Classical & Roman Warfare at the 2017 BHGS Challenge

Sassanid Persian vs Camillan Roman

Game 1 Sassanid Persian vs African Vandal

Game 2 Sassanid Persian vs Camillan Roman

Game 3 Sassanid Persian vs Ptolemaic

Game 4 Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian & Kushan

Game 5 Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian

Match Reports Index

Game 3 and the terrain gods were not feeling the love from their many fervent worshippers in Iran - two steep hills crushed the spirits and the deployment area of the Persians and another morale-sapping Impassable completed the lineup on the Persian side of the table. The game promised to be hard, against a Ptolemaic army which would be stuffed full of pikemen, with one obvious place for them to deploy as well.

The lists for the Sassanid Persian and Ptolemaic Successors from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Challenge can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.

With nothing else really viable the sons of the Aechemenids sent one command of Clibanarii off on a flank march, and then hid in a corner, hoping to delay fighting the Successor-era warriors of Cleopatran Pikemen as long as possible and blocking the other gap with Cataphacts. Imagine their delight when the Cleo-lites put down some Elephants of their own against them!

The only gaps in the pair of plumply rounded mountains protecting the now-tiny Iranian plateau were on the edges, and the forces of Cleopatra probed there too. With Clibanarii to spare, and hoping to draw the Successor cavalry into the dangerous 'the flank march arrives here' zone of the table the Sassanids at least had this one well covered - which was more than one could usually say of Cleopatra herself.

The Persians and their Almughavars, sorry, Dailami waited patiently as their skirmishing archers attempted to delay the inevitable arrival of the wall of Cleopatra's Pikemen for as long as possible. That flank march needed to arrive soon....

Ptolemy and his girlfriend had clearly been away shopping in Asia Minor, and had done some sort of deal with their mate Eumenes - or so it must have appeared to the Persian Cataphracts, who had been hoping for an unsubtle Companion charge to deal with but now found themselves facing several Elephants and some rogue Thracians! As Cleopatra hereself might have said had the tables been reversed, this was now a real pain in the Asp.

The wall of pikes continued to advance as the Persian skirmishers retreated gingerly. Dailami were polishing their Zupins with some urgency now, and even the Levy were being called up to plan an overlap against the obvious advancing enemy Pikes..

The Ptolemaics were starting to discover the downsides of cramming their opponents into a box - greatly extended command and control lines - and they struggled to extricate their own LH as the Sassanids moved up a veritable machinegun corps of Clibanarii to cut down the Successors Bactrian mercenary LH.

The Pikemen were now in that age old quandary - do they wheel as a vast block and maintain their frontage, or do some of the elements wheel separately and get into combat sooner. The Persians were fiddling around with spare Cataphracts and other diversions, throwing out some seemingly tempting targets and pushing their line ever wider as they to try and tempt the Successors into the fast and piecemeal approach.

Ptolemy finally withdrew his barely surviving LH, allowing the Persian Clibanarii to issue a "come and get us if you dare" call to the Successor lancers. The Ptolemaic terrain reminded many of the men of the last time they had seen Cleopatra bathing in milk, and it also created a natural overlap for the Persians as the pseudo-Greeks could only get 2 units into combat without going onto the steep hill with the third, suffering debilitating terrain penalties in the process. How long would they dare stick around with the flank march surely imminent ?

Ptolemy's' Elephant Corps burst through the pass between the two mountains and soon found that the Persian Cataphracts had not waited around just to be beaten - to get to them the Ptolemaic Death Star would need to expose its flanks to Persian mounted archery, and charges.

The pikemen were still in one long line.... but their right flank was starting to hang in the breeze as it rounded the mountain.

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Pictures of Successor Troops from my Ancients Photo Directory

(Click any image to see details of the manufacturer, and a larger version of the photo)

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Seeing perhaps their best chance as the Pikemen wheeled in, the Persians just about scraped together enough pips to launch a Dailami-only assault on one of the 3-wide blocks of foot spearmen. Using Levy to support one flank and using an elephant as an overlap the Dailami knew they had to roll well as they were the best hope of the whole army. Impact foot prayed their +1 would negate the natural +2 of the Pikes

The battle was entering a significant phase as the flank march also arrived with no little fanfare - surprising the Ptolemaics like Cleopatra being shaken out of a tightly rolled carpet. Successor troops fled at the double as the new fresh horsemen of Iran steamed forward into their rear areas.

The Ptolemaic Pachyderm Corps had just about found a target, but the commitment of some of their second-string troops who were being called upon to defend its flanks must soon surely be called into question by the rest of the Sassanid cavalry ?

The Dailami were through! However, unsurprisingly perhaps, the Levy hadn't done that well and were gone. Interesting times all round as the Sassanids fed in a handful of additional units, realistically hoping to at best delay and confuse whilst their flank march got into position to influence the game

The Sassanids committed themselves to the battle to outflank the Elephant Corps, driving hard into the softer squishier bits of the Ptolemaic army hoping to be through and over them before their own Cataphracts got inevitably crushed.

The onrushing wall of pikemen had been well and truly halted, and suddenly they began to realise that they needed a reserve if they were to sensibly deal with the stout defence of the resilient Persians. With Dailami and Elephants it was just about possible to commit the right troops to the right places in the line if the pips held out.

The Successor Death Star had a mixed result - the Thracians were eliminated at contact, but so was an Elite Cataphract unit. On the flanks the Ptolemaic horse were looking at critical losses.

And the Ptolemaic cavalry collapsed, opening up the flanks of the Elephant corps for a series of devastating charges by the crème of Persian chivalry! The Ptolemaic hammer needed a new head as one of the two Elephants exploded under the power of the flank attack

The Ptolemaic army committed more and more men into the struggle against the Dailami and Persian Elephants. Pikes, swords, legions and phalangites were all pressed into service against the seemingly resilient Persian line in the dark green desert sand.

But, slowly and steadily the 3-hit Persians were being whittled down by the 4-hit Ptolemaic Heavy Foot. One Dailami was now gone, and the fate of the cataphracts looked soon to be sealed also. This was a valiant holding action, but surely not even Mick Hucknall in his mid-80's ginger-haired prime would be able to keep holding on much longer than the Persians had already managed.

But, perhaps the HUcknall-meister had been a mahout in a previous life? The Persians roused themselves for a last herculanean effort and smashed through another wave of Pikemen and Imitation Legionaries! The Dailami were aging visibly as combat took its toll, but even if they weren't holding back the years they were holding back the Ptolemaic advance!

As the battered Successors staggered forward even while the Dailami and elephants rampaged trough their rear echelons they now found themselves facing a fresh wave of Clibanarii, ready for a fight after destroying the Ptolemaic Pachyderms. This was very much still in the balance!

The Dailami/Elephants combo finally were going down fighting to the last. They had lost half a dozen units, but done potentially irreparable damage to the Ptolemaic cause.

Amazingly, outrageously, the Persian Elephant, bolstered by the participation of their commander, managed to survive a ridiculously uneven combat, and at the same time the largely forgotten flank march mopped up some unwary Successor pedestrians and horsemen in the centre of the table. A marvellous victory, forged out of the necessity to salvage a terrible terrain setup by thinking and innovative bold tactics!

Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal

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Click here for the report of the next game in this competition

Game 1 Sassanid Persian vs African Vandal

Game 2 Sassanid Persian vs Camillan Roman

Game 3 Sassanid Persian vs Ptolemaic

Game 4 Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian & Kushan

Game 5 Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian

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