We had to cancel our regular slot game this Tuesday, so Phil and I decided to have a game this Thursday instead. Sticking with 800pts we decided on a ???bring anything??? encounter. I glanced through the army lists looking at those I had not already played and choose Parthian. Here is my list:
1, FC General, Cataphracts, 50
1, TC General, Cataphracts, 30
1, TC General, Cataphracts, 30
6, City militia or hill tribesmen, Light Foot, Poor, Undrilled , Unprotected, Javelins, Light Spear, -, 12, 1
6, City militia or hill tribesmen, Light Foot, Poor, Undrilled , Unprotected, Javelins, Light Spear, -, 12, 1
6, City militia or hill tribesmen, Light Foot, Poor, Undrilled , Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 18, 1
6, City militia or hill tribesmen, Light Foot, Poor, Undrilled , Unprotected, Sling, -, -, 12, 1
6, City militia or hill tribesmen, Light Foot, Poor, Undrilled , Unprotected, Sling, -, -, 12, 1
4, Horse archers, Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 32, 2
4, Horse archers, Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 32, 2
4, Horse archers, Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 32, 2
4, Horse archers, Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 32, 2
4, Horse archers, Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 32, 3
4, Cataphracts, Cataphracts, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured Lancers, Swordsmen, 72, 3
4, Cataphracts, Cataphracts, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured Lancers, Swordsmen, 72, 3
4, Cataphracts, Cataphracts, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured Lancers, Swordsmen, 72, 3
4, Horse archers, Light Horse, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, -, -, 32, 4
4, Cataphracts, Cataphracts, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured Lancers, Swordsmen, 72, 4
4, Cataphracts, Cataphracts, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured Lancers, Swordsmen, 72, 4
4, Cataphracts, Cataphracts, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured Lancers, Swordsmen, 72, 4
Total Points 800
Total Units 17 5,4,4,4
Total Scouting 24
I made a conscious decision to take a light horse BG for every cataphract BG, and after maxing out on cataphracts I still had points left over. So I took the cheapest infantry I could find bulking out the army to a seriously impressive 17 BGs - I couldn??™t wait to see Phil??™s expression when I put down 5 BGs first up! I got to thinking about how to use the army on Wednesday and a few points immediately became apparent:
* Cataphracts only have to fight 1 rank deep. This makes 24 bases a seriously long frontage. They would be a little more brittle than say cavalry two ranks deep but a lot cheaper per base frontage. So my first concern was filling in gaps and fitting all of the cataphracts on the table.
* Then I realised that with all of the light horse in front of the cataphracts I could not afford to have a solid line ??“ space was required for the light horse to run away into. Looking at the CMT chart I was not going to anything fancy with them but contracting while advancing seemed like a possibility. Given I had three generals, 3 BLs of 2 BGs each seemed like a natural number. So I could either start 6 wide (3+3) with a reserve behind or four wide and contract as necessary. This should leave some gaps on the table while leaving the cataphracts close enough to support each other.
* So far in our games the person who has won the skirmishing battle has won the game. Either better quality skirmishers or outmatching them with cavalry. It would be interesting to see how this heavy / light mixed army would fair. In DBM they always have trouble protecting the flanks and supporting the cataphracts.
* So far we have maximised the pinning ability of the light horse by using them 1 rank deep, but this time given I had so many I wanted to concentrate fire and drive off the enemy skirmishers and potentially try and disrupt enemy units with concentrated fire. So I would use them 2 ranks deep in and keep at least 2 BGs together most of the time.
* Depending on what I fought I had the option of sending some light horse or even cataphracts on a flank march with a TC and still have enough troops left over.
* Otherwise the battle plan would be to create a pocket with the light horse, move the cataphracts to hit something where they had a PoA and use the retreating light horse as a reserve to cover or attack flanks and gaps as appropriate. In the meantime by light foot would hopefully either not get into contact or overwhelm any opposition by sheer weight of numbers. I needed to remember just like DBM ??“ don??™t fight with the skirmishers ??“ use the heavy stuff.
* Interestingly the DBM army of the same make-up (say around 500pts) would be quite scary but also quite small and brittle. It seems the AoW system does not penalise you for picking good quality units.
* One thing I have noticed with AoW is you need more figures. I have more than enough cataphracts for most DBM games, but this was going to stretch my resources thin ??“ 27 of them including generals ??“ I would be looking to Selecuids, Sassanids and maybe even a few Chinese to make up the numbers for my genuine Parthians.
* I decided to go with three generals of the lowest quality to see how this worked. Last game I had 1 IC and 2 FC. I did notice in the rules that you can only make CMTs for a BL if all of the BGs are in command radius of the general, which would prevent me from forming a BL of all my cataphracts and rushing them off somewhere with a 90 degrees move. Given the generals were only going to affect the cataphract units there was no need for FC at all and an IC would have limited effect. Whether I would regret this decision with my light horse and light foot units would remain to be seen. My ultimate goal was not to give those units any cause to take a CT at all!
Setup
Phil was rushed and chose to play the Alexandrian Macedonian we played last week (see previous battle report). I ended up invading and after choosing lots of maximum open areas the table was pretty open. It seems AoW favours an open middle ground most of the time which makes for a more realistic battle field (open middle and terrain on the flanks).
