Battle of Dvin, Winter 360 AD

Outside the city of Dvin. 5th December, 360 AD

Fazir of Mihran looked over the massed Goth ranks ahead of his army. They had spent the year fighting their way through the barbarians' lands, taking two cities with barely a pause, but here, in front of the walls of their capital the advance had stalled. The King of Kings has demanded the fall of the city, and so he and his men were spending the winter here, camped out. The cold was eating at his men and he knew if he had to withdraw many would not survive.

The barbarians had sallied out from behind the walls, intent on forcing the Sassanids back, now they sat taunting them, goading them into attacking. With his officers in attendance, Fazir looked over their force. His men were ready to end this, his officers eager to end this so he signalled his men to their battle formations. Draco standards whipped around in the wind, the drums hammered, drowning out Goth battle cries and insults. The King of Kings required a victory, and Fazir would have to deliver.

Recently we played out the battle that occurred when the Goth army sallied out from Dvin, which was under siege by the Sassanids as the second battle of the Caucasian campaign. The Sassanid army had suffered some minor losses besieging the city in the autumn before deciding to remain around the city during the winter. Whichever side lost the encounter would lose an additional 100 points worth of troops above any battle losses to cold and desertion during the retreat.

Arvinda's Sassanid army consisted of:

The General, Fazir Mihran (Command Value 2)
2 x Immortal Clibanarii (10 B Class Armoured Cavalry)
2 x Cataphracts (B Class Fully Armoured Cavalry, one unit of 10 and one of 5)
2 x Light Cavalry (10 C Class Light Cavalry)
1 x Elephant Squadron (2 Elephants and crew)
1 x Hunnic Cavalry Squadron (15 D Class Light Cavalry)

My Goth army consisted of:

General and bodyguard (Command Value 2, 15 B Class Heavy Cavalry)
4 x Noble Cavalry (B Class Medium Cavalry, 3 units of 15, one of 10)
4 x Light Archers (12 D Class Light Infantry)
3 x Warriors (30 C Class Medium Infantry)

The terrain we would be fighting over consisted of a settlement in the centre of the southern edge of the field with a series of hills to the east and west, with one especially large hill to the east. The Sassanids would be deployed in the east, the Goths in the west.

Ian's Plan:

With the Goths being deployed in the more open end of the field, I had to alter my intention to sit on top of the hills and throw things at the Sassanids. There were two small hills forming two intruding spurs into the field with an open central area between them. My plan was to position infantry on the two hills, providing them protection against the Sassanid cavalry hordes, with my cavalry in between. As these hills were right by the edge of the field, I would deploy well back from the Sassanids, with my cavalry as far back as possible. The idea was to use the open space and cavalry to draw the Sassanids in between the infantry wings and then use the infantry to cut off and smash part of the Sassanid army, then use the cavalry in a general assault to inflict heavy losses on the enemy as they fell back, relying on the speed advantage over the Sassanid super heavies to keep my cavalry safe. Alternatively I could use the infantry to absorb the cavalry assault and use the cavalry as a hammer against their anvil.

This was, however, all secondary to the main plan. Arvinda has a reputation (and he both believes it and would be the first to claim it is true) for bad luck in wargames and being able to snatch defeat from any situation. My plan therefore was to convince Arvinda he was losing, keep the pressure on him and convince him I was totally confident of winning. If I could convince him of this, I could pressure him into conceding fast,  which would allow me to defeat him without losing too much of my army.

Arvinda's Plan:

The plan was to deploy the Sassanid army right up on the line, and reach the Goths in as few turns as possible. I expected the Goths to move towards the centre of the field in a similar manner, where I'd (in theory) have had an advantage with stronger troops. I also learned (I was probably told this well before, but had forgotten) that any troops I lost here could not be replaced until the following winter, so I was keen to minimise losses, even if that meant conceding the battle and losing the city.

Deployment:

The Goths deployed with the small Noble Cavalry unit on their far left (beyond the left most hill), a unit of Warriors with Light Archers deployed in front of them, the three large Noble Cavalry units in the centre of the army, two in line and one in column with the General's Bodyguard behind them. On the right flank the remaining Warriors and Archers were deployed along the edge of the hill they were occupying. The Goths were deployed at the edge of the battlefield.

