That Fatal "Senior Moment"

Two previous battles with the Sassanid Persians have been reported <here> and <here> and they are a dangerous bunch of highly mobile massed rCvS and a few supports.  The supports they bring are limited due to either the cost of elephants in addition to the high cost of numerous compulsory expensive cavalry or the supports are (again massed) space filling lower grade troops used to bulk out the army and prevent automatic outflanking. 

In either guise they are a force to be reckoned with especially “in period and location” that is a basis of our mini pseudo-campaign.

Synchronized Wargaming - Deployment Event

As Parthians my cataphracts (iKnX) are the answer to the superior cavalry but being slower and clumsier than the cavalry we struggle to corner the enemy more often than not.  The alternative is to use our large advantage in light horse (iLhF in this army) to outflank and get into a devastating position in the enemies rear.  The enemy cavalry, and elephants, will cut apart our light horse so these can’t be used to channel the enemy, that is a job for our foot troops who die much slower and give the cataphracts time to catch the enemy.  Unfortunately in the past neither the bowmen (iBwO) or militia hordes (iHdO) we’ve used before stood up for long so failed at the job.

This week I employed a Commagene ally of swordsmen (rBdI) and bowmen (rBwI) who while of inferior quality were regular and hence more mobile and the blades especially should stand their ground longer.  So the plan was 1) be bigger than the enemy and to use iLhF to outflank and encircle,  2) use blade mobility to get in front of the enemy cavalry and act as the anvil for the cataphracts once they finally arrived to destroy the enemy rCvS,  3) to aid these through area control by using a small fortified fort (BuAf) and terrain options to constrict the enemy into a space to trap and attack him.

This must have been a poor plan.  As we all know plans don’t survive contact with the enemy, but in this case it didn’t even survive sighting the enemy.

Nash’s first surprise was a newly constructed waterway (WW) that interfered with my terrain options and because of the terrain dice made the fort plan so much less successful.  The fort was in combination with a gentle hill (GH) and had been constructed with a platform to hold the fort and then one corner extended to take advantage of the free effect of 1FE GH’s counting as ½ FEs.  Bob then pointed out that it’s shape was probably illegal (due to the 1/3 length = breadth rule) and was too elongated.  This prompted Nash to compare it to my manhood.  Thereafter the conversation deteriorated, much like the previous weeks one about Bob’s celibacy (or not), so unlike the lesser civilized scribes in our group we won’t dwell on the ribald innuendos that remained constant all night and through the propaganda dripping battle report that followed (written by the juvenile Nashur III or his frustrated wetnurse).

The second surprise was the army composition on the Sassanid’s side of the table.  Gone were the regular superior cavalry – replaced by irregular versions (iCvS), cataphracts (iKnX), some elephants and massed of conscripted hordes (HdO).  And on our left wing we opposed a Armenian ally, using knights (iKnF) as an attempted cataphract assassination corp and their own light horse (iLhF) flank guards.

Not only did the plan to be bigger evaporate – we weren’t – but as defender and deploying first, we now faced a wall of enemy that had favourable troop match-ups (apart from the KnX on KnX potential clash) for a general straight up charge and fight battle.  I had been seriously caught out and though I was done for even before the first PiPs were rolled.

When the first PiPs were rolled it got even worse – the Commagene ally was unreliable and was forced to stand in front of a wall of cataphracts and elephants that would simple crush them on contact.  My ambush beside the fort was likely to only face off against enemy hordes so it may need to be sprung earlier than planned so it could then redeploy.

Scary View - The enemy had favourable match-ups all
along their line.  They just needed to charge in.

My new plan was to hold the line, redeploy the Commagene command backwards as far as possible until I could get it back into a fighting (reliable) state and to switch my only attack to our left wing where our LhF outnumber the enemy LhF almost 2:1 and go around the outside.  At the same time I decided to take the risk of attacking the Armenian knights with cataphracts as I possibly had two generals in my line and overlaps (maybe even hard flanks) to use at both ends.  If, a big if, I could turn the left wing I just might have a chance to do some damage in the rear of the enemy before he inevitably charged and overran the rest of my line.

