And so, on a dusty table in deepest, darkest Stevenage, the armies of Sassanid Persia and the mighty city state of Palmyra once again clashed to fight for pre-eminence of Eastern Syria.
After extensive, and sometimes acrimonious debate, the Sassanids had been given a 1 point per Cataphract unit benefit compared to last week. This had been spent upgrading some Sassanid units to veteran.
The Sassanid plan appeared to concentrate on overwhelming the wings, and hope that the infantry-based centre could hold on long enough for the wings to win the day. As befits an army lead by Chris and Tony, the Palmyran plan was less subtle…..
The early exchanges seemed to favour the servants of Ahura Mazda. Palmyran light cavalry died and gaps appeared on the extremes of the Palmyran wings. But the Sassanids held back. We now know that they hadn’t realised that one unit from the Palmyran ORBAT was missing presumed….well just missing.
The massed archers on the Palmyran left fired volley after volley into the Sassanid cavalry, who lost a unit meaning the general had to move. Not the best start to his day.
The fight on the other wing appeared more even. Units traded blows, took disorders but eventually rallied. The Sassanid plan seemed to be stalling, especially as poor chit drawing on their right flank meant they couldn’t turn the exposed Palmyran right.
The then Palmyran centre got into action and it started to grind across the centre. Even the mighty Pachyderm seemed helpless to intervene. First one Sassanid javelin unit, then another and finally an archer unit died smashing open the Sassanid line.
To add insult to injury the “lost” Palmyran unit finally managed to appear on the Sassanid baseline, only three boxes from one of their undefended camps.
Game over.
A hard fought fight, but even “honest Simon” aka “the Supreme Being” will admit that it felt like, to use boxing terms, a “Heavyweight vs a Cruiser of Middle Weight”. The Palmyrans are a mighty army indeed!
That said I guessed that when I first checked the list. They can also add Roman Legionaries, Auxila and Cavalry from the time when the Palmyran King Odenathus was given military command of the Roman Near East to fight the Sassanid threat.
Simon
After extensive, and sometimes acrimonious debate, the Sassanids had been given a 1 point per Cataphract unit benefit compared to last week. This had been spent upgrading some Sassanid units to veteran.
The Sassanid plan appeared to concentrate on overwhelming the wings, and hope that the infantry-based centre could hold on long enough for the wings to win the day. As befits an army lead by Chris and Tony, the Palmyran plan was less subtle…..
The early exchanges seemed to favour the servants of Ahura Mazda. Palmyran light cavalry died and gaps appeared on the extremes of the Palmyran wings. But the Sassanids held back. We now know that they hadn’t realised that one unit from the Palmyran ORBAT was missing presumed….well just missing.
The massed archers on the Palmyran left fired volley after volley into the Sassanid cavalry, who lost a unit meaning the general had to move. Not the best start to his day.
The fight on the other wing appeared more even. Units traded blows, took disorders but eventually rallied. The Sassanid plan seemed to be stalling, especially as poor chit drawing on their right flank meant they couldn’t turn the exposed Palmyran right.
The then Palmyran centre got into action and it started to grind across the centre. Even the mighty Pachyderm seemed helpless to intervene. First one Sassanid javelin unit, then another and finally an archer unit died smashing open the Sassanid line.
To add insult to injury the “lost” Palmyran unit finally managed to appear on the Sassanid baseline, only three boxes from one of their undefended camps.
Game over.
A hard fought fight, but even “honest Simon” aka “the Supreme Being” will admit that it felt like, to use boxing terms, a “Heavyweight vs a Cruiser of Middle Weight”. The Palmyrans are a mighty army indeed!
That said I guessed that when I first checked the list. They can also add Roman Legionaries, Auxila and Cavalry from the time when the Palmyran King Odenathus was given military command of the Roman Near East to fight the Sassanid threat.
Simon
No comments:
Post a Comment