TtS! Group Game

Late Roman (Eastern) v Middle Sassanid Persian

363 CE 160 points

4 April 2025

As all the battles reported on in the blog up to now have used either the ADLG or MeG rulesets I decided to include a report of a TtS! game, even though it isn't part of the campaign, for readers' enjoyment and to show how a TtS! game plays out. 

So four local gamers got together one sunny Friday afternoon in Torquay to fight a battle between the Romans v Persians in 363 CE. This game was also an opportunity to further introduce some of those gamers who are relatively new to figure big-battle gaming to the 'To the Strongest!' ruleset.

The game took place between Matt and me playing as the Persians and Creighton and Michael playing as the Romans. Michael and I have played the most TtS! games to date so we played on opposite sides, with me generating the Persian army and Michael the Roman.

As the Persians we produced an army as follows:

Command one: Great leader King Shapur II, Royal Asvaran veteran cataphracts, Asvaran armoured cavalry with lance and bow, light horse archers, the camp.

Command two: Attached general Surena, Asvaran armoured cavalry, escorted Indian Elephants, Paighan shieldwall infantry.

Command three: Ardashir, King of Adiabene heroic general, Asvaran cataphracts, Asvaran armoured cavalry (with army standard), light horse archers, Daylami javelinmen.

Command four: Attached general Merena, Asvaran armoured cavalry, escorted Indian Elephants, Paighan shieldwall infantry.

The power of a Persian army is generally in its cataphracts and cavalry which can be of high quality and armed with both lance and missile weapons. The infantry is generally of lower quality but can be buttressed with units of the fearsome Indian elephant.

Prior to deployment Matt & I decided that our plan will be to firstly deploy and advance our cavalry forward on the flanks and engage whatever is deployed opposite using whatever tool (lance or bow) is best in the circumstances. If these flank attacks fail to make progress, or get into trouble, we will revert to Plan B - send in the elephants!

The Roman side produced an army as follows:

Command one: Brilliant general heroic Emperor Julian, Legionaries veteran (with army standard), Legionaries, Auxilia veteran, Auxilia, light infantry with bow. [NB Per the army list Julian should have been a great leader but arguably could have been militarily Brilliant].

Command two: Attached general, Cataphractarii, Equites cavalry with javelin, Equites Illyricani light cavalry armed with javelin.

Command three: Attached general heroic, Legionarii with missile weapons, Auxilia x2, light infantry with bow.

Command four: Attached general, Clibanarii cataphracts, Equites cavalry with javelin, Equites Sagitarii with bow. 

The strength of the Roman army in this period lies in its ability to operate good quality combined arms armies with heavy infantry, medium infantry, bowmen and light infantry plus the equivalent in the cavalry arm. The challenge comes in using these different forces effectively.

Stratagems & Terrain

We decided to dispense with the TtS! stratagems and also adopted a simplified method of terrain selection, both sides simply placed two pieces of choice anywhere on the board. The Persian side placed a couple of areas of rocky ground in the left centre, the Roman side placed one double-sized good hill in front of their deployment area and a steep hill on the Persian side.

Deployment

The Persians are on the left of the picture the Romans are on the right. I commanded the Persian right with commands one and two, opposite Michael who commanded the Roman left with commands three and four, Matt commanded the Persian left opposite Creighton who obviously took the other commands.

The Romans won the initiative so, we had to start deploying first. In accordance with our plan we placed our two commands containing the infantry and elephants in the centre (nos. two and four) and the cavalry commands on the flanks.

The Romans did the same, placing their cavalry on the flanks and their infantry in the centre, which as Michael said during the game is the classic deployment of classical armies.

We decided to adopt a convention of placing heroic generals in front of the unit they were attached to and non-heroic generals to their rear.

Roman turn 1

Having won the initiative the Romans got to go first. In their first turn the Romans advanced their two right wing commands two boxes, the left wing commands only one. No combat activations as yet. 

It seemed that either Michael was playing things a bit more cagey or the Romans were going for a right hook.

The position at the end of the Roman first turn was as below:

Persian turn 1

In our first turn, in accordance with our pre-game plan we advanced our cavalry on the flanks and held our centre back. As Michael hadn't advanced his forces as far forward as Creighton I advanced a bit further than Matt did on his wing, I also moved my centre command forward slightly in order to keep them in a position where they could support my cavalry flank, though I did leave that command's Asavaran cavalry where it started in order to maximise its ability to act as a reserve.

