Does it work?
A trick used by Alexander was to leave a false gap in the center of his line. What would this look like in Pub Battles? Is it possible to duplicate? Let’s see. It would look something like this:
Both sides are equal here. The white blocks represent Alexander. He looks week and vulnerable, doesn’t he? We don’t like big gaps in the line. That’s usually bad news. If you are the Red enemy, it makes you want to attack, right? Ok. What would that look like?
If Red advances in a similar fashion, that leaves a big gap in their line. That’s no good. The whole point is to advance and take advantage of Alexander’s ‘mistake’ here, right? A Red attack would likely look something like this:
Notice how this thins the Red enemy’s line in the center.
Alright, now knowing the enemy will likely respond like this, as Alexander, we would probably put strong elite units there on the gaps. We know they are going to be flanked. Those White blocks sitting in reserve, those are elite units too; half of them cavalry. What is Alexander’s response? Here is his next move:
Yep. Who’s got a gap in their center now? How is a combat like this likely to resolve? In theory, it should end up in something like this:
Ooooo….. Feeling all warm and fuzzy inside now as the Red commander? It got bad real quick didn’t it? Where is this going? If Alexander moves next, it devolves into this:
Yep, and it just goes downhill from here. Nasty trick huh?
Now, I’m illustrating this here in perfect conditions. Pub Battles is chaotic, like real war. You likely won’t get to execute this in ideal, textbook format but this is what it looks like. So you have a good visual on what you are trying to achieve.
How would you set this up? How do you pull it off? It’s going to come down to timing. There is a lot that could go wrong on the battlefield. As Alexander, it would be best if you moved last on the turn the enemy strikes. Then move first on the next turn to follow that up.
You know, looking at this, I can’t help but think of the Nazi’s concept of schwerpunkt for an armored spearhead.
The geometry here is fascinating. How does this go from looking so good, to a total disaster, so quickly?
Amazing. Alexander truly was Great.
