"Romans v Parthians using Dominion of the Spear" Topic

This is a refight of the Battle of Carrhae 53 BC with Romans after the Marian reforms having been led into the desert where they found a Parthian army ready and waiting for them.

Crassus surveyed the battlefield where a solid line of his tired and thirsty legionaries with only Gallic cavalry in reserve faced a seemingly endless number of horse archers – and behind the horse archers were the waiting Parthian cataphracts! This was going to be difficult!

On the Roman left and centre the legionaries could only withstand the arrow storm for so long, and reading the battlefield as well as their general, they broke and ran for their lives. The Roman legionaries on the right did much better, chasing off the Parthian horse archers only to be faced with a fresh horde of them.

It was only late morning and Crassus found himself with his Gallic cavalry trying to hold his left, nothing of his fleeing troops still fighting in the centre, and his brave legionaries on his right facing yet more horse archers. It was still wall to wall Parthian horse archers with the Parthian cataphracts sipping cool drinks and enjoying the spectacle.

The Roman Gallic cavalry charged bravely but the Parthian horse archers evaded still shooting … and shooting … and shooting until there were few Gauls left and they ceased to exist as a fighting unit. In the centre the Parthian horse archers swung to their left and with a few well placed arrows disordered the Roman legionaries there enough to leave them easy prey to the other Parthian horse archers there.

A whole Roman army was lost (pretty historical!) and the Parthian noble cataphracts congratulated themselves on their hard work and great victory!

A very quick game as the Romans fell apart very quickly with some lucky dice rolls for the Parthians. I wonder if the Romans would have done any better if their Gallic cavalry had been deployed forward on one of their flanks from the beginning as they would do serious harm to light horse archers if they survived the arrows to reach them. That might then force the Parthian noble cataphracts to put away their cool drinks and actually do some fighting!

I've just bought these after a recommendation from a fellow blogger, and funnily enough I was looking at my Parthians too!

I hope that you enjoy them Martin.The above game went very quickly even for these rules with some lucky dice rolls for the Parthians, lots of successful bowfire with therefore no attacks back, and unfavorable matchups for the Romans meaning that it was all over in just seven dice rolls. Still produced a nice little narrative though.
Steve

Thanks for the battle report. The rules certainly give a decent narrative which hangs together coherently.
I look forward to the arrival of my copy the rules.
Cheers,
Geoff

Played some games (with pen and paper), they are probably the simplest and quickest ancient / medieval wargame rules ever written. Nice for solitaire and campaigns.

Is there a link?

If you Google Dominion of the Spear wargames rules then you get the link for it on Wargames Vault,the entry on BoardGameGeek, it on eBay, and a couple of blog articles about it.

Yes, great fun. I just tried Marathon and Carrhae a few times each. Very much 'distilled essence of DBA' and perfect for solo campaigns.

I meant is there a direct link to your own blog or images of the battle you're posting about? From your response, I gather there isn't.

Sorry I do not have a blog. Photos of battles using these rules can be found on Shaun's Wargaming With Miniatures blog and Martin's photos of his battles on Facebook – the Portable Wargames group.

Martin,
If I could use the quote "distilled essence of DBA" even unattributed in my future advertising I would be most grateful. Cannot really get higher praise than that!
Steve