Slitherine

Hi all
here is the beginning of our 3rd battle , this time at 800 points !!!

The Sassanids won the pre battle initiative and the battle was to be fought on the open Steppes

Here is the general deployment.







Mac points in horror at the 3 Battle groups of cataphracts , this time lined up directly opposite his Legions.


More to come...... who be victorious

Can the Romans hold up the Cataphracts ?

Will the Camels run off without striking a blow ?

That is my hand, it's saying, "bona dea! that is a lot of cataphracts".

The opening moves.
You can see both lines advancing , but the Roman Cavalry sense an easy victory and are heading towards the Sassanid left flank , where the Camels , who are known to be a weak point are deployed.

The Cataphracts are concerned about the security of their flanks and advance slowly , not wanting to over commit .


On the Sassanids left flank , the roman cavalry pounce.


With some impressive drilled manouvering the Roman Cavalry avoid the spearmen.

The Camels are now holding the right flank , can they hold ?

The Cataphracts can wait no longer , it's time to unleash some Sassanid smite.



But they bounce off and the elephants are left in contact , unsupported !


The Catphracts regroup for another charge!


Meanwhile.... the Camels are holding the left flank , they must hold........

I always like looking at your AARs because the pictures are always great.

love the pictures and the report. right now its like a soap opera. stay tuned for the next episode of "will the camels hold?"

Meanwhile on the Sassanid left flank.......


Here is how the left flank started.
Some Roman Auxillia were deployed in the uneven ground.
The Sassanid light horse moved up and started shooting , drawing a charge or two from the Auxillia who cam right out in the open.


This looked like a good idea as the Auxillia charge the flank of the Cataphracts.
The light horse kept evading and coming back and shooting.

Eventually the shooting took on of the Auxillia units down to framented and the light horse pounced.

The light hose cleaned up the flank and headed for the camp.
Here you can see the light horse chasign the broken Auxillia and hitting the flank of the Auxillia beating up the cataphracts .
Eventually these cataphracts broke , but the light horse were throuhg and had taken out 2 BG's of Auxillia.

Meanwhile....
the Camels held on just long enough , they broke int he final turn , the Sassanids have lost 10 attrition points were 2 off breaking.


But just then the roman centre broke.

The elephants and Cataphracts brok the roman lines and it was all over.

So the Sassanids were up 14 to 10 , a very close battle that went down to the wire.

Who would have thought the Arab Camels, after breaking at the first sight of Romans in the last two games, would save the day.

That wall of fat-assed cataphracts is awesome to behold. Even scarier to fight.

After some troubled outings, the Elephants had a good game and stomped all over my Goths.

A message to A&A! Please send the legionaries I ordered, I am getting creamed here.

What am I going to tell the emperor?

bounce off for catafract?

thought it was cav and LH only

and also thought it was for BG in one line, not two

Page 106 3rd dot

"Otherwise, mounted troops break off if at least half their close combat opponents are STEADY FOOT"

domblas wrote:bounce off for catafract?

thought it was cav and LH only

and also thought it was for BG in one line, not two

You are confusing Break Off with Evade.

Better retire those camels Keef just got Legions Triumphant....

Huh , no more camels ? That's very sad for my Camels

Oh well , they might be retired to the baggage train then.

I don't have a camp done yet , so I might make up some packs and they can go in the camp.

Will have to get the book tomorrow if I can get away from work in time.

I think we may have ripped off Mac's LH who were fighting the camels , we were taking 1dice per 3 off them for fighting camels(disorder) and then taking another 1 dice per 2 for being fragmented etc.
But I think in the rules you just apply the worst case , it's not cumulative.

Devious Sassanid rules interpretations will defeat any tactics

For lost dice you do indeed just take the worst case - they are not cumulative.

nikgaukroger wrote:For lost dice you do indeed just take the worst case - they are not cumulative.

Lost dice for dissorder and cohesion loss are not cumulative but lost dice for LH or LF fighting heavier troops are.

With a BG of 4 fragmented LH fighting camels you would start with 4 dice, lose 1 per 2 for fragmented leaving 2 and then lose another 1 per 2 for being LH fighting non LH or LF.

Mac wrote:Who would have thought the Arab Camels, after breaking at the first sight of Romans in the last two games, would save the day.

That wall of fat-assed cataphracts is awesome to behold. Even scarier to fight.

After some troubled outings, the Elephants had a good game and stomped all over my Goths.

A message to A&A! Please send the legionaries I ordered, I am getting creamed here.

What am I going to tell the emperor?

Ah, the oldl fashioned way, fight with what you have and then buy more of what you need.

Indeed, if anyone can suggest some anti "wall-of-cataphracts" tactics, I would be grateful.

We might even name them after you.

I really enjoyed looking through this AAR its very good and has high quality pictures