Late Romans vs Sassanid Persians (Lion Rampant Variant)

The pictures are from a recent game between Late Romans and Sassanid Persians. My friend a I used a variant of Lion Rampant.

The scenario was an adaptation of one in Lion Rampant. The Romans had to cross the gaming board (4' by 4') diagonally with Persians on both sides.

It turned out very one-sided. The Persian heavy cavalry were all double-armed with bows. The Persian infantry consisted of two units, one of which was levies and the other bow-armed. The Sassanid cataphracts were not double-armed.

The Romans had two units of heavy cavalry, one unit of javelin cavalry, one of Roman horse archers, and one of mercenary Huns. They also had one unit of Auxlia and one of Legionaries, neither of which were split units that featured archers. The third Roman infantry unit was archers. They did serve to protect the other Roman infantry units.

The Romans (me) suffered from horrendous dice. We use the one activation failure rule, which determines whether you are done for the turn. Many do not like this rule, but I prefer the uncertainty associated with it, even though I had three consecutive turns that paralyzed an army whose goal was to exit the board! 

I have no complaints.

My most effective unit was the Roman light cavalry with javelins. When they could fire and move, they were very effective. The Hun unit got shot to pieces early, and the Roman horse archers did little better.

The Roman heavy cavalry started out well, giving as good as they got, but the paralysis came into play, giving the Persian heavy cavalry ample opportunity to shoot with impunity.

The Roman infantry, slow to begin with compared to the cavalry, basically occupied space that was not useless but accomplished little, given the paralysis. 

My friend Jim commanded his Sassanids (superb paint jobs!). He placed all his light troops (protected by a stream) on one flank and the heavy units on the other.

I threaded the needle between the two but never gained much traction. In retrospect, trying to force the stream may have been the better option, but that would have meant enduring the Persian heavy cavalry on the other flank. I thought it better to try and destroy the heavier troops before the lighter troops could make much of a difference.

Whether we win or lose is not really important. You try to attain the victory conditions, but in the end, it's all about a fun set of rules and a parade of finely painted miniatures.

The scale of the figures for the game was 1\72, and all are plastics from Zvezda, Hat and Italeri.

Lion Rampant is a fine set of rules, in my opinion. Ordinarily, I do not like picking a game force using a point system, but when my opponent is my friend, Jim, it works very well since neither of us suffers from the all-too-common temptation to field super armies. In other words, upgrades are rare.

However, within Lion Rampant, there are just enough upgrades, especially regarding weapons, to allow a gamer to field a force suitable for whatever the enemy is.

In that sense, a Late Roman army was far more versatile than a Sassanid one.

After the game, I painted up another unit of Auxilia, but this time it's a split unit ;-)

Enjoy the pictures!

Roman Auxlia (Italeri)

Roman Heavy Cavalry (Hat)

Hun Mercenaries (Hat)

Roman Legionnaires (Italeri)

Roman Lt.  Javelin Cavalry (Hat)

Roman Auxiliary Archers (Italeri)

Two units of Roman Heavy Cavalry (Hat)

Sassanid Cataphracts (Zvezda)

Sassanid Heavy Cavalry (Zvezda)

Sassanid Heavy Cavalry (Zvezda)

Sassanid Lt. Cavalry Horse Archers (Hat)

Sassanid Levy Infantry (Hat)

Sassanid Lt. Infantry Archers (Hat)

Sassanid Heavy Cavalry (Zvezda)

Roman Light Cavalry attempted to flank the Sassinids.

Roman Heavy Cavalry attempted to hold the hill.

Roman Cavalry attempt to break out!