sassanids

[benos]

Ok so really needing a break from medevials for a week (too much painting to get 2 800+ points armies done by the end of the month)
so hopefuly getting in 2 games on saturday 650 points, going up against Romans and Nomad types.

will the following be fun and interesting as well as passybly competant against both?

3 x tc, 1 x hepthalite ally tc
2 x 4 cataphracts undrilled, superior, h armoured, lancer swordsmen
2 x 4 clibinarii undrilled, superior, armoured bow, swordsmen
1 x 6 horse archers, light horse, undrilled , average, unprotected, bow
1 x 6 slingers light foot, undrilled, average, unprotected, sling
1 x 6 archers light foot, undrilled, average, unprotected, bow
1 x 8 spearmen, heavy foot, poor, protected, defensive spear
2 x 4 allied hepthalites, light horse, superior, unprotected, undrilled, bw, swordsmen

all views welcomed

Ben

[babyshark]

I wouldn't bother with the horse archers in a BG of 6. Reduce them to a 4 and spend the points elsewhere. A 6 of LH--especially a 6 of LH armed with only bow--is far too likely to find itself puzzled to evade at a critical moment; worse still, you might be tempted to let them fight hand to hand.

Marc

[Delbruck]

if you reduce the Hepthalites to average you can get two 4 base BG's of LH:

3 x tc, 1 x hepthalite ally tc
2 x 4 cataphracts undrilled, superior, h armoured, lancer swordsmen
2 x 4 clibinarii undrilled, superior, armoured bow, swordsmen
2 x 4 horse archers, light horse, undrilled , average, unprotected, bow
1 x 6 slingers light foot, undrilled, average, unprotected, sling
1 x 6 archers light foot, undrilled, average, unprotected, bow
1 x 8 spearmen, heavy foot, poor, protected, defensive spear
2 x 4 allied hepthalites, light horse, AVERAGE, unprotected, undrilled, bw, swordsmen

[berthier]

Forget the Spear as they don't fit into the mix of the rest of the army, i.e. they don't shoot and they don't fight real well. The 32 points you save will let you buy another 4 stand BG of light horse bow while dropping the 6 stand LH back to 4 stands as well. You still will have 16 points to play with and bumping your CinC to an FC would give you another plus on the PBI.

Keep the Hephthalites as superior.

Christopher Anders

[benos]

to be honest tthe spear and the 6 strong lh battlegroup are from the starter army. I had spare cataphracts and huns from other armies so added them in. I could sub in some random light horse to make it 2 battle groups of 4
the spear are planned to sit in front of the camp and act as a speed bump to cavalry types that make it round the edge.
Dropping the huns to average is an idea.
Also is it worth thinking about taking the huns as cavalry?
Ben

[berthier]

The onlt time I have taken the Huns as cavalry is when I could run two Hun LH and 1 protected cav to add extra weight to the flank battle. Run them as superior.

You will really need to think about the philosophy you are going to use with this army when buying its parts. If you want a shooty army with some punch, then drop the foot and bring more light horse. If there is any way you can bring the armored horse archers and cataphracts as drilled, i would do so as well. The key to using this army for me has been using its maneuverability and firepower. Anything that detracts from that disrupts the continuity and IMHO should be dropped.

[Delbruck]

You will really need to think about the philosophy you are going to use with this army when buying its parts. If you want a shooty army with some punch, then drop the foot and bring more light horse. If there is any way you can bring the armored horse archers and cataphracts as drilled, i would do so as well. The key to using this army for me has been using its maneuverability and firepower. Anything that detracts from that disrupts the continuity and IMHO should be dropped.

A case can be made that Hun cavalry detracts from this philosophy. Not only is it less manueverable than the drilled Sassanids. it is not exactly cheap at 56 points per BG. By keeping the Huns as all LH the problem with allied command is somewhat simplified. Sassanid armored horse archers themselves can support the flank if necessary.

[berthier]

True enough. But the Huns are cheaper than the armoured cavalry and the points are not always available. The original querry used a list of undrilled Sassanids and if that is the case, undrilled Hun cav is just as good as undrilled Sassanids armoured cav and are cheeper allowing you a few extra points somewhere else.

[benos]

there is an option for drilled, cataphracts and clibinarii (armoured cavalry) but there is a minimum of 12 drilled armoured cavalry.
if i was playing at 800 or 900 points i would definitly take this, however with the points, and trying to keep the cataphract numbers up a bit (to make the game against the romans more interesting) i feel this is too many points on too few battle groups.

will give it a go as is (got the figures based now) but will look at the drilled option and trying the huns as cavalry.
i get the feeling the cavalry huns are a potentially very good option in the hands of a very good player( sadly i'm not that yet...but practice may help )

Ben

[benos]

well i won both games

the romans i felt i played not that well, but luck held and i managed to break through the lines.
lessons learnt. Romans are pretty tough frontally and drilled enough to be hard to break open with flank attacks. cataphracts are good, but shooting needs to be mobile so light horse are possibly better than the extra dice of cavalry. didn't really benifit from the huns being superior, but the extra re-rolls on shooting could have been useful.

then game against Timurids, which my opponent didn't play well. he lined up his cavalry and moved them forward in a line, allowing me to match cataphracts agaisnt his armoured cavalry and my clibinarii against unprotected cavalry and light horse.
despite a little bad luck this ended pretty predictably.

ok, now thinking about how to expand out to 800 points (though will keep up the 650 points games as well they were a lot of fun and quicker enough to be able to get a couple of relaxed games in during the afternoon

for 800 points , though tempting to just add 3 battlegroups of elephants, i think the first draft will upgrade the clibinarii and cataphracts to drilled and include the extra clibinarii battlegroup, which totals 100 points (76 for 4 drilled clibinarii, 16 to upgrade cataphracts to drilled and 8 to upgrade clibinarii)
what to do with the extra 50 points? i could add another group of huns, while downgrading to average to allow me to get the sassanid light horse to 2 BGs of 4.
this does mean i have a lot of light horse, what would add more hitting power to the list? are the elephants worth it, how much support do they need (not a lot avaliable in this list really)

Ben