Sarmatian Cataphracts

As mentioned, the second unit of Sarmatian Cataphracts is finished and I thought I would show them in company with the first unit and my King Decebalus command base to give an impression of how imposing these units will look on the table, especially bearing in mind that these are the first two units of eventually six composing the punching power of my Sarmatians.

In the previous post I spent a bit of time looking at the combat ability of this particular troop type when using them with Augustus to Aurelian.

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2018/12/sarmatian-cataphracts.html

With the completion of this second unit I thought it might be interesting to take a bit of look at who the Sarmatians as a people were, recorded between 600 BC to 450 AD and how I propose to model them in my collection.

The Sarmatians as a group of unified people appears to be a bit of a misnomer as they were composed of a number of groups of nomadic people who, emerging from east of the Don River and south of the Ural mountains in the 7th century BC, gradually migrated westward over the Eurasian steppe, a vast area of open plain, some 5,000 miles long and several hundred miles wide extending from China to the Hungarian plain.

Their language is thought to have been an Iranian one similar to that of the Scythians and closely related to Persian, and there origins draw strong comparison to their eastern neighbours, the Parthians who would emerge using similar methods of light bow armed cavalry supported by heavily armoured horsemen to become a major power contesting further expansion of Rome into the east via Asia Minor.

The best known of the Sarmatian groupings are the Sauromatae, Aorsi, Siraces, Iazyges and Roxalani of which the later two figure largely in the intermittent and finally large scale military clashes with Rome that would drag on long after the defeat of the Dacians, seeing the Iazyges joining forces with the Marcomani and Quadi in the wars with Marcus Aurelius.

Thus my Sarmatian forces are set to be an army in their own right, yes operating alongside Dacian and German allies, and who knows perhaps alongside Romans when my collection reaches the shores of Britannia, but also as an independent force in their own right.

With these two units completed I will be moving on to construct three units of lighter bow and javelin armed units and eventually the Sarmatians will be able to field alone, four divisions of some eighteen units, which will present an interesting challenge for my Romans.

The other interesting aspect from a wargaming perspective is the nomadic structure of the Sarmatian peoples which means that my armies will need to be accompanied by several groups of wagons representing the homes of these people carrying their valuables and families in their wake.

The Sarmatians make a really powerful and exotic addition to my barbarian forces and with just two of the units here together with King Decebalus giving an idea of what six or so of these units, alongside their horse archers and my Dacian warbands, will look like emerging onto the battlefield, you can almost feel the ground trembling under all that heavy horse flesh!

As previously my cataphracts are composed using figures from the Warlord Games range of figures and very nice models they are, and those kontos are as fiercely sharp as they look, being made of brass rod and more than capable of drawing the blood of any clumsy hand picking them up thoughtlessly.

Next up Part Two of the Breached Walls, Terrain Build project.

Hold the Pass - Augustus to Aurelian, Romans vs Dacians

Well the day finally arrived to be able to run my first complete game of Augustus to Aurelian (AtoA) using the start of my new collection of figures together with my newly created terrain and mat put together for it.

I ran the scenario with the incomplete collection at the Devon Wargames Group back in August but that was very much a warm-up proof of concept game and only spurred my efforts to move the collection on to have all the figure options available for this scenario and to further try out the rules on a scenario designed around Hail Caesar (HC).

My Roman cavalry division with the wagons enter the table, ahead can be seen elements of all three Dacian divisions

This particular scenario sees a Roman escort of two divisions, one infantry and the other cavalry, together with supply wagons  attempting to force a mountain pass position barricaded by one large and two smaller divisions of Dacians intent on stopping the much needed Roman supplies making it up the road to the Romans in need of them.

One of the smaller Dacian divisions holds the barricaded road. A similar sized force occupies the wood centre-left and the larger Dacian force in the woods centre-right

Thus the original design sees the Roman commander (me in this game) tasked with either marching rapidly down the valley road, engaging the Dacians and forcing my way off table with my wagons in tow, all within six turns to achieve a Total Roman Victory.

Alternatively the Romans can settle for breaking the Dacian army within eight turns whether able to get the wagons through or not in that time, assuming that with the Dacians in the area broken they would not be in a position to impede supplies getting through if a little later.

