The Parthian army had six units of horse archers and 3 units of heavy cataphract heavy cavalry along with a similar number of infantry spear and bow units, plus a couple of units of skirmishing infantry. In contrast the Dacians had 4 units of javelin armed light cavalry, 2 units of Sarmatian heavy cavalry, a ballista unit, 2 units of falxmen 7 units of warriors and 6 units of archers. An overview of the opposing armies clearly indicated that the Parthians had far greater mobility and missile power, but in contrast the Dacians had far stronger hand-to-hand combat power.
The Dacians commanded by Chris and myself deployed first and moved second. This was no real disadvantage as we needed to see where the very dangerous Parthian light cavalry units were headed! Tony and James had initially deployed all the Parthian cavalry on the left wing of their army facing all our Dacian archer units. This was indeed a deception as they soon switched all the light cavalry across to the right wing and proceeded to shoot away our line of Dacian warriors who could do nothing but stand and suffer!
Meanwhile, Chris, now that the danger of the Dacian mounted archers had disappeared across to my side of the table, was now now able to advance the Dacian archers towards the Parthian archers and spearmen. The missile exchange which ensued proved indecisive as both sides succeeded in rolling some very disappointing shooting dice. Unfortunately this was not the case on my wing which was being steadily shot to pieces by the Parthian light cavalry.
I was forced into sacrificing units of Dacian warriors forward to force the Parthian cavalry to evade and in so doing disrupt their shooting line. This very costly tactic bought me enough time to bring some bow and javelin armed Dacians across to engage the Parthian cavalry in a still very unequal shooting match. Thankfully, the Dacian ballista unit also offered some support, but in all honesty this unit couldn’t hit a barn door with a shovel. The ballista was far more psychological than physical and its mere presence did I’m sure offer some deterrent effect.
Chris’s advance against Tony’s left wing gained some momentum when his Dacian archers at last found their targets forcing the Parthian infantry to flee and recoil disrupted. However, waiting behind were the 3 units of Parthian catphracts which at some point would launch a potentially devastating charge and swish their Dacian opponents. The losses at this stage of the battle were far heavier on the Dacian side. Most were Dacian warrior units which had suffered terribly under the accurate shooting of the Parthian light cavalry. I was forced to use both the Sarmation heavy cavalry units which brought their compound bows to bear against the Parthian light cavalry, one of which was quickly forced to flee disrupted losing 2 of its 4 stands.
With the only 2 Dacian heavy cavalry units committed to saving what was left my severely mauled wing at the hands of the Parthian light cavalry, Chris’s infantry was left open to the charge of the Parthian cataphracts. We had been anticipating this for a while and finally Tony decided this was the time to unleash these heavily armoured ancient ‘tanks.’ Remarkably, one unit failed to charge home after being recoiled by some excellent shooting from Chris’s Dacian archers. I think that its fair to say that Chris’s shooting dice rolls were pretty awful at the start of the game but did get progressively better as the game went on. This time they delivered! This left one of the cataphract units isolated and it was quickly dispatched to the casualty tray in the next round of shooting.
On my wing, after more than an hour of suffering at the hands of the Parthian light cavalry, with still more sacrifice the light cavalry were finally forced to retreat. The Dacian infantry unit armed with the 2 handed falx dealt a deadly blow to the attack of the Parthian infantry through the woodland. Both armies had by this point lost half their generals and command and control limitations were beginning to effect both armies; there was certainly a reluctance on our part to commit any generals into hand-to-hand combat.
Time was beginning to run short – we had had a Forest Outlaws club meeting at the start of the evening so had made a late start to the game. Chris and my Dacians after a very tough start had staged somewhat of a fight back from the middle of the game onwards. However, our early losses had been so severe that despite our later successes any points count would point to a Parthian win if only a marginal one.
Game Analysis
The Parthian light cavalry were used to great effect and succeeded in neutralising the greater numbers of Dacians with sustained accurate mobile bow shooting. The resulting attrition whittled away the attack potential of the Dacian warriors and falxmen to the extent that no game changing fight back was possible despite our significant efforts.
Written by Paul K.
