FOG 300 Early Sassanids vs Classical Indians Circa 281 AD

With his victory over the Kushans on the plains of Farah and the suspicious death of the governor of the neighboring province of Turan, Hormizd, son of Shapur Mishanshah, governor of Sakastan, has moved to seize control of Turan itself.  He has made it clear that he plans to push over the mountains and the River Indus to add those lands to his control and also gain access to that which has historically only been the purview of the King of Kings, elephants.  

Contact with the local Indian magnate was not long in coming and Hormizd'z attempts to overawe the locals came to naught.  Somewhere on the plains east of the Indus, Hormizd and his host met the Indian forces.

Sassanid List and Host:

Classical Indian List and Host:

The Sassanids won the initiative and opted for Agricultural.  The Indians took the compulsory open field, a gully and an enclosed field.  The Sassanids wanted an open table and took an open as their single terrain piece.  The open field ended up on the Indian base line just left of center.  The gully ended up on the Sassanid base line in the center.  The enclosed field was picked up on a six as was the open.

After deployment, the Sassanid host looked like so with the two cataphracts deployed on the left (in the picture), the 4 pack of light horse deployed one deep in front of the gully followed by the six pack of light horse and then the cavalry unit on the right.  The Sassanid camp was behind the six pack of light horse.

After deployment, the Indians showed a solid line across the table with an 8 pack of archers, the elephants and two more eights of archers.  The two units of spearmen were deployed in double wide columns  in support.  The fortified camp was behind the elephants.

The Classical Indians rolled to move first but opted to remain stationary and make the Sassanids come to them.

The Sassanid 1st turn had the cataphracts and both light horse BGs move as a battle line 8" forward.  The cavalry on the Sassanid left moved 5".  The Sassanids had no shooting but the Indians scored 3 hits on the 6 pack of light horse and disrupted them.  In the Joint Action Phase, the Sassanid general moved to touch the 6 pack of light horse.  At the end of the turn, the field looked like below:

In the Indian 2nd turn, the Indians wheeled the right end bowmen with the Elephants to angle towards the Sassanid middle but remained just outside of 5" of the Sassanid cavalry.  The Sassanid light horse remained out of shooting range but the Indians managed 3 hits on the Sassanid 6 pack of light horse.  A base was lost to hits but the cohesion test was passed.  2 hits were also scored on the Purple Cataphracts on the right end of the Sassanid line but they passed their cohesion test.   In the Joint Action Phase, the Sassanids attempted to rally the 6 pack of light horse but to no avail.  At this point, the 2nd Indian turn ended.

The Sassanid 2nd turn opened with the cataphracts and both light horse BGs moving as a group to 3" of the Indian line.  The Sassanid cavalry moved a full 5" forward.  In the shooting phase, Sassanid shooting was completely ineffective.  The Indians managed 2 hits on the 6 pack of light horse (who passed cohesion), 2 hits on the Red Cataphracts (who passed cohesion) and 3 hits on the Purple Cataphracts (who passed both the death roll and cohesion).  In the Joint Action Phase, the 6 pack of Sassanid light horse rallied back from disrupted as the turn ended.

To start the Indian 3rd, the elephants wheeled an inch and charged towards the cataphracts.  Both Sassanid light horse BGs were forced to flee (the 6 pack went 5" back and the 4 pack went 9" back).  The Elephants rolled down and only trundled forward 3".  The right flank Indian bowmen passed a CMT and wheeled forward to be parallel of the Sassanid cavalry.  The remainder of the Indian line stayed in place.  In the shooting phase, only the Red Cataphracts were hit enough to matter and they easily passed cohesion.  In the Joint Action Phase, the Sassanid general moved to the Sassanid cavalry.

