A Shot of Parthians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Wyndom Lancaster Resort nee Host
Event: HMGSs' Fall In(tm) Open 15mm tournament, Round 3
Players: Phil Gardocki running Samurai
               John Shirey running Parthians
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
Samurai (list 221)
The Samurai are commanded by Yoshitune, the Strategist, and the usual subordinates, Darryl-San the Competent and his other brother Darryl-San, Ordinary, included and unreliable.
8 Samurai, Medium Swordsmen, Bow, Elite
3 Yari, Medium Swordsmen, Mediocre
5 Mounted Samurai, Heavy Cavalry, Elite
2 Scouts, Light Cavalry, Bow
1 Followers with Bow, Bowmen
1 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Levy
Breakpoint of 21

The Parthians (list 102)
Commanded by names unremembered to history
6 Cataphracts, 4 are elite.
7 Medium Cavalry, Bow
8 Light Cavalry, Bow
Breakpoint of 21

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "痛い!", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Commanders are rated s for Strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent, o for Ordinary and u for Unreliable

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

Any confusion between commanders names, or mislabeled units or conditions is to be considered part of the fun.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

The Board:

The Parthians win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains. 

Deployment:

Parthians is one of my nightmare armies. My samurai have a combat value of zero against the Cataphracts, which also have a protection value of 2 against bow. And every other element in the Parthian army has a bow. So shooting it out with them is more of a numbers game.

Then the terrain was laid.

All six pieces fell on the side of the defending Samurai. What didn't fall initially, the plantation and the field in the center, was adjusted there. Having a strategist really paid off here.

This brought memories of a Saturday afternoon movie from long ago. 10 Gladiators Against the Parthians!. Possibly the only reference to Parthia that Americans, outside of our eclectic war-game group, ever had. It was an Italian movie titled Il trionfo dei dieci gladiatori, Sorry for the advertisement, it cannot be helped.  But outside of Italy, the movie had a number of different names.

You can tell the Parthians because they wear those curly hats.  And the Gladiators fashion statement was to be shirtless.

The Parthians do not have a lot of deployment options. So they place some skirmishing cavalry in position to intercept Samurai foot when they emerge from the terrain.

And their Cataphracts in the only reasonably open area of terrain.

Darryl-san's small foot command holds the entire left field.

Yoshitune's Samurai take the center.

And Darryl-san's mounted force takes the right.

Turn 1:

Parthian scouts advance cautiously.

Their remaining horse advance.

But not at a hurry.

Even Rough terrain is harsh for Cataphracts. It takes their base factor to -1, and they lose Impact, and their movement is reduced to 1, and they are mostly Unmaneuverable to start with.

Darryl-san's Samurai climb over the hill, picking up friends along the way

Yoshitune's Samurai advance to bow reach. Their flanks covered by terrain and Yari

Samurai horse enter the plantation. They shoot at a -1 from cover, and are -2 in combat. But they still can evade, and really only need to keep the Cataphracts in line.

Turn 2:

Parthian scouts have found out all they are going to find out. And do not need to advance any further.

Their fellow scouts got the "point" of this operation, and retire, leaving their heavier cavalry unmasked.

The main battle of the Parthians holds. Hoping to lure the Samurai horse forward.

Darryl-san's foot force stumbles down the hill.

Yoshitune's force advances

The Samurai horse emerge from the plantation and loose arrows.

Turn 3:

I missed the top of the turn pictures. So we head straight to the bottom of the turn.

Darryl-san's archery finds all their targets.

Yoshitune's is shooting proves only a little worse

The Cataphracts had charged the Samurai horse, who disappear into the Plantation. But return with more desultory fire.

The best roll for the horse archery here is a 5 for the Japanese. The elite cataphracts minimum roll is a 4. So while possible, but unlikely they will score another hit this game.

Turn 4:

Disordered Parthian scouts withdraw.

But it is still a target rich environment for Yoshitune.

Lacking any other choices, the Parthian Cataphracts hold.

The Cataphracts are kind of trapped at this point. If they turn around, they only move 1 UD, and would still be in charge reach of the Japanese horse in the plantation to charge them in the rear.

More advancing archery fire.

This is not going well for John. And in truth, it all came down to the terrain rolls in the beginning.

A flank charge opportunity presents itself.

I saw this as a set up to do a "Pac Man" down the line. But the Cataphracts are still Cataphracts, and my troops are still just Mediums. And that red die #1 means mediocre mediums.  So other than the hit for flank charge, nothing much happened.

Turn 5:

Sheaf after sheaf of arrows begin to disperse the Parthian horse.

Leaving them with only an option to charge and pray

The attack on the flank of the Cataphracts is not going that well.

Charges, evades. Some combats.

The Parthian camp is almost in range now

The Yari are defeated, but a sneaky Samurai is now behind the Cataphract line. Just out of 1UD range.

Turn 6:

One brave Parthian horse flanks a unit of Samurai.

A Cataphract turns and challenges the Samurai interloper in their rear.

Yoshitune and Darryl-san blow the spots off the command dice and are operating everywhere.

But it is Darryl-sans horse that provide the final hit. Flank charging a Cataphract for a 4-1 roll and the game.

It was a crushing win, but it was really down to the terrain placement in the beginning.  John didn't make serious errors.  All you can say is I didn't make many either while exploiting the terrain.  

Maybe he should have stayed on the base line and awaited an approach.  But the Samurai horse would still have evaded the Cataphracts, while the foot bow would have reeked havoc on the lesser armored horse.