The Lusitania Challenge Team ADLG Event
Classical and Roman Era Wargaming in Lisboa 2022
Game 1 : Achaemenid Persian vs Sassanid Persian
Lisbon, and the Lusitania Challenge - a 4 person team event held in the Military Museum in Portugal's capital on the banks of the Tagus (NB: other rivers in Portugal are also available and the editorial board of Madaxeman.com is neither expressing or implying a preference for any specific Portuguese river at this point in time).
I had been dragooned into going for the first time in many years, as in fact my last Portuguese visit was back in the dark days of FoG all the way back in 2012 when I'd already long since stopped playing that system but came "out of retirement" for this event as it was on the way back from a work trip to Recife in northern Brazil.
In recent years the Lusitania Challenge has been reinvented and reinvigorated by the advent of a pan-European L'Art de la Guerre circuit, and this time around a staggering 24 teams and 96 players had assembled in the gun-infested bowels of the Military Museum to do tabletop ancients battle together (and eat sardines from tins)
The Venue - a Walkthrough
Air Miles had helped make the flight somewhat affordable and so without further ado (and only a brief stopoff in the LHR BA lounge) suddenly I was in an apartment in Lisbon
I immediately started delving into one of the many sophisticated beverage options on offer with two of my three team mates as we began the weekend in classy and restrained fashion with an upmarket aperatif to help us in the culturally senstive process of learning some Portuguese wargaming exclamations (many of which you will see I have attempted to use appropriately throughout these upcoming 5 reports).
What seemed like only seconds later, my 3 teammates and I were rattling through the steep and winding back streets of Lisbon in a "7 Euro to anywhere" taxi, bouncing off the cobbles on my way to a wine and fish based rendevouz with the American and Ex Colonial NZ/Australian teams
Being both colonial and foreign none of them were in any way experienced with Foreign Food (other than Steve Roper and his Taco Bell-based expertise), which did result in Dan H managing to order this - a dish that appeared to be a Trio of Burnt Testicles, each topped with a glace cherry
We were however a happy Anglophone congregation, and the knacker-eating did not seem to slow the evening down unduly
Almost moments later however the night got progressively darker (well, more accurately, more dark and tawny) as the port drinking started happening in real ernest around me as we made our way to a dedicated port bar with this impressive selection of options
Luckily we all acted with restraint in the bar, and as this photo shows all represented the apogee of sophistication in our approach to convivial intercontinental wargames drinking-based meetings
The bar also had a great range of tinned sardines, with tins for every year of the last century meaning we could all buy one with or year of birth on it. Well, apart from Dave Allen of course.
The next day dawned a little too soon for many of us, but we had succesfully managed to find the fouth member of our team so at least that was not the disaster it looked like it might have been the previous evening when the combination of battery-draining mobile phone roaming and alcohol-fuelled incompetence had left Gordon marooned in a town square dodgeing a midnight bin lorry disco session.
In terms of the actual gaming this was a competition with 4 players in each team, each playing a themed period roughly analogous to the 4 classic DBM Army List Books - and I was in Period 2, Roman & Classical.
Our team had all decided that this would be an event where participation was more important that military success, and with all of that in mind I had decided that this prestigious international event was the ideal opportunity to wheel out the wheeled Persian Archery Towers for the first time in competitive action as part of an Achaemenid army which had only seen table time twice prior to commencing the event.
Well, actually I was only using one of them. They are a bit too rubbish to use two in the same army, but one is enough of a novelty to be well worth taking.
If you are interested to know more about how I used a Pendraken 10mm MDF Siege Tower to make this 15mm Persian Archery platform, all of the details are posted on my Blogger site
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Cyrus' Towers count as War Wagon mediocre with Bow, meaning they shoot poorly and fight poorly, and also (unlike most other medieval-style wagons) cannot "deploy chains" and become "battle ready" for increased combat resilience once they are in the right place.
The upsides are that they are relatively cheap and have 4 hit points - so in the real world they should last at least a couple of turns before any enemy manages to destroy them in combat. Add in the usual war wagon stuff that they can't be overlapped, and they can do a handy 90 degree turn (swinging the back end out Sweeney-style) and they become an eye-catching obstacle and compelling target with little actual military impact on the rest of the army's fighting power when they are almost inevitably lost
The core of the Persian army was two almost mirror image commands both made up of a cadre of mixed shooters (Sparabara and Immortals), a speedbump obstacle (the wagon or 2 Mediocre Chaldean spearmen with Support) and a block of 4 decent quality shooting heavy, medium and light cavalry, both led by Brilliant generals.
