Battle of Hormuz 226 AD - Command & Colors Medieval Game

 

Sassanids and Parthians deployed on the plain of
Hormuz between the Bebahan and Shuster Rivers

View from the Parthian side

Parthian left flank

Parthian centre

Parthian right flank

Sassanid left flank

Sassanid infantry and cataphracts in the centre

Sassanid left flank

Last Thursday afternoon Rick, Garry and Craig came over and we played a Command & Colors Medieval game (CCM) out in the shed. The scenario was the Battle of Hormuz 226 AD with the Sassanids under Ardashir I revolting against their Parthian overlords under Artabanus IV. We diced for sides, Craig and I were the Sassanids, Rick and Garry the Parthians. The Sassanids had six command cards, the Parthians only had five but moved first. Both sides started with three Inspired Action tokens. 

The Parthians played a Move Fire Move card, followed by Darken the Sky. The horse archers with their Parthian shot proved to be very effective. The Parthian forced some costly Sassanid retreats to have the lead early in the game. The Sassanids returned fire and managed to claw back the Parthian advantage making the game level pegging. They then launched a make or break Mounted Charge to try and finish the game but the Parthians prevailed 7-5, killing Ardashir I in the final turn.

Parthian horse archers 'Darken the Sky'

Horse archers with their Parthian shot were very effective

Artabanus IV with his cataphracts

Sassanids suffer some costly retreats

Sassanids return fire

Game is level pegging

Sassanids launch a Mounted Charge

Parthians prevail 7-5 victory banners

Sassanid Command, Savaran and Light Cavalry

 

Here are some Sassanid command figures, Savaran and light cavalry that I've just finished painting. They're all A&A figures with LBM banners and shield transfers. I've added six Savaran (three with banners) on unarmored horses to the twelve I already have to make up three units of six. We've got a Command and Colors Medieval (CCM) game lined up this week. The scenario is the Battle of Hormuz 226 AD with the Sassanids under Ardashir I taking on the Parthians under Artabanus IV. It should be fun, lots of horse archers, shooting and cataphracts!

Balearic Slingers

 

Here are some Companion Miniatures Balearic slingers that I've just finished painting. I have a few other ranges of these in 28mm, the Warlord ones with cloaks based on Trajan's Column, and Crusader and Gripping Beast figures as well, but these are my favourite.

According to Diodorus Siculus (Book V Chapter 18):

Their equipment for fighting consists of three slings, and of these they keep one around the head, another around the belly, and the third in their hands. In the business of war they hurl much larger stones than do any other slingers, and with such force that the missile seems to have been shot as it were, from a catapult; consequently, in their assaults upon walled cities, they strike the defenders on the battlements and disable them, and in pitched battles they crush both shields and helmets and every kind of protective armour. And they are so accurate in their aim that in the majority of cases they never miss the target before them. The reason for this is the continual practice from childhood, in their mothers compel them, while still young boys, to use the the sling continually; for there is set up before them as a target a piece of bread fastened to a stake, and the novice is not permitted to eat until he has hit the bread whereupon he takes it from his mother with her permission and devours it.

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/5A*.html

Below are some old Minifigs 15mm Balearic slingers that I painted probably about forty years ago!

Neo-Assyrian Sab Sharri

 

Here's two mixed spearmen and bowmen units of Neo-Assyrian Sab Sharri from the archives. They're also a mix of ranges with mostly Foundry command in the front rank, a Hinchliffe officer and spearmen and Eureka bowmen in the rear ranks. 

One of my most useful reference books for this period and earlier is the WRG book by Nigel Stillman and Nigel Tallis, Armies of the Ancient Near East 3,000 BC to 539BC, which is unfortunately out of print. I read on the Society of Ancients forum recently that this will be back in print soon, perhaps with an updated bibliography like Duncan Head's classic Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars 359 BC to 146 BC. Good news for all the biblical fans out there!