Belisarian Byzantine Things

Holding Action (18 December 2020) Sassanids, 2,000 points vs Belesarians 1,500 points. Tough for the Belisarians to hold the line. Made it to turn 7. Good victory for Scott!!!!   The field. Byzantines on the right, Sassanids entering on the road to the bottom left.   The village of Mundopolis!!!!   A lone camel wanders through the village looking for its master.....     The tomb of St. Mund. Patron saint of inn keepers & goatherds!!!!!     The Byzantines deployed. I was trying to strike a balance between infantry and cavalry.  I brought more infantry than normal because I needed to hold ground.  I thought I had a fair balance, turned out I did not.       The Sassanid advanced guard comes on the board.     The Huns move to counter them.     The Huns launched a volley of arrows at the Sassanids but their armored Clibanarii took few casualties.     Sadly, the Clibanarii returned a volley o...

Reinforcements in Sight!!!   One thing about playing a period, even IF you have a ton of painted figures already, you can always find ways to add more.  It is one of the best parts of the hobby.  One of the things I found in the Strategic Lead Reserve was a group of Trapezitoi.  They are a mix of Citadel Dark Ages and Hinchliffe guys.  I added a Minifigs Dragon Standard.  The fact that WAB gives them a WS 4 means they are a good "battle cavalry" unit for chasing down other light cavalry, but the fact they have no armor gives them very little staying power against any armored cavalry - especially Sassanid Clibanarii with horse armor.  Nonetheless, these guys are a good unit that can be used to clear or protect the flanks of the army.     Concept figure for my unit of Belisarian Light Cavalry. These are 1980s Perry sculpts. Originally they had lead spears where the piano wire is now. Not great figures, but not bad ones either & ...

Two Sides of a River Scenario (played on 14 November 2020) Belisarian Byzantines vs Sassanids. Scott had to clear out a river valley that I was defending. He had 2,000 points & I had 1750. We each took 300 points of characters. I was holding the bridge. The bulk of my army was on the North bank of the river (was was unfordable). Scott got to choose which side of the valley he would advance down after I deployed. He could not split forces. It was a good fight and the issue was in doubt until the very end. Kudos to Scott for a solid victory.   My army deployed on the on both sides of the bridge. The bulk had to deploy on the north side of the river. I had two units of Psiloi, the yellow shielded infantry in the center are dismounted Kataphraktoi with the Bucellarii and the general behind them (EHC) and a unit of x10 Goth HC on the north side. The other side of the bridge had two units of Psiloi, a big block of x36 Skutatoi with a sub-general (Ld 8), a unit ...