The other less likely option is to get the wagons off table without breaking the Dacian force in eight turns.

The two latter options are measured as a Partial Victory and with any other result being a Total Dacian Victory.

The Auxiliary Ala support the Numidians on the Roman right

The key difference between AtoA and HC, and why I prefer it, is that the turn lengths in the former are unpredictable in that two chits drawn from the bag of unit activation chits will end a turn randomly whether formations have activated or not. Likewise formation activation is also somewhat random, reliant on when an activation chit is drawn in relation to all the others in the bag.

This randomising can be modified by 'Carpe Diem' chits that will allow a commander to interrupt that process and grab an opportunity to activate or perform a task as required rather than waiting on chance, but these chits are once only use and limited thus restricting the player and forcing choices.

Two falx armed warbands supported by two lighter armed ones emerge from the woods on the Roman left

So with a system of fairly predictable length turns and movement even allowing for the HC compromise of  the 'Blunders' system versus the greater unpredictability and control offered in AtoA, the scenarios I am using as written need some play-testing and potential modification to make them fit for purpose.

One of the smaller Dacian divisions of one warband. two skirmish units and a scorpio hold the road barricade

That said I like the potential of choices offered in this relatively small limited action in that the Dacian commander has the option of fighting his battle forwards or backwards, that is to deploy the bulk of his army close to the barricades thus surrendering ground but able to combine the bulk of his force to hold out, or to fight forward relying on his force in front of the barricades to act as a 'speed bump', but denying himself the support of the barricade force, whilst hoping to still be an army in being but able to delay a Roman advance down the table.

One auxiliary cohort out on the Roman left has rushed forward to hold back the Dacians as my Praetorians look to redeploy

I should also point out that the Dacian forces selected to defend other than those ordered to hold the barricade should only deploy on one alternative table edge, but in this test game where I was trying out all options, Will opted to deploy on both edges and it gave a chance to see what effect that had on the game.

On the right of picture the auxiliary cohort has just charged the falx warband and is to far ahead unsupported

As in the DWG Club play through the Romans opted to lead with their enhanced cavalry division of Praetorian Guards Ala, Auxiliary Ala, German Foedarati and Numidian Light Cavalry Alas.

On reflection I would not do that in future games as the Romans are probably better off leading with their infantry and using their cavalry from reserve to support and follow up fleeing Dacians rather than, as in the two battles reported on, seeing them embroiled with fresh Dacian warbands leaving it difficult for the infantry to come to grips.

As the auxiliaries do their best to stem the tide the other warbands become uncontrolled and charge forward

My preamble gives a clue as to what happened as the large Dacian force of two falx armed warbands supported by to lighter spear and sword warbands debouched from one of the centre edge woods, threatening to charge my Praetorians that I was trying to get behind them.

Seeing the threat I rather rashly, as it proved, pushed forward a cohort of auxiliaries to prevent this but so far forward that it left them unsupported only to see them hit by the falx armed horde and evaporate under the assault and then to see the Praetorians forced into a fight I was looking to avoid.

My auxiliaries going down under a flail of falx blades

As in the other game the Praetorians are a tough nut to crack and after two further rounds of combat they disposed of the first falx warband, allowing my auxiliary ala, auxiliary infantry and a legionary cohort to come to their support and break the other three warbands and the Dacian formation as a whole.

The auxiliaries managed to cause three hits on the Dacians but the five hit mini dice next to a shaken marker tells its own story and in the next turn they were gone

However the Dacian large force had done its job, despite being broken, in that it left me only one turn to try and close on the other Dacian formation before game end which was not enough time and thus we called it in favour of Will's Dacians.

The table is turned following the initial Dacian success as the Praetorians and remaining Roman infantry have cleared the Roman left of enemy warbands. Note to self - I must get those casualty figures painted up to show the human wreckage of battle

The auxiliary ala managed to administer the coup de grace by hitting the last falx armed warband in the flank.

Both Will and I learnt a lot from this game in that unsupported cohorts are a 'Dacian dream' come true, Legionary cohorts can certainly dish it out but they are relatively weak and so need to be able to be relieved if they take casualties to allow them to recover.

