PRELIMINARY MOVES
Both armies sent Hun and Ghassanid light cavalry out to their flanks; and the Byzantines sent javelin-armed psiloi towards the broken ground on their flanks.
BYZANTINE MOVE ONE
Rob invoked the Strategikon and opted to move first. The Huns, Ghassanids and javelineers continued to advance, and the rest of the cavalry followed suit. The right hand units of heavy infantry moved towards the forward edge of the hill.
SASSANID MOVE ONE
The Sabirs continued to advance, breaking into skirmish formation on the left; the elephants advanced, and the left wing light clibanarii wheeled out to face the Byzantine Huns. The rest of the clibanarii didn’t move (in order to maximize the effect of their archery.) The levy didn’t move either! Then the archery opened up to devastating effect. The Ghassanids on the Byzantine left wing and the leftmost comitatus unit each lost two figures, but the Huns on their right, and the six light cavalry in the right centre each lost three figures, the former failing their leadership test and fleeing eleven inches. A good start for the Sasanians!
BYZANTINE MOVE TWO
The fleeing Huns failed to rally and went back another ten inches - almost to the baseline. The psiloi and the surviving light cavalry swung right to face the Sabirs on the Sasanian left wing. The Byzantine left wing and left centre continued to advance, the leftmost comitatus unit went into single rank. Their archery was ineffectual.
SASSANIAN MOVE TWO
Unfortunately Rob had moved his small unit of light cavalry into the path and charge range of a Sasanian elephant. (That 12'' charge often catches people out!) The pernickety pachyderm duly obliged, and the light cavalry had no option but to flee. The light clibanarii also charged the Byzantine javelineers, who fired (ineffectually) and fled (far enough to escape!). Two “failed” charges then; but the whole Byzantine right wing was on the run. Great! On the Sasanian right archery continued the reduce the Byzantines’ cavalry strength.
BYZANTINE MOVE THREE
No charges from Rob, but he rallied both the Huns and psiloi on his right flank. The comitatus units concentrated their archery on the outer Sasanian clibanarii unit, and killed four figures! Ouch! Not what you expect when you’ve got a 3+ save!
SASSANIAN MOVE THREE
It should have been a promenade. The Byzantine right wing consisted of one unit of psiloi, out in the open. The light clibanarii declared another charge. The skirmishers opted to ‘fire & flee’. The javelins did their job! - no need to flee. The Sasanians lost three figures, failed the leadership test and did the fleeing! The Shahanshah galloped to the left to redress the rout. The elephant crew and the other light clibanarii concentrated archery on the Byzantine skutatoi [1], whilst the right wing kept whittling down the Byzantine left wing cavalry, killing five in one comitatus unit [5].
BYZANTINE MOVE FOUR
The position on the right stabilised as the rallied Huns came back up at the double, and the psiloi moved into the relative safety of the rocks. On the Byzantine left however it was now or never. The comitatus units were down to 3 and 7 figures respectively. The Ghassanids were down to 5. If they didn’t charge now, would there be anyone left to charge next turn!? Both comitatus units charged the clibanarii unit [3]. The Ghassanids charged the Sabirs. The Sabir response was simple, ‘fire & flee’ - 12'', escaped, but almost off the table! The options for the clibanarii were more interesting. A counter charge would gain the benefit of the kontos. As Persian Superior Cavalry I could even shoot whilst doing so, but at -2. (-1 charging enemy, -1 moving) By standing and shooting I’d only be at -1. I opted to stand. My first thought was to shoot at the 3-strong unit. One casualty would be a leadership test. But then, two casualties on the 7-strong unit would also bring about a test. With ten BS4 figures able to shoot this was possible. Three kills. Rob failed the leadership roll and the four survivors galloped off ne’er to be seen again. In came the other three. Now three against fourteen may not seem good odds, BUT (yes, it’s a big BUT) they had superior weapon skill, they got to strike first, superior cavalry now get to reroll their misses on the first round of combat, one of them was a merarch, and another was a leader - so six attacks; also they’d hit the very end of my line, so I didn’t get an overlap on that flank. Two Persian casualties; none for the Byzantines, so even with a second rank, I still lost by one point, failed the leadership test – but fortunately could FBIGO (fall back in good order, for any non-WABbers) Unfortunately Rob followed up and stayed in contact, and the table edge was now too close for a second FBIGO.
No charges. My fleeing unit [3] rallied, and the Shananshah galloped back to the right centre. On the left wing the Sabirs and the elephant moved to face the returned Huns. The other light clibs and elephant continued to shoot at and manoeuvre against the Byzantine heavy infantry [1]. On the right centre the Army Standard Bearer’s clibanarii unit advanced and wheeled right to face the Byzantine bucellarii, who had both the General and Army Standard in their front rank. The FBIGO’d Clibanarii lost a musician roll-off after a desultory round with ‘the terrible trio’, but passed their leadership test and held their ground! The skirmishing Huns [9] pulled back from the attentions of the Byzantine javelinmen [8].