These were intended to operate on either wing, overwhelming any enemy cavalry wings whilst using their speedbump troops to slow any attempt by the enemy to wheel out their capital troops from the centre to support their embattled wings
The third comand was 4 Light Horse (a bow/javelin mix) and an included Ordinary General in an Elite Guard cavalry unit - this could support a wing, sit in the centre to keep any enemy capital troops honest, or go on a flank march if there was no real room or role on table without unduly sacrificing too much combat power in their absence
So, with this vague and untested plan in mind, the first morning started with a coffee, a croissant, some orange juice, another coffee, and a hair-raising taxi trip down to the venue where (after descending into the very bowels of the Museum to find everyone just drifting in and getting ready to drink small strong coffee) we discovered that the first round was using a "lite" version of accelerated pairings, meaning we would be facing a very decent team indeed in the shape of one of the French comobo featuring some of the world's top ranked players. Pasteis de Nata!, as they say in Portugal
My opponent in the Classical and Roman period was using a later Persian army: The Sassanids
The lists for the Achaemenid Persian and Sassanid Persian from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Lisboa can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
Sassanid is a successor state to the Achaemenids (after the Parthians), and shares a core of decent quality shooting Heavy Cavalry with the earlier Persians.
It does however also have Cataphracts, Elephants and some Dailami to wrap around the ellies and create an infantry-crushing Death Star. This is all rather hideously expensive and tends to end up limiting what should be a mobile cavalry army to being just a support package for the securing the delivery of the Death Star / Cataphract punch by protecting their flanks.
With both armies maxed out on mounted, the terrain ended up almost steppe-like in this battle through time on the Iranian Plateau.
The Sassanid army was also reassuringly small, with only 2 Cataphracts and a single-elephant Death Star featuring full-fat Dailami either side of the Pachyderm.
I'd in response stacked the Achaemenids on the right, leaving almost half the battlefield across from the Death Star only occupied by the small LH command
What's Going on Here Then?
The Sassanid army is thankfully smaller than I feared it would be, with all its cavalry being Elite seriously soaking up the points. My LH command will need to be active on the left to try and draw the Death Star away from my more vulnerable centre, but the big opportunity is on my right where the 4-cavalry-strong Sassanid command looks vulnerable to the massed shooting power of the Immortals and their supporting cavalry wing.
In the centre the 2 Chaldean spearmen will try and put themselves in front of the Sassanid cataphracts to neutralise their striking power, with the rest of their command seeking to pick on (and shoot up) the again-limited numbers of quality cavalry in support
Facing the Immortals and the Persian Panzer Brigade, the left wing of the Sassanid army quickly decided that discretion was the better part of valour and faded back gently towards the rear corner flag of the playing surface
Peniche, Nazare and Matosinhos! The Achaemenids revved the engines of their wheeled Giant Wallpaper-clad Pseudo-Panzers and fired up their oxen in anticipation of a bouncing high speed jaunt across the open plain in hot pursuit of the quite rightly cowardly Sassanid horsemen
Cristiano Ronaldo's Golden Toenails! The men of Cyrus sprang forward with alacrity, their extensive command and control capability allowing the whole line to steam towards any haphazarly left-behind outriders of the Sassanid forces at an incredible pace.
Soon arrows were raining down on the flimsy delaying screen of post-Parthian mounted skirmishers as the Achaemenids started to get into gear.
On the opposite flank, the Sassanids lack of outriders on the right hand end of the Death Star was being exploited by the Light Horse command and especially its commander
This soon ended up forcing the Sassanid Dailami Infantry to engage in a drinking game winning Death Star Saucer Separation and spin off from their close attachment to the Pachyderm in an effort to avoid having Persian Guard cavalry running around their rear areas at the earliest possible stage in the game
The Achaemenids
The Sassanid left wing command was now reduced to 4 Asarvan cavalry units, already looking nervously over their armoured shoulders at the proximity of the rear edge of the table as they started to pick up hit markers from enemy shooting.
