MMcG01 Epic Magnesia (190 BC)

EPIC Magnesia (190 BC)Historical BackgroundFollowing his defeat...

MMcG01 Epic Magnesia (190 BC)

2 games played; swapping sides. Both Seleucid wins by a landslide... 8:16. Both good games and maybe no less balanced than most other Epic scenarios.

In our games, the Seleucid wings proved very strong in complementary ways compared to their Roman counter-parts and their centre was never in danger of disruption as victory could be pursued at leisure elsewhere.

Perhaps a command of 7 would rein the Seleucids in a bit but maybe there should be fewer of them as well, to make the historical narrative more likely.

If we take the classical sources as reliable (which is never clear), then the Romans were outnumbered about 5:2

Roman advantages were their built up experience from the Punic wars, and tactical flexibility. 
Antiochus wasn't inexperienced either, and brought a menagerie of troops (probably to keep an eye on them).

Scipio sought out a battle, before being replaced, deliberately opening his right flank.

From this starting point, there needs to be a way to have the Roman flanks do better. In the playtest that the Romans won, they crushed the Seluccid centre, which is also ahistorical. Potentially more Pergamese cavalry units? 

 

Mark-McG wrote:

If we take the classical sources as reliable (which is never clear), then the Romans were outnumbered about 5:2

Roman advantages were their built up experience from the Punic wars, and tactical flexibility. 
Antiochus wasn't inexperienced either, and brought a menagerie of troops (probably to keep an eye on them).

Scipio sought out a battle, before being replaced, deliberately opening his right flank.

From this starting point, there needs to be a way to have the Roman flanks do better. In the playtest that the Romans won, they crushed the Seluccid centre, which is also ahistorical. Potentially more Pergamese cavalry units? 


 

Worth a try - I certainly hope to play this scenario a few more times.

Perhaps one of the issues is that "menagerie" and the way it interacts with CCA - having powerful units of all types means you're very likely to have great potential in your hand all the time, at least after some minimal reorg of the line. Whereas, I imagine in history that such a disparate force would in fact have been harder to manage.