Barbarian Big Bash

Mike & Steve's Samartans v. Jim & Tony's Ancient Britons

We decided to try a barbarian v. barbarian battle for a change.  The Britons had 2 infantry and 2 cavalry divisions.  The Samartans had 3 cavalry and 1 infantry division.  The Briton warbands were much stronger than the Samartan foot, but their light cavalry and chariots faced medium cavalry and cataphracts supported by horse archers.

The pics are taken from the Samartan left, Britons on the left.  The Samartans deployed their cataphracts in the centre with infantry behind and their medium cavalry on each flank.  The Britons put all their infantry on their right where there was a ridge to aid defence and all their cavalry on their left.    Varying command dice caused the 2 Brit cavalry divisions to break apart, the central one rushing forward unsupported.  The Samartans immediately attacked the isolated division.

The broke it, but the other Brit cavalry division got onto their flank while they were doing so and now the Samartan right was hard pressed.

Meanwhile on the other flank, the Brit infantry held their line and waited as the Samartan horse steadily advanced.

In the foreground the Brits lost 1 warband, but their opponents were shaken and unable to follow up while the next warband held the line.  In the centre the cataphracts charged home.  One warband broke, but the others held the line.   In the distance, the cavalry fight goes on with Samartan foot archers helping out.

Now the battle reached crisis point all along the line.  The Brit foot were still holding the line against the enemy horse.   On the far flank, Brit cavalry & chariots fended off the enemy horse to allow Boudicea herself lead a cavalry charge into the flank of the cataphracts.  All three Samartan cavalry divisions were within 1 bad test of breaking.  But none of them did - then suddenly in one turn all the last three Brit divisions broke.

We're not sure how the Ancient Britons got to fight the Samartans, but it made for an interesting battle with a mainly infantry army fighting a mainly cavalry army.  It did not look like a good mix for the Brits.  Their enemy had so much more and better cavalry and while the Brits had better infantry, they had no long spears to protect it from cavalry.   But their strategy to hold the line with the foot on their right and concentrate their cavalry on their left might have worked if they hadn't let the centre cavalry rush ahead to its doom.