Crossing Point (26 December 2020)

This is Scenario Six from Charles Grant's book on Programmed Wargame Scenarios.  River Crossing scenario from Charles Grant’s book. Sassanids were the attackers at 1,750 points vs Belisarian defenders at 1,500 points. The Belisarians had 30% of their troops on the board at the beginning & had to wait for reinforcements until turn 10 (!!), and then I had to roll a 6 on a D6 for my reinforcements to show up. Scott’s army came In piecemeal as well. The game ran for 14 turns before we called it a draw.

 

The battlefield w/the Byzantines deployed n the south side of an unfordable river. I picked two units of Skutatoi and a unit of Psiloi to start on the table.

 

These Ewoldt figures are for his Nikephorian army, but are close enough to work for my Belisarians until I get my Belisarian Skutatoi done. 

 

The Byzantine advanced guard holds the bridge.

  

Scott’s army had to come on in random order and to Mach down the road for two turns before breaking off the road. As things turned out his general’s unit came on first.

  

 

By turn 3, Scott broke out of March column and moved towards my bridge guards.

  

Now Scott’s problem was to untangle his random March column & get to the bridge guards effectively.  He did make a tactical error in pushing forward with his general and his Immortals.  I concentrated my archery on that unit and caused three casualties to the unit.  

 

I was able to cause three shooting casualties to Scott’s general’s unit and forced it to withdraw. 

 

By turn 6 I was holding the bridge without difficulty while Scott brought up his infantry and light cavalry to replace his Clibanarii.

 

Scott's army continued to come in piece-meal which helped me to keep my position.

 

While my Skutatoi continued to hold their ground my poor Psiloi got shot up from Scott's Iranian light cavalry and fled from the casualties.  

 

By turn 7 the weight of Scott's archers and slingers began to tell.

 

We settled down to a shooting match to hold the bridge or to take it throughout the middle turns of the game.

  

 

By turn 10 my hard pressed infantry received reinforcements. My Bucellarii and one of my HC units arrived at random points. The units had to role on a chart to see what their reaction to the situation in front of them. My Bucellarii rolled high enough to act normally, but my HC were frozen for a turn.

  

My Bucellarii shot up Scott’s light cavalry but they passed their panic test.

  

 

As more reinforcements arrived my position began to look less hopeless.

  

By turn 14 my infantry had been pretty shot up as had my HC, but I still had some reinforcements to come on the table (if I could roll well enough) and still held the south end of the bridge so we decided to call it a draw. Good fight.