Magnesia!

Here is my standard DBA 3.0 battle of Magnesia.  I have the Romans as the invader and the battlefield being a flat plane with a river on the Roman left.  The forces are as follows.

Seleucid

1xKn Gen 1xKn 1xLh 4xPk 2xPs 1xEl 1xWb 1xSch

Roman With allied Kn

1xCv Gen 1xKn 4xBd 2xSp 2xPs 2xAx

My play test rules are the same.  No supporting elements.  Pikes are changed to +5 (foot) +6 (mounted) +4 (against shooting, or in close combat against Ps, Bw, Cv or Lh).  They suffer a -4 penalty in bad going.

The situation at the beginning of the battle. Rome is in Red. The Seleucids have the first move.

The Seleucids get 6 for pips on the first turn but are content to advance at a slow pace and keep the line together.  The Romans get a 1 for pips on the second bound and elect to stay put.  The Seleucids get another 6 but continue their slow march.

The situation after 3 bounds of movement.

The Romans roll a 2 for pips and elect to kick out their cavalry to extend their flank a bit.

So far, no agressive moves from the Romans.

The Seleucids get a third 6 for pips and advance the main line across the front.   The Sch moves in in hopes of doubling the Roman general and forcing him to flee off the board.  They are supported by the Kn on their left.

The Seleucid attack on the Roman right gains momentum. The Sch and Kn drive the Roman Cv and Kn back.

The Romans get 3 pips, enough to do some maneuvering of their own.  They advance across the front.  The right gets some support from an Ax.

The Lh gets "Barkered", a Ps gets doubled and flees from the Triari, the Wb gets doubled by a blade, a Pk gets driven back by a Triari and the rest of the line locks up. The Sch is destroyed and the Seleucid Kn is forced back.

On bound 7, the Seleucid luck turns for the worst.  They roll a 1 for command points and are forced to use it to block the hole left in the line.  Hopefully they can slow the blades up.

The double overlapped Pk is destroyed, the El kills a Bd, and the rest of the Roman lmain line is driven back. The Kn pushed back the Seleucid Kn.

Rome has a chance to cause some real damage now but only rolls a 1 on their pip roll this turn.  To recap, Rome rolled a 1-2-3-1 for pips.  The General moves to support the Kn.

The El is destroyed by the Ps (2nd rank Ps!) and, quite unexpectedly, the Seleucid Kn is doubled, ending the game. Final score 4-1 (plus 1 for the Sch).

This particular game was pretty interesting.  The Romans were out manned on their right but made good progress against the lighter troops on their left.  The Galatian Wb was particularly disappointing.  The Pk cracked easily with a double overlap. Command failures occured on both sides but the Romans overcame adversity despite rolling less than 2 pips per turn on the average.  The Seleucids, on the other hand, probably could have made better use of their pips.  Their luck left them when they needed it most.  That is what lost the battle for them.

So, I am thoroughly convinced that movement does not break the game as some claim.  It is not any easier to gain a flank.  “Barkering” still works just fine.  Reserves work quite well for counter attacking (the El for instance!).

I settled in on Pikes being +5 because the relationship between Pk and Wb was +2 if the Wb were supported as well.  Since there is no support in this test, it made sense that Pk should be +5.  So what is going through your mind is that they enjoyed a 1 point advantage over Bd.  Well, they also had to attack on a narrow front.  So, I think it is a good compromise.  Sp will enjoy a boost in fire power over Pk  with only a 1 point deficit but again, Pk can attack across a broad front.  The extra verbiage for shooting and some unit types is necessary because Pk are weaker in the game against some types of troops.

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