Game Report: Late Imperial Romans versus Sassanid Persians

After this game, we all decided that 125 points on each side was probably too many forces for the table size: the lack of room to manoeuvre made the battle much harder for the Persians (an almost all cavalry army) than the Romans (whose bulk of forces were infantry and archers)




The Romans deployed with the Gothic allied contingent on the left flank, three units of Noble Cavalry and 3 of warriors, anchored on a basilica. In the middle, 6 blocks of infantry with supporting archers, and a battery of two artillery units right in the centre. A single unit of skirmishing horse archers and the only 3 units of Roman cataphracts anchored the Roman right to a hill. The Persians deployed equally strong contingents of cataphracts on both wings, and their prized elephants in the centred, screened by a line of skirmishers. A few bases of heavy infantry and militia rounded out the Persian centre.



The opening moves consisted of the Roman horse archers moving off the hill to try and harass the advancing Persian cataphracts, only to be wiped out instantly in a charge: not a good start! On the right, the 3 units of Roman cataphracts (the only heavy cavalry in the entire Roman force) split up to engage and try and slow down their Persian counterparts before they hit the infantry in the centre. Meanwhile, the Persians advanced steadily on all fronts, with their Elephants screened by skirmishers.  


By the mid-game, we had locked horns all across the battlefield. On the Roman right, the cataphracts managed to blunt the Persian advance; in the middle, the Roman archers wore down the skirmishers and faced the onslaught of the Elephants, now revealed from behind the screen. On the Roman left, as soon as the Persian right wing came within range, the Gothic contingent charged en masse and engaged them.



In the end, the Gothic contingent was the MVP of the game, crushing their flank; the Roman centre did admirable work, holding their own agains the elephants; the Roman right suffered the most casualties, playing a delaying action to buy time for the decisive action in the centre.


Some eye-candy from the game: (clockwise from top-left) the Gothic cavalry that played such a key role; top-right; I put out some camp elements for decoration, including pack-mules and a pack-camel; the clash of the Persian and Roman cataphracts was particularly pretty, with a magnificent banner on Martin's figures and a slightly drab Draco on mine; I got to field my scratch-built artillery, which I was quite pleased with. From conception to construction, the artillery took me a day to build, and I was quite happy I could make reasonably good looking scorpios and onagers from bits of plasticard.

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