I kicked off the battle proper by shooting at the Roman left wing Equites Sagittarii light horse, which to my surprise achieved a hit and promptly resulted in a failed save and a dead unit. A good start for the Persian cavalry.

The position at the end of the Persian first turn was as follows:

Roman turn 2

The Romans again advanced strongly on the flanks, on their right flank closing to shooting distance where they commenced doing so, but doing no damage this turn. 

On my side of the table, however, they promptly got their revenge for their lost unit in the previous turn when the Roman Equites charged and took out the Persian horse archers on the extreme right of my line after a failed evade roll. The attack by the Roman Clibanarii next to them against the Persian Royal Asavaran failed to do any damage despite using its lances, and the Royal Asavaran returned the compliment.

Creighton advanced his infantry command further forward again but Michael kept his where they were, garrisoning the hill. They did however shoot at, and disorder, my right wing Asavaran horse archers.

The position at the end of the Roman second turn was as below:

Persian turn 2

So, on my flank the Persian right, our plan was already falling apart bigtime - one cavalry unit gone, one disordered and the third already failed with its lance attack. In addition the Royal Asavaran were in severe danger of being attacked in the flank by the Roman Equites. 

Luckily the Asavaran cavalry I had held in reserve was available not too far away and I managed to not only get it to the Roman Equites' front but attack it as well, lances at the ready. The result was no effect on the Equites, however they received a hit in reply plus the general with them (my left-hand commander) was killed as well. In addition two attempts at rallying the other unit of Asavaran disordered in the previous turn both failed. 😖

It wasn't all bad on that flank though, the Persian Royal Asavaran managed to achieve a disorder on the Roman Clibanarii and killed the Roman general. 

So seeing that my flank's cavalry attack was turning out to be a damp squib I decided it was time to get the elephants into action. I couldn't afford to advance to attack Michael's infantry which would involve moving past Creighton's more advanced infantry forces, without risking being attacked in the flank, so commenced shooting at the Legionaries at the end of the his Roman infantry line with the elephant's escorting archers - scoring a hit.

On the other flank things were going a bit better for us. The Persian horse archers at the end of our line managed to score a shooting hit on the Roman Equites to their front and then retired letting Matt's Asavaran take their place. Matt also managed to take out the Equites Illyricani to their front when they failed to evade.

The position at the end of the Persian second turn was as below:

Roman turn 3

On the Roman left, this turn Michael launched multiple missile attacks from his infantry line in an attempt to finish off the damaged Persian Asavaran, they all failed. The Roman Clibanarii were pulled back to the safety of the infantry line and the Equites on the far left attempted to finish off the damaged Asavaran to their front. All in all a disappointing turn for Michael.

A different story for Creighton though, the Persian Daylami javelinmen was destroyed by a combination of Roman Legionary pila fire and a follow up attack by the Roman Auxilia in the broken ground to their front, also the subsequent morale check managed to disorder the adjacent Persian cataphracts. If that wasn't bad enough the Roman Catafractarii then managed to blow away their opposite number, two units and four victory medals gone plus our plan on Matt's flank now in tatters too.

The position at the end of the Roman third turn was as below:

Persian turn 3

On the Persian right, my end of the line, things were disappointing - taking four rally attempts on my disordered Asavaran before it succeeded. I finally managed, however to score a shooting hit on those pesky Equites on the extreme right (by my perspective). 

In the centre I advanced my Paighan infantry to support the damaged Asavaran in order to take some of the Roman shooting off it, and launched an attack on the legionaries with my elephants using their shock attack. The activation succeeded despite all the difficulties and the attack succeeded, wiping out the legionaries. The morale rolls also finished off one of the light infantry archers in the next box along. (How the game can turn!)

On Matt's front he manoeuvred his elephants in front of the Roman Auxilia that could otherwise have turned on my elephant's flank and managed to disorder the other Auxilia by shooting by his Asavaran horse archers.

The position at the end of the Persian third turn was as below, both sides were getting ever closer to army rout:

Roman turn 4

In round four it was Creighton's turn to have a less than satisfactory turn. He attempted to destroy Matt's Asavaran horse archers on the extreme left of our line by charging it with his Catafractarii; despite successfully activating he didn't manage to do any damage. He also sent his Auxilia facing Matt's elephants into action, again he failed to do any damage and to make things worse the unit was disordered in the return attack. 

