The battle of Raphia occurred in 217 B.C. between two of the SuccessorEmpires of Alexander the Great. The Seleucid Empire under Antiochus III (the Great) fought the Egyptian Empire of Ptolomey IV for control of Coele-Syria or southern Palestine. This region had long been in dispute between the two empires. The Egyptian forces had apparently been in a period of neglect, and priorto this battle Ptolomey was forced to take major efforts to reorganize and strengthen his army. This included arming and training 20,000 native Egyptians as phalangites, acquiring and training African elephants, and hiring new mercenaries. Antiochus on the other hand was fresh from victory over an usurper to his throne (Molon). The two armies met along the coastal road near Gaza. The terrain was flat with low hills on one flank and sandy coastal dunes along the other. The road ran along this later flank. The composition of the two forces is described below and their disposition is indicated on the map. Antiochus was seriously outnumbered in phalangites (unless you accept the theory of G.T. Griffith which argues that the total Ptolemaic phalanx was only 25000). The Egyptian Phalanx, however, was untested and Antiochus did have the edge in cavalry and elephants. His auxiliaries were somewhat suspect. The actual battle is well described in Polybius (see map of disposition). Antiochus' Indian elephants beat the outnumbered and smaller African elephants pushing them back on the infantry (including Ptolomey's foot guardswho were routed with the aid of Antiochus' Greek Mercenaries. Antiochus' right wing cavalry including his Guard, beat the opposing Ptolemaic cavalry and pursued it. Ptolomey then shifted to his phalanx. On the other wing the Ptolomaic mercenary cavalry defeated the Seleucid horse and Ptolomey's Greek mercenaries routed the Arabs and Medes. The two phalanxes then charged and Antiochus' outnumbered phalangites lost. Antiochus returned from pursuit too late. Losses, particularly among the infantry, were heavyfor Antiochus. The battle is fairly straight forward and easy to fight as a wargame. While I normally like to do refights on a scale of 100: 1, this one was done usinga scale of 200:1 /(Elephants 20:1) because of the large numbers of certain troops (painting 50 Arabs was bad enough let alone 100). The rules used were my own evolving house rules. We fought the battle on two separate occasions. The first time with five players and the second time with six. In neither case was anyone other than myself overly familiar with the rules, although most had played with them once or twice. In any event the results seemed very reasonable and the games were played to a complete conclusion in less than 3 hours. The first game was very much like the actual battle with Antiochus being victorious on his flank, but after pursuit being unable to influence the outcome. The Ptolemaic foot guards and peltasts did better against their Seleucid Greek mercenary opponents. The Ptolemaic right wing crushed the Seleucid left flank and the huge Ptolemaic phalanx rolled over the Seleucid phalanx, the Silver Shields holding out somewhat longer. The second battle was the more interesting, or perhaps my memory is just better. The heavy cavalry combat on the Seleucid right flank seesawed back and forth and was essentially a draw, although Polycrates was killed early on. The Seleucid elephants on this flank routed their counterparts (one stampeded due to missile fire) and in turn proceeded to route the PtolemaicRoyal Foot Guards. The Cretan archers of both sides continued to slug it out (via missile fire). The Lybian phalanx was pushed back by the Seleucid peltasts whereas part of the Ptolemaic phalanx routed the Seleucid heavy peltasts the Ptolemaic peltasts then to break the Seleucid peltasts. On the Seleucid left wing one Ptolemaic elephant stampeded back into the Gauls who eventually killed it but were delayed in the