To start the Sassanid 3rd turn, both cataphracts and the Sassanid cavalry charged.  The Sassanid general joined the impact with the cavalry but as both sides scored 3 hits it was a draw.  The Red Cataphracts scored 3 hits to 3 as well but the Indians in the open field lost a base to the death roll.  The Purple Cataphracts, however, scored 4 hits to 2.  The Indians on the left end of the line lost a base to hits and disrupted.  In the maneuver phase, the 6 pack of light horse turned and stopped just out of 3" of the right flank Indian bow.  The 4 pack turned and moved to within 3" of the Elephant line.  In the shooting phase, all was for naught except the hit on the elephants, who subsequently rolled an unmodified 3 on their cohesion test and dropped to disrupted.  In the melee phase, the Sassanid cavalry only managed 1 hit to 3 but luckily survived both the death roll and the cohesion test.  The Red and Purple Cataphracts both scored 3 hits to their opponents and only took 1 each.  The center bow BG dropped another base but passed cohesion.  The right flank bow BG survived the death roll but double dropped on cohesion breaking.  Both the center bow BG and the spearmen behind them passed their cohesion for seeing a friend break.  The broken bowmen fled off the table while the pursuing cataphracts plowed into the spearmen behind.  In the Joint Action Phase, the Red Cataphracts and the Sassanid cavalry broke off.  The Purple Cataphracts remained in place to fight the next impact.  (I know this was discussed on the forum but as I could not find it readily during the game, could not remember what the consensus was and it just seemed wrong to break off, they remained stuck in).  No picture survived this turn so on to the Indian 4th we went.

The Indian 4th saw no Indian charges to resolve but the Purple Cataphracts scored 3 hits to 0 on the spear BG who lost a base and managed to disrupt.  In the maneuver phase, the spear BG expanded one base so that all stands would fight against the cataphracts.  The Elephant BG wheeled to get in position to charge the Red Cataphracts on the next Indian turn.  In the shooting phase, the Sassanid cavalry took 3 hits and disrupted.  The Red Cataphracts took 2 hits and also disrupted.  The Elephants took 1 hit but passed they cohesion.  In melee, the Purple Cataphracts scored 2 hits and took 2 hits so a draw.  In the Joint Action Phase, the Elephants rallied back to steady.

To begin the Sassanid 4th turn, both the Sassanid cavalry and the Red Cataphracts rolled successfully not to charge.  In maneuver, the Red Cataphracts rolled a CMT and wheeled forward to prevent a flank charge by the elephants.  The 4 pack of Sassanid light horse contracted to a 2 wide frontage (outside of elephant restricted zone).  The Sassanid cavalry successfully passed a CMT to move short.  In the shooting phase, both the Indian and Sassanid archery proved ineffective.  In melee, the Purple Cataphracts scored 2 hits to 0 on the spear BG who suffered no death but fragmented on cohesion.  In the Joint Action Phase, the Sassanid general moved to the cavalry who rallied back from disrupted.  With that, the Sassanid 4th turn ended. (Yet another turn in which no picture survived.)

To start the Indian 5th turn, the Indian elephants charged the Red Cataphracts.  The Indian general joined the fight and saw the Elephants core 5 hits to 3.  The Red Cataphracts lost 1 base and fragmented.  In the maneuver phase, the center bow BG turn into the flank of the Purple Cataphracts who turned one base to face.  In the shooting phase, Sassanid archery was awful and the two hits on the 6 pack of Sassanid light horse inflicted by the Indians were shrugged off.  In the melee phase, the Red Cataphracts only managed 1 hit to 2 from the elephants and broke on cohesion but did not lose a base.  The Purple Cataphracts scored 1 hit on the Indian bow and 3 on the spearmen and took 2 in return from the bow BG and none from the spear.  The spear BG followed up their stellar performance by losing a base and breaking.  The bow BG in the field disrupted as a result of seeing friends break.  The Purple Cataphracts passed cohesion for seeing the Red Cataphracts break.  The elephants lost contact with the Red Cataphracts in the pursuit.  (And we have another turn in which there is no picture.)

The Sassanid 5th turn saw the Sassanid cavalry charge the bow unit to their front.  The Indian bowmen managed only 1 hit on the cavalry while throwing 8 dice.  The Sassanid cavalry, however, hit 4 times causing the Indian Archers to lose a base and double drop to fragmented.  At this point, the Impact Phase ended with a Sassanid victory at 5 - 2 attrition points.

Not sure where Hormizd will show up next.  Historically, in 282 AD, he would rebell against Bahram II so his next appearance might be in a Sassanid Civil War.  Until next time...