My first deployment of the 5 BGs took Phil by surprise.
The setup effectively divided the table into a game of three halves. I setup with all of the light foot on the left flank ??“ hoping sheer weight of numbers would keep them safe (plus of course a healthy dose of cataphracts) and 2 BG of light horse. Against this Phil had a BG of light horse, a BG of slingers and a BG of javelinmen.
A block of 3 BGs of light horse in the middle to skirmish off the 3 BGs of pikes in the centre.
And on the right I had 4 BGs of cataphracts and BG of light horse against 3 BGs of companions and a BG of elephants.
Early Bounds
On the left I advanced quickly with everything, using the cataphracts to shield the vulnerable ???poor??? light foot from any charges. From here they could shoot with impunity against the shorter ranged javelinmen (something to bear in mind in the future). The Alexandrian flank looked weak, but they were hoping they would win the fight elsewhere??¦
In the middle my big block of light horse rushed forward to start the shooting and running away. Phil sensibly moved one BG of pike to deal with this and marched the other 2 off to help the Companions versus the Cataphracts.
On the right Phil had a real advantage and he rammed the elephants forward with their own general (see question below however). I carefully tried to move my light horse BG around the Companion flank, which provoked a response that split the block ??“ negating the light horse but making them more vulnerable to the cataphracts.
Middle Bounds
On the right my light foot retreated through the cataphracts allowing them to line up opposite the ???poor??? Indian bowmen. Phil managed to disrupt my cataphracts with shooting, but this did not deter them.
In the middle my massed light horse managed to shoot pikes in a vulnerable formation (1HP3E is only the first three ranks).
But they recovered this in subsequent bounds and also expanded out to make better use of their large base count.
On the left I peeled a BG of light horse off from the middle to menace the elephants. I only needed a single hit to force them to take a CT in this formation ??“ and shooting resulted in just that (we??™re using little purple beads to denote cohesion lost).
Now things were interesting. The pikes were out of counter-charge range, so should I charge the elephants in the flank? Of course!
We won the fight causing two hits to one. Guess what the elephants rolled for their death roll??¦
The elephants exploded, leaving a somewhat bemused general.
At this stage I also started drifting the cataphracts further right to avoid the 2 BGs of pikes trying to support the Companions. In the end there was just too much room between the pikes and Companions for them to provide support. In the end the pikes were isolated from the game ??“ which was probably a good thing for the Parthian cataphracts.
This is how things stood after the middle bounds.
End Game
The meat of the battle was now being fought.
On the left a BG of slingers chased off my light horse ??“ yes I could have stood and fought, but if I had and lost then I would have exposed my cataphracts (after conforming) to the light foot pursuing into my flanks. I didn??™t need to take any risks and knew the light horse would be back to cover the flank properly at a more advantageous angle, so decided to evade.
Meanwhile the cataphracts went into the ???poor??? Indian bowmen. Phil bravely tried to help the bowmen with the Thracian javelinmen counter-charging my disrupted cataphracts.
But things went pretty much as expected. The left hand BG of cataphracts managed to inflict enough hits to counter the disrupted unit not doing enough and the Indians failed a CT and lost a base. The skirmishers were similarly unhappy and melee resulted in both units routing under the pressure.
In the middle I surrounded the lone pike BG with shooters and tried in vain to cause a CT test. In the end I just let them keep coming forward and effectively they were out of the game.
On the right, Phil decided it was too risky to allow a single BG of Companions to fail a shock CMT and so charged both BGs into my cataphracts. We're using green beads to show hits.
But after the initial rounds, the cataphracts superior armour and numbers (well dice ??“ that 2 per base really counted in this fight) meant the Companions could not survive and both BGs routed.
Which was pretty much the end of the game. I had routed 5 BGs (elephants, Indians, Thracians, and 2 Companions) for 10 attrition points with two units requiring CT tests for routs. Only needing 11 attrition points to break the army we called it a night.
Conclusions
Phil was pretty unlucky on a couple of counts. Firstly he was using an army I had designed and played with only last week. Then the terrain fell ridiculously open, leaving him no where to anchor. And finally the army match-ups were not good, with a big powerful undrilled army facing a smaller drilled mobile army and no where to hide.
The Parthians were a scary army. 24 cataphracts were seriously powerful if quite unmanoeuvrable and the massed light horse and light foot were enough to pressure Phil??™s skirmishing line (thus proving my slightly silly whoever-wins-the-skirmishing-fight-wins-the-battle theory) and keep the pikes out of the game. The terrain was fortunate for me, Phil really needed something to anchor a flank, and he tried with a piece of impassable which I managed to remove with a lucky adjustment dice roll. Without a doubt the width of the Parthian army undid the Macedonians who just got stretched too thin.
Generals seemed to have absolutely no affect on the game, although I only needed to make one CT (cataphracts) and only had 6 major units (cataphracts) so I got away with the poor generals. Phil??™s excellent quality generals just didn??™t have time to really affect the game by rallying troops ??“ the crunch happened roughly the same time everywhere and the army collapsed at roughly the same time.