process. The other African elephant was broken by the Seleucid elephants who went on to rout the Ptolemaic cavalry. The Thracians, Greeks and some of Ptolomy's phalangites routed the Arabs and Medes. Meanwhile the Seleucid cavalry broke the Gauls. In the center the Seleucid phalanx advanced more aggressively than in the previous game. The Seleucid settler phalanx pushed back and broke the Egyptian phalanx and part of the Ptolemaic phalanx. The Argyraspides had a tougher go against the remaining phalangites units but eventually broke them as well. The Seleucid left wing had been soundly defeated, while their center was victorious, and the right wing was basically a draw. The remaining units were too scattered, weakened, or involved in pursuit to make any difference in the outcome. In all, the battles were great fun and went fast considering over 700 figures were involved. Playing an historical battle can give some real insight into a period, and into your rules. Likewise the actual army compositions cause one to reflect on their 1500 point army list derivatives (Also note that there were no woods or rough terrain for all those peltast types to gravitate to). This one is fairly easy to refight. I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who tries it. PTOLEMAIC ARMY 70,000 foot, 5,000 horse, 73 elephants COMMANDERS LEFT WING: Ptolomey Polycrates CENTER: Andromachus Sosibus RIGHT WING: Echrate Actual Numbers Game Strength Unit Armor Exp. Trng. Morale Order Weapons 3000 16 Royal Foot Guard HA,Sh V Pr A CO Ls 2000 10 Peltasts LIA,Sh S Pr C LO Ls 3000 16 Cretans (incl 1000 Neocretans) UA S Pr C (merc) CO B,Aux 3000 16 Phalanx UA,Sh R M D CO P,Aux 25000 120 Settler Phalanx (48, 48, 24) LA,Sh R M C CO P,Aux 20000 100 Egyp. Phallanx (32, 32, 36) LA,Sh R M C CO P,Aux 8000 20 Greeks* LA,Sh S Pr C (merc) CO LS 8000 20 Greeks LA,Sh S Pr C (merc) CO LS 6000 12 Thracians** UA,Sh S M G LO JPMW 9000 18 Gauls** UA,Sh S W B LO JPMW 700 4 Guard Cavalry HA,Bd V Pr A LO L 2300 6 Lybian (settler) Cav *** HA S M C LO L Egyptian (settler) Cav *** HA S M C LO L 2000 10 Greek/Merc Cav LA,Sh S Pr C (merc) LO JPMW 73 4 Elephants (A) (2,2) Bd R M C - 2 crew B,P *These supposedly trained with the phalanx and could be phalangites. They did not fight with the phalanx but charged ahead and routed the Arabs, etc. i treated them as mercenary hoplites. Alternatively they could be peltasts. **Some of these were settlers and other newly hired mercenaries. I treated the Gauls as newly hired and the Thracians as settlers. ***These were presumably settler cavalry not native Egyptians and Lybians. SELEUCID ARMY 62,000 foot, 6,000 horse, 102 elephants COMMANDERS LEFT WING:Themison Mysicus CENTER:Theodotus Niarchus RIGHT WING:Antiochus Antipater Actual Numbers Game Strength Unit Armor Exp. Trng. Morale Order Weapons 5000 12 Dahae/Carmanians UA S W C CO B Aux 5000 12 Cilicians UA,Sh S W C CO PMW 10000 48 Argyraspides (Silver Sh 16,32) LA,Sh V Pr B CO P,Aux 20000 96 Phalanx (4x24) LA.Sh S Pr C CO P,Aux 2000 6 Agrians UA,Bu S M C CO S,Aux 2000 6 Persians UA S M C CO B.Aux 1000 6 Thracians UA,Sh S M C LO JPMW 5000 24 Medes, Cissians, Cadusians, Carmaninas UA S W D CO B,Aux 10,000 38 Arabs & neighboring tribes UA(8, Bu) S W D CO B,S,J/Aux 5000 12 Arabs(subunit) UA,Sh S W D LO J/Aux 5000 12 Greeks UA,Sh S Pr C(Merc) LO J,LS 5000 12 Greeks HA,Sh S Pr C(Merc) LO J,LS 2500 12 Cretans (1,000 Neocretans) UA S Pr C(Merc) CO B,Aux 1500 8 Lydians/Cardaces UA,Sh S W C LO J, PMW 1000 5 Agema Cavalry HA,Bd U Pr A LO L 1000 5 Companion Cavalry HA,Bd V Pr A LO L 2000 5 Settler Cavalry HA S Pr C LO L 2000 5 Settler Cavalry HA S Pr C LO L 2000 10 Militia Cavalry UA S M C CO J,PMW 102 5 Elephants(l) (3,2) Bd S M C - 3 Crew-J,B,P Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #57 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1992 by The Courier Publishing Company. 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