Hail Caesar at Operation Cromwell II

We took advantage of having the hall to put on a Hail Caesar on a 16'x6' table on the Saturday night.  We fudged together a Successor army to fight a combined Roman/Sassanid force.  Mike & Jim commnaded the Successors, Steve & Chris commanded the Romans.  Perversely we only used 12' of the table, but it was quite a spectacle.

The Roman divisional deployments from the left were cavalry, Sassanid infnatry, cataphracts, elephants, Legion & Auxilia.

The Successor deployment from their right was heavy cavalry with medium behind, Galacian warbands, phalanx, elephants with mercenary hoplites behind.

The battle started with the Successors advancing on their right while holding their centre & left back while sending their elephants across their front.

The Roman heavy cavalry defeated the Succssors, but were badly enough hurt to think twice about taking on the medium cavalry division behind.  The Galacians occupied the scrubby hill.

A fight developed in the centre between the opposing elephants supported by Galacians on one side and Legionaries on the other.  The phalanx waited for the elephants to get out of the way and charged forward at the legion.  The cataphracts advanced on the Galacians to support their elephants.

The Successor elephants won the fight in the centre and one unit wheeled left to attack the flank of the legion while it had it's hands full with the phalanx and hoplites.  The legion broke leaving a gaping hole in the Roman line.

The Galacians, helped greatly by the rough ground held their own v. the catphracts while the Successor right gave ground they could afford to lose.

The Roman auxilia had  poor command dice and took too long to get involved.  By the time it had cleared up the Successor's delaying force, the hoplites and phalanx had beaten the legion & were able to turn & face them.

By this stage it was nearing midnight and combat fatique was setting in.  So we agreed to a pull up stumps.  But the Successors were in the box seat - the auxilia were about to be stepped on, the Roman camp was undefended, and their cavalry and allies were too far away to help.