BATTLE REPORT #2 - Battle of Ipsus 301 BC.

[AUSTERLITZ]

Ok so here is one for war elephant fans as asked.


Battle of Ipsus 301 BC




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BACKGROUND -

As Alexander lay dying in 323 BC,he was asked who should succeed him,he reportedly said -'the strongest'.
His generals would not disappoint.For 20 yrs his former comrades in arms and companions,the now called 'diadochi ' or successors have waged relentless warfare over the corpse of his empire.

Over the course of four round of wars Antigonus the one eyed and his son Demetrius have come to dominate affairs,with their powerbase in the rich heartland of anatolia,asia minor,greece and syria .


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Cassander has been driven back to the original macedonian lands,while ptolemy holds egypt and lysimachus thrace.Seleucus has acquired control over persia and mesopotamia and moves east to recover his eastern provinces from the rising mauryan empire in india and capture war elephants for his army.He is however defeated,and cedes 2 eastern provinces and enters a matrimonial alliance with chandragupta in return for 480 indian war elephants with their mahouts and staff. These would play an important role in the coming conflict.He then returns west.
The others understand that they must stand against antigonus united or fall one by one.


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Seleucus Nicator,he led the elite hypaspist[shield bearer] foot guards during alexander's persian campaign.At hydaspes he was in charge of the phalanx tasked with halting porus's war elephants.




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Antigonus The one eyed at the battle of gaugamela vs the persians.Antigonus had served under both philip and his son alexander and was 81 years old by the time of ipsus.He was still feared for his experience.Command was shared between him and his son demetrius.

Movements-

Lysimachus crosses over from thrace and unites with reinforcements from cassander and captures several cities,he is however soon contained by antigonus who pursues.Antigonus however soon recieves word that seleucus has returned from the east at the head of a large host.He recalls his son demetrius and his forces from greece and they link up even as lysimachus and seleucus unite their forces.Ptolemy waits and watches in egypt.
Both sides have good reasons to offer battle-
For the allies it represents their chance to defeat antigonus before he crushes them seperately.
They also can't afford to stay away too long from their power centres in thrace and babylon and must settle the issue quickly.

For the antigonids,it represents a chance to destroy his enemies at one stroke.
More importantly they wish to crush the allies before ptolemy can join them .

Battle is now inevitable.At Ipsus.


Next-Armies and tactics.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Armies & Tactics


Antigonids-

Commanders - Antigonus the One-eyed & Demetrius

70,000 Infantry.[40,000 phalangites & 30,000 Light infantry]
10,000 Cavalry[Mostly heavy]
75 War elephants


Diadochi Allies-

Commanders- Seleucus & Lysimachus.

64,000 Infantry[30-34,000 phalangites & 30,000 light infantry]
15,000 Cavalry [Mostly light & medium cavalry]
400+ War elephants.


Armies-



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Both sides possesed extremely similar armies,the core of which remained the macedonian phalanx.Invented by philip and perfected by alexander they presented an impenetrable forest of pikes that were invulnerable from the front.The rear pikemen held up their pikes to deflect arrows.
If their flanks were turned though,their light armour and poor close combat equipment was a recipe for disaster.On a flat plain battlefield they were a near unstoppable force.
The antigonids had a advantage in number of phalangites at Ipsus.



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Both sides would have had abundant light infantry such as these agranian javelineers.Excellent for flanking,ambush and harassment.



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Most of the allied cavalry would have been light,such as these.Antigonids too had some light cavalry such as these.Good for harassment and flanking,but less so in direct melee combat.


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Seleucus also brought with him a small contingent of scythian horse archers.



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The best cavalry available to the allies would probably be these thracian horsemen brought by lysimachus.



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The true advantage of the antigonids lay in their superb heavy shock cavalry led by demetrius.See it is in a transitional stage to the later cataphract,almost a mix of alexander's companion cavalry and later cataphracts.These formed the bulk of the antigonid assault force .



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While the antigonids had superiority in heavy cavalry and infantry,the trump card for seleucus and lysimachus was their unusually high number of 400+ war elephants which outmatched the antigonid 75.
Driven by a mahout and mounting javelineers and archers,they could act as mobile towers or as charging tanks.



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Basic macedonian battle tactics.Popularly called 'Hammer and Anvil'.
The light infantry harasses opponents then falls back to protect the flanks.The heavy cavalry is concentrated on a overloaded right flank that launches a massive cavalry assault on the opposing left as the phalanx advances to meet the enemy infantry.
The left wing cavalry and light/medium infantry in cooperation have a defensive role to protect the flank.

