'And no sooner had he returned to Constantinople than Constantius
received word that the Persians were preparing for war, and several
predatory bands of horsemen were already ravaging the country around
Amida. Constantius became enraged and cried out that he was beset by
evils on all sides. Consulting with his generals Constantius elected
to attack the Persians whilst a chance of victory still presented
itself. He sent envoys to the Scythians entreating them to send
assistance in return for promises of future aid and tributes. The
Scythians despatched three thousand warriors to meet with
Constantius army now gathering at Adrianople.
When the host had been assembled Constantius moved with great speed
into the country of the Persians. On the march Constantius devised a
cunning plan. Instead of taking the most direct route, he instead
pasted down the coast, via Antioch and Tyre, then struck towards the
East.
Two days after leaving Tyre the scouts reported a large body of both
men and horses half a days march away. Believing that deserters or
spies had given away the Emperor's plan, Constantius ordered the
army to halt and make camp. Hurriedly consulting with Ursicinus, the
former Master of the Horse, now recalled to duty at the express
order of Constantius, and with Trajanus, Master of the Foot, it was
agreed to await the on-coming host rather than either advance
forward or retire back towards Tyre. The scouts returned as light
was failing with further reports, saying the approaching army itself
was encamping and that they were but several hours march away.
Strong defences had been erected and men of courage posted outside
of the camp in ambuscades in case the enemy should attempt some bold
adventure during the night.
At dawn the next day the army assembled into their various companies
and Constantius mounted a podium to give a speech, exhorting them to
be brave and to deal such a defeat upon their foe as to cool their
military ardour. The scouts were bringing constant reports of the
enemy's movements, and relayed that they were marching toward the
Romans'. The signals were given and the army marched to meet the
enemy host. The enemy, upon seeing the Romans advancing towards
them, formed up in battle array. The Romans gave the signal and
formed themselves into their own battle formations. The field was
confined to a small space as there was a large area of soft sand on
the left side of the Romans with a salt marsh abutting it. The Roman
generals deployed the army to the right of these obstructions. The
Scythians, with auxiliaries on their flanks, formed the first line,
whilst in the second line was contained the legions and auxiliaries
of proven quality. To the left of the first line was arrayed the
heavily armoured cavalry known as the clibanarii, with groups of
sagittarii and light horse armed with javelins. To the right of the
first line was deployed the other armoured cavalry, including the
Scutarii and the rest of the mounted archers and javelin armed light
horsemen.
Our men marvelled at the appearance of the host now marching towards
them. No Persians these, for they were attired in the panoply of
ancient Macedonians! Serried ranks of men bearing pikes of enormous
size bore down upon the Romans. Mixed among them were wild bands of
warriors, not dissimilar to the Scythians. To their left was the
cavalry formed into 'boars head' formations, with mounted archers in
support. To their right were cavalry almost identical to the Roman
clibanarii, with the addition of several war elephants of terrifying
stature, who's trumpeting instilled fear within all those who were
not used to them.
The Scythians and the auxiliaries attached to them made savage howls
and war cry's in their manner and intimated the enemy with their
gestures. At the signal the battle was joined, arrows and other
missiles darkened the sky and both Roman wings clashed with the
enemy wings, death and destruction reigning on all sides. The Roman
left wing wavered and collapsed when the elephants thundered into
the horsemen there, the Roman's fleeing as if their armour was on
fire! The Roman right wing fared much better and whilst initially
they were pushed back to a low hill, they rallied, charged back into
the host and thoroughly routed the cavalry before them.
In the meantime the Scythians had engaged the enemy phalanx and the
battle raged without respite. Pressure of numbers finally broke the
Scythians and Constantius ordered the reserves brought up.
The battle was renewed with increased vigour but the loss of the
first line had instilled fear within the ranks of the Romans. When
numbers of the auxiliaries of the reserve were routed the Roman line
wavered, and then like water bursting through a dyke, the Romans
finally broke and made for their camp a short distance away.
So ended Constantius disastrous Persian campaign.'
And so would Ammianus have reported the battle!
A thoroughly enjoyable encounter, my opponent, Dave Mather, is
giving me some very valuable gaming experience and is a worthy
teacher of DBMM. I am sure Dave will post a more 'traditional'
battle report with the army lists etc.
One point here. As some of you will know I have been experimenting
with using the formations proposed by Vegetius for the Late Romans.
Having put these historical formations into action I would have to
say they are beginning to make a lot of sense. The battle was
decided right on the final bound and could have gone either way. I
am sure with a bit of tweaking on the structure of the lines as
suggested by Dave, I will finally inflict a defeat upon him!
And David Mather added:
I will struggle to follow that ;-) ...
I must admit the use of Vegetius has got me all a fluster over my
Late Romans again - I did like the way the army was structured and
played. Spend most of Pierpoint last night glugging wine and
tweaking your list.
Much applause from the seleucids when the Roman second line turned
and moved back to open up the gap between the themselves and the
sorely pressed Gothic foot aka Scythians then turneed back and
advanced to cover the gaps opening up in the Gothic line. Great stuff
Note - we utilised the NO doglegging interpretation so all
measurement was straight line - This is a very clean way of doing it
but changes aspects of the game - makes the deep line and reserves
more realistic/necessary - I have now played this twice and am
warming to it Much cleaner way of playing - and before it goes off -
there are two ways of interpretating this
Some detail - 350AP 25mm 6' x 4'
I used a 4 command seleucid wanted to give a 4 comamnd structure a
try especially as I anticipated the Romans (albeit inert) would be
able to manaouvere well (thanks to the magic tents)
Try and do a full report later - but a great game again
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.