Great Battles of Alexander: Battle of Granicus

Today I took a foray into my second GBOH title: Great Battles of Alexander by GMT Games. While I prefer the subject matter in this game to SPQR they do play a little similar so I was not totally unprepared rules wise. Of course my inability to get of copy of the game currently is frustrating (I will probably have HOPLITE before a reprint of this one).

We played the battle of Granicus.

While my idea was not far off from the original battle my die rolls and luck sure were. I immediately charged forward on the right flank with my heavy cavalry and stormed across the river:

Initially I met with good results but what was not good was the amount of TQ hits I gave to myself getting across that river. I caused the entire left flank of the Persians to rout. This was a good beginning and I intended to follow up with skirmishers and heavy infantry once I got across the Granicus. However on his turn Memnon managed to rally EVERY SINGLE routed unit with splendid die rolls. 

What killed me and stalled my entire offensive were my aborted attempts to trump his momentum. I failed at each one and watched his army recover and get in position to throw me back across the river. What I needed in speed and mobility I did not get and I spent the entire rest of turn one watching him plug gaps and assault me.

In the middle I moved the phalanxes up into the river and attempted to storm across. The Persians pulled back and I used some orders to take TQ hits off my units. Below picture...just to the left in the shot.

On the left I moved swiftly to get Parmenion across the river. However the Persians reacted quickly and got some forced to the bank of the river and I was locked in combat on both flanks. 

By the time the battle had raged for 60 minutes the Persians had thrown me back across the river and Alexander was racing to and fro in an attempt to rally his troops, many of whom had routed way back from the lines. And that is where the battle stands at the moment. I have a crucial rally phase coming up and if I fail it I will lose some very strong units. Time to regroup and rethink my options.