rules.  I sure there will be other things that will come along, such as 20mm WW2 with a friend’s son (whom I have played a few games with already).

I re-started wargaming after many years with 2'x2' figure gaming in map drawers so my small children would not disturb them. That was 5 1/2  years ago and my children are now 9 and 7, don’t mind the odd game, and I can leave a game out and know it will not get touched.  But I now have nowhere to setup a larger game table!  The map drawers are so very useful for having multiple projects on the go and I am loving 2'x2' gaming.  I can see continuing with 2'x2' gaming for many more years.  By the way, the games successfully enjoyed by my children have been Warhammer Quest, Songs of Blades and Heroes, Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargaming, and my 7 year old son is showing interest in WW2 20mm gaming.

Song of Blades and Heroes with children (only one wanted to be in the picture).

Final words
Hopefully over the next few years look forward to a lot more ancient battle reports interspersed with 6mm and 20mm WW2 and the odd completely different project.

I still game mostly solo, and the club here meets on the weekends and that does not fit in with the family :-( If the opportunity arises for FTF, I will be there.

As mentioned in the 100,00th post, the gaming blogging community is still going strong and I cannot imagine a gaming life without it.  When I started blogging I did not dream how wonderful it would be and I am grateful and glad to be a part of it.  Thanks to all out there that continue to read gaming blogs, comment on them and/or write their own. Gaming is just that much better with you around.

30 games in 30 days - games 6 to 12

Introduction
Attempting to play 30 ancient games in 30 days using my own small table fast play rules to test out a programmed opponent.  A few more details at this introductory post.  The first five games are here.

I am still on track - I am up to day 12 and have completed 12 games.  I would have thought that weekends I may be able to squeeze in few more games and Monday was a public holiday in Queensland.  But I seem to be able to only manage one game per day.  A few more minor rules changes and the programmed opponent is holding up well.  I am using the programmed opponent for both sides.  If it keeps going with no changes, I may play a few games with me actually playing one side, and the programmed opponent the other. This is more likely how I would be using it anyway.

Note this may be a bit of a dry read - there are only few pictures of each game and a lot of the text is about playtesting lessons learnt.

Game 06 Italian Goths Vs Early Byzantium (Day 5 - Wednesday)
Very excited  - I have never used these Byzantine forces before - I have a whole DBM sized army but will only using a few.  Ah well, at least some of them see daylight.

A bit skewed as the opposite flanks to the heavier flanks are light on.

Byzantium (left) Vs goths (right)

Some of the never used Byzantines.

The skirmishers managed to rout this cavalry unit with good dice rolls.

A bit of Cavalry on Cavalry action.  Goth general is on the right.

End game - very close.

Goths lost, just.  Another very close game.  Close games are good - it may  mean the rules are fairly balanced for historical opponents, at least for my playing style anyway!

Lessons
I had updated the programmed opponent to account for bow armed heavy cavalry after the playtesting back in April 2014 (using Sasanian Persians rather than Byzantines) but noticed that the rules had them charging in reaction rather than firing.  Looking at older rules I had it correct, but somewhere I must have had some epiphany that bow army heavy cavalry would always charge units within 4cm rather than fire.  I think my epiphany was flawed, went back and looked at the tactics for these types of troops and have gone back to them firing.   The programmed opponent works correctly, just the rules themselves need reversion.

Also, I tried a few group splits in the game that failed.  Group splits require a 3+ and if it fails the entire group does not move.  This doe snot really make mush sense, especially on this game scale when moves may only last 3-4 turns.  So I have changed it so the if the group split fails, the entire group can still make a normal move if it rolled more than required for a normal move (a 1+ but their are a fee modifier than sometimes make this worse).

Game 07 - Early Carthage Vs Pyrrhic (Day 8 - Saturday)
I don't think I have ever used the Early Carthage chariots before.  I have 10 but only two make it to the table :-(

Note: Carthaginians chariots should not be impetuous - this is a leftover from when I had them as heavy chariots.

Carthaginians (left) Vs Pyrrhic (right)

The Pyrrhic general meleeing some Carthaginian spears and Hoplites.

The end.  Not many Pyrrhic forces left.

The Carthaginian General was routed and two other units routed in sympathy.  So the Carthaginians went from 0 breakpoints to 7.  One more and they lose. The Pyrrhic army is on 0 breakpoints  On the Pyrrhic turn they rolls three 1's in a row for combats.  This routs a phalanx, a unit of Hoplites and the general for a total of 8 breakpoints and the Pyrrhic army loses the game.  Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!

My daughter helped roll the dice in this game and the last and insisted on a photo.

No lessons learnt - everything worked fine for the game.

Game 08 - Early Byzantium Vs Merovingian Franks (Day 8 - Saturday)
I get the Byzantines out again - woo-hoo!  And I obtained some Carolingian Franks (close enough to Merovingian) that I have been wanting to use for about three years and have never hit my table.  So more figures from my collection that get out from the cupboard for the first time.

First off I note I have made the Byzantine cavalry impetuous when they should not be, especially as they are armed with bows.  So ignore the impetuous.

Byzantines (left) Vs Franks (right)

General on general action - the Byzantine general routs.

A Byzantine warband gets into combat and I think - "what is it doing there?"  I check against the army list (as above) and it is not listed.  And the Byzantines cannot have them either.  I think I may have got this base out planning on using them on the Frankish side but them decided against it but did not put it back and it somehow ended up with the Byzantine force.  and I did not notice until now! I kept playing with it as a warband.

Rogue warband (centre) in the Byzantine battleline

end

Byzantines lost.  The +2 Frankish command does mean that you have to rout well over half with only a few units on the table.  While I thought it was going to be a walkover for the Franks after the first two turns, the Byzantines managed to destroy two units before succumbing.