The ability for the Dacian commander to allow his warbands to do what they do best i.e. go impetuous and charge in right at the beginning of a turn can be a devastating tactic as it puts them immediately into hand to hand combat, thus avoiding the worst of Roman missile fire and forces the Romans to react to their attacks rather than to directing where they want to fight the battle.

Cavalry on the flanks or rear are devastating and an infantry army up against another force with even a small amount of cavalry has to watch its flanks carefully.

The legionary cohort seen left were particularly devastating hitting with all their gladius and pilum strikes to cause four casualties in the first round and shaking the now departing enemy warband (centre-top)

This scenario produced a great little battle and has the potential to be a really interesting invasion scenario as part of a campaign all though I think the turn numbers need adjusting even perhaps allowing the Roman commander to spend Carpe Diem counters extending the time allowance.

Likewise the Dacian deployment areas need to follow the original set up of only operating from one table edge as a dispersed Dacian defence makes it harder for the Romans to go for the second option of simply trying to break the Dacian army in the number of turns given.

Despite going shaken in their last round of combat the Praetorians hold the field as the Dacians break off.

Thank you to Will for playing his old Dad and sharing his insights from the Dacian perspective and to Jane my neighbour who shares a passion for history and the Romans and who joined us for much of the game acting as an impartial chit drawer on behalf of Fortuna.

Happy New Year

Sarmatian Cataphracts

With focus in recent weeks very much on getting phase two of the terrain construction plan completed before Xmas I was also conscious that I needed to press on with phase two of the Romano-Dacian figure collection, following recent projects getting US cavalry, Plains Indians and Seven Years War British figures painted in time for other commitments.

So the new list of units is now up on my painting desk which I look forward to crossing off as each unit gets done - I know it's just my system and it's how my brain likes to work by rewarding itself by seeing an ever reducing list each time I sit down to paint!

As well as another six Dacian warbands to be added to the six already done I need to get the first units of the very potent Sarmatian force set to compliment them and add that threat to my Roman forces.

That threat doesn't get much more potent that Sarmatian Cataphracts, backed up by horse archers and with six units of each to be built going forward and with a particular game in mind that requires at least two units of this formidable heavy cavalry I thought I would get started this side of the Xmas break, thus ending my 2018 on a nice painting high.

These cataphracts are from the Warlord range and very nice figures they are indeed with a little work required in their construction with hands to be drilled out for the various weapons and separate sword, bow and quivers to be affixed to torsos designed to be mounted on the legs and waist section of the figure already cast onto the horse.

As in previous unit posts I thought it would be interesting to look at the capabilities of this one in 'Augustus to Aurelian' (AtoA) designed very much for shock particularly against Roman units already softened up by the horse archers they will operate with.

The first stat card below illustrates a basic cataphract unit as a small unit of eight figures, approximately equivalent to just two-hundred men, but heavily armed and armoured with the Kontos shown at the bottom of the card as a special characteristic.

Thus this unit would normally roll two d10 when firing or in combat, using column three for combat and column two for shooting on the Combat/Shooting table seen below, cross referenced against the armour class of the target.

The 'Kontos' characteristic grants the unit an additional d10 in the first round of combat and your typical Legionary or Auxiliary cohort would count as medium armour with the occasional veteran or Praetorian cohort gaining heavy armour protection.

Thus we can see that a casualty will be caused for each score of 4 or less or 3 or less on a d10 for combat and shooting respectively before any column shifts are made to reflect the circumstances of the particular combat.

The Combat and Shooting Table for 'Augustus to Aurelian'

The morale rating of 7 is reasonably robust with a score on 2d6 plus or minus factors needed to be rolled less than to act as ordered.

The size of the unit means it is less able to sustain casualties and this is reflected in a rating of 2 meaning the unit will become 'shaken' once it has suffered two casualties or more.

As can be seen from the explanation above the Noble Cataphracts hit harder and resist casualties slightly better and this would be a similar profile if we made the basic cataphracts veterans or 'hardened' as they would be classified in AtoA.

Noble Cataphracts if similarly classed as 'hardened would increase their Combat Factor to a 5 making them a real threat on first contact with the additional d10 thrown in.

