| Battle Reports February 2004 | ||
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Sassanid Persians vs Parthians
Sassanid Persians vs Parthians
Parthians vs Indians
Vikings vs Anglo-Saxons
Seleucids vs Indians
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Cataphract Conversations A nattily-dressed Sassanid chats to a Parthian (Both 15mm Essex)
Sassanid Persians vs Parthians This was an historical encounter between the decaying Parthian empire and the upstart Sassanian empire around the year 220AD. Both forces were 600pts , the Sassanian's being an amended cavalry heavy force of three leader bases , the Parthians comprising seven leader bases: 2 EHC, 3 LC and 2 LI. Terrain had our usual river and some rough ground.
The
initial scouting (Parthian 44pts vs Sassanids 18pts) resulted in the
Sassanid force being fully deployed before the Parthians, who elected
for a one leader base flank march (which would arrive on turn 6), four
leader bases on the table's edge, and two leader bases pushed forward to
menace the Sassanian troops. Initial
on-field scouting resulted in all the Sassanian troops being revealed
whilst only the forward Parthian troops were identified - as all light
horse. With both sides moving to contact the initial bow fire
resulted in 12 casualties on the Parthian side for no casualties for the
unshielded but cataphract Sassanians. Two Parthian light cavalry
bases became shaken from the resulting morale tests. The
following move saw the supporting Sassanian elephant inflict morale
tests on the Parthian line, with one shaken base turning to rout.
A second round of missile fire saw 2 casualties inflicted on the
Sassanian line with again another 12 casualties inflicted on the
Parthians: Sassanid leader support to firing bases being very
valuable. To the Parthian commander's horror, a light horse base was destroyed solely by bow fire. The
next move finally confirmed the composition of the onboard Parthian
troops. Two heavy cavalry forces moved from the centre to support the
light horse. Two light infantry brigades remained cowering in
rough ground on the Parthian left. The Sassanian forces continued
forward lapping around the flanks of the Parthian light horse.
Bowfire resulted in the destruction of a second Parthian light horse base. The
Parthian heavy horse finally came into bow range of the Sassanian bases.
By this time the light horse screen had gone ( 43 casualties on the
Parthians for 5 inflicted) but the Parthian heavy horse only took 1
casualty from long range Sassanian bowfire although they could not
reply. By
this time the Parthian line had been disrupted by the need to face up to
the larger Sassanian battle line. The next move resulted in
3 Parthian EHC's charging a larger mixed force of Sassanian HC and EHC bases. The charge being encouraged by the imminent arrival of the
Sassanian Elephant. No decisive result was achieved by either
side. The Parthian counter weapon, elite EHC Camelry finding
itself faced by a wall of 4 Sassanian cavalry bases, did not move . The
Parthian light troops moved forward towards the Daylami and royal
archers. Turn
six arrived with the Parthian comander praying that his flanking force
would save his battle line. On the Parthian right the heavy
cavalry came together, the Sassanian forces being able to charge in due
to being OO. The flank march was delayed by rough ground causing
disorder to the light horse. In the centre the Parthian horse were
being forced back, the Parthian left still moving forward to engage the
Sassanian foot. The
next round saw a Sassanian flank attack in the centre routing a Parthian
EHC base starting the disintegration of the Parthian line.
Meanwhile the Parthian light troops yet again proved that levy can be
outshot by all other troops. At this point the Parthian right was
slowly pushing back the opposing Sassanian horse, but the Parthian
general could see a mass movement of horse from the rest of the
Sassanian line. Outnumbered he decided to withdraw to fight
another day, aiming to recruit Elymaian troops to bolster his battle
line. Note
The
Parthian forces lost a total of 5 light horse plus a EHC base against no
Sassanian bases by the end of turn eight. Paul's usual tactics of
using his light horse to slow down the Sassanian battle line failed in a
blizzard of bow fire. Jon
Philp
Sassanid Persians vs Parthians
Feeling much aggrieved following their earlier humiliation, the Parthians launched an attack against the Sassanian rebels in a place of their choosing.
No river was to hamper their deployment, and only two gentle hills interrupted a flat plain. One, on the Sassanian deployment line, was to have no effect on the game but the other, on the Parthian right, was to provide a useful anchor.
The Parthians outscouted their opponents, and opted to deploy a flanking force that yet again was fated to arrive on turn 6. Again they threw forward two bases of Horse Archers (HA) to harass the enemy, each leader clutching a parchment detailing the new tactics that the Parthian Commander had received in a dream! Their infantry contingent was rushed forward to control the high ground on their right.
Three Sassanian brigades came into view consisting almost entirely of EHC and HC, with a couple of infantry skirmishers in the central brigade and 1 elephant in each of the flank commands, which was bad news.
