Seleucid V Parthian AAR

Managed another Hail Caesar game with Matt but this time we pushed the points up to 500. My plan was to run his troops out of space and force his cataphracts to receive the charge from my pike. I went pike heavy, indeed fielding more pike than I have ever done before. 

Matt's Parthian's on the right took up a much greater area, the question has to be would they be able to use such large numbers effectively?

Not only did I not go for the cataphract option but the cavalry were javelin and spear armed. I wanted the ability to do damage when not in contact and I also knew I would never catch the horse archers with the very slow heavy cavalry. Unfortunately I managed far too few shots from these guys.

My Gallic infantry took a fair pounding, I was playing them as naked fanatics and their ability to clear away some of the horse archers worked but the Parthian Shot ability caused too many losses.

On my right flank my javelin armed light cavalry had cleared off the first wave of horse archers whilst on my left flank I had lost one of it's two units to a bad test roll whilst the other unit caught an evading unit removing it from the game. 

At this point it was clear the idea of javelin armed light cavalry was good but just two per wing was way to fee. Indeed my points spent on the heavy cavalry would have been much better spent on more light, something to consider for the future.

My pike on the right were being held up by the skirmish elements due to poor command rolls. Indeed I was just getting one moves almost all the way along the line. I had countered on getting two to three moves every other turn so I would be able to push Matt's archers to their board edge.

My light cavalry were shaken but poised to charge into the flanks of several horse archer units but it was not to be as they were finally booted out the game.

The surprise of the night was that my Gallic infantry stood and survived a charge by a cataphract unit supported by two horse archer units. It was pushed back and shaken but in the following turn won the melee seeing them off. I had turned the pike to face to try and take advantage of a possible stand off.

I was still in danger of having a gap torn in my line if the cataphracts charged again so I planned on plugging the gap with some of my cavalry.

On the left I continued to fall back with my two spent light cavalry, they were in no condition to continue to try and push against the numbers they faced.

I was also falling back on the left but I just could not get more than a single move out of them and with 50% of shots supplying hits and saving on average 33% of these I was losing the battle here as well.

Matt charged in again with his mauled cataphracts with two supports whilst I received with the pike as support. I had been rolling some good dice but at this point they deserted me with me losing 6 pips to 3. Not only did the cavalry break but so too did the pike.

Same spot, different picture, suddenly not only did I have a big hole in my line but one side was propped open by a shaken unit, I was in serious trouble.

Whilst Matt's cavalry were also shaken he had the light cavalry to pour into the gap and recover at least one more pip to allow his heavies to finish off the Gauls if the bow troops had not already done so. My cavalry on the left flank was a broken brigade and no way could I now win so yet another victory for Matt.

However I think I have a lot more mileage with my Persians, I need to send in more bow but they are the troops that can cause the biggest problems for the horse archers. So I guess I will be back with them next time.