Hail Caesar: Rome v. Mithridites

Jim & Mike's Pontic army
v.
Steve & Tony's Romans (Marian)

500 points, 3 divisions each.

The Ponts on the left have a cavalry division in the forground, infantry in the centre & more cavalry on the far flank.

The Romans have their cavalry on the far flank and infantry divisions centre and left.

The Romans advanced cautiously, but holding their German cavalry back on the far flank.

A lot of skirmish action took place between the lines as the Ponts tried to make a general advance, but not getting much cooperation from the dice gods.

Eventually, the Ponts did get moving and the two lines met right along the line except for the far flank where the Roman German cavalry was still held back (for fear of the cataphracts).

On the Pontic right, their cavalry was generally successful, but the Romans only fell back, they did not break.

In the centre both sides had some wins and losses - the right hand phalanx broke on first contact, but then the adjacent Roman cohort broke too.

At this point Steve saw an opening.  Both sides had supports behind the near end of the phalanx line.  Steve's victorious cohort charged forward against the Thorakatai that had been supporting the broken phalanx and the supporting cohort tried to wheel right to charge the flank of the adjacent victorious phalanx.  He failed the command roll, but had his Russell Crowe CIC there for a re-roll and got the 2 moves he needed.   The phalanx broke under the flank attack and the sweeping advance hit the next phalanx, breaking that too.

The Pontic infantry division was now doomed, but all was not lost for the Ponts.  Their right flank cavalry finished off the left flank Roman infantry division and the cataphracts were finally closing on the German cavalry.

The battle came down to the charge of Jim's magnificent metal catphracts, bronze armour shining, charging up the hill with knotos and 4+ saves v. German cavalry with 5+ saves.

But as they have so often done before these cataphracts turned into pussy cats.  Both cataphract units broke in a shower of crap dice.  The division broke and with it the Pontic army.

It was an exciting battle that went to the proverbial wire.  Jim's impressive Warlords plastic phalangites that he had spent the last 5 days painting up had a forgettable first day out, but at least they were defeated by a tactical masterstroke & not bad dice.  The less said about the cataphracts the better.