With both Parthian heavy brigades on hold in the centre the battle was to open with the HA brigades forward to their left and right. As the Sassanians came into range the stationary HA shot a hail of arrows in their direction, inflicting four casualties and then flinching at the 13 hits they took from the advancing foe. Two HA bases became shaken.
Throwing their parchments away in disgust, the HA leaders now prayed their general would see their peril and order them out of the maelstrom i.e. roll enough CP's to change their orders.
Fortunately the Parthian commander saw what was happening, and ordered their retirement: leaving only one hapless shaken base in the path of the Sassanians (the command point rolls were 6 for the Parthian chief, and 5 and 3 for the Leaders).
The HA withdrew, leaving their hapless comrades to be annihilated as usual, and taking a further 9 casualties as the Sassanians followed up. The only Sassanian casualty this time being inflicted by a foot base on the hill now coming into range.
With his HA falling back and the flank march about to arrive, the Parthian commander now ordered up the Parthian cataphracts into the centre, flanked by the retiring HA.
The flank march arrived on the Parthian left, three bases of HA and one of levy light infantry, and were immediately ordered to attack as there was no room to evade if they tried their usual tactics.
This caused the Sassanian commander to, in hindsight, over react as he ordered some of his central command to head that way to support the Elephant and two HC bases already in the vicinity.
As it turned out the Elephant easily routed the levy infantry and the HA were just as good in melee as they were at shooting, being immediately routed, but they had sacrificed themselves to provide useful diversion.
Taking a few shots on the way in, the Parthian heavies charged home against the Sassanians who had left one of their elephants too far to the rear (the other was distracted on the flank, above). However the Parthians had their sole camel base in the line, and the disorder it caused and the impetus of the charge (better dice for a change) caused the Parthians to win every melee but one, drawn.
As the Sassanians reserve moved to the flank, the Parthian infantry followed to shoot, which was unfortunate as they left their hill as the Sassanians, seeing the flanking force disposed of with ease, began to turn back.
The next bound was decisive: the Parthians followed up their initial success and routed four enemy cavalry bases, including the Sassanian general, and drove back the others, the routed cavalry taking one of their infantry with it.
The Sassanian reserves now attacked the weakened cataphracts in the centre, with the elephants presence being felt as they caused a victorious Parthian base to become shaken. However, the Parthians proved no pushovers with only one base falling back and two other Sassanian bases elsewhere routed: one charging HC base routed by bowfire from 2 infantry bases - the only successful Parthian shot!
With six key bases routed (EHC or HC) the Sassanian commander decided to retire, with the Parthians having lost a similar number of bases, but only of HA and light infantry (in reality we had to pick up our children from school).
Realistically the Parthians had the edge with reserve HA to pursue on both flanks as well as archers on the right. The only potential problem was the elephant moving up the centre, as morale tests to the weakened cataphracts would cause problems, but the camels were in a position to charge it anyway.
The longest battle to date and a tough one, but a victory to the Parthians.
Lessons Learnt
You cannot let the Sassanians shoot your HA, ever. You will lose every time and they can cause morale problems in one good volley. All I could do was fall back out of range. I was lucky there too as, if my commander and/or the relevant leaders had had bad command points, leaving the HA on hold, the Sassanians would have decimated them (Ed.'s Note: that's what happens when you send forward two average contingents of horse archers to skirmish with three veteran contingents of bow-armed cataphracts!).
Jon did not bring his elephant up far enough, luckily for me, which was a difference from last time, and I had better dice. If I want to avoid the morale tests, I will have to field some of my officers on elephants next time.
I should possibly have been more patient with the flank march, and allowed it to get to a position with room to manoeuver. That said, sacrificing it the way I did at least distracted some elements from the main fight.
Paul Marsh
"It's the horse that is a short-arse, not me!"
Indians vs Parthians
As
an introduction, I last played WRG when it was 3rd edition, returned to
ancients ten years on with Shock of Impact, sold all but two of my
armies when everyone started playing DBM, and play that as the last
resort. In other words, I'd rather play DBM than nothing, but only
just.
The
Indian army was divided into two identical wings, each of two
brigades: one of three bases of cavalry; one of two
elephants, one spear and two bows. The army was deployed symmetrically
on the table edge, with the cavalry commands on the flanks and the
elephants spread out between the foot.
The Parthian army consisted of 5 bases of cataphracts in one brigade, and 14 bases of horse archers in three brigades. The cataphracts and a horse archer brigade were on the right, the other horse archer commands on the left.
The opponents I found were one experienced DBM player and one try-anything player. They opted to command the Parthians. As this was a first try, we did not use any terrain, nor did we use the leader bases.
The
Parthians, having decisively out scouted the Indians, opted for one
flanking brigade of horse archers on the right flank (arriving on move
6) and everyone else deployed in a single line halfway across the table.
