First WABlood!

(excuse the terrible pun...) Richard Evers invited me to come try out WAB at the regular haunt of Militia Brabantia. Richard owns a stack of armies, so I didn't have to worry about bringing my own, but having just finished my first slingers and skirmishers, of course I wanted to 'bloody' them.
Richard had selected one of the interminable battles between Carthage and the Sicilian/Greek cities of the late 5th century as his source of inspiration: the battle of Acragas (406BC), in which the outnumbered Syracusan army defeated the Carthaginians. Richard translated the (very vague) source material into two 2,000 point WAB armies, with a numerically superior Carthaginian army (in the photo above) under his command, while I would attempt to lead the Greeks. The Carthaginians deployed in line across from the Greeks, whose army was divided into two parts by a rock formation (impassable terrain) just outside their deployment area. On the left of the Greek flank was the town of Acragas without walls (and therefore passable).
I deployed my army in two lines: peltasts on the left flank, slingers and javelinmen behind the rocks, Cretan archers and more peltasts. In the second line on the left flank light cavalry, then two hoplite formations (left-hand one with the army general), two more hoplite formations to the right of the rocks and heavy cavalry on the right flank. With hindsight I should have deployed my right-hand hoplite units further right, cause they ended up getting stuck behind the (very effective) javelinmen and Cretans.
I won the dice roll and let Richard take the first turn, who moved forward with his masses of infantry (including a Gallic mercenary warband) and cavalry. In my turn, I only moved my left flank forward far enough to put it squarely between the town and the rocks, while the right flank stayed back, though the javelinmen moved from behind the rocks to their right to line up with the Cretans. Missile fire from the slingers and Cretans immediately took its toll. Richard feared my solid hoplite formations and seemed happy to let the skirmishers duke it out, while his cavalry moved on both flanks to try and get behind my formations. On the right, his heavy cavalry and mine got into a fight where they slowly ground eachother down, alternately losing combat, but due to some lucky dice, neither side broke for four or five turns. On the left, his light cavalry went into skirmisher formation and slid through the town, while my light cavalry slept. By the time I turned them, he'd slipped past.
This is when, for me, the interesting event of the battle occurred on the left flank. My slingers had broken - as seen above, Richard's cavalry got alongside my snoring equestrian unit and he threatened to attack me with two units of skirmishers, the warband and two units of levy infantry. Hoping to lure the Gauls onto my strongest hoplite unit (containing the general, on the left) and worried that it'd be attacked by cavalry in the rear and several units in front, I charged his warband with my peltasts (top left), who of course broke and ran behind the hoplites. The Gauls pursued, but did not catch them and ended up right in front of my hoplites. Richard could now do nothing but charge the phalanx to its front. He lost the ensuing combat, broke and was overrun and destroyed by the pursuant hoplites.
(above: after the destruction of the Gauls, the hoplites have run forward and crashed into the Carthaginian slingers). The situation on the left now turned topsy-turvy. Richard's cavalry was about to crash into the flank of my other phalanx, which was saved by the peltasts who rallied just in time to stand in the way of his cavalry, while I decided to turn my unit forward and help my general clean up. (below: Carthaginian infantry and cavalry in the Greek deployment area, with my phalanx and cavalry closing on the Carthaginian one)
On the right flank, the heavy cavalry squadrons were still grinding eachother down and after some more skirmishing, one hoplite unit had finally come to grips with a Carthaginian levy spear unit.
The latter stood up to severe punishment for two turns, until my phalanx ran away, off the board in two turns: the reason, my heavy cavalry finally broke and ran, taking that phalanx and the right-hand peltast unit with it. With a single phalanx and Cretans - about to be charged by heavy infantry - left on my right, we decided the battle was over. An inexperienced general turned history upside down...
Despite my loss, it was totally awesome and I will definitely play again. Thanks for the great afternoon Richard!