Go Meek Into The Desert 260AD

One of the scenarios in the Hail Caesar book
Jim & Mike's Persians v. Steve & Renfrey's Romans

The Roman infantry start in the oasis in the middle of the table with their cavalry coming on in their left hand rear corner on throwing the right dice.

The Persians all come on one edge (LHS in the 1st pic) as they throw command dice to do so.  They deployed their heavy cavalry on their left, then infantry, elephants and light cavalry on their right.  Their plan was to smash through the Roman right with the cataphracts then roll up their line before the Roman cavalry could make an impact.

The Persians advanced in a reasonably ordered fashion, with some disruption by bad command dice and Roman bow & ballista fire.

On the Persian left, their cataphracts charged the Roman foot.  The Romans gained a bit of advantage through better placement of supports and compounded it with better dice.  The cataphracts were thrown back.

The cataphracts reorganised as the Roman cavalry came on on the far end of the table and arrows flew in the centre.

The Persians had intended to use their light cavalry to delay the Romans cavalry & keep it out of the real fight.  But this came unstuck when the Romans got  a good command roll and charged down the Persian cavalry.

On the Persian left the cataphracts charged again.  This time they did defeat the infantry before them, but at such a cost the division had to spend time rallying before it could be used again.


Meanwhile the Persian left was being overlapped by cavalry.

The Persians in the centre went forward in a desperate attempt to break through before the cavalry could get to them.  The Romans were hurt, but they held on as the Persian line was chewed up from their right.

The Persians sold their lives dearly, but the end was inevitable.  First the elephant division, then the infantry division broke.  The cataphracts had at long last rallied enough to take some action, but it was too late to do anything but cover the retreat.

Another great little battle.  The Persians really had to win their initial cataphract charge decisively.  Had they done that it would have been them rolling up the Roman line...but alas it was not to be.