DBMM - 15mm Clash between Early Persians (c.540BC) and Neo-Sargonids Late Assyrians (c. 670BC)

 On the weekend got the chance to have a 15mm 450 point game with Paul Graham. His Early Persians took on my Late Assyrians for all the Mesopotamian marbles. 

Summer, I invaded on a battlefield with four gentle hills, two small patches of rocky scrub and a non-important provincial road.

Paul's army had three Persian commands and a Skythian ally while the Assyrians had four regular commands - two comprising four chariots backed by levy, a mounted command of cavalry, light horse, mounted infantry and some levy and an infantry centre.

The Persian deployment. The Skythian ally is on the flank, two mixed commands in the centre and (out of shot) the Immortals, Bow and some Light Horse.

Looking down the table you can see the Persian bow on the hill, with the Immortals tucked in between the hill and road.

The Assyrian mounted are near camera, one block of chariots next, the infantry centre and the other chariot block at the top.

Across come the Skythians to threaten the levy (Hd(O)). The Assyrian SG leaves them to their fate as the main battleline obliques.

The Persian centre pushes into the Assyrian Spear. The Cv(O) will hold up very well over the battle facing a mix of Sp(O)/(S).

The Chariots and Cav(S) eye up the Immortals and the EAP Cv(O). They will initially come off second best - losing one chariot to shooting and another to a Cv(O) 😖

The Assyrian left readjusts, pulling the Chariots back....slowly....lowest PIPs. The Levy is about to be mauled.

Eventually the Assyrians commit all their Generals. At the top the Assyrian CnC chariot is now interspersed with his spears and is driving the Persian cavalry back.

In the centre, the two remaining chariots have seen off the cavalry supporting the Immortals while the remnants of the Assyrian cavalry are just surviving the Immortals. In the bottom right, the remaining Light Horse from the clash of Assyrian LH(F) and Persian LH(O) has got in the rear of the bow. This breaks the Persian left at the same time as the Persian centre breaks. In the same bound the Skythians and the Assyrian right (Mounted) are disheartened.

The Persian SG arrives too late to support the centre.

Overall, Paul was winning this battle until the Assyrian generals committed themselves to melee. I was far too cautious with my chariots after being well out-deployed. Paul generally was able to achieve better matchups and it wasn't until the chariots had multiple attempts at charging Cv(O) and Skythian horse that I was able to make my better quality troops perform.

In the centre I got lucky with my 4 Bw(O) elements removing both Bw(X) and Cv(O) elements early giving me a gap to bring my CnC in.

Overall, a very fun game that could have gone either way.

I like the command structure of my Assyrians but feel that I need to practice my deployment and perhaps review my PIP allocation.