This is continued from 'Battle 1a - Flaw Exploitation'.
In the end I charged with my pikemen. However, I was smart (or Genre Savvy) enough to see the enormous trap standing before me, waiting for me to do exactly that. So I did one of the most illogical things I could have: I targeted his cavalry.
Bear with me on this. While it was the camel archers who were giving me all this trouble, the main reason my hoplites couldn't advance was the enemy cavalry waiting to flank them from either side. And since hoplites, although slow, are most effective against cavalry (at least when they're not being flanked) I figured that if I sent the hoplite units at the far left and right of my line to attack the cavalry group nearest them then, I would either take heavy losses and kill the enemy horsemen or make room for my archers to move into firing positions.
To my shock, I managed both. Sort of. The cavalry on the right stood their ground and were slaughtered like pigs. The cavalry on the left however (presumably where my opponent was looking at that moment), retreated behind the Egyptian pikemen. Since I was busy watching the right-hand side, I lost the entire unit. I hesitantly called the skirmish a draw and withdrew what troops I had left to reform my line.
In some miracle of chance, both my opponent and I made our move at the same time. Since he lost that cavalry group on the right, that side was now (relatively) vulnerable to an infantry push because there were now no pesky horsemen waiting to stab my men in the back. I also broke my own cavalry on the right away from the main body of my force and had them circle around in a wide arc so that they would fall upon the enemies left flank (my right) when the infantry lines met, hopefully catching them between the hammer and anvil.
To my dismay however, those damned Egyptians had decided what worked for my run of the mill hoplites would probably work for their elite Egyptian pikemen, although they exercised more caution than I did. Thus it was that my significantly inferior footmen met the Egyptian elite long before I had intended them to, with my cavalry just reaching the apex of their arc (and thus as far away from the battle as they would ever get) with no flank to fall upon.
Realising pretty fast that a fair fight between my slightly-better-than-average hoplites and his top-of-the-line-elite pikemen was tantamount to suicide, I desperately pushed my whole army forward, the two meeting with a mighty clash. In no time my archers, thankfully now in range of the enemy, were raining death down on the enemy footmen, and those camel archers who had been harassing me were surrounded and brought down to size.
So naturally it all went to hell from there.
Continued in 'Battle 1c - I Meant To Do That'