The Sassanids were deployed with their Elephants on their far right, followed by Cataphracts preceeded by the Light Cavalry regiments. The General and the Immortal Cavalry formed the centre of the Sassanid line, with Hunnic Light Cavalry on the far left of their formation. The Sassanids had chosen to deploy as far forward as possible.

The armies stare each other down across the field of battle.

The Battle:

The battle began with a general advance by the Sassanids aiming towards the Goth positions on the hill to the Sassanid right. Unfortunately for the Sassanids, they chose to advance all units at their best speed, which left the Elephants and heaviest cavalry far behind the lighter cavalry. The Goth foot bowmen could outrange the mounted archers of the Sassanid forces and began to inflict light casualties. When they were in range Sassanid forces began to reply in kind.

The opening flurries of arrows begin to fly.

The first Sassanid forces to close on the Goths were the Light Cavalry who charged (boldly or foolishly depending on your point of view) uphill into the waiting Goth infantry after the Light Archers fell back behind the waiting lines of heavier troops. To the left of the Light Cavalry, the Huns in Sassanid service swept into the open area between the two hills and towards the Goth Cavalry.

The Light Cavalry charge came to an abrupt end when both units failed their 30 Yard Check. This check occurs when cavalry charges infantry. Given horses, being far more sensible than people, will sometimes refuse to charge into a solid mass of people holding sharp objects, and if they don't refuse that said block of people will tend to run away, this test gives the opportunity for these effects to occur. In this case, both light units refused to charge home. Unfortunately for the Sassanids, both units had lost morale from taking losses to missile fire, and with the additional morale loss from being forced back they began to retire from the action, directly through the lines of the supporting Sassanid forces.

With the initial Sassanid push checked, the Goths went over to the offensive. Their right wing infantry and archers swept forward to put pressure on the Sassanid left with both missile fire and sheer physical presence. The Goth cavalry also went onto the attack, with one unit charging into the Huns.

Suddenly the Sassanids find themselves facing the fury of the Goths as the enemy sweep forward.

The Huns managed to counter charge the onrushing Goth cavalry and a brutal melee broke out, with the Huns getting the worse of it due to being outnumbered by the more tightly concentrated Goths. The poorly motivated Huns broke and fled, leaving the heavy Sassanid centre isolated with Goth forces beginning to swarm around them.

The Sassanid centre suddenly feels rather vulnerable as their light supporting elements break and run.

At this point Arvinda, intimidated by the various losses and the imminent prospect of being surrounded, conceded. Having saved my capital with minimal losses to my forces while inflicting some losses on the Sassanids I let him flee with no further harm, not wanting to pit my forces against his heavy cavalry.

Fazir rode his starving mount over the mountains. The cold was cutting through his clothing, even with the additional furs wrapped around him. He couldn't quite understand what had happened, from his position deep within the saravan he only saw brief flashes of action, his Huns and Sassanid light cavalry surging forward, arrows hurtling into the clibanarii unit in front of his. Then the light cavalry running back in various levels of panic. His elephants and cataphracts were likely to lose heart seeing their allies breaking and from somewhere Goth forces were swarming in from both sides. He signalled a general retreat, better to save the army than fight to death for the dunghill that was the Goth capital.

His men were dejected, dragging themselves along the road, the twin daggers of defeat and hunger cutting into their hearts. Here and there small mounds in the snow marked where a man or horse had just given up the fight and lain down to die. The King of Kings would require something to wipe away the disgrace of this failure, and fortunately the army was mostly intact.

Closing Thoughts

Ian:

Well the plan worked better than I intended. Arvinda's army lost some minor supporting elements but he came to the conclusion he was doomed. The truth of the matter was his army was in a poor position, but at the same time his remaining forces, the Cataphracts, Immortal Cavalry and Elephants, were his best and I had little that could match them. I would have had to rely on numbers and being able to bring back the cavalry unit that was pursuing the Huns off the field, neither of which were certainties. One factor that really aided me in the fight was Arvinda's use of his troops. He effectively reversed the roles, with his heavy forces relying on missile fire and his light troops boldly/foolishly being used as contact troops, which did provide me with critical advantages at key moments.

