Heirs to Empire is a game set in the era of the Diadochi. This is the time when Alexander’s generals squabbled over the remains of the Empire after Alexander’s death. This rule set tries to capture the feel of commanding armies in this time period so the scale is an army/battle scale game. That said it is miniature agnostic and units are abstracted in the gameplay. Instead, it focuses on the interactions of troops types working together and using the Commander’s Gaze to influence the flow of the battle.
Eumenes had once been the secretary of Alexander himself. He was not Macedonian, but his position provided him great privilege and respect amongst the troops. He was a well-known general in his own right.
After Ptolemy stole Alexander’s body and spirited it to Egypt; The Regent Perdiccas organized an expedition to punish the upstart Diadochi. He gathered an army and marched towards the Nile. Perdiccas charged Eumenes with protecting Asia Minor from the greedy Antipater and Craterus from attacking out of Macedon and Greece. To aid him, Perdiccas placed Neoptolemus the Satrap of Armenia under Eumenes’ command.
However, Neoptolemus had his own ideas. Instead, he had sided with Antipater and Craterus. Instead of joining Eumenes, he intended to attack him. Eumenes learned of the Satraps plan and marched his army out to punish the upstart. The battle for Alexander’s empire was about to begin.
This is a re-fight of a previous battle while I was playtesting the rules. However, the last time I played I had no scenarios and it was simply a set-piece battle. Since then, I have built a new set of scenarios and a campaign system for the game.
Forces:
Eumenes of Cardia
Center:
Silver Shields- General
Bronze Shields
2 Thureophoroi
Left Wing:
Companion Cavalry- General: Eumenes
Right Wing:
Epilektoi Cavalry- General
Neoptolemus, Satrap of Armenia
Center
1 Bronze Shield- General
2 White Shields
Left Wing:
1 Asphract (Javelins)
1 Epilektoi- General: Neoptolemus
Right Wing:
1 Asphract (Javelins)- General
1 Archer
Mission:
Today’s battle will be a Forced Crossing where Eumenes is the attacker. He is attempting to get up to 10+ points of his army off the opposite board edge past Neoptolemus’ troops. If he does so in 8 turns then Eumenes wins.
Set-up:
Today we are using a 6x4 table. It is set-up as the steppe of Turkey. Historically, Neoptolemus was supposed to support Eumenes in the defense of Asia Minor from invaders from Macedon. Instead, he turned to Antipater and Craterus in Macedon. In response, Eumenes marched to face the Satrap. Today’s battle is to represent Eumenes trying to move to his stronghold in Asia Minor, not 100% aware that Neoptolemus is no longer on his side.
The center is relatively flat and open, and good place for Phalanx combat. The North has a series of rocky hills to block
LOS and make movement more difficult. The South flank has an oasis. This will also serve to hinder or block movement.
At this point, it is more likely that the Silver Shields would have been deployed with Perdiccas in Egypt. However, to avoid confusion I am placing them with Eumenes, the commander they followed after Perdiccas’ death. In addition, Thureophoroi were probably not developed until a later date, but they serve essentially the same role as Hypaspists in Alexander’s army with slightly different gear. Therefore I am using them here to represent the Hypaspists likely found in Eumenes army instead. Beyond these details little is known about the actual composition of either army historically.
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2018/01/battle-report-heirs-to-empire-forced.html
If you are interested int eh first take of this match-up, you can find it here:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2017/06/heirs-to-empire-battle-report-eumenes.html