Slitherine

Hi all
well after many weeks of preparation , forced marches through hostile terrain , the Romans finally brought the Sassanids to battle.
Thanks to everyone for the army advice.

The initial deployment.

The cunning Sassanids led by the Great King ShapurKeith the 1st , deployed mainly on the right flank , in and effort to avoid the Roman strengths.

The initail skirmishes were between the light Cavalry units , with various evade moves , but the roman lights were eventually forced back into their own lines.


Then the mighty Cataphracts of the handsome and dashing ShapurKeith the magnificant and just ,were unleashed into the roman Cavalry.


The Sassanid light horse showed their masterful horsemanship in front of the romand legions.
Meanwhile the Camels were redeploying the cover the Cataphracts left flank.

The dispicable romans deployed some sort of portable defences to stop the marauding Camels.
The Camels later broke and are still running , King Shapurkeith has asked for their heads.





Here is where a unit of Cataphracts got into trouble , breaking some MF , but then pursuing into an 8 strong BG of Legion.
A bit of an exchange of bases the Cataphracts were pushing forwards , but the dam camels broke and exposed the Catphracts flank to some miserable roman MF.




The brave Cataphracts were now fighting in two directions and eventaully broke and were cut down to man.




Ahura Mazda be praised , there will be much celebration in the Sassanid camp , as we have sacked the enemy baggage and claimed many slaves.

The final result was a 10-6 victory , with the romans about to take our own camp next turn , it was a close run thing as they say.


A great battle.

The Romans have withdrawn and are regrouping , as soon as the Shapurkeith is finished his celebrations he will pursue the romans lead by MacValerian.

congratulations Keith !

it's frankly beautiful !

no I'm not addict I can stop when I want !

I must not fall in 25/28mm if I'll do it , Keith it will be your fault

best regards

thefrenchjester

Thanks for the report and pictures.
It sounds like it was a knife fight.

...

Great pictures, thanks. I know the camels are GB figs, what about the rest?

90% of my Sassanids are Gripping beast , but my Generals are from A&A miniatures and a few of my Cataphracts are Essex , but they fitted in quite well. I was worried that they would be dwarfed by the gripping beast stuff , but they look good.
I think Mac's romans are all gripping beast.

Got myself some more cataphracts to paint so I can expand the army a bit and add another BG of them.
Don't tell General Mac , these are top secret Sassanid plans

spectacular report !!!!

very well done !!!

I was that Roman commander, now trying to justify a (ahem) slight loss to Diocles at Nicomedia. "But your majesty, they had cataphracts"!

Since my sub-General Tribune Septimus Geriatrix of the Sixth Herculean Legion died during the battle, we will blame the debacle on him.

This was one of the most fun games I have played in the last 20 years or so.

To all you Romans out there - don't go after Sassanids with Protected MF (although I have to say the terrain didn't go my way). The 8 elements of the Sixth legion held their own though!

Although I was thrashed in this battle, I have to tell you it was worth it to see the mighty Sassanid Cataphracts skid to a halt as I threw caltrops in front of my units of Numeri. Oh! And the look on Keithapur (the merciful's) face.

I would be good to hear from Richard Bodley Scott on who gets portable defences in the Roman army lists. Having read Cassius Dio, I gave them to all Auxilia and Legionaries, but it would be good to get a sneak-peek please.

My figures are mostly Gripping Beast with Foundry (bought before they had blisters). The Generals are from Front Rank. Including the Pro-Legatus Marcus Maximus (General of the Northern Armies, husband to a murdered wife, father to a etc.etc.). The army was painted in two months (Phew!)

Thanks for letting me what figures were what. I have found the GB a little small when comparing before painting, but almost all figures blend once painted and based. I like Foundry and some of the Old Glory figs, but Crusader are also very nice. My buddies and I are rebasing our 15mm, but switched over to 28mm a few years back-can't see well enough for the small stuff anymore-Thanks

Mac wrote:
I would be good to hear from Richard Bodley Scott on who gets portable defences in the Roman army lists. Having read Cassius Dio, I gave them to all Auxilia and Legionaries, but it would be good to get a sneak-peek please.

Work on nobody and you won't go far wrong.

Mac wrote:I would be good to hear from Richard Bodley Scott on who gets portable defences in the Roman army lists. Having read Cassius Dio, I gave them to all Auxilia and Legionaries, but it would be good to get a sneak-peek please.

None do. Portable defences are stakes.

We balanced the effects of Romans vs cavalry without. You can assume they are using caltrops as part of their overall impact phase effect vs mounted, but they don't count as portable defenses.

If we had intended caltrops to count as portable defences, then we would not have given impact foot a POA vs mounted - so the end result would have been the same.

With the current POAs, giving the Romans portable defences would unhistorically unbalance the overall interaction.

It may be me, But you do not mention how many points you are playing?

I used Sassanids during the Beta testing I did and was most supprised how well I did with them.

There are some pictures on here somewhere of them

Don

This battle was 650 points. That is about 2.5 kilograms of cataphracts.

I think a bigger game would alow us to "balance" the armies a little better. I suspect that both Keithapur (the smug) and myself are busy painting reinforcements.

So, no Portal Defences for the Romans then. I will re-jig my list.

It was worth it though, just this once, to see the look on Keithapurs face...

Next time Keithapur, next time!

Thanks Keith. Those 25mm look fantastic! ...No, must resist new scale...

I would greatly love to play with 25mm scale especially after looking at your pictures. Both the Sassanids and the Romans look fantastic. The reason I don't plan on a 25mm army is it would literally take me a year to paint them. I recently painted 6 Bedoin cavalry and just those 6 cav took me two weeks. What can I say, I'm a slow painter.

The Romans were painted in eight weeks while hiding from my in-laws in the garage (for about 1 hour a night). A 28mm army is a wonderful thing to behold (although, a heavy thing to hold).

Every wargamer should have one

I have four

Thanks Mac and Keith for a great report! I guess you are "across the pond" but I think my 25mm Seleucids would swim to cross swords with such well painted guys as you have produced!!

Martin

Mac wrote:The Romans were painted in eight weeks while hiding from my in-laws in the garage (for about 1 hour a night). A 28mm army is a wonderful thing to behold (although, a heavy thing to hold).

Every wargamer should have one

I have four

An hour a night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It takes me about 4 hours to get one guy done! Thats amazing. Give me some advice on how to speed up.

At the risk of sounding flippant - just slop the paint on. I undercoat in white, paint the mid-tones over the whole figure and then varnish. Then I slop wet paint into the shaded areas, and dry brush the highlights. Varnish again and then go over the metal bits.

Lately I have ben using Littlebigman sheild transfers which draw the eye away from my crass brushmanship.

4 hours is about right for a good quality figure though. I think it would take that long to paint each of my 1715 Hanoverians. See http://www.tmk.com.au/WGImages/Whiteman ... _foote.jpg

Now I wonder about FOG as an "Age of Reason" set.

Dear god! What am I saying.

flameberge - Keithapur (of the fat assed cataphracts) and I are across both ponds, we live in Australia.