Nevertheless the battle has shown that the Goths can beat the other factions with some careful planning and good luck, plus a good dose of mindgames. Now to throw those Sassanids out of my lands completely.

Arvinda:

 Everyone knew how this was going to end when they heard Arvinda was playing... I wasn't keen on having a severely depleted army for the rest of the year, so decided to concede before I lost too much of it. Apparently I actually had the advantage at this point, but I didn't want to hang around and prove that wrong!

The Goths earn 3 VPs for winning the battle and again neither side destroyed enough of the enemy to earn additional VPs (Goths being about 10 points short again!).

The First Steps

Border Wars Campaign: 360 AD

So the first round of our campaign began recently. The three players chose their forces and their winter quarters and prepared to move into conflict over the Goth territories.

The Campaign Map. The campaign is centred around what is now Georgia/Armenia etc. Red cities are under the Hun's control, Blue the Sassanids, Purple the Romans and Brown the Goths.

The Huns wintered in Arkhalopolis (3), the Romans in Kitharlinda (17), the Sassanids in Xenin (20) and the Goths in Dvin.

Spring 360 AD:

The Huns immediately moved into the attack, reaching Petra (4) and laying siege. They suffered some casualties attacking the walls, and failed to break into the city.

The Goths moved their field army to Artariaj (6), unable to reach the Huns to confront them this season.

Roman forces advance to Vars (18) and were held by the Gothic garrison, losing men during the siege.

Sassanid forces advanced to Sartaxa (9) and successfully stormed the city.

In preparation for the next season, the Romans hired a spy to gather information on the Sassanid army.

Summer 360 AD:

The Romans continued to besiege Vars, which stubbornly held out against them, with the Romans suffering further losses in the fighting.

Trusting that the cities between the Sassanids and the their capital would slow the Persian advance, the Goths attacked the Huns besieging Petra. The Huns elected to stand and fight the attackers.In the ensuing battle, the Huns triumph. The defeated Goths fall back to Artariaj (6). Disheartened by the defeat of their army, the defenders of Petra surrender to the Huns.

The Sassanids advanced to Kapalak (8) and were again successful in storming the city, leaving them within striking distance of the Gothic capital.

Autumn 360 AD:

The Romans finally manage to storm Vars. After the Battle of Petra, the Huns proceeded to attack Trapedaosa (11) but fail to take the city. The Goths call a general muster of the tribes at the capital Dvin. This allows them to restructure their army to a certain point limit based on the number of cities they control and how recent battles have gone. This mechanism is primarily to allow the Goths to contine to cause trouble long into the campaign. The Sassanid army advances on Dvin and lays siege with the Goths inside the city. The fail to take the city and lose men to the skirmishing.
 

Winter 360 AD:

The Huns fall back to winter camp in Petra. The Romans move their army to Traedaosa (11) for the winter. Goth forces sally out of Dvin to face the Sassanids and drive them back from the city after a brief and savage battle.  The Sassanids fall back to Kapalak (8), losing additional men to cold, starvation and desertion during the retreat over the mountains.

End of Year VP Standing

Huns: 3 VPs from the Battle of Petra, 2 VPs for capturing Petra. Total 5 VPs
Goths: 3 VPs from the Battle of Dvin. Total: 3 VPs.
Sassanids: 2 VPs for capturing Sartaxa, 2 VPs for capturing Kapalak. Total: 4 VPs
Romans: 2 VPs for capturing Vars. Total: 2 VPs

The Battle of Petra, Summer 360 AD

Hyspos, near Petra. 12th August, 360 AD

Valamir looked over his men as they formed up for battle. Many of his men were tired, or sported wounds from the hard fighting trying to take the city of Petra, some miles to their rear. Now his forces were faced with the prospect of a hostile city to their rear and the field army of the Goths closing from ahead of them. 