Michael on the other hand had a successful turn. His Equites on the Roman extreme left flank threw its last remaining volley of javelins at my Asavaran horse archers that I had just moved up out of reserve, a hit followed by a failed save put paid to another unit at the hands of those Roman Equites. They followed that by an advance towards the Persian camp behind our lines; clearly they were after the man of the match trophy. They had a chance at that point of taking the camp which would have won them the battle, so low we were on victory medals, but Michael needed to draw an elusive ten card; sadly for the Romans it was not to be.

Elsewhere Michael's infantry continued to pepper my units with bow fire, achieving nothing other than using up nearly all of their ammunition, but he did manage to rally his Clibanarii.

The position at the end of the Roman fourth turn was as below:

Persian turn 4

Things were getting desperate for the Persians at this point, we were down to three victory medals and the Romans were knocking on the door of our camp. Clearly we needed to turn things around and fast.

On my end of the line I managed to get my Royal Asavaran and Asavaran horse archers turned around and chased the Roman Equites that had got behind our line. I didn't manage to attack them but I did ZOC* them with the Royal Asavaran cataphracts. I realised after doing this that I had overreacted somewhat in the heat of the moment, I could have used the horse archers to move into a position to guard the Royal Asavaran's rear, now its rear was exposed to the newly rallied Roman Clibanarii. 

(* a unit exerts a ZOC or 'Zone of Control' in the box to its front which severely restricts what any enemy unit in that box is allowed to do, by doing so I had prevented the Roman Equites from moving straight into our camp in the following turn).

Matt basically just hung on in there with his cavalry. His elephants however did a marvellous job, charging into the Auxilia to their front and wiping them out, plus the Emperor Julian sustained a light wound (How historical!) and rapidly redeployed to the veteran Legionaries. Matt continued his lucky streak and managed to turn on the flank of those veteran Legionaries next in line so was ready for a flank attack next turn.

The position at the end of the Persian fourth turn was as below:

Roman turn 5

One way or another we knew the battle would be over soon, both sides were down to their last few victory medals so both sides were looking for that quick kill to get them.

Michael's cavalry were the only ones who could achieve a quick result on his flank as his infantry were too far away and had just about used up all their ammo. That didn't stop him trying though, his infantry finally advanced off their hilltop position and attacked my Paighan infantry. Unfortunately for Michael it was his unit that was to come of worse, getting one hit.

Michael's cavalry were in a better position to achieve something but had lost their general which restricted his options. In the end Michael chose to go for the attack into the rear of my Royal Asavaran cataphracts with his Clibanarii. He successfully activated his Clibanarii twice and got a rear attack in on the Royal Asavaran but it wasn't enough, the Royal Asavaran took one disorder but weren't destroyed.

On Creighton's front his best chance of winning the game was to charge the Persian Asavaran horse archers on the extreme left of our line. It couldn't afford to evade off table as that would have lost us the game so in went the Roman Cataphracts. In all the excitement I can't recall exactly what happened but in the end the Persian cavalry and general held on without a scratch after a series of good card saves by Matt which I'm sure would have been extremely frustrating for Creighton.

Elsewhere Creighton sent his Auxilia into the attack against the other unit of Persian Asavaran horse archers but failed to achieve a hit there either.

The position at the end of the Roman fifth turn was as below:

Persian turn 5

Having withstood the Roman assaults it was now our turn. There were two possibilities for us to win the game, one was a rear attack on those pesky Roman Equites threatening the camp with my Asavaran horse archers (who still had their lance), the other was for Matt's elephants to continue rolling up Creighton's Roman infantry line.

We opted to go with Matt's attack first. So, being a flank attack he had two attacks - both hit. Creighton at this point had a string of bad cards  - two failed saves on the unit of Legionaries plus a fail for his, already lightly wounded, Brilliant general - the Emperor Julian himself. Game over, a Persian victory!

The position at the end of the Persian fifth turn and the end of the game was as below:

Post-mortem

An excellent game. A close match with both sides having a chance at victory, what more can you ask for for an entertaining afternoon.

Whilst the players' decisions obviously affect the game play, in the end it seemed that the twists and turns of the battle were largely down to the fighting abilities of the soldiers themselves as represented by the draw of the cards.