Clear the Pass Scenario (played 31 October 2020)

This is another scenario from Charles Grant's book.  I was to march down a pass and clear it of Sassanids.  I had 2,000 points and Scott had 1,500.  This was a good, solid fight.  The Byzantines emerged victorious after a tough go. 

 

The pass that I had to march down. The goal was for the Byzantines to clear the Sassanids.

 

This is one of Scott’s VERY nice middle eastern buildings. It is a nice model and Squid did an awesome job painting it. It is always great to play on such nice terrain.

  

Looking through the village down the pass.

  

Scott’s Clibanarii. Tough, proud warriors. More than a match for my Belisarians. I needed to approach these guys with all of the guile and trickery in the Byzantine inventory.

  

The Royal Clibanarii were in the back with the general and army standard nearby.

  

Squid had the other side of the pass held by a bunch of Sassanid spearman and a bunch of light cavalry in big units. They too turned out to be a formidable set of opponents.

  

My Belisarians. Huns and skirmish infantry to the front. Backed by one unit of Kataprhaktoi (the blues) on the left, the EHC with the general and army standard and then two units of Goth cavalry. A big block of Skutatoi followed the cavalry in the next turn.

  

Minifig Belesarian Kataphraktoi from the 1980s. Smaller than today’s Epic 28mm guys, but still good figs.

  

Alan and Michael Perry sculpted Goths. In my mind some of the finest figures ever made.

  

I have a lot of respect for Scott’s archers. My Kataphraktoi are just too expensive to let them get shot up in the flanks and rear by a bunch of cheap horse archers and light infantry. Thus, the initial stages of my advance were taken up with the Huns and the light infantry until I could bring up the big 36 man block of Skutatoi to use as a base to maneuver my cavalry off of. 

 

Scott had too much respect for my Belisarian Kataphraktoi to come charging out while outnumbered. I used several of my Hun light cavalry units to whittle down the size of his light cavalry units - without much success. 

 

With the Skutatoi now in the main battle line I could bring superior forces to bear.

  

The Skutatoi charged the archers who fired and fled. They did cause one casualty to the Byzantines, but only retired one inch and I caught them. Their rout cause one of the Clibanarii units to fail its morale an head for the rear.

  

On the other side of the pass the Sassanid spearman shot up a bunch of Gothic cavalry.

  

Once the Skutatoi could hold ground I charged my Bucellarii (EHC) into Scott's Royal Clibanarii. The fighting was fierce and we stood each other up. 

  

Scott’s third unit of Clibanarii wished to charge my blue Kataphraktoi, but I put it just a bit behind the Skutatoi so any way Scott tried it would charge onto the infantry first. Faced with a tactical disadvantage he bounced back out of charge range of the infantry.

 

That allowed me to use my Drilled ability, spin 90 degrees and charge into the open flank of the Royal Clibanarii. Two elite cavalry units vs one ended in victory for the Belisarians.