Romans versus Parthians

Using army lists I constructed, I used Richard's Romans to fight his Parthians.  550 points as follows:

The Parthians I took from the Impetus rule book list and the Romans I created from the list in the same book called Caesar's Romans.  I was aiming for quality Parthians and indifferent Romans.

Richard set the terrain, an oasis which we classified as difficult and two patches of rocky ground that were broken.

As can be seen 550 points gives a sizeable army for both sides.

The coins represent commands and are great in helping to remember who has moved.

I was relieved to find I could deploy in with my left flank on the oasis and my right on the table edge.

The view from the Parthian side.

My Romans sense danger.

The broken ground disorders my legions - can't be helped, I had them do a double move to get there as quickly as possible.

Rolling a double six for Publius on the first turn was a good sign.

My deployment on the left wasn't what I wanted.  The Auxiliaries should have been in the oasis.

With average command and all Roman leaders unattached being able to rally quickly became a problem, but if the broken ground was going to disorder them anyway...

The Parthian heavy cavalry get ready to strike on my right flank

Turn 3 and poor Crassius turns incompetent.

On my right the Auxliaries have pushed forward while the cavalry has held back.

On my left the cavalry did the same thing.

Wisely as the shooting commences.

Casualties and disorder mark the Roman lines.

But by the end of Turn 4 my right flank was starting to look a bit fragile.

On my left my Auxiliaries were destroyed and my cavalry repulsed, but a unit of legionaries pinned some cataphracts.

In the centre progress was slow.

While on the right... Progress.  We are getting clear of the broken ground and the enemy cataphracts are pinned, although you'll notice a gap on the left hand side of the picture due to the obliteration of one unit of legionaries.

Turn 6 and we have victory on the right.

The centre is interesting, but that unit of cataphracts looks to be in trouble.

The centre left looks a bit thin...

While on the far left a mass of horse archers is about to breakthrough.

Turn 7 has the enemy horse archers swamping my left.

The enemy centre is in trouble.

While I am victorious on my right.

The Parthian basing is slightly lighter than the Romans.  If you look closely you can see their remaining seven units of horse archers.  But that is not enough to maintain their army morale.

Pack up the camels.

The Pathians call it quits.  The Romans can have all the sand they can carry... For now.

A refight on the same size table but with just 400 point army is perhaps a better way to go with this tricky encounter.

No problems with the rules, although I did take time to check a number of things.  The game took around five hours including set up and pack up and a short break for lunch.