The battle opened with some strong pip die. As the Byzantines have the greater power the Sassanids were pushed forwards to cut down their maneuver time, with the light foot screened by a cavalry element in the centre. As the Byzantine had moved a mixed force over to the east with his C in C, it was felt that the Sassanid Cavalry could engage the blades on equal terms. A Sassanid cavalry element was sacrificed drawing out two Byzantines and exposing their flanks. This gave the Sassanids a chnce to pin and kill the Byzantines in the centre and then flank the Byzantine C in C's force, which was the main objective. By the end of turn 3 the situation looked thus:
To give the Sassanid centre a chance to finish off the remaining Byzantine cavalry in the centre, the flanks move forward to engage their opponents. The Sassanid left flank is unlucky and loses a couple of elements. The Byzantines saw their opportunity and reinforced their C in C's force by moving a cavalry element across from the opposite flank. The Sassanids are two units down to 1 Byzantine and so use the El and Aux in the centre to flank and hopefully pin the Byzantine forces.
The Byzantine cavalry take advantage of the isolated cavalry on the left flank of the Sassanid Army, killing it and pushing fowards after the Sassanid's left flank light horse. In the centre, the Sassanid elephant flanks and hopes to destroy the Byzantine psiloi, whilst the Sassanid Ax pin the now reduced block of Byzantine cavalry on the Sassanid right flank. The elephants are unexpectedly repulsed and attack again - the Sassanids are down 3 to 1 and things are looking desperate.
The Sassanids finally sweep away the Byzantine psiloi in the centre. Bizarrely, the Byzantine psiloi, on the Sassanid right, survive the both the pinning and head on fight with the Sassanid C in C, whilst equally unexpected was a 6 v1 kill in the adjacent cavalry fight. Now it's 3-all and getting tense!
End Game - The Byzantines fail to make a kill on the following move and the Sassanids quickly destroy the pinned Byzantine Psilio in order to snatch a win. By dividing his forces the Byzantine allowed the Sassanids to turn the flanks in the centre and failed to commit his Blade reserves to holding the centre. Lucky win for the Sassanids. :)
Great After Action Report (AAR) thanks for sharing....yes indeed a "lucky" victory for the Sassanids! :o)
ReplyDeletesounds like you guys had fun, what do you think of DBA 3.0 rules, any issues any irregularity of the rules?
cheers,
Hi Phil,
ReplyDeleteThere are a few murmurs around typos, list changes and interpretations but I found the new rules easier to play with as there are so many illustrations. The introduction of 'solid' and 'fast' foot seems well integrated into the rules, is easily visible depending on 4 or 3 figures to a base respectively so not really a problem. The ploughed fields are fun and the new BUA classifications are interesting too. I don't see many problems unless I go looking for them! The lists are legion, few changes are necessary although more options are available. A couple of gamesmanship tactics are penalised ( which is a shame 'cos I used one them all the time!) especially protecting a flank from the base edge. Lh now get a +1 in two ranks against mounted, which worked for the Sassanids in this game, but if the first unit flees, it is destroyed, so a little risky. I do recommend them.