In phase 2- The elite cavalry routs its opposing number on the enemies left flank then assaults the enemy infantry from side and rear,as the phalanx pins down the enemy infantry with its pikes.
The phalanx is the anvil,the heavy cavalry is the hammer.The enemy is crushed in between.

Next - The battle itself.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

THE BATTLE OF IPSUS



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DEPLOYMENT:

Antigonid Plan -
The antigonid scheme is simple.They intend to pin down the enemy phalanx with their larger one,while following traditional alexandrian tactics demetrius leads his massed heavy cavalry against the enemy left flank cavalry.After routing the inferior enemy cavalry demetrius will fall upon the exposed flank and rear of the allied phalanx and win the day.The antigonids thus pin their hopes on their strength-numbers of infantry and most important their heavy cavalry.
The left flank of the antigonids is held by the remaining light and medium cavalry in a purely defensive role.Antigonus deploys his 75 war elephants as a screen on the left to protect this vulnerable area against enemy cavalry.
To neutralize the biggest threat,the large enemy force of war elephants he lays elephant traps in front of his right and centre battle line,expecting an elephant charge.The elephant charge would be disrupted by the traps,and the rest defeated by light infantry projectiles and the phalanx's barrier of pikes.

Allied Deployment-
Lysimachus commands the centre phalanx .Seleucus's son antiochus commands the cavalry on the left.Recognizing the power of the enemy cavalry the allies breaking with convention strengthen their left flank cavalry force.
Seleucus places 100 + of his war elephants interspersed with supporting light infantry in front of his line along with his contingent of horse archers.
He holds the other 300 war elephants in a massive reserve behind the allied centre,here he positions himself.
Both sides have large screens of light/medium infantry in loose order covering their phalanx.


Opening Moves-Phase I

1.Opposing war elephants and their supporting infantry collide on the antigonid left as the allied force advances to engage his elephant screen.

2.The remaining allied elephants advance and the antigonid light infantry on the centre-
right wing is driven back by the combined allied light infantry and elephants.

3.Demetrius launches his cavalry assault and routs antiochus's allied horsemen.

4.He chases them too far and his cavalry becomes far detatched from the main body.



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1.The rival elephant forces engage in a furious but inconclusive duel on the antigonid left.Its a stalemate.

2.Having forced back the antigonid light infantry.The elephants and allied light infantry begin to harass the antigonid right phalanx with persistent missile fire.The elephants don't advance to make a physical assault because they are too few in number and traps[possibly].

3.Seleucus sees the rout of his cavalry and redeploys his massive elephant reserve to face demetrius.

4.Demetrius finally manages to regroup his cavalry and returns to attack the allied rear,but finds an impenetrable wall of 300 war elephants barring his way.He takes heavy missile fire from the elephant towers and his horses are panicked by the smell and sight of these behemoths.



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5.The allies see the exposed antigonid right flank and the horse archer contingent moves towards it.

6.The horse archers harass the exposed phalangites from their unshielded side all the while asking them to come over to their side ,as they are all greeks.Under serious missile fire from the front enemy light infantry and elephants and exposed flanks by the horse archers,the right wing phalanx's morale collapses.Some desert to the allies and others flee.

Meanwhile with the antigonid elephant screen engaged by their own elephants[1],Lysimachus's right wing cavalry advances to engage the antigonid left wing horse.

7.Seeing the antigonid phalanx deserting,lysimachus's phalanx advances.



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1.Allied numerically superior horse defeats the antogonid left wing.

2.The allied phalanx engages the crumbling antigonid phalanx.

3.The allied light and medium infantry moves through the big gap created by the desertion of the right wing phalanx.

4.The allied infantry and phalanx surround and crush the antigonid right phalanx from all sides.
Antigonus attempts to create a second line and waits in vain for demetrius to return but is killed by a volley of javelins.

5.After defeating the enemy cavalry,the allied right wing horse take the left wing phalanx in the rear.

6.With the death of their commander,and sarrounded on all sides,total rout ensues of the antagonids.

7.Demetrius sees its hopeless and flees with his remaining horsemen.