The
cataphracts advanced as quickly as possible, and, as they came within
charge reach, they and the Indian cavalry charged one another. The
cataphract charge hit home on the Indian cavalry, the spears and one
elephant. Within three moves, all of these Indian bases were destroyed
or routing off the table, but they had given time for the remaining
Indians on the left wing to form a new line
The
horse archers sacrificed themselves to keep the Indian foot pinned so
that the cataphracts could attack the flank, and soon the Indian left
wing was finished. While this had been going on, however, the returning right wing Indian cavalry had finished off the horse archers that the foot archers had not destroyed, and the whole of the Indian right wing was now facing left and advancing towards the remaining cataphracts (only one unit of which was above a strength of 4).
At
this point, the Parthians admitted defeat, with 75% losses.
The game took 3 ½ hours to play. With only one rule book between us, and no one familiar with the rules, this seemed reasonable. Everyone enjoyed the game.
Whether
more playing will happen depends upon whether I can persuade the DBM
fanatics to try with their less esoteric armies – after all, this is
probably a no-win contest for the Parthians, faced by longbows,
elephants and cavalry that are probably better than they ought to
be. But it really was a waste to
Picture courtesy of Wargames Journal
Pre-Norman British vs Vikings
On a cold misty morning the Anglo-Saxon army made a very rare appearance against an even rarer appearance of Paul’s Viking battle force (based for pre-DBM). The Viking force comprised four brigades totaling three Huscarl bases, a base of Berserks, eight Bondi Spears, a base of Bondi Axe, two Bondi archers and a base of skirmishers. Also the Sacred Raven standard was seen above the battle line. The opposing Anglo-Saxon force was again in four brigades, comprising a total of three Huscarl bases, five Select Fyrd, six Great Fyrd and a base each of skirmishing Archers, Slingers and Javelinmen. The battle ground consisted of three steep hills, two in the flank sectors of the Anglo-Saxon deployment area and one in the central area of the Viking line. A wood screened the Anglo-Saxon deployment area on their left flank next to one of the hills. Turn one started with five leader bases on each base line each outflanking on the right flanks, mainly due to the terrain. Spotting resulted in only one leader base being unmasked on each side. Both battle lines advanced, with turn two seeing another Anglo-Saxon and two Viking bases unmasked. Turn three started with the Viking battle host fully disclosed, the last outflanking leader base turning out to be a false sighting. Two Anglo-Saxon bases remained hidden due to the terrain. Turn four resulted in all troops being sighted with the Anglo-Saxon skirmishers bursting forward to take on the Vikings. In the middle a Viking brigade climbed the central Hill to allow their archer unit to dominate the ground. Turn five commenced with skirmishing, an Anglo-Saxon Slinger base causing a casualty on a Viking Huscarl base. However returning bow fire from the hill resulted in the Slingers becoming shaken. Turn six resulted in the central battle lines charging forward. The slinger base routing through the Anglo-Saxon line caused a delay in the Huscarls (one becoming shaken) going forward (my bad deployment ). The clash of the battle line resulted in the Select Fyrd pushing back the opposing Bondi. At this point the prayers of the monk supporting the Anglo-Saxon SubGeneral were answered. A thunderbolt from Thor struck down the Viking leader, his Huscals taking morale tests leaving one base shaken. Bravely a senior Leader took control but he was out of position. Turn’s seven and eight concentrated on the battle lines coming together. The Great Fyrd initially held up against the Viking line, in the centre the select Fyrd did well pushing back the Bondi with a braced base halting the charge of a base of Huscarls. When the Beserks charged in they chewed through a Select Fyrd base who just held on. The Anglo-Saxon host was helped by its Leaders stepping into the melee . Turn nine saw the Vikings take the hill on their right putting Great Fyrd and skirmishers to flight. On their left an Anglo-Saxon brigade of Great Fyrd threatened to overwhelm outnumbered Bondi. In the centre the Viking line started to crumble with the Anglo-Saxon Huscarls destroying an opposing Bondi base. Turn ten resulted in the Viking centre turn to a mass route despite the Viking Huscarls brave defense: for the first time the Raven standard having failed to help . With his lord dead and main battle bases gone the Viking Leader decided to withdraw from the field to return to his longboats. Analysis A good infantry battle, skirmishers need to be deployed in their own brigade to get into firing range faster and to take terrain features. The Viking Sacred Standard help Paul’s battle line survive several morale tests. The loss of the Viking subgeneral was a blow the command and control of the battle line at a vital moment. The
best Dark Ages battle for a long time. Paul needs to think past DBM
but is improving! I need to think more about skirmisher
deployment . Jon
Seleucids Invade IndiaSeleucids vs Indians A not unlikely historical clash as the Seleucids try to increase the size of the empire by invading neighbouring India.