We had horrid PiPs in this game, for both sides of the table, and for both armies some opportunities came and went without being exploited.  In some ways it was a frustrating game.  I made a big mistake in an early bound where I moved troops through a part of my ambush (legal interpenetration) but for some reason left the second rank occupying the ambush space.  I realised this just as Nash and Bob started their bound and retracted the rear rank as quick as I could and offered an excuse.  The excuse had holes in it which meant I then had to admit it had been an illegal move and the reason, so my ambush was identified.  They didn’t know it’s content yet, but that soon followed.

However on the left wing my iLhF got out wide and with the help

Ignoring the endangered flanks the Armenians charge
in - to their almost immediate destruction.

of a mis-judgement by Nash beat up the enemy iLhF and Nash had to send some rCvS over to plug gaps.  The Armenians were engaged and while they punched a hole in the cataphracts the return charge by the Parthians saw their general destroyed, some knights and with the light horse casualties from wider out they went straight to a ‘shattered’ command.  The only challenge left out on that wing was three isolated rCvS which were encircled individually by my iLhF but only two of them were actually destroyed (more on that later).

It was a pleasant surprise that Nash and Bob were more worried about activating the unreliable ally than just charging in and destroying my line, ally and all.  I think with the matchup (and maybe a few more PiPs) if they had simply charged straight ahead it would have been a very short game.  The shattering of the Armenians brought the Commagene ally back into the game but apart from their rKnX general and his companion they didn’t do anything of note beyond just being a mildly threatening presence.

On the right wing, Bob was playing two Sassanid commands. 

The slow fight over the misshaped hill.

He avoided the fort along with my cataphracts that appeared from ambush which he shielded all of them off with hordes and concentrated on picking a hole through my line with his iCvS.  He killed my iLhF, my KnX generals killed his iCvS in a game of manoeuvre in a tight space and progress was slow for both sides as we sort the advantage and the hard flank options to strike the decisive blow.  Eventually my command broke but the enemy had become fragile in the process.  It would have been faster if either of us had enjoyed even average PiPs.

The main Parthian cataphract line hit the Sassanid line of KnX and CvS with overlaps to the left facing an open space into the enemy rear and killed a couple more CvS but as expected the KnX on KnX bogged down to a slogging match.  A(nother) PiP shortage saw Whatagases alone push forward past the Sassanid line looking to catch the enemy CinC (as iCvS) in his next bound. 

After the second PiP score of 1 in sequence the Sassanid CinC didn’t do much although Bob sent an elephant marching behind the line from one of his commands to protect the CinC.  Then in my bound saw insufficient PiPs again to finish the job BUT I also had a massive ‘idiot’ moment and using the CinC’s free PiP pushed Whatagases further forward to again be a threat to the enemy rear AND completely missed that I had left his rear exposed to a lone Sassanid cataphract facing in the opposite direction.  I don’t know how I missed such an obvious and basic error.  In this bound we needed to kill a hard flanked iCvS with iLhF to win the game (factors +2 vs +2) – we drew (with a pair of 1s).

So the Sassanids have enough PiPs this time to take the offered rear.  Combat was +2 vs +3 against me so given Whatagases the InDestructable’s long history of escaping such moments this wasn’t so disastrously bad odds.  They also attacked and hard flanked a couple of other cataphracts.  And we still had the even odd on the iCvS which would break the Sassanids anyway.

The dice, death and removal of
the long lived
Whatagases the Indestructable.

Whatagases diced at 3 vs 5 so exited history!! We had other loses that may break the Parthians (I was unsure and needed to confirm the maths) and so the last dice was the iCvS fight at +2 vs +2 from the last bound.  Mutual destruction was on the cards.  


The dice rolled ....... and came up with the same 1 – 1 as the last round!!  Draw!! 

A Deja Vu Moment.
Identical to the last bound.  Two game 
winning rolls missed.

Quick maths check and it was a broken Parthian army – game over, and the fourth change of King of Kings in as many battles.

A frustrating game in so many ways, and from the starting positions I should have been destroyed but for the surprising Sassanid reluctance to actually charge on in.  By daringly attacking on one wing and exploiting the odd error of judgement I very unexpectedly (and cheekily) came within a dice role (twice) of winning the game.  But in the end it wasn’t to be.  Losing Whatagases himself after such a long run of victories, and defeats, was just another low point.

Next game (in 10-14 days time we hope) is Bob’s Kushans invading Nash’s Sassanids with Wayne subgeneraling.  We are all down to one life left so one of either Bob or Nash will exit the mini pseudo-campaign by the end of the next game.