Across the plain, he could see dust clouds and banners as the Goths moved into battle formation. Clearly they intended to force the issue today. Valamir approached one of the formations of heavy cavalry, signalling for the battle horn to be sounded. As the sound rippled across the ranks of Hun troops it was joined by drums, more horns and battle cries. An answering bellow came from the Gothic forces, brass trumpets mixed in with the cries. Sliding his helmet on, Valamir grimaced. He and his men had beaten the Goths before, he prayed to the Gods that today would be no different.

This was the first battle of our Caucasian campaign, fought between my Goths and Joe's Huns. The Goths were attacking the Hunnic forces besieging the Goth controlled city of Petra, a coastal city in arable terrain.

The Goth forces consisted of:

The General (Rank 2) with a bodyguard of 15 Heavy Cavalry (B Class)
3 Units of 15 Noble Cavalry (B Class Medium Cavalry)
4 Units of 30 Warriors (C Class Medium Infantry)
2 Units of 12 Light Javelinmen (D Class Light Infantry)
2 Units of 12 Light Archers (D Class Light Infantry)

The Huns forces (after losses incurred besieging Petra):

The General (Rank 3)
4 Units of 10 Heavy Cavalry (B Class)
2 Units of 10 Light Cavalry (B Class)
1 Unit of 15 Light Cavalry (C Class)

All troops on both sides were Irregulars.

As the defender, Joe got to set the terrain, which resulted in a very sparse table allowing him maximum mobility for his cavalry. I chose to attack from the most open end of the table, with hills to the Hun's rear. Due to a miscalculation on the part of the referee (me!), the table was a bit too large. Future battles will be more reasonably sized so that terrain can play some part in the games!

The procedure we're using for the battles is that each side will draw a deployment on a map before deploying. The attacker may then chose if he wishes to force a battle with those deployments. If he declines, both sides re-draw their deployments (if they wish). The attacker may decline twice, but must either fight on the third deployment or withdraw, conceding defeat. When the attacker decides to press the issue, the defender may either accept battle or withdraw, conceding defeat.

When both sides deployed for the first time, the Goths had their archers and a single warrior band on their far left flank, a unit of noble cavalry in the centre, their javelinmen with three units of warriors in close support to their right, with the two remaining units of noble cavalry ahead of the general and his bodyguard. On the Hun right, there were two units of heavy cavalry and one of B class light cavalry, with a distinct break in their centre and a left flank force of two units of heavy cavalry flanked with the light cavalry forming the extreme left wing of their forces.

Dawn rises over the field of battle with the armies fully deployed

Both the Goths and Huns were happy to engage in battle with these deployments, so we proceeded. My plan with the Goths was to lure the Hun heavy cavalry on my right into my infantry, then grind them down by sheer weight of numbers, while my central cavalry regiment, one of the right flank regiments and my general and his bodyguard closed in from either side and crushed them, hopefully taking the fight out of the Huns and killing their general to boot. My left flank units were effectively a sacrificial goat, I was hoping they'd hold the Hun forces on that flank or at least that the Hun forces would go out of control and pursue the remnants of my troops far enough that they'd be effectively out of the battle. My last unit of Noble Cavalry on the right flank was to drive back the Hun horse archers and allow me to crush the Hun heavies.

 <Joe's plan would go here but he claims barbarians can't write>

After a couple of turns of tentative movement and some desultory bow-fire, a series of charges were declared as the armies closed. On the Goth left, all three of the Hun cavalry units declared charges against the Goth unit nearest them. Astoundingly, the two units who should have charged the Goth Light Archers both failed their morale checks and failed to charge, while the central heavy unit charged home against the warriors in the centre. On the right, the rightmost Noble cavalry regiment charged at the Hunnic horse archers, driving them back, but losing several men to Hun arrows for their pains. The Goth unit that had taken losses to Hun arrow fire was charged by a Hunnic heavy cavalry unit, so they countercharged. Finally a Hun heavy cavalry unit with the general attached charged at a unit of javelinmen, who retired behind a nearby warrior unit. Unfortunately, they were panicked by the charging cavalry and broke. The cavalry charge smashed into the warriors, who stood firm.

