12 Nov 2008 Scenario 2 Threat to the Flank

This game was played between Gary McMahon's 25mm Imperial Romans and my 25mm Persians masquerading as Sassinids using Warhammer Ancient Battles.

An Imperial Roman force under Garius Maximus defends a river crossing in Asia Minor. The main force will be composed of 1,000 pts plus a free general & army standard with an 800 pt detachment. The attackers will be 'early' Sassinid Persians under Rossaphernes cobbled together from existing figures and judicious use of the Persian list from the 2nd ed of WAB. so no Cataphracts for now and my Clibinari will have thrusting spear instead of kontos. A general and army standard with 1,600 pts in the main force and 800 pts in the flanking force. Keeping to proportions of cavalry and infantry in the scenario won't be easy with Sassinids but luckily the latest research indicates that the Sassinids had regular infantry in addition to levies. As it turned out the Romans deployed 2 cohorts of infantry and 1 of archers and an alae of cavalry at the ford and sent a 3rd cohort plus archers and a double alae of cavalry to block the bridge, The Persian flanking force was 1 unit of Clibinari, 1 of allied horse archers, a unit on mountaineer (using the marine stats) and a unit of levy archers. The main force was a large unit of spearmen and another of archers, a large unit of mercenary light infantry,2 units of skirmishers, an elephant and a unit of cavalry with bow and spear.

Things got off to a good start for the Persians. The first volley of arrows routed the Roman archers at the ford exposing the legionaries. The Roman cavalry trotted forward and were wiped out by one close range volley from the clibinari and horse archers combined. One cohort charged forward and swept away a unit of slingers but that brought them into close range of the massed archers and it was a small remnant that fell back in good order onto the hill. Over the bridge the Persian cavalry charged and broke the Roman cavalry taking the archers with them. By end of turn 4 it looked in the bag.

The horse archers completed crossing the river and surrounded the remnants of the cohort that had marched to the bridge while the mercenaries broke into skirmish order and along with the heavy cavalry crossed the river into the gap left by the Roman cavalry. The spearmen and elephants moved forward as well. Suddenly the Roman cohort demonstrated the advantage of well trained troops, turned and charge the horse archers, with no where to flee to they unleashed their weakest volley of the game and were broken, every unit of skirmishers within range panicked and ran as well.

The clibinari charged the flank of the victorious legionaries but they must have been dismayed, 6 charging spears only managed to down 1 Roman and the 8 remaining legionnaires stood. The Persian lights rallied but dusk was falling and their spearmen were barely 1/2 way across the river. Barely 30 Romans remained in 3 battered cohorts backed by a few archers but remain they did and the Persians had failed to breakthrough before dark.

In retrospect, I had failed to keep track of time and waited too long before launching my spearmen and elephant forward to exploit the effects of the archery. The early success seem to have lulled me into believing that my cavalry and light infantry could do it all themselves and even there I had left it till the last possible turn and gotten careless with my horse archers as well. Gary seized the moment and his counter attack secured the ford till dark.

26 Feb 2009 Scenario 12: Fighting Across The River

This game was played between Gary McMahon using my 25mm Achamenid Persian vs his 25mm+ Assyrians using Warhammer Ancient battles.

We cut out a 6'x8' section of Gary's table to play this on. Looked like a verrrry long stretch of river to Rossius, King of Hants. My army consisted of 1 unit of 9 cavalry and 6 infantry units with 18 figures in each. I placed my Immortals at the right hand ford supported by slingers. Two units of Persian foot guarded the left hand ford, stretching in towards the center. Some Saka foot with bow and axe occupied a hill in the center while some Bythnian peltasts (javelin and rhompaia) and the cavalry formed a mobile reserve. The motley horde of Assyrians and allies came pouring through the gaps in the woods, cavalry, cart mounted archers, auxiliary warbands and skirmishers on their right, heavy infantry and skirmishers on their left.

 With 2 armies of archers, the arrows darkened the skies but as usual in WAB, to little effect, some skirmishers were chased away temporarily but no major units cracked. I delayed on planting my shield barrier in case I needed to maneuver but Gary decided to concentrate and come straight at me, counting on superior numbers to break my line and open a hole for his cavalry to exploit. Once his massed archers got in range, my unarmoured infantry started to drop alarmingly so I planted my shields and this miraculously increased their defensive value enough to balance the numbers (a questionable rule at best). As darkness fell, the Assyrian Guard Cavalry passed through their skirmish line and splashed through the ford to hack at the shield wall. This went on turn after turn with the Persian spearmen more than holding their own but the cavalry sticking it out. As the Assyrian center thinned, I brought up my cavalry and Bythnians and sent them across the river just as a massed Assyrian archer unit in the center broke under fire, taking the general with them. The Assyrians weren't coming across today.

12 March 2009 Scenario 14: Dry River Bed

This game was played in Maryland between Rob Dean's 1/72nd Egyptians vs Norman Dean's 1/72nd Hittites using Warhammer Ancient battles with myself as GameMaster.

This was the first battle between Rob Dean's fledgling Egyptian army and his son Norman's gathering Hittite horde. Norman was the defender and decided to lure the enemy forward by placing his 3 spear units out in the open screened by skirmishing archers. His chariot units and a small auxilliary warband were hidden in a gully that ran at right angle to his line on the left. Rob deployed with a small unit of chariots on either flank supported by skirmishing Nubian archers with massed archers, sea people and some slingers in reserve.

All was well as the Egyptians marched forward until the hidden warband became inpatient and surged forward without orders. Norman decided to send his 1st Chariot unit forward since his cover was blown. Faced with a rattling horde of chariots appearing out of no where, the Egyptian chariots chose to evade. Unfortunately this took them past the Hittite archers who shot one down. Under the rules, there were now too few chariots to rally. (oops, bigger units next time.) The small warband chased off the Nubians but came to grief when it came up against some sea people mercenaries moving forward from reserve.

The next phase of battle now involved an attack by more Egyptian chariots supported by bowfire against the Hittite spearmen. Under the shower of arrows, the spearmen faltered and broke but rallied before the chariots could exploit the opening.

While the rallied spearmen advanced all along the line, the Hittite chariots chased down the enemy general. The extra crew and long spears proved crucial and the remnants of the Egyptian force fell back leaving the desert to the Hittites.