L'Art De La Guerre- Sassanid vs Late Roman

Game at Stephens today with LADG as he wanted to try his Late Romans, against which I fielded my Sassanid Persian of same period with Cataphracts, some Heavy Cavalry Bowmen and a Hunnic Ally.

I got to attack on plains and decided to try a flank march with the Huns as being entirely Light Cavalry the arrive with a +1 to their roll (so 5-6 on turn 1 and 4-6 thereafter), added risk being that as an Ally they can go unreliable.

Romans had usual mix of Cavalry and supported (good in LADG) Legionaries and supported Auxilia with a couple of Bowmen and a cart mounted Artillery piece.

The game was an absolute bloodbath !

My Allies arrived fairly sharpish on turn 3 and had Romans redeploying several elements before discovering which flank they would appear (my right).

A ding dong shooting and melee match was occurring right across the table.

Must say my shooting dice were were awesome inflicting several hits on enemy, however my charge with a group of 5 Cataphracts (including a General) was just the opposite being pretty awful.

On this left flank my supporting Light Cavalry were swept away in a single turn (so many 1s in melee) and the Cats were then flanked and decimated.

I did have success against the Auxilia and Bowmen (being medium infantry) with my heavy mounted supported by 2 more Cataphracts and Huns were by now in action.

But losses on left just too quick to accumulate and I reached my army break first.

At finish I had lost the requisite 22 loss points but Romans had reached 19 (23 required to break army) so a pretty close run thing.

We had planned to play two games but too much waffling about other rules and periods and Euro football competition put paid to that.

Only a couple of picks from early stages as too caught up in action (always a good sign)