FOG 300 2nd Battle of Ecbatana

 Summer of 220 AD - Vologases VI is set to continue the siege of Ecbatana when out of the morning mists, Tiradates III, himself, leads his arms onto the field to break the siege.

List and host of Vologases VI (numbers of the BGs refer to order of march):

List and host of Tiradetes III (numbers of the BGs refer to the order of march):

Vologases won the initiative and elected agricultural.  Tiradates took the compulsory open field along with a gentle hill.  Vologases took an open.  The open field fell in the center of Vologases base line while Vologases open fell in the center of Tiradates baseline.  The gentle hill ended up 4" in from Vologases right side edge on the base line.

View of both armies deployed - Vologases on the left, Tiradates on the right

Tiradates' forces deployed:  BG 1 - 6 stand light horse, BG 3 - Bow-Cavalry, BG 5 - Cataphracts, BG 4 - Cataphracts, BG 2 - Bow-Cavalry (#'s correspond to order of march)

Vologases' forces deployed:  BG 1 - light horse, BG 4 - Camelphracts, BG 5 - Cataphracts, BG 4 - 6 stand Bow*-Lance-Cavalry, BG 2 - Bow-Cavalry (#'s correspond to order of march)

Vologases (referred to as Purple going forward) moved first.  Purple BGs 5, 3 & 2 moved as a group 7" forward.  Purple BG 4 moved 4" forward.  Purple BG 1 moved 4" forward including a double wheel to move a base width towards the center.  In Joint Action, Vologases moved to join Purple BG 5.

After Purple 1st turn

For Tiradates' (referred to as Red going forward) 1st turn, Red BG 2 moved 5" forward.  Red BGs 4 & 5 moved as a group and wheeled 4" towards the center.  Red BGs 1 & 3 each moved to within 3" of Purple BGs 2 & 3.  In the shooting phase, Red BG 2 scored a single hit on Purple BG 1 who could not reply as they were out of range.  Red BG 1 scored 3 hits on Purple BG 2.  Red BG 3 only managed 1 hit on Purple BG 3.  Purple BG 3 scored 2 hits on Red BG 3 while Purple BG 2 scored a single hit on Red BG 1.  Red BG 3 rolled out of its cohesion test.  Purple BG 2 survived both its death roll and cohesion test.  Both leaders opted to stand pat and the turn ended.

After Red Turn 1

For Purple turn 2 (Vologases),  Purple BGs 2 & 3 charged.  Red BG 1 evaded and ended up off the table.  Purple BG 2 charged forward 6" stopping to the side of Red BG 3.  In impact, Purple BG 3 scored 3 hits to Red BG's 2.  Red BG 2 survived the death roll but disrupted on cohesion.  In the maneuver phase, Purple BG 5 wheeled 4" towards the Red cataphracts (BGs 4 & 5).  Purple BG 4 moved 4" straight ahead.  Purple BG 1 moved 2" forward.  In the shooting phase, Purple BG 1 scored 0 hits but took 2 in return.  Purple BG 1 survived its cohesion test from the hits.  In melee, Purple BG 3 scored 4 hits on Red BG 3.  Both survived their death rolls but Red BG 3 failed its cohesion test and dropped to fragmented.  Both leaders opted to stand pat again, so the turn ended.

(Unfortunately no picture survived of this turns final positions)

For Red turn 2 (Tiradates), Red BG 2 charged Purple BG 1 who evaded 7".  Red BG 2 pursued 4".  Red BG 5 declared a charge on Purple BG 5 while Red BG 4 successfully rolled a CMT to hold.  In the impact phase, both generals joined the front ranks.  Both BG 5s scored 2 hits for a draw.  Both generals also survived attempts by the opposing troops to rip them from the saddle.  In the maneuver phase, Red BG 4 passed a CMT to move short up next to BG 5.  In melee, Red BG 5 scored 2 hits but took 4 in return.  Both generals again survived the combat but Red BG 5 lost a base to hits and disrupted.  In the other melee both BG 3s scored 2 hits each for a draw.  With both generals in the fight, joint action ended the turn.

After the Red 2nd turn.  The lighting makes the marker behind Red BG 3 look like a disruption but is actual a fragmented.

To begin the Purple 3rd turn, Purple BG 4 charged forward into Red BG 4.  This caused Red BGs 4 & 5 to disorder as well as Purple BG 5 (Purple BG 4 is camelphracts).  In the impact, Purple BG 5 scored 5 hits to Red BG 5's 2.  Subsequently, Red BG 5 dropped a base to hits and disrupted.  In the manuever phase, Purple BG 2 turn 90 to get on the flank of Red BG 3.  Purple BG 1 turned 90 and moved 5" over the hill towards the center.  There was no shooting to be had so into melee the turn progressed.  In melee, Purple BG 3 scored 3 hits and took only 1 in return.  Red BG 3 survived its death roll but failed on cohesion dropping to broken.  Both BG 5s scored a single hit to the other for a draw.  Red BG 5 then successfully passed its cohesion test for seeing Red 3 break.  Purple BG 4 managed no hits to its contact but took 1 in return.  Purple BG 4 passed both its death roll and cohesion test.  Red BG 3 evaded 5" but was caught by Purple BG 3 and lost a base.  In joint action, Red BG 3 successfully rolled to stop pursuing while Purple BG 3 routed off the table.  Red BG 5 successfully rallied back from disrupted to end the turn.

(Yet another turn in which a picture did not survive)

The Red 3rd turn began with things looking grim and not improving.  Red BG 2 tried a CMT to turn and move and failed.  They opted to turn 90 in hopes of surviving a little longer.  In melee, Red BG 5 scored 2 hits but took 3 in return.  Purple BG 4 scored 1 hit and took 1 in return for a draw.  Disaster struck when Tiradates died from the 3 hits taken to Red BG 5.  To top things off, Red BG 5 then lost a base to hits and fragmented on cohesion followed by Red BG 4 also fragmenting for seeing the CinC die.  Down 5 attrition points, Tiradates army dissolved around his dead body.

Final positions at the end of Red Turn 3 melee.