AFTERMATH -

Antigonid Losses- ~50,000

Allied Losses- 3000

The victors curved up antigonid realms,demetrius fled but was later able to establish an antigonid dynasty in original macedon.Seleucus founded the massive seleucid empire.He came to be known as the 'elephant king'.Lysimachus was later killed in another succesor war.
Ipsus marked the end of any attempt to unify alexander's empire.
The successor dynasties would continue to rage on and off wars over territory for more than one and half a century until they were all destroyed by a new player- The rising power of Rome.

Next :Analysis

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Analysis-

1]Economy Of Effort-This is the common principle of war,the other side of the principle concentration of effort.
Seleucus used his elephants with maximum efficiency.Using just the amount needed to neutralize the antigonid elephant screen and pepper the phalanx,allowed him to concentrate the bulk of his elephant force where he needed it.
''Economy of force is the reciprocal of mass. It requires accepting prudent risk in selected areas to achieve superiority — overwhelming effects — in the decisive operation.''-US army doctrine based on writings of carl von clausewitz.

2]Surprise - Another common principle of war,seleucus surprised his enemy with his elephant reserve.Antigonus possibly expected a massive frontal elephant charge that never came.

3]Patience-The allied commanders patiently checkmated the antigonids.Only after neutralizing first the elephant screen,then the light infantry and foremost the cavalry threat and with the phalanx deserting did they make their decisive attack.Instead of a rash frontal assault against a prepared enemy,the elpehants were used judiciously as mobile fortresses to punish the enemy.

4]Shield your weakness,use your strength- The allies exploited their advantage in elephants to the hilt,using it shield their weakness in cavalry and setting up the battle.

5]Demetrius's Delay-Demetrius's failure to reign in his cavalry immediately after the succesful charge may also have helped in buying time for elphant wall to deploy.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Any suggestion on next battle?One option plz.

 

[flamer84]

Battle of Viena 1683.

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

Battle of Viena 1683.

Ok,on it.Feedback appreciated coz these take time.Thanks.

 

[GR!FF!N]

@AUSTERLITZ

thanks buddy for keeping my request.I was busy for few days,thats why I couldn't reply.whenever you post a Battle Report thread,please tag me in it.this way,I might be able to find it later.

your analysis on this battle is great.

Demetrius pursued enemy cavalry too far..thats why they completely cut off from the battle.as Antonious lied his hope on these heavy cavalry,without this,they had found it difficult to protect his lines.most probably,allied deployed Elephants in both front as well as rear dividing them half.as they had huge number of elephants,they could easily deploy 200 each.its not easy for hose to fight against Elephant..major breakthrough came against Elephant in 46 BC, during the Battle of Thapsus, where Julius Caesar armed his fifth legion with axes and commanded the legionaries to strike the elephants legs, which proved effective in halting their charges.

in battle, elephants were often deployed near the center of the line to prevent a charge or launch one of their own. A charging elephant could reach 20 mph (30 km/h) and, unlike horse calvary, was not easily stopped by a line of infantry setting spears. The elephants thick hide gave them considerable protection, while their height and mass protected the rider. Their height also made gave archers a safe and steady platform with an unparralleled view of the battlefield.

Moreover, elephants could inspire terror in an enemy not used to fighting them, and could cause them to break ranks and flee in fear. Horses unaccustomed to the sight or smell of elephants also panicked easily.

to stop elephant,some unusual steps had been taken through out the ages,like Some armies raised pigs and would make the pigs charge at the Elephants, who were afraid of the smell and sounds that pigs and other animals made.

also, War elephants had a tendency to panic when they sustained a serious injury or when their driver was killed, causing them to run amok, indiscriminantly causing casualties on both sides as they sought escape.so,its not easy to use them either...

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

I'm working on nicopolis now,followed by vienna and stalingrad.

 

[GR!FF!N]

@AUSTERLITZ
I've found another info.the elephants Seleucus used in this battle came from Chandragupta Maurya as return of dowry after Seleucus lost Seleucid-Mauryan war,and after prevailing peace,he married her daughter with Chandragupta Maurya..Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 war elephants.

a "return dowry" well spent,what say you???

 

[AUSTERLITZ]

@AUSTERLITZ
I've found another info.the elephants Seleucus used in this battle came from Chandragupta Maurya as return of dowry after Seleucus lost Seleucid-Mauryan war,and after prevailing peace,he married her daughter with Chandragupta Maurya..Chandragupta gave Seleucus 500 war elephants.

a "return dowry" well spent,what say you???

If you read,its already said in the background part elephants came from chandragupta.And yeah,hell of a return dowry payment.