The Roman World, To the Strongest, 28mm

This was something of a new departure for me. For the last few months, among other things, I’ve been painting up two Ancient armies. It started as an idle thought, and turned into a project! So, this was my first outing for my new armies – the Late Romans and the Sassanid Persians. They amount to 100 points a side for To the Strongest, but as a guy in the club uses Spearpoint, I still need to tweak them to become 1,000 point armies for that. This inaugural game was played in my kitchen parlour – its a Victorian farmouse, so it has those kind of things. It’s really a dining room. Anyway, I let my pal David choose sides, and he opted for the colourful Persians. So, I took command of the Romans. In this game, set in the Emperor Julian’s campaign of 363 AD, the two sides met just south of Nicephorium (now Raqqah in Syria), as the Romans advanced down the left bank of the River Euphrates. When the two sides met near a little village a few miles downriver from the city, one flank of the two armies was protected by one of the many side channels of the Euphrates.Otherwise the 6 x 4 foot battlefield was largely bare of terrain,  apart from the odd low hill or patch of rough ground. However, both sides had a camp on their base edge, a general (Romulus Drusus and Prince Bahram)and a sub-general (Julius Maximus and Lord Balash).The Romans had four infantry units (two legionary cohorts, and two units of auxilia palatina), supported by auxiliary bowmen, two units of cavalry and one of light cavalry. The Sassanids were centred around a host of five units of cataphrtacts and clibinarii, backed up by a unit of elephants, and two units of horse archers. This was really going to  be a ‘rock, scissors, paper’ kind of game – heavy infantry versus super heavy cavalry, with some bolt-ons! The Romans won the initiative and advanced all along the line, in an attempt to deny the the Sassanid clibinarii any room to charge. It didn’t quite work, as they only managed one square forward. So, in their turn the Sassanids charged with their entire front line of cavalry. this was going to be brutal, one way or the other. There were three melees to fight, and this was still only the first turn! Elsewhere, the Roman cavalry advanced on their army’s left wing.The melee was indeed as brutal – and decisive – as I’d thought.  In the fight that followed all three Roman infantry units were disordered, but held the chargers, and the fioghting degenerated into a brutal slog, all along the line. For two turns both sides tried to break the impasse and destroy an enemy unit, but it didn’t happen. However, off to the Sassanid right, the  Roman cavalry charged, and drove back the horse archers facing them.This proved quite important. First of all, the horse archers evaded once, but the second time they didn’t manage to get away, and were wiped out. The Sassanids turned a reserve unit of clibinarii to refuse the flank, as they were now facing off two units of Roman heavy cavalry. The Romans, it seems, had got the drop on that flank. Over on the other side of the battlefield, by the river, the other unit of horse archers went too, destroyed by the Roman bowmen.So, everything really depended on the centre, and those three long-running melees. In the end, what tipped it was the disordered cohort of the Legio Herculiani Seniores. It a melee round they got a hit on the Clibinarii, and it was the Persians who blinked first, failed their save and fled the field. That started the rot. Next it was the unit at the other end, weakened by fire from the Auxilia sagitarii – the bowmen. That second Persian unit broke too. The Sassanid commander’s plan to turn things around was to send in the elephants. they looked really good, and goodness knows they should be, given the cost of the lead. They advanced on the Auxilia unit in front of them, but lacked the activation card to charge home. The next turn those bowmen shot again and hit. It turns out the elephants only take one hit and they’re off. So, the Roman sagitarii saw off their third unit in the game!That was really it for the Sassanids. They’d lost eight Victory coins, which left them with one. Another loss and they’d lose the game. So, it was all to play for, and the Romans had their blood up. the trouble was, all of their infantry – apart from those bowmen – were disordered, and needed to take a breather, and try to rally off their disorder markers. That all took time, which gave the remaining two Sassanid armoured cavalry a chance to rally themselves too.In the end, it was the Roman cavalry who sealed the deal. Remember those horse archers they saw off? That took the Romans into the vacated square, on the Sassanid table edge – and out of the clutches of the unit of clibinarii which was guarding the Persian flank. One moment the Sassanids were lining up to hit them in the flank, and the next turn they were passed, then able to turn to avoid getting flanked by the heavier Persian cavalry. Then, the Romans activated, and pulled off a masterstroke. First, one of the two Roman cavalry units advanced into the square in front of the clibinarii. Then the first unit at the table edge sinply advanced – straight into the Persian camp. It’s capture garnered three victory coins, and that ended the game. It was an interesting game – as I said, ‘rock, scissors and paper’,. I reckon its much harder using a Sassanid Persian army that a Late Roman one.For me though, what really was great was to finally get all those toys on the table. Now I’ve got a better idea how to use the two armies – so much more fiddly to play with than my other Ancients – Late Republican Romans and Gauls. that’s just line up and change – or stand and hold! This is much more subtle, and  brings out some of the same subtleties in the rules. Of course, now I want to expand the two armies – and yes – get more pretty elephants! 

Tags: To the Strongest