It was a struggle to come up with enough Parthians as they are comprised almost entirely of Cataphracts and Horse Archers. By combining units from some of our other Armies (Armenians, Seleucid, Pontic, etc) and substituting some light Cavalry with Javelins for Horse Archers, we were able to come up with enough Parthians for 1800 points per side.
The Romans should be of the Trajanic kind and they can have a lot more cavalry and Auxilia including Cataphracts and Light cavalry. But it was a struggle to get 1800 points of Parthians and the required basic two Legions costs 1440 point themselves. With only about 400 points to work with, the Romans didn't get as much support to truly reflect a Trajanic Army. Since this was a playtest for Horse Armies, not Romans, we went ahead with what we had, although in retrospect, we should have given the Romans the one extra Cataphract unit I had left in the box plus whatever other Cavalry we could scrounge up. Although it can't be considered to have evened things up, the Parthians didn't get the Camel Unit in their list as we didn't have enough figures to make up a complete unit.
So we met at Blue Sky Hobbies in Bremerton, WA on January 6th, 2019 to play our game. Kevin Walker( with assistance from his son, Kyle) and Tom Condon played the Parthians. Gary Williams and I took the part of the Romans. I assumed we were playing on one of the 4' x 6' tables there and brought only my reliable green Army blanket of the same size o play on. The guys however, had put two 4" x 4" table together to give us an 8ft wide by 4ft deep playing field. So that's why in the picture below the the table cover doesn't go all the way to the end. As Tactica is meant to be played on an 8ft by 5ft table in this scale, we went with the uncovered portion and did away with the six inch baseline zone on each side.
I've used Battle Chronicler(http://battlechronicler.com/index.html) to recreate the battle, but its a tedious process and its almost impossible to get the units exactly where they started out. That combined with trying to recreate what happened from photos, results in some errors cropping up, but one gets a good idea of what occurred from turn to turn.
Below is the deployment at the beginning of the game. We each get up to three rolls for terrain before the game starts. You have to take at least one which is what the Parthians did, getting a flank hill piece. The Romans took three rolls, but two were "Clear Terrain". They rolled one hill which they placed in their right center.
The Roman plan was to hold with the left flank and attack with the right. We hoped to shorten the frontage so we wouldn't be too spread out and subject to getting flanked. It didn't work out as wellas we planned. The Parthians wanted to force the Romans to come forward in the center by superior missile fire and evading and push their open terrain flank(right flank) to turn the main Roman line. Their plan didn't work out so well either, but they made up for it elsewhere.
First Turn and Romans are swinging right and holding on the left. Parthians advance boldly with their numerous horse archers.
A lot of Horse Archer and Skirmisher fire going on as both sides maneuver to get into position. Roman cohorts on the right deploy into line to prevent being flanked.
The Roman Light Cav don't last long and are soon routed. I forgot to take some pictures around this time, so I have a gap in the action. I know the LC were routed, I'm just not clear what else happened. There may have been an intermediate move after the melee showing the Parthian Bonus move.
At any rate, the next group of photos show the Cataphracts advancing to melee the Roman Heavy Cavalry and an Auxilia LI unit. Roman LI unit, L12 has been destroyed by missile fire from several horse archer units. Also, Parthian LC units LC9 and LC14 can be seen falling back through LC 13 and LC10. The Interpenetration Mod also works for Horse Archers moving through each other, giving them a lot of flexibility to retire units near break point. On the hill on the Roman right, the Horse archers fallback through the Cataphracts to force the Romans into melee with the more difficult opponent.
Roman Cohorts COH1&2 on the right charge the Cataphracts on the hill after having stopped two inches away last turn( A restriction all infantry units in Tactica have when attacking mounted units). On the left,the last Roman LI is routed and Cohort COH9 moves to prevent the Roman Line from being Flanked.
Cataphract units continue to move up and some slight repositioning of some units is all that happens this turn.
Some Roman successes this turn. Cataphract unit CAT5 is defeated as is LC unit LC3 on the Roman right. Roman Cohort COH1 however, is also routed. In the Center, the Parthians execute their pass through maneuver and the remaining Cataphracts charge into the Roman line.
Although another Parthian LC is routed, things are looking bad for the Romans. Elite Cohort COH20 is routed as well as cohorts COH15&16. On the right Cohorts COH3&4 advance to keep from getting flanked.
Another three cohorts are routed. COH19 being only eight figures was reduced by constant missile fire from the Parthian horse archers. COH7&8 on the other side were taken out by the cataphracts. On the far right parthian LC1 evades to avoid being caught by the Roman cohorts. With only four cohorts remaining in the Legion on the right, the end is near for the Romans. When a total of seven cohorts are Routed the Legion will break.
Romans manage to break another Parthian horse archer unit. All the remaining cohorts of the Legion on the right are now engaged by Cataphracts.
Cohorts COH9&10 break in the center putting that Legion over break point causing the Roman Army to reach its Break Point. Game over with Roman losses at 148, 30 over Break Point. Parthians lost 54, no where near their Break Point of 138.
A view of the Roman line at Deployment.
Romans slowly advancing about a third of the way through the game. The Roman Cavalry and Light Infantry on the Left Flank had just about been wiped out by this point.
Melees on the roman right. Roman COH2 has already been routed from the hill.
Parthian commanders looking smug just about halfway through the battle.
The Parthian 18 figure Cataphract units normally break at 66%(12 figures killed). This one at 15 figures killed, passed a "Fates Test" (a roll of 11 or 12 on 2D6) and went another round. It was routed the next turn however,the only Cataphract unit to be routed.
Looks like a good roll from someone. As there are 18 dice total, it must have been from one of the Parthian cataphract units that got Impetus(double dice). Seven hits(5's & 6's) that probably routed the cohort in melee on the right. (third from last map above)
A view of the final turn. Parthians victorious. Next time the Romans need to bring more cavalry
Tactica II retains all the fun and tension of the original rules while being easier to play and build armies for. The Points system allows you to play smaller games than the original. The old Battle Line deployment restrictions have been replaced by a Division Command Radius system similar to what was used for Marian Legions in the original rules. The movement is therefore much more flexible, but players will find themselves hindered once they get into charge range due to Combat Threat Zone(CTZ) movement restrictions. Missile fire and melee combat are essential identical to the original rules. The Morale Chart of the original is gone, replaced by Control Tests for Missile Halt and Morale tests. When a unit reached its break point, it now gets a"Fates Test" to see if it remains fighting. On a modified die roll of 11 or 12, it continues fighting. This retains some of the drama that was experienced in the original rules when a unit passed its Melee Break test.
I hope you found this report informative. If you leave a comment, I would be happy to answer any questions about the rules. There is also a Yahoo Group where info is posted although activity there has been light: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/TACTICA/info
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