Parthians and Romans

On Tuesday we played a somewhat ahistorical match-up: later Romans with Germanic foederati against Parthians.  Graham won't be able to bring figures to the club for a while, and he has been doing a lot of work on the Later Roman types, so he wanted to give them a try.  The following is a mix of shots from the middle of the battle onwards, taken from my hiding place on the Parthian left with the light infantry hillmen in rough ground:

The first photo shows Gordon's massed Parthian horse archers on our right wing being hammered by enemy skirmishers.  The light infantry types on both sides had a good time, especially Graham's Romans.

Willy ran our centre, composed of another load of horse archers - and what a load they were too.  At the extreme right of the picture you can just about make out his cataphracts.

The situation slightly later, with my guys in the foreground.  Billy was leading the charge of the foederati cavalry here, and I had to go forward to meet him in order to stop his heavies turning in towards our centre.  Poor shooting by our light horse has resulted in them getting frustrated and charging into combat.  Graham's Roman infantry like this a lot...

Willy did manage some local success.  Above, a lone Parthian light units has managed to spy a gap in the enemy lines and has turned around to mix it up with Billy's heavy horse.

Here they are going in...

...and here are their dice.  High numbers are good in this game: six rolls of 6 out of eight dice.  A bright spot for the Parthians in an otherwise poor showing.

We stopped not long after this because we were running out of time.  The game was perhaps a little ambitious given the time available, but the Parthians were pretty much almost shot anyway.  It was good for Graham to get his figures on the table, and I was able to try out the messy mat I've been messing.  It needs more work, but I still think it looks okay in the photos.