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We played the big battle of Edessa as mentioned in the earlier blog post below. Here is how it went.  Click on the gallery to read the captions and the battle report.

The Roman Army march out of camp and deploy for battle. DARRYL takes the right wing with Succesianus and the Legions whilst Phil takes the left and centre with Valerian and the Auxiliaries

The armies close as battle commences

Valerian and his guard

Succesianus and the Legionnaires

The Persian cavalry close with the Roman left wing having driven away the camel light troopers

Mike is in charge of the Persian left wing whilst Alex takes the right

The Roman Army

The Auxilia are disordered in their advance by punishing archery from the Persian infantry

The Persians and their fearsome Elephants

The Persians and the Romans

Persians

View on the Persian right flank.

Roman light cavalry advance to skirmish against the Persian cataphracts but are ridden down when failing to evade

Clash of cavalry on Roman left flank led by the heroic Roman contari extra heavy cavalry general

Persians

The Roman centre advances rapidly towards the Persian elephant and infantry supported by the commander in chief Valerian in reserve

The lines are closing but the Roman right flank is held slightly back in the face of the elephant advance

The cataphracts play the tonight we dine in hell card and become heroic in their refusal to be beaten by the Roman cavalry

The Persian reserve advance only to realise a lost Roman cavalry unit has arrived to their rear , the Roman strategy card randomly placed a unit from the right flank here

The auxiliaries fair badly. A unit including the general is lost facing the levy and the unit facing the elephants falls into disorder

The Roman cavalry falls back in disorder. Valerian attempts to halt the Persian advance by Interposing if his own heavy cavalry

Disaster as the guard cavalry rout and Valerian is captured. At this point all seems lost for the Romans but they stubbornly detained to fight on after a brief lunch break.

Things look bad now on the left flank but the cavalry with the general manage to rally

The Roman cavalry on the far left though have driven back the light horse and can see the arrival of their comrades to the Persian rear.

The Roman auxilia attempt to retreat and then rally but the elephants just keep advancing

Not forgetting the action on the right flank. The elephant proves resistant to all archery, ballista bolts and pila . The Persian cavalry manoeuvre to their left hoping to encircle the legionnaires

Aft many hours and multiple attempts the elephants finally are beaten

The Roman cataphracts are destroyed but the heavy cavalry push back!

View from the Roman camp

The Persian cavalry turn to face attacks from all directions now.

Persian cataphracts

The Roman legions begin to close and push back the Persians, turning to defend the flanks.

The view from the Persian left flank as the reserve closes with the lost Roman unit to halt their slow advance and protect their comrades

Roman heavy cavalry halt the Persian cataphracts whilst the auxilia retreat in disorder towards the camp fortifications and safety

The Roman light horse attack the flank of the. Persian reserve cavalry multiple times whilst the Roman heavy cavalry attack. From the front.

Finally it comes down to the last victory point. The romans manage to hold onto their last two on the. Persian turn whilst on their turn they are able to inflict the final victory point losses onto the Persians bringing them to zero and claiming an unexpected victory.

So in the end things turned round for the Romans after Valerians’s capture and the loss of the centre general.  Darryl’s cautious preservation of the Praetorian Legion and its commander Successianus plus the heroic left flank Roman cavalry managed to turn things round and seize an unlikely but close victory.

Perhaps Succesianus was able to sack Edessa and negotiate the release of Valerian? Or maybe simply being able to retreat back into Roman territory was enough now for the Romans,  leaving their hapless Emperor in the Persian clutches for ever more?

Was certainly a fun battle.  The new rout rules prevented the Roman guard cavalry from becoming demoralised and the new no rally in zone of control had an effect too.  It stops the romans using detached generals to continuously rally in the face of the enemy but it also meant that disordered forces fought on for ages  with very little effect on each other.

A good game and thanks to Mike and Alex with their Persians and to Darryl for stabilising the Romans for Phil when all seemed lost.