Greetings…
Well here it is… The annual humiliation that is known as ‘The Boxing Day Game’.
Mharaid and I played this as a face to face game this year…Hurrah!… And I have to admit that it was the best Christmas present I could have had.
We played with toys soldiers, Ate food, drank Mead and binge watched Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
And of course keeping up another seasonal tradition… I lost… Big time 😂.
For this years game we decided to play a 3rd Century Rome v’s Sassanid Persian Lion Rampant Game…
I used unit profiles that can be found on the I Live With Cats Blog…
http://ilivewithcats.blogspot.com/search/label/romans
We played a straight forward encounter type game with all the toys on the table and fairly basic stats for the units… We actually forgot to mark troops as battered unit after failing morale throws… Which probably saved me from an even bigger drubbing…😁.
So… On to the game.
I took the part of Ignominious Infortunatus the glorious leader of the Roman force.
Mharaid took the part of Rustdashir the Great the cunning leader of the Sassanid force.
Initial deployment and start of first moves…
As Infortunatus is a high ranking official in Rome a delegation have been sent out to observe how easy it is to defeat the Sassanid rabble.
“I shall do something glorious and spectacular, then the path will be open for fame, wealth and power”
That’s me… Giving encouragement from the rear.
Persians and Romans move steadily towards each other…
The end of move two… Brace yourselves.
Charge!… For Rome, Glory and Upward Mobility…
“Testiculorum”
The very first act of move three…A slightly large bump in the road to fame and fortune.
I think Rustdashir the Great nearly laughed up a lung…😂😂😂
Of course my brave men continued and slaughtered the enemy… Their loyalty allowing me to be raised to a state of near godhood in the land of my birth….
Ah!…
“Duplex Testiculis”
So!… Cervasiam O’ Horologium…
Yup!…
Fortunately my men decided to fight on… A decision many of them would regret.
And here we see the early results of yet another school boy error…
As these Sassanid Levy had armour I decided to class them the same as Roman Auxilia.
It turns out that they didn’t need any extra help… sigh!
As the Sassanids laugh their way forwards…
My Hand picked Equites rush on to the fleshpots of…Anywhere but here… Sigh!
The Light Horse try to outflank some Sassanid Archers…
No they don’t…
Yeah!…
Like I care… I’m just floating above the battlefield wondering why I’ve not been whisked to the Elysian Fields… Sigh!
With my now sort of semi divine guidance the Legionarii, Auxilia and Lanciarii gang up against these pesky Sassanid Spearmen…
With yet another spectacular roll of the dice…
The Lanciarii get bounced… Well I suppose they didn’t run away…
Unlike the Auxilia at the other end of the battlefield… Sigh!
Hey look… A lot of the other guys are going the same way as us.
Scenting Blood the Sassanids start to bear down on the now somewhat depleted Roman force…
The Legionarii throw themselves at the upstart Levy…
And chase them from the field of battle…
Yes!… Start building that triumphal Arch.
Full of enthusiasm the Lanciarii attack Nellie the Elephant…
And… Then bugger off… Sigh!
As do these Legionarii after they try and take on some Cataphracts on the other side of the battlefield…
Sigh!
As what’s left of my men throw yet another appalling activation roll…
Rustdashir the Great eyes up some more fresh meat…
At this point I graciously conceded defeat…..
I lost five of my units and Mharaid lost only one… I was thrashed 😂.
Terrific fun…
What the pictures don’t show is the constant attrition that Mharaid’s bow armed troops were causing…
I shall need to do as Rome did and invest in light cavalry and missile troops, also upgrading the Legionarii to have mixed weapons will help… of course new dice and more luck would also be a good thing.
Here’s to the next time…
All the best. Aly
