I don't care how deep you are, nor that they again started on a rock strewn hill, but the massed (6) ElS with LhS Huns (total 28ME command) that is lined up to run down your bow line is a SCARY thing. We may be three deep in places and have psiloi supports to pass through as first defence against the pachyderms but we were also 50% inferior bow and using the low PiP allocation from the regular command structure.
Add to that another huge (24ME) Hun command that was going to go around our left flank even if we were resting on another rocky hill. We were quaking in our boots.
Bob's given the background and general run of the battle. I'll just some comment from my perspective.
A last minute change of tactical plan saw the cataphracts switched form behind the rocky hill on out left, to be partly in ambush in the right hand dunes. This was a mistake as if we'd stuck to the initial plan we'd have met the outflanking Huns with a wall of steel surprise. Damn this double guessing yourself.
The dunes were placed to give ambush opportunities and I hadn't really thought about the Hepthalites have no terrain abilities. Both dunes did included suitable ambush troops although I tried to disguise this by having the centre command look like a viable light horse command anyway.
Once the armies were deployed I was clearly in trouble on the left with the fast moving, impetuous Hun LhS able to go completely around our left flank un-opposed. So our horsemen (LhF) were sent left to hold up the Huns on that flank for as long as possible (they did a reasonable job but died in the process) and the C-in-C's bowmen were formed into column and send to form a 2nd line on the threatened side. They did arrive but had little impact in the battle. The rest of the C-in-C command went chasing hordes and cavalry to keep our right side clear.
Our troops hidden in the sand dunes chose opportune times to show themselves to threaten enemy flanks and break them up. That was all we could do really, disrupt the enemy formation as much as possible before impact.
Surprisingly it worked. When they did hit we had enough overlaps to just swing it in our direction and not die, and only one elephant punched through the line, to startle the hell out of our KnX general but it then died to a double flanked and rear attack and our general breathed again - momentarily - as he then had to turn 180deg to single handedly halt some Huns who had already dealt to our horsemen and were heading into the rear of the bowlines. Initially he survived the double overlap charge of the Hun general and then 6-1 him in return after our bow shot one of the overlaps dead.
That dead General plus the small but regular casualties inflicted by various semi-isolated combats across the table added up to enough to break the enemy (19-6) and we mostly lived to change our under garments and fight another day.
However there seems to be no volunteers amongst the little lead figures to do it again.
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