Sarmatian Light Cavalry

With the completion of my first two units of Sarmatian cataphracts I decided to complete a small division of Sarmatian cavalry by adding two units of light cavalry, one with light bows and javelins and the other purely a horse archer unit.

Sarmatian Cataphracts

As covered in my last post looking at my second cataphtact unit I took time to describe the Sarmatian people that joined the Dacians in their war with Rome and the fact that they were a cavalry based army centred around their nomadic traditions of living on the Eurasian Steppe on horseback and moving their families with them in covered wagons.

The Sarmatian Light Cavalry stat card for Augustus to Aurelian

Alongside the heavily armoured and armed cataphracts the Sarmatian tribes could also call on multiple units of lightly armed horse archers and light cavalry, perfect troops for raiding and for adding their missilery in major battles.

The mounted archers gain the special rule of 'Parthian Shot' allowing them to make a full move and shoot with no penalty and then immediately make a second full move after shooting, effectively moving at charge speed whilst harassing the enemy.

These light units are based in groups of just six figures and so rate as small units but with their lack of armour are not designed for close combat with Attack Factors of '2' for the horse archers and '3' for the light cavalry, which cross referencing those factors on the combat table below against, for example, medium armoured heavier cavalry, such as Roman auxiliaries, sees them scoring hits on their two D10 with scores of three or less and four or less respectively, before any additional factors.

The strength of these units lies in their rapid mobility and sting offered by their shooting factors of '3' for the light cavalry and '4' for the archers as shown below on the stat card.

Thus the horse archers get to shoot with two D10 each time with a 50% chance of hitting, before additional factors, against medium armoured targets such as Roman cavalry or infantry and with relative impunity using the 'Parthian Shot' rule and getting the benefit of being skirmishers if shot back at.

The combined Shooting and Combat table from August to Aurelian

However the Sarmatians will have to be cautious operating in the close country that typifies Dacia which will offer the Romans terrain that could neutralise these cavalry units and with the use of Roman combined units, marrying their own archers in with their formed infantry and able to shoot overhead, enable some return shooting back at these lightly clad troops.

Both these units are composed of figures from the Warlord range using their Sarmatian Horse Archer and Sarmatian Light Cavalry packs. Interestingly the light cavalry although carrying bows are not modelled with the requisite bow and arrow quivers, but thanks to the the very nice team at Warlord Games I was able to rectify that with some extra parts.

These two units complete my first batch of Sarmatians and in the next unit post I am going back to complete the next six units of Dacian Warbands, starting with Warband number seven, that will compose the heavy punch for my Dacian forces.

Next up though I will be showing off my new Command Sabot Bases and putting together a YouTube presentation on the plans going into 2019 for the additions to my Romano-Dacian collection. Plus the final play-test of the Battle of Pinhoe, for Dux Bellorum, was played last night and, thanks to inputs from Bob and Steve M, I now have an interesting challenging scenario to take to the club this weekend; with an AAR to come on the DWG blog and a PDF of the scenario to be posted here on JJ's.

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.

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.