The armies close in under a hail of arrows

The Hun's smash into the Goths and brutal fighting ensues on the right flank.

Astoundingly two units of Hun cavalry cannot brig themselves to run down some light infantry

Arrows were traded to some small effect by the archers and Hun cavalry units, inflicting minor losses. Meanwhile, the Goths proceeded to lose all the combats, with their left-most warrior unit being driven back, suffering only minor losses. The combat with Hun heavy cavalry cost the Goths two figures of medium cavalry, although a kill was inflicted in return. Finally on the right, despite inflicting some losses, the Goth warriors facing the charge of the Hun general and his men were beaten, and their morale began to collapse.

The next turn saw the Goth's fortunes worsen. On the left, although the Hun light cavalry was prevented from advancing by a poor morale result, the uncommitted Hun heavy cavalry unit was able to contact the light archers from the rear as they were evading. The Goth general was forced to charge the remaining Hun light cavalry or face a constant barrage of arrows. Other Goth units attempted to close in on the Hun general, but none could reach in time to aid their bretheren already engaged. The Goth infantry on the left flank collapsed after under the pressure, and the archers understandably joined them in routing. In the centre, the already weakened infantry collapsed after another bad round of fighting. The Goth cavalry fought on valiantly, but were still being beaten, taking heavy losses in the process.

The Goth right just before it collapses into rout.

The knock-on effects of the units routing precipitated a general collapse of the Gothic forces. One infantry unit in particular warrants special mention, as what started off as a -2 morale modifier ended up after a spectacular run of 7 1's on a d6 being a -16 modifier, resulting in a collapse from steady to routing (and a fair bit further too!).

The end on the left.

At this point, with my army in tatters, I conceeded the match and Joe was gracious enough to accept with no further turns (if a player concedes, their opponent can either accept, ending the battle immediately or refuse, causing the battle to last another d3 turns), partially in order to catch a train and partially as I was in a position to potentially inflict more losses on some of his heavy cavalry, which he felt he may need in future battles.

Closing Thoughts

Ian:

Overall, I think my initial plan was reasonable. Given the higher mobility of the Huns, I was always going to have to rely on luring Joe into attacking where I wanted him to and then being lucky and taking him out. I could have perhaps done with Joe's deployment being more cooperative to the plan, but allowing him the chance to redeploy while he had such a powerful force facing my holding force on the left would likely have done more harm good. I probably over-estimated the ability of my infantry, being used to having B Class Heavy Infantry in most of my previous games. The plan may have succeeded had I used my cavalry to pin the Hun heavies and then mobbed the infantry in.

While I would like to blame bad dice rolls for my eventual defeat (and they definitely didn't help matters), Joe played his forces well. Aside from his general charging into my central trap, his forces were engaging consistently with a local advantage in combat power, despite me having a slight points lead overall. That said, had my infantry managed to hold the Hun assault for a turn more I may well have been able to swamp Joe's general and pull some kind of victory from the battle. Alas, it was not to be, but the Gothic people will not fade away just yet.

Joe:

Barbarians don't write Gargh!

Final Scores:

Joe gets 3 VP for the win, neither side achieved enough points destroyed or a sufficient lead points destroyed to get any bonus VPs (the Goths being 11 points short of snatching a consolation VP).

Valamir smiled grimly as he watched the Goth horde retreating over the hills, back up into the mountains. Across the field, his men were dispatching any Gothic survivors or wounded they could find, collection loot and bringing their own wounded and dead back to camp for proper treatment. The battle had gone their way, even if he had, for a moment, felt he had charged headlong into a Goth trap. Still, it was a reassuring omen for the invasion of these lands that the Huns could still instill such fear in the Goths. Heralds were already braying news of the Gothic defeat and displaying heads to the defenders of Petra, so it was likely soon that the city would capitulate, giving his men yet more plunder.

One victory and one city taken in these new lands.

'May they be the first of many' prayed Valamir silently.