Cold Wars 2001

I continued the story line at the next HMGS convention, namely Cold Wars 2001. Here I ran the same scenario twice but with different titles to capture each side's point of view of the situation. The titles were, "Eumenes is a Filthy Greek" and "Antigonus is an Illegitimate Scoundrel". I think those titles really captured the flavor of the times.

Eumenes was on a roll in 320 BC, having killed the legendary Craterus in the previous year's battle and possessing a sizable army. Antigonus was not doing too shabby either, having just been named General of Asia for the sole purpose of wiping out Eumenes once and for all. Wanton slander was Eumenes' reward for being a brilliant Greek in a Macedonian's army. Meanwhile, Antigonus was the subject of whispers as he becomes perceived as a power-hungry schemer. Meeting in Cappadocia, these two ambitious Diadochoi are looking to ruthlessly solidify their power. I challenged players if they could "match the wrath of these titans?"

The battle for control of Cappadocia (320 BC; Diodorus 18: 40) occurred the year following Antigonus and Craterus' invasion of Asia via the Hellespont (refer to the Fall-In 2000 event: "Brother vs. Ancient Brother"). After that battle, Craterus was dead and Antigonus was forced to cease activity that year and go into winter quarters. Meanwhile in Egypt, Perdikkas' campaign against Ptolemy went badly and his men murdered him. This allowed the anti-Perdikkas coalition (headed by Antipater) to reassign power within the satrapies and concentrate their military efforts against stamping out Eumenes, the last, but strong, element of Perdikkas' faction. Antigonus was designated general of Asia for the purpose of wiping out Eumenes. He was assigned Antipater's son Cassander to keep Cassander from dreaming up machinations of his own. (Don't forget, this was the Successors period!)

Eumenes still had his army from the previous year, which was now blooded and so much more experienced. He was able to recruit a few more troops and had an array of mixed troop types at his disposal. His main secondary commander was Apollonides, who commanded the cavalry.

We are given very little information about the battle itself aside from the fact that it was fought on a plain well-suited for cavalry fighting. There were also some foothills which commanded the plain that Antigonus had in his possession. Consequently, we will set up this battle in the traditional manner with some room for maneuver. The main commanders of the army will be on the right wings, with their second-in-commands on the left wings.

What the Eumenes player did not know, however, was that his left wing commander, Apollonides, had struck a deal with Antigonus a few days before the battle. Once the phalanx units were sufficiently joined, I instructed the player controlling Apollonides' forces to turn right and smash into the Eumenes' unprotected flank! This evened out the numerical superiority that Eumenes enjoyed at the start of the battle and certainly challenged the player controlling Eumenes to keep a cool head and reorganize his battleline to contend with the unexpected development.

Luckily I had some rather good sports playing Eumenes at the convention and so the event was quite interesting from a tactical point of view as I watched how different players used different approaches to extract themselves from a disastrous situation.