The long shooty arm of the Immortals was by now reaching out to touch them on a regular basis, and with Satrapal Nobility in close attendance the semi-squish Medium Foot behind wallpaper pavises were confident that the Sassanid horsemen would not dare to charge home against such a wider, and more competent formation
What's Going on Here Then?
The Sassanid left wing command has become detached from the battle and the forces I am sending against it significantly outmatch the 4 cavalry units that are now left. With the LH I have already shot down this flank looks a lot like it will eventually and inevitably see 5 dead Sassanid units, making up 10 of the 20 hit points I will need to break the enemy army
In the centre a right confusing dogs breakfast of activity was ongoing, with units moving hither and thither as the eclectic Achaemenid army rearranged its deckchair-styled component parts to better match up against the more modern threats generated by the Sassanid cataphract centre.
The Chaldeans were shaking gently as they inched into Cataphract catching position ready to tempt the iron-clad warriors into a rash charge into the porcupine of speartips the chubby little 3D printed dudes held in their trembling yet rather pudgy hands
Bacalhau a Lagareiro! The little Light Horse command was really earning its keep by now, with units dribbling around the flanks of the Sassanid army and drawing off their screening forces (and their command and control pips) as the Later Persian Dynasty faced up to the very real possibility of losing their baggage to a raiding party of lightly-equipped javelin armed cavalry.
As the Achaemenid right wing pressed forward the Sassanid centre finally came to grips with the Chaldeans.
The remaining Death Star components were thankfully only able to play a supporting role to their fully-armoured mounted betters as hand to hand combat was well and truly joined.
Caldeirada and Fado! The Sassanids were under pressure all along their right flank, which bowed and creaked as the full weight of the Achaemenid shooting gallery inched slowly into range
Unboxing Victrix Persians
With the Cataphracts now bogged down in a lengthy struggle against the 4-hit Chaldeans, the rest of the Sassanid army was struggling to get a grip on anything it wanted to fight.
Azulejos! The Battle Wagon of Shootism was now also causing terrain-like problems for the Later Persian horsemen on the right, and on the left, the Light Horse command had so outnumbered its opposition that it had managed to slip a bow-armed unit behind the lines and into the rear of the Dailami as the LH commanders Guard cavalry engaged it frontally.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - getting a LH into the rear of the Dailami only adds +1 to the Heavy cavalry fighting to their front, and as the LH are, well, "lights" it also doesn't drop the Dailami factor to zero or cause them to drop a cohesion level either (as would be the case were they proper combat troops)
It does however still remove the Dailami's "bonus" abilities - which in this case are their +1 for Impact and also their Rear Support - so, very much worth doing !
With the Scythed Chariot itching for some Dailami action, the Sassanids finally managed to get their Elephant into the fray, steaming forward to slam into the flimsy defences of a Sparabara unit
The Sassanids had also thrown their own LH spanner into the anti-other-Dailami battle in the distance, as ever more troops got sucked into the growing whirlpool of melee in the middle of the table.
Whatever happened next would be a lottery - but from an Achaemenid perspective, the Death Star was totally dissembled, the Cataphracts had been stalled against some of the cheapest troops in the Achaemenid lines, and the Elephant's inexorable march on the Achaemenid baggage camp was not really going at all to plan either - so, all was Good.
What's Going on Here Then?
Bola de Berlim! The Sassanid centre is fully committed, and significantly broken up - but, assuming my Guard General's cavalry unit on the left beats the Dailami it is engaging, I've actually only really got 3 of my own units at risk of loss here - a fantastic tradeoff against every hard-hitting strike component of the Sassanid army
There is now a very real chance the centre could see a near-parity tradeoff of losses for both sides, which would be a great result for the Achaemenids given the disparity in their favour over on the right.
Caldo Verde! Finally the Chaldeans started to give up the ghost, as the grinding combat capabilities of the Cataphracts started to pay off.
This was a hole in the Achaemenid centre, but the real action was happening on the wings.
Bolinhos de Bacalhau! The Sassanid Cataphracts looked to regroup as they contemplated their sudden victory - only to realise that they were now surrounded by enemies to all sides and had nothing else in range to assault and fight.
