When Crassus was consul

[SteveBurt]

A 'To the Strongest' game.
The Romans unwisely invaded Parthia. We used the 'Time is of the essence' scenario in the book ; the Romans are out in the desert without water.
The 'water' supply was represented simply by the Parthian camp on the other side of the table (I put  a little model oasis in there) - if the Romans could sack the camp, they'd get 9 victory mdeals and win.
But they couldn't just sit around because they would be losing a medal every turn. The Romans also had a camp but it was fortified in usual Roman fashion.
The Romans had 2 commands each with 1 Gallic cavalry, 1 Numidian cavalry, 2 legions, and a third command with 3 legions and two units of light foot (which were wisely left to guard the camp against marauding light horse). The Parthians had 2 commands each with 1 cataphract, 3 horse archers, 2 light foot, and one command with 1 eleite cataphract, 1 cataphract, 3 light horse.


Here's the situation at the start of the game, Romans on the left


The game swung back and forth in a very entertaining manner. At first it all went the Parthian way as the Roman cavalry was overwhelmed (Crassus' son, commanding the left wing, was killed; very historical). Then the Romans' relentless advance started to take its toll; horse archers were forced off table, and the Romans broke through toward the camp. One part of the camp fell. The game teetered on a knife edge as the two commander clashed, but it was Crassus who fell - with the Parthians down to their last victory medal, the Romans broke.
A very entertaining game indeed.

A view of the climax of the battle as the commanders clash

[SteveBurt]

Realised the first image was of the wrong battle! Doh.
Correct image uploaded

[Erik]

Great looking game Steve. I always wanted a parthian army myself but hate painting cavalry, so thats probably not going to happen.


 I just had my first TtS game last night. A WOTR solo try out to get acquainted with the rules. I hope to use the rules to play with my son and get him into the hobby with this easygoing ruleset.


Cheers
Erik

[Mithridates1]

Good looking game thanks - we have tried Carrhae once using Hail Caesar rules on a large and deep table.    The Romans were turned into pin cushions - my cataphracts were always just that too far away for any rash legionary interested in charging!

Must have a look at To the Strongest - not sure about the playing cards??

Garry

[Phil Robinson]

A fine looking game indeed.

Mithridates 1, you can use MDF tokens, or what I will be doing, D10's (I like rolling dice) as an alternative.

[SteveBurt]

The cards work really well. It's surprising how much time they save; dice often roll off the table, or are cocked, and some folks like to take ages shaking them. Drawing a card is much faster.
You could of course use d10s instead (some folks use cards for activations but roll dice for combat and saves; you need to leave the activation value beside the unit in case it wants to try and activate again. We also turn the cards sideways for all units in a command once an activation is failed as a reminder that they cannot activate again).
I'm planning to make up some business cards printed with roman numerals I, II, .. X (and an image of Trajan's column as the background); I think they will look nicer than the playing cards. Roman numerals also have the advantage over Arabic ones that that are unambiguous even when upside down.

[Codsticker]

That is a good idea about the business cards; a little smaller than regular cards, they will take up less room on the table.

[SteveBurt]

The cards I'm currently using are small (patience sized, about 3" x 2") cards, 6 packs off ebay for £3
But I think the Roman numerals will look better!