As well as packing a punch they are classed as heavily armoured or 'cataphract' as listed on the table, this meaning that your typical legionary cohort will be hitting in shooting and combat on the  '4' column needing '3' or less, before column shifts for circumstances, on 3d10 to knock one of these chaps out the saddle and auxilia tend to hit one less.

So these cataphracts with the heavy armour protection can equally take a punch which combined with the mobility that cavalry offer means that a Roman force has to treat these units with great respect whilst getting stuck into any Dacian warbands.

That said these units need to be used as designed, namely to take advantage of Roman units already discomforted by shooting casualties using their mobility to close on the enemy from the most advantageous position. The fact that they carry composite bows is also a great advantage to enable them to join in that softening up process with their accompanying horse archers.

Simply throwing these chaps in against steady Roman infantry may see them broken in short order if they suffer the slightest casualties, all be it that that is still a tough ask for the Romans.

However if used judiciously in combination with the Sarmatian horse archers who will shoot these chaps in and then followed up by the Sarmatian light cavalry designed to pursue broken enemy units my Sarmatians should be a force to be reckoned with on their own or in combination with Dacian warbands and skirmish troops.

In time I plan to have forty-eight of these chaps in the collection backed up by a similar number of horse archers and light spear armed cavalry and they can take to the field from the early Imperium right through to the wars of Marcus Arelius and his Marcomannic Wars.

German Light Cavalry and Dacian Skirmishers

In among all the walks, shows and room reorganisations, the work to progress the Romano-Dacian collection has continued which the post covering the changes to my games room revealed with an early sneak preview of these charming gentlemen.

I picked these German light cavalry up at Partizan earlier this year and they are the new Warlord offering in their Hail Caesar range of figures.

I really liked the modelling of these warriors complete with a range of severed heads to be arranged around the bridles and complete with a command group with cornyx, standard and leader bearing an axe and sword whilst heading along at seemingly full tilt.

However if I were to add some small criticism, the legs and ankles or should that be fetlocks on these steeds are very thin and can be easily bent with uncareful rough handling.

In addition these chaps are illustrated on the box artwork carrying shields which look very much like those offered in the Warlord German warrior warband boxes, however if you are expecting to find shields contained you will be slightly disappointed.

Thus my hairy horseman have had shields supplied from some left over Gripping Beast plastic types from my recent Saxon/Viking collection build and I think they help complete the look of the unit.

German light cavalry are a ubiquitous type to have on hand when building an Early Imperial Roman collection as they can come in handy for supplying German style cavalry for my Dacian, Roman and German armies as required.

I also have some Wargames Foundry German cavalry waiting to be painted up so they should compliment these chaps quite nicely with the variety of looks to entertain the eye when out on the table.

Alongside my Germans I have added another couple of Dacian skirmish units of which Dacian armies seem to be well endowed.

This brings my Dacian skirmish groups up to six with three javelin groups, two archers and now one of slingers.

The intention is to allow my four divisions of Dacian warbands to be potentially accompanied by two groups of these annoying skirmishing types which should please the Roman player no end.

As with the German cavalry, all these light skirmishing groups are pretty ubiquitous and should serve pretty well all my ancient armies when required.

So these last groups complete phase one of the collection build which I have documented here on JJs and which can be reviewed by looking through the posts labelled JJ's Dacian Wars.

With the run into Xmas I am intending to hold fire on the start of phase two as I have some US 7th cavalry to complete in time for the Gus Murchie Memorial game, our annual big Christmas game in December at the DWG and they will form my small contribution to the game alongside some Plains Indians I painted up years ago but should be adequate for our purposes.

In addition I promised Steve M that I would help complete his FIW Seven Years War British collection by doing some British artillery teams and a Colour party to join the 60th Foot chaps I painted earlier, see the link below if you haven't seen that earlier work.

The 60th Royal American Regiment

So phase two of the Romano Dacians will see another six warbands, plus around fifteen units of Sarmatian cavalry added to the Dacian force alongside about another five cohorts of Roman legionaries and auxiliaries plus more Roman cavalry and artillery, which I hope to get the bulk of them finished by the end of next year along with some new terrain items as well.