Holding Action - redux (23 December 2020)

So, we decided to refight the scenario we played last Saturday.  I had made up a more infantry heavy army and wanted to give it a try to see if I could do better against the Sassanids.  Same terrain, same points: 1,500 for the Belisarians and 2,000 for the Sassanids.  The dismounted elite Kataphraktoi are tough units and fought well against the Sassanid EHC.  This day the victory belonged to the Belisarians.

 

Same terrain as on Saturday last.

Rather than just have big blocks of infantry I decided to break them up in x16 for the Kataphraktoi and x12 for the Skutatoi, except for the purple Skutatoi who had x15 men in the unit.  Once again I stood on the high ground and in the village of Mundopolis.

 

All of that Byzantine infantry arrayed on the hills does make an impressive sight.

The Byzantines interspersed their dismounted Kataphraktoi (the yellow/red shields) with the Skutatoi of lower leadership.

 

The front line of infantry was backed by Bucellarii and a large block of levy infantry. Even though they were led by a Doruphorus (Ld 8), they were of questionable value.

 

The village of Mundopolis & the woods beyond were held by Psiloi.

  

Having established my defenses I awaited the arrival of the Sassanids.

 

Scott surprised me a bit by putting his medium infantry in his Advanced Guard.  This was a good move, actually, because made me waste a bunch of archery on them the first several turns instead of getting shots at his expensive Clibanarii.  To be sure, these infantry are easier to wound than the EHC, but there are a lot more of them.

Scott's Flank Guards along with his Main Body all arrived on turn 2. I figured this was a bad sign because now he could bring all of his force to bear at his discretion rather than having it come in piece-meal. 

My hope was to pour enough arrows into the Clibanarii that I could do enough damage to reduce his rear rank to less than four which would negate his rank bonus.  This is not an easy task.  I need at least a 4+ to hit (at long range a 5+), then a 4+ to wound and Scott has a save of 3+.  I was able to wound a couple of guys, but not enough.

The Sassanid infantry on my left were easier to cause casualties to, but because they are so big my archery had little appreciable effect.

 

One of the challenges with these scenarios is that you have to untangle your army when either a large part or all of it arrives on one turn.  

 

By turn 3 Scott had broken out into the formation that he wished to confront my infantry.  Here on my right I faced two Clibanarii units. We exchanged many flights of arrows. A few of mine found their targets, but.....

 

....the Sassanid archery was better & they shot up my larger Skutatoi unit.

On my left my small unit of Huns rode forward to try to slow down Scott’s advance.

 

By Turn 4 I was still holding the hills & had slowed the Sassanid advance.

 

Scott pushed forward a unit of light cavalry to counter my Huns.

 

I shot up one of Scott’s light cavalry units but they passed their morale test.

 

....and then they charged my Huns on turn 5. This proved to be the decisive turn of the game. Scott only had 8 turns to drive me off the hills & he did not wish to fight a prolonged archery duel that he would eventually lose. Thus, he sent in the Clibanarii.

  

Rather than get shot up by my infantry and dismounted Kataphraktoi, Scott changed across the board hoping to run over my infantry with Superior Sassanid Cavalry.

  

His general charged one of my smaller Skutatoi. I figured these guys were toast since they were fighting Scott’s general.

  

Shotup but unbowed, Scott’s light cavalry fought the Huns.

    

While Scott had a number of advantages, my rank bonus & being uphill stopped him dead in his tracks! The Clibanarii on my right broke in combat. My Skutatoi rolled to pursue. Scott rolled a 10 on three dice & I rolled an 11 on two. The light cavalry routed on seeing the break while the Clibanarii on the left of the photo lost its combat against the dismounted Kataphraktoi but held their ground!

 

Oddly, Scott’s Royal Clibanarii did only one casualty and was stood up by my small unit of Skutatoi. The general then failed his panic test for being w/12” of the rout. Scott rolled an 11 and headed for the hills.

 

Even though his light cavalry defeated my Hund & drove them off the table Scott conceded and the Belisarians won the day.

 

The Byzantine general flanked by his Bucellarii give thanks for their victory over the Sassanids at the tomb of St. Mund with Bishop Alexander & Brother Georgios.