Friend Neil was very keen to get all his 2mm Macedonian and Persian figures onto the tabletop, so we put together a massive 240-points-a-side game of To The Strongest and prepared for war!

I would take the part of Alexander (gloriously handsome God-King: it was made for me) and Neil would play Darius (“everywhere I go, I hear men laugh at your armies and whisper your generals’ names like excuses”).

The Macedonians won the scouting and carefully deployed with their Companions on the right (a bit of historical accuracy always goes a long way), the rest of their cavalry on the left, and all their heavy infantry lined up in the centre. As I had the advantage of seeing where the Persians deployed before I had to commit, I made sure that my mercenary Hoplites were facing the Persian rabble, with the Macedonian pike lining up against the traitorous mercenary Hoplites fighting for Darius: a TTS version of rock-paper-scissors as Hoplites should beat Mobs and Pike should beat Hoplites. I also used the Take The High Ground stratagem to push my mercenary Hoplites forward two squares: I wanted to get in amongst those Mobs as soon as I could.

The Macedonians opened proceedings: intending to advance into contact with the enemy as soon as possible. Poor activation cards, however, meant that the advance was not quite as speedy as I’d hoped.

In return, the Persians largely hung back: the only exception being a strong advance on their right (i.e. opposite my weaker cavalry wing) obviously intending to overwhelm me there before swinging round my left flank.

Six units of veteran pike: lovely!

The initial Macedonian advance

The two wings were where the first fighting broke out. On my left wing, the superior Persian cavalry sent a hail of arrows my way, taking out two light units, and then advanced to contact with some Greek cavalry who were rapidly regretting their decision to accompany Alexander on his travels.

Meanwhile the Companions on the right had charged home and were slowly chewing their way through the deep Persian cavalry they faced. Average cards meant that rather than smashing them from the field at first contact, the Macedonian horse knocked the enemy backwards, but then got bogged down finishing the job!

Left - bad!

Right - good!

Meanwhile the Macedonian infantry were still trudging forward towards the traitor-Hoplites and Tribal Levies in front of them.

It seemed to take an awfully long time to actually get into melee, particularly as the aforementioned traitor-Hoplites, rather than standing fast to be skewered, retreated back to the edge of the table, unwilling to go toe-to-toe with my sarissas.

Message from Alexander to the pike: will you hurry up please!

Worse, my ally-Hoplites, who had managed to get into the contact with the enemy Mobs, were getting the worse of the melee that followed: the Tribal Levies dishing out Disorder markers like there was no tomorrow. Perhaps it was because, given Darius’ nature, they knew that if they lost there would be no tomorrow, whether they survived the battle or not!

So that’s the left flank lost; the pike left of centre still striving to make a proper impact; the Hoplites centre-right not winning; and the Companions on the right stuck chewing through dense masses of horseflesh.

Not exactly where I wanted things to be at this stage of the battle!

What I was most nervous of was the left flank: Neil had at least two spare light cavalry units that could sweep around and either go for my camp or, more likely, crash into the back of my pikemen…and I’d be in even more trouble (or rather Trouble, with a capital T) if his veteran horse with Darius at their heads could dispose of the levy Greek cavalry they were currently fighting.

On top of that, he had managed to get some cavalry onto the flank of one block of pike who had ‘bravely been volunteered’ to act as a roadblock to the advancing enemy horse.

The Persians right: two spare light cavalry units (top leftish), elite cavalry attacking Greek levies (bottom centre), and flanking the pikeman road block (centre, slight right)

It was therefore with some relief that I realised that the potentially-flanking light cavalry seemed paralysed into inactivity, and the actually-flanking cavalry failed to contact the left-hand pike unit in the side, allowing the pikemen to turn and present them with a wall of spikes!

Even better, the raw Levy Greek Cavalry found some grit from somewhere and managed to (a) kill Darius himself and (b) disorder the Persian elite horse: for once a bit of luck going my way.

With the left now safe for the moment, it was time to win the battle elsewhere…and my thoughts, along with those of every Macedonian infantryman, were: where are the bl*@dy Companions?

Well they were finally here: on the right, behind the Persian lines, exactly where they were supposed to be.

Having disposed of the deep horse in front of them, the Companions, Alexander at their head, executed a neat left pivot and moved to first threaten, then smash from the field the Persian Mobs that had been causing the Hoplites so much trouble.

Yes: take a good look at your impending doom!

Here it comes!

That was the last of the Persians coins gone, but it had not been an easy battle for the Macedonians: look at the pile of my lost victory medals next to the Persian camp in the picture above: had the Companions not finally got their act together, or if Neil had got his right flank moving as I feared, then things could have been very different indeed.

But they did and he didn’t, so a win for the MaccyD’s: although I have now been challenged to a re-match, so we shall have to see how that goes…