Byzantine-Persian War

As I mentioned last time, I brought my wargame travel pack with me to Disney, but did not get a chance to play. We returned mid-week but I am off work until Tuesday so I was able to get in some games. Here is the first.

Background

I am going to run a 5 game campaign during one of the Byzantine-Persian Wars of the 6th-7th centuries. Details to be decided.

Dispositions

Army organizations and dispositions are:

• Persians (top) - From left - archers, heavy cavalry, infantry, light cavalry, elephants, heavy cavalry
• Byzantines - From left skirmishers, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, light cavalry, heavy cavalry x 2

The Battle

The opposing armies meet on the sands of Mesopotamia, near a small village.

The Byzantines draw first blood, repulsing the Persian archers (left) and disordering some cavalry (right)

A lot of bloodshed on the right.

The ponderous pachyderms (cream) finally get stuck in.

And defeat the Byzantine cataphracts. Nevertheless, the Byzantines have destroyed the Persian archers and 2 units of cavalry. Yet the Persian army fights on.

There is a cavalry scrum among a copse of trees. Two units of Byzantine heavy cavalry fight one unit of Persian light horse. Yet the Persians get the better end of the fight.

With half the army routed, the Byzantines lose morale and retreat from the field.

The Campaign

The Persians have the early advantage in the campaign (1-0).

Thoughts

• One of the issues with my current blocks is that I cannot easily distinguish troop types. This came into play in this battle, as the Byzantine light cavalry was supposed to represent heavy infantry. I got confused, however, and treated them incorrectly.
• I tried a tweak to my MicroBattle rules to speed up the game. Disorder and retreat tests started at a disadvantage (5+ to pass). Still, the game took about 30 minutes.