Late Sassanids versus Justinian Byzantine

This was going to be a Class A cavalry battle.

550 points of Sassanids in two commands.  Mark Woods has the forward command and I have the six cavalry units in reserve, the Pushtigbahn and Zhayedan in Sassanid speak.  Mark B, chief organiser of this game, is in the little tent reading the morning's scrolls.

 

Facing us are the Justinian Byzantines, Stephen N commanding their right and Olivier (with their elite cavalry) on their left.

Roundels are sixes and on the first turn Stephen N gets upgraded from Expert to really Expert (his command is not the CinC who is a Genius or so it seemed).

While the rest of the armies are fairly static, on our left the Byzantines advance aggressively with their cavalry.

What was that about the Byzantine commander being a Genius?  

Not any longer...

Looking from the Sassanid left.

And still on the Sassanid left, but the Byzantines have now been given a bloody nose.

This is the Sassanid right.  Both sides are trying to work round the flanks.

The Byzantines can be seen in the top left hand corner.

A view down the field of battle from the Sassanid right this time.

The Byzantine infantry continues to advance.

However the Sassanids focus on the weakened Byzantine right wing cavalry,

which is thinning fast.

The Byzantine infantry make their presence known.

It's getting tricky on the Sassanid right.

Byzantine right wing cavalry is in step decline,

or rather, it has ceased to be.

Elephants away!

That's my commander engaged with the enemy.  

My fellow commander is in reserve to my left.

The Byzantine left wing cavalry are having a better time.

All over on the Byzantine right.

But on their left things have just got going, but too late.

The Byzantines flee.

Elephants on their way to squish the enemy camp.

Another great game with the Impetus rule set.  

If only they would bring out a consolidated ruleset which includes all the errata and clarifications.