Maharajah Final 2012: Replay

Steve's Sassanids v. Jim's Pontic army

After the epic draw 3 weeks ago we faced up again with the same armies.

The Sassanids are on the left.  heavy infantry in the centre, cavalry on each wing and light infantry behind the cavalry on the near flank.  The Pontic army has 2 infantry divs in the centre & cavalry on each wing.

The combat opened with a blunder charge of the Sassanid cavalry on the near flank which made a mess of the Pontic light horse.  The remainder of the Pontic army is moving forward in not particularly good order.

The battle is taking form now with the Pontic heavy cavalry attacking and getting the upper hand on both flanks.

On both flanks the Pontic cavalry got on top, but just couldn't get the command dice to finish the enemy off.  In the centre the Pontic infantry, a mix of Imitation legionaries and light bowmen almost broke through the Sassanid foot, but not quite.

The tide turned in the centre and the left Pontic infantry division broke, leaving the other one with a hanging flank.

On this flank, with better command dice the Sassanid cavalry rallied faster than the Ponts and with the help of some foot bowmen, they now had the advantage.  But on the far flank the Sassanid cavalry have finally broken.  In the centre, the Pontic infantry have retreated, trying to hold on unit the cavalry can come to the rescue.

On the near flank the Pontic cavalry have galloped behind the ridge to escape the hail of arrows and regroup.    In the centre the Pontic foot are hanging on under heavy bow fire still waiting for the cavalry to come to their rescue.

The Pontic foot has finally broken under the bowfire.  But their cavalry on the far flank finally got back into the action riding down the Sassanid infantry's flank guard and breaking their heavy infantry division.

Now both sides had lost 2 of 4 divisions, it was after 11 & the umpire had to go home, so the battle was declared a draw.   So we will have to have a third grand final!  Once again the two veteran generals slugged each other to a standstill with move and countermove.  The Hail Caesar dice gods are cruel beasts, but they usually seem to even up in the end...runs of good HTH dice being countered by runs of bad command dice, etc.   Once again a draw seemed a fair result.

It was agreed that the players would be allowed to raise new armies for the 3rd try at getting a result.