With the Satrapal Guard and Bow Platform Wallpaper Wagon pouring arrows into the Sassanid Asarvan on the right, and the Light Horse Command Commander now in full possession of the left flank, the centre of the Sassanid line suddenly looked extremely vulnerable indeed
Vasco de Gama's Salt-encrusted Sextant! Relentless shoot-and-advance tactics on the far right of the Achaemenid line had by now seen the Sassanid left flank almost totally eliminated, as the final components efforts to skulk behind a hill on the table edge came to naught.
The pragmatic Achaemenids refused to charge this last survivor, instead choosing to pepper him with arrows until his inevitable demise came around.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - If my guys had charged this last cavalryman, he could have evaded off table and counted as only 1 hit point loss towards the Sassanid break point, as even an injured unit only counts as one loss if it leaves the table.
You can't however walk off table voluntarily - you can only do so as part of an evade move - so shooting this guy to death and claiming the 2 hit points that will generate is better than trying to engage him and shooing him away
The Sassanid Cataphracts were now tantalizingly close to the Achaemenid baggage camp, and could practically smell the potent combination of exotic spices and opulent carpets that the impressed servants were dutifully carrying around.
But, elsewhere on table the rest of their army was unravelling at a rate of knots, and time was slip-sliding away from them faster than the Cataphracts would surely be able to advance
The Achaemenids drove forward on the left flank, combining all types of shooting as they batted away the thin remnants of Sassanid mounted combat capability in this part of the battlefield with yet more move and fire tactics.
The Sassanid levy started to wonder if they too could be soon called upon to defend their own camp from a mounted assault
Sassanid Horse Archery
Finally, after a lengthy exchange of static horse archery, the last jigsaw piece in the Sassanid picture of defeat fell into place as the Achaemenid Xyston Guard Cavalrymen drilled the last arrow into an opposition horseman to break the Sassanid army and record a first round vistory for the Earlier of the two Iranian Empires.
The shooting power of the Sparabara, Immortals, Cavalry and Archery Tower had pretty much wiped the right hand side of the table clean of Sassanid troops, and on the other wing the Sassanids had nothing really to deal with - or inflict damage on - the clouds of independently operating LH units in the Achaemenid army either
Punching through the Achaemenid centre had taken far too long, and also had left the Sassanids in dissarray unable to exploit their gains - the plan of crushing the wings and casting disposable obstacles in the centre to delay the enemy had (amazingly) worked!
The Result is a win for the Achaemenids - matched by 2 defeats and a draw from the other 3 team members.
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Achaemenid Persian Commander
My mighty empire has furnished us with a great victory as the multitude of peoples of all my dominions line up to support my munificent military genius with this wonderful display of expertise, power and movement
Our ancestors should clearly think again before usurping our dynasty, which I am now sure will last for many millenia anyway and as soon as I have overrun these pesky Greeks we will have an empire that stretches through all of the great cuisines of theancient world
The power of archery as a primary weapon in combat has been re-established after those tedious and combat-heavy battle reports from the last competition, and it is great to have shown that other ways of victory are indeed possible too
The only fly in this glorious ointment is the abject failure of my team mates to even manage to hang onto my silken coat tails and attain anything even remotely near to my results.
And finally, this battle has not answered the undying question I always ask myself after each fight leading this army. Why in the name of the 7 Winged Lions of Babylon didn't us Persians ever work out that it might make sense to buy some bloody elephants off of our neighbours in India?
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
This is not an analysis of victory, it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing in a game when your opponent I hear was unpracticed in recent years and was no doubt unfooted by your bizzarre display of strange contraptions (or perhaps "con-crap-tions") as well
The Sassanids had the tools to unseat your army, with the Cataphracts an especial danger, so your fortune was that your enemy took the Chaldean flavoured bait you offered in a way so obvious that your wit must have been as thick as a Tewkesbury mustard to imagine this was subterfuge at all
Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear, thou lily-liver'd boy and come back to the next game when you may have the misfortune to fight an opponent not quite so out of sorts, and not quite so well designed to catch arrows in their horseflesh either
I scorn you, scurvy companion for any game where you may have to take on proper combat ready infantry - perhaps we will see this in the next game of these five reports?
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
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Game 1 Achaemenid Persian vs Sassanid Persian
Game 2 Achaemenid Persian vs Late Imperial Roman
Game 3 Achaemenid Persian vs Late Imperial Roman
Game 4 Achaemenid Persian vs Alexandrian Makedonian
Game 5 Achaemenid Persian vs Classical Indian
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