Magnesia revisited – will history repeat itself?

By Sid Bennett

 

So, the day finally arrived, one last minute drop out because of man flu but 6 players, so ideal. At this point, I should mention the extra rule I drafted but kept secret from the Seleucid players. It was typed out and in a sealed envelope given to the player running Eumenes (Mike Baldwin) with instructions to be opened only upon the loss of a scythed chariot unit to shooting or melee. 

The game was laid out, with the Seleucids opening the batting. The Scythed chariots and some LI were deployed forward. All units were deployed as they were historically.

It looked quite impressive, we all arrived on time at 1100 hrs apart from Eumenes, bloody Greeks on their own timetable, unlike the iron discipline of Romans. By the time we laid out the cloth, figures and labelled the units we started the first moves at high noon. 

 

It wouldn’t be long before phalanx and legion clashed!

Seleucus (Michael Lane) threw his scythed chariots forward, well tried to, as he drew an ace. This slowed down his entire wing. Eumenes and the Pergamene allied with Roman cavalry support opposite, did little better. 

In contrast the pikes under Philip Master of Elephants (John Gallacher) rumbled forward but Antiochus (James Churchill) was a little tardier with his cataphracts. In contrast the veteran legions surged forward throwing their Velites forward.

Historically the phalanx was deployed with elephants between units. Generously, this gave the Selucids an extra attack dice, hitting on an 8 though. The phalanx was also deployed 32 deep so could take four hits! The Romans were in for a tough fight!

My command on the far left as Domitius Ahenobarbus managed 8 shooting attacks, missing every single one! Although Scipio (Martin Beaumont) managed better thinning out some of the raw skirmishers screening the Seleucid centre. 

The left-hand legion of veterans (classic old school 25mm figures dwarfed by their modern comrades from Renegademiniatures) were more cautious of the cataphracts opposite and worked on whittling down the skirmishers in front of them. Meanwhile Scipio worked to clear out the centre with his veteran legions. Eventually the Seleucid left got going, throwing the scythed chariots forward but being careful not to get too close with the supporting line of cavalry. Someone has read their Appian!

 

Seleucus went forward with his chariots, and the centre one was destroyed by Velites. Or so he thought…Eumenes opened the envelope which read as follows

“Special Scythed chariot (SC) scenario rule. When a SC unit is destroyed it rampages as normal but stays on table. At the very start of each Seleucid player turn (before the Seleucids start activations) the SC rampages again in the direction of the Seleucid baseline. This continues until it reaches the baseline box, when it is removed. If it rampages through any unit it continues through it as if it has interpenetrated. If it ends up in a box with a unit, it is positioned in the other side of all units in that box. It can overstack in that case. No unit may voluntarily move into a box containing a rampaging SC unit.”

The chariot went backwards landing just short of the cataphract line. The following Seleucid turn, it rampaged again before the Seleucids could move and veered diagonally into the Companions, who decided to evade but failed to do so! Fortunately, only one of the two rear attacks landed but the save was failed. This left the companions facing away and on the base line. Seleucus managed to activate them to go back towards the Pergamene line but disordered – spoiler alert they stayed this way for the rest of the game! This disrupted and delayed the entire flank. The reaction of Seleucus was strong and colourful to say the least! I imagine a similar reaction was made by Seleucus in the actual battle. Much unkind hilarity was heard from the Roman side of the table. 

In contrast, the Seleucid Cataphracts and Agema on the other wing were having a much better time. They had crushed the single unit of Roman cavalry and destroyed many of the Velites after a hard fight. This enabled them to turn the Roamn wing. They considered pushing onto the Roman camp, but unlike in the real battle, Antiochus avoided the temptation of 9 coins sat with a single raw Javelin garrison. Would this be the right decision? Only time would tell.

The centre was a different story. In contrast the legions artfully combined Velite skirmishing with line relief to stay in the fight and slowly grind down the pike. The veteran escorted elephant despite an early disorder, simply stayed in the fight shrugging off attack after attack. This enabled the flanking cataphracts to stay linked to the pike line. 

On the Roman right, things looked close. The Thureophoroi were being destroyed by the pike and the Seleucid cavalry were finally moving. Seleucus had decided to not even try activating the scythed chariots as he was still in shock after the disaster with the companions. 

The Roman left was struggling, the loss of a legion to the cataphract charge had left a massive hole in the line. There was half a legion left on the far left, but it was overextended and isolated. All it could do was to pull back from contact. Fortunately, it still had a general to help. The mist that covered the battlefield was making command and control and nightmare!

The centre was doing much better continuing to chip away at the centre pikes who had lost their integral elephants. If the pike failed a save on an ace then it not only lost a hit but had to make a further save against an integral rampage plus a normal rampage was made to the rear. So although the pikes had 4 hits and an extra attack, it could go wrong. Eventually it did!

 

 

The end was nigh. The Romans were down to their last 4 coins and after a disastrous turn when another cavalry unit two more Quincunx had been lost.

The Seleucids were even worse off and down to their final coin.  A scythed chariot was routed by Velites and crashed through friendly LI and an elephant (which did survive). The loss of two pike blocks, which were finally ground down by the legions had snatched another massive 8 coin loss. The Legions had now broken through the centre and Scipio took the the decision to turn to the right and finish off the elephants and pikes on that side rather than try to shore up the crumbling Roman left flank. 

The Roman right under Eumenes had been pushed back but the Seleucids were too far back to take advantage of the space and numbers they had. The early disaster with the scythed chariots still impacting them on this side. 

The roman left was in chaos. Two Quincunx with two hits each and no more line replacement as they were down to the Triarii! Antiochus considered rallying his cataphracts to be more effective to finish off the Quincunx ahead but then realised an evens successful rally would lose him the game and thought better of it. The raw garrison in the camp also dissuaded him from attacking it. 

Tension was high and Seleucus saw a chance to seize victory with his disordered Companions. Before using them to sweep to Victory, Seleucus, son of Antiochus the Great rallied his men to him for a final charge. They rallied with a great shout of “oh bugger”, as the rally card was a 6! The last medal was expended!

 

A great game which was close and down to the wire. It was great to be able to put out large numbers of Quincunx on the table which although points expensive, so not a competition army, are interesting. Combined with Velites they can be very effective. At no point were the Triarii detached from any legion. The game went on long enough that some legions went down to the line relief using Triarii. 

The scenario rule of not losing coins to a successful line exchange on an evens card, kept Rome in the fight otherwise the Seleucids would have won. 

The game played much like history; Antiochus smashed through the legions but in our game avoided the camp. The Seleucid cataphracts disrupted their own left, although not as badly as in history. Then the legions eventually and after a hard fight broke the pike, mostly because of the elephants in close support. 

When you exclude lunch, we probably played for a solid 3 hours, which is a credit for how To the Strongest ruleset handles large multi-player games. A really enjoyable game and we got to get all the toys out of the box. 

This was one of several refights the Studz have played over the last year. Each with scenario rules to spice things up. These go from the ridiculous, such as at Chaeronea not allowing any unit with Phillip to march (he had a limp from a wound). To the more considered such as at Kadesh allowing Egyptian light chariots to melee with Hittite heavy chariots. These little touches make each game unique and interesting. 

To all our readers, we wish you a great 2026! Hope to see you in Firestorm Games in the New Year.