As the invaders followed a road across the border the Indian Prince chose to oppose them where a line of hills nestled up against the road. He therefore deployed on his right flank two commands of Longbows behind the hills, a command of Spearmen on the other side of the road and the extreme left flank of his levy horse supported by an elephant and chariot.
The Seleucids upon arriving on the scene were met with a huge pall of dust behind the hills on their left and to the right of the road. On their extreme left a wood just forward of the left-most hill closed the flank to any quick manoeuvres.
Suspecting what his opponent would do the Seleucid commander sent a command of his Bow armed Asiatic levies into the wood to shoot any Indians taking the high ground. This would also protect the Seleucid centre comprising their Phalanx anchored on the right by the Argyraspids. Their right flank was almost entirely mounted and consisted of two bases of Line cavalry, 2 bases of Scythian Light cavalry, an elephant and the Agema and Companions.
The action opened with the Indians pushing the two commands behind the hills forward and a slightly slower advance by the other commands. Similarly, the Seleucid’s Asiatics went as fast as they could through the dense woods whilst the infantry centre slowly advanced to give them time. Through good scouting (spotting rolls) the Seleucids soon identified all the opposition especially as the Indian longbows crossed the hill crests and halted on the forward slopes. The Indian skirmishers (LB) and two units of Longbows remained off the hills to support the Spearmen. The Indian mounted levy were more cautious in their approach.
At this point the Seleucid commander was quietly optimistic as his Pikemen were facing the Indian Longbows which would be a tough struggle uphill but the Argyraspids were faced by Longbowmen on the flat and the skirmishers pushing forward. His mounted arm vastly outclassed the opposition and with his own cavalry used to elephants they would be only an annoyance.
This optimism was somewhat dented as his skirmishing Scythian LC were shaken by the first long range bowfire from Indians moving just behind their flank; the Cretan mercenary LI seeing this wisely decided to use their shields and not return fire. Shortly after the skirmishing Longbowmen opened up a withering fire on the Argyraspids and in 2 turns of shooting eliminated 30% of their strength, the second Argyraspid base also started to take hits.
The Seleucid General consequently ordered the whole Phalanx ahead at top speed to close the distance to the hills as the Asiatics were approaching the end of the wood. The cavalry were also moved more quickly forward although this brought the left-most Line Cavalry base into range of one of the Longbows and lost over 50% in two turns of shooting, becoming shaken.
The second Scythian LC base was now halted and shooting at the Levy cavalry to their front to no effect.
The next couple of turns brought down more devastating Indian firepower. The Asiatics were spotted on the edge of the wood by the Indians on the hill opposite them. Two bases fired at long range and despite their dispersed formation and the protection of the wood were immediately routed. Worse was to follow as the skirmishing longbows, aided by a long range shot from the hills, fired another volley into the Argyraspids and routed them. At the same time the Phalanx came into range and immediately started taking casualties.
Seeing his plan start to come apart the Seleucid General next ordered an attack by his cavalry and elephant and was similarly charged by the Indians.
The Scythians easily evaded their opponents whilst the Agema were attacked by an elephant, the Companions by the chariot and the remaining Line cavalry by Levy Indian cavalry. Despite facing an elephant the Agema saw the beast off but the Companions were pushed back by the chariot and worse still the awful Indian levy horse threw back the Line cavalry.
The rest of this turn proved the end of the Seleucids as more casualties were taken by the Pikemen, one base being shaken, and the second base of Argyraspids coming under fire at close range from 2 bases of Longbows was routed.
At this point the Seleucid General gave up and went home. Lessons
Learnt
Don’t play Jon he rolls way too many sixes! Or ones if he needs those!
Bowfire aided by sixes was awesome but generally very, very effective. We played this game because in testing we thought bowfire was good and this proved it. The phalanx was not going to even make it to the hills losing about two casualties a go; at the time we stopped we were not even in short range. The Argyraspids were slaughtered at short range but Jon’s die rolls there were very good.
The Agema did what I expected against a lone Elephant, the Companions and Line cavalry were unlucky as Jon was again rolling double sixes.
Overall the overwhelming impression is bowfire is very, very effective. The units sheltering in the wood found it little protection. Yes, they were Levy (strength 6) but I did not expect them to lose half their strength in the first long range volley.
Now these were CO average Longbows because that is what I think they should be. If they had been OO Levy of course they would not have been as good. But should any average Longbowmen be this good? And I don’t think Longbows +2 at short range is the problem.
Any Wars of the Roses experience out there yet? Paul Marsh
Ed.'s
Note: You can join in the discussion of the merits of longbow fire
at the Vis Bellica Yahoo Group site: click here
to go there.
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