Mortiem et Gloriam, Sassanid Persians vs Byzantines.

Last night's game, my 10mm Pendraken Sassanids (actually most of the heavy cavalry is from their Later Roman range) unchanged since Derventio (and not out the box since then either), warming up for Meglomaniacs II and then Warfare at Reading, vs Pete's beautifully painted 15mm Byzantines (mostly Essex). Rules are Mortiem et Gloriam, and great fun was had.

Pete kept the terrain where he wanted it (Very dense, coastal) and out scouted me by 90%, even though I was attacking! I had a bad feeling about this...
Dense terrain (three hills failed to appear due to landing on the waterway flank), a challenge for two mounted armies, but you have to learn to fight in the worst of it.

Deploying, three small units of cavalry hold my left, a small unit is centre, some skirmishers hold/loot the village, the bulk of my forces to the right. Not deployed yet are my superior catafracts.

Three units, through a gap big enough for one? Of course it will work! This was what I hoped would be a pinning force.

Pete deployed his army in an almost edge to edge wall, and in two ranks! He had 18 units in his army, 15 TuGs! This meant he neeeded to lose 8 to break him, a huge challenge. My smaller, but harder hitting army broke on 6 losses.

Pete, beautifully done! I did try to explain that infantry and cavalry cannot group move together, oh well!

I tried filtering through the gaps around the wood, but my cards, even with a floating talented genera supplying as many decent cards as possible, were not as good as I wanted. Pete moved Isurians to cover the gaps, while his Huns hung loose at the back.

My average catafracts attempt to redeploy, not the most maneuverable forces at the best of times! The cavalry in the distance attempts to draw out the enemy infantry in chaos theory.

CHARGE! Pete firing on two white, instantly rolls two wounds, killing a base, but I'm attacking with a +2, I should muller him, right? Yellow dice to white, more wounds and skulls... Nah, two blanks vs two wounds! Pete had some amazing luck on this flank.

Another cavalry charge sees off Huns still in skirmish formation, but they were taking losses to Pete's shooting, again! The man cannot miss! On the right of this flank, my cavalry on the charge lost another base. These were both combats I should have won, as on impact I was so far up, but, woosh! Handbags! Total misses now 4!

On the far right, my superior catafracts make contact with a unit of Byzantine foot.My bows skirmishers lived up to their name, skirmishing with his unprotected bows, and dragging them off the hill. Both units took losses, but it distracted Pete from my fast(!) approaching catafracts.
 Meanwhile my other cavalries move in and out of shooting range (to annoy Pete).  I was worried about the effectiveness of his darts, I really shouldn't have been...

The general situation, on the left, my beaten up cavalry held on, just. To the right, my catafracts chewed lumps out of Pete's foot, but not quickly enough, how many times can you miss on red or yellow dice!.

And my small cavalry unit breaks! 0-2 to Pete. I was looking at trouble here as Pete had way more units, and this unit of Huns could now cause all sorts of issues, getting into flanks. Actually, this was them done for the day. They just sat there and relaxed from then on.

My infantry look on, amused and somewhat relieved they are not fighting as my superior cavalry piles into Pete's main battle line. In the end I only lost one base to defensive fire. His catafracts charged, and my average catafracts countercharged to meet him, promptly losing a base! Meanwhile my guard cats continued to lump his infantry.

On the left, a pair of flank charges, I let one cavalry be charged by Isurians, as I had a shot on Pete's hunnic flank (awful photo, sorry), and if I broke away, I would have caused a KaB (Kill a base) on my own troops and probably blocked my own charge.  I was to lose two cavalry in return for one of Pete's here, score now 2-6! I broke on 6 units, you get two points for each unit broken, three of mine were now gone and life was tense.

Pete withdrew his bows, seeing that they were the next target for my catafracts, He had a difficult going hill, that was going to favour him on my breakthrough. All cavalry units were up, and causing losses on his foot and catafracts, but no where near quickly enough; this turned into a three round slogging match.

Eventually his unit in front of my superior catafracts broke, (4-4) as did his catafracts and then his two other foot units, the turn after. I had gone from 0-6 to 8-6 in a turn! I had to follow up into the bows and cavalry on the hill. The bows having a tactical (dis)advatage caused enough hits to break my guards (10-8), but I also caused enough hits to smash his gothic cavalry to the right on the bows, who also broke! Yay! (12-8).

I also caught his Huns on Pete's baseline, still in skirmish, in the rear (KaB followed by double red followed by yellows. 12-8 final score (maximum you can score without winning is 10, +2 for CinC surviving, vs Pete getting four of my units 8 plus he survived +2). A very close fight; I only needed one more unit at this point to break Pete, but time ran out. No triumph for the Sassanids this night, but a great game.

Pete was somewhat hampered by only having 4 competent generals, he had so many units that a lot of the time he could not get the ones not in immediate action to assist. His cavalry in 4s was too small and too brittle, I smell a list redesign on the cards, making his great army even more awesome!
My four small cavalry units served well, pinning 6 of Pete's 18 units, but at a loss of 3 of them, as they came in one by one, was painful. My catafracts and superior cavalry accounted for themselves well. My list may change a little, but not much...