Lessons - none.

Game 09 - Viking Vs Carolingian Franks (Day 9 - Sunday)
More Franks on the table, and the Vikings again.  I am really enjoying getting some little used figures out onto the table.

Vikings (left) Vs Franks (right)

Frankish right flank zone orders changed from ATTACK to RUSH.  The latter is an all out charge, that suited the Franks just fine.

The rushing Frankish cavalry.

End.

The Franks easily won on the flanks, and the left flank turned to roll up the Viking battleline but rolled badly.  The Vikings were close to army breaking and only one Frankish cavalry unit lost.  The battlelines clashed and two units went down the Viking onslaught.  Then one more Viking unit was lost and a victory to the Franks.  It was a close game again.

Lessons: none

Game 10 - Parthia Vs Late Republican Roman (Day 9 - Sunday)
Well,this should be a good test for the rules - I haven't done Parthians before.  I think they will walk over the Romans. Especially as they are command +2 so the Romans have to rout most of the Parthians.

Persians (left) Vs Romans (right).  Romans leave their left flank blank.

I acquired these in the mid-1990s and are some of my favourite figures (Sasanian cataphracts standing in as Parthians).

Some of the "Parthian" miniatures.

Just before the main lines clash in the centre.

Cataphracts surround the Romans.  Both Generals at the right. 

Parthian General routs the Roman general and pursues into the other Roman unit. 

Other Roman unit routed.  Game over.

End game - the Romans have 3 units at the top left.

The Parthians won fairly easily due to poor tactics selected by the Romans..  If I was not using the programmed opponent I would have grouped the Romans in one flank and headed for the hill.  Sounds a little like what they did 2000 years ago.

Game 11 - Old Kingdom Egyptian Vs Nubian (Day 10 - Monday)
I realise I have no Old Kingdom Egyptians figures and so am using Middle Kingdom.  I also only have about a dozen Nubian bases, mostly skirmisher with javelins.  For Nubians, I have fleshed them out with Assyrian archers.

For this game,the Nubians have four commands they can deploy so deploy their right and centre as one command and three commands in the flank attack - three lines!  Archers to break it up, warriors that have to charge and then the final followup line.  I may have overdone it. The Nubians non-archers are poorer than the opposing spear/axe warriors and need flanks or to keep hitting them with successive waves.  The latter takes time they may not have. Note: this nearly worked.

The Egyptian left wing deploys on an angle so it can fit.  It moves for one turn, wheel in the next and then be out of the archers way.

Nubians (left) Vs Egyptians (right)

This may not be the easiest to explain  but Nubian left flank moves up and the Egyptian right flank moves up to within about 6cm.   Next turn archers fire and one Egyptian Spearmen is disordered but rest advance.  The archers retreat and are followed up.  Archers are routed but the ensuing pursuit for the Spearmen (the Axemen fail to pursue) brings the Nubian warriors into range who charge at the lone Egyptian.  It is depleted and retreats, one the the warriors pursues into the Axemen and the depleted Spearmen.

Halfway though a single turn on the Nubian left flank.  Egyptians are charging the  Nubian warriors after routing the screening archers

The Nubian warrior is depleted and retreats, the two Egyptians pursue into the Nubian warriors and the melee ends with all four disordered and a continuing melee.   All this based on reactions and die rolls.  I know I keep saying up but this is what I designed the game to do - be a great solo game and give lots of narrative to the game.

End of the turn and units are all in melee and disordered.

End.  Note the archer lines never moved.

The Nubian plan worked on their left flank and they managed to clear the Egyptians.  But the Egyptians cleaned up the Nubian right flank. The Nubians have lost more units and it only took the Egyptian general to destroy a couple more before the entire Nubian army broke.  It was close again. Neither line of archers moved, although the Nubian line had the potential do do so under their orders. They were evenly matched and it would have been a crap shoot.

Game 12 - Early Indian Vs Early Archemenid Persia (Day 11/12 - Tuesday/Wednesday)

Persians (left) Vs Early Indians (right)

The Indian General on the elephant, all ready to roll over the right flank. 

End - the Indians have done well on the flanks.

The Indians won.  I did not think they would manage it.  A lot of 6's on the Indian side, and a string of 1's when the Persians rolled saw 4 units go down, enough to break the Persians.  While the Indians won on one flank, it was only two units.  Thee other flank could have gone either way and really the Persians should have been able to roll up the Indian light infantry line.  But alas poor rolling saw a Sparabara go down to missile fire.  Very difficult to do - against Sparabara there is about a 1/18 chance of routing one purely by missile fire, assuming the target needs to be a single unit or it cannot really be done. So not often.

12 games down - how is it going?
It has been incredibly useful to get back to using these rules.  I feel the rules are cohesively coming together to provide a very fast solo friendly ruleset for 2'x2' (can you get any more niche that that :-) ). There have been a few changes to the rules and a tightening of the programmed opponent.  After 12 games I am being lulled into thinking that after 30 games the rules may be as close to final as they are ever going to get for 3000BC to 1000AD. Army lists I can see tinkering with forever but will publish the 80 or so I have done at the end of the 80 games.  Back in reality, I am bound to find something while replaying the Peter Sides ancient scenarios - indicating I should stop being lazy and do some more of them!  I am not finding it too hard to find the time to play one game a day but I have had to give up some other things. My ancients wargaming mojo is definitely back. Although when reviewing the blog,the games are becoming a blur! I am enjoying each game - most are very close, tons of fun and I am getting out loads of miniatures that have never been pushed around on a table.