Battle of Ctesiphon 263 AD, at Historicon

Palmyran players ford a branch of the Tigris river with relative ease, as they advance upon the  ancient Sassanid Persian Capital of Ctesiphon in Iran. 

The Sassanid team for game 1 (Thursday AM); To the Strongest! rules, by Simon Miller. 

Armored and Light Cavalry, Camelry, and Elephants get into action on the flanks

The Palmyran center has four solid units of Eastern "Roman" infantry, which the Persians lack a good counter for. 

A lonely elephant mixes it up on the Persian right!

Action on the Persian left; watch out for that Palmyran light cavalry in your backfield!

Action on the right again.

The 2 units of deep Levy (8+ save) look kinda lonely in the center!

View from the Towers of the city...  fortified camps in TtS! terms. 

Light cavalry trying to do what they do best!

One camp taken!  Spearmen have fallen back (with difficulty) to defend the next one!

Roman/Palmyran Auxillia attack the camp; the Spearmen have only one hit left - if they can take the camp, that's 6 VM total and the game!  In the event, the attack is repulsed with the destruction of the Auxilia, but the Palmyrans ultimately prevail!

Game 2, three of the four Palmyran players. This time, the river slows them up a bit., and the Sassanids press forwards aggressively. 

Team Persia in the lead!

Crunch Time!

Cataphracts battle it out. 

Camels and Cavalry and Elephants, oh my!

Light cavalry play cat and mouse. 

The Persian Levy Spearmen again prove to be surprisingly effective, but the rest of the Palmyran infantry is devastated. In the end, a second, very close win for King Odenathus!

Sassanid Cataphracts and Leaders

The last of the pre-Historicon painting spree charge off the painting table.

Aunit of Sassanid Cataphracts (28mm Old Glory).

I went with thicker wire for them for durability reasons; the thinner wire looks a bit better but is much more prone to bending sand detachment.

The detail on these castings was quite good.

The color scheme for this unit is and a very pale green (CC "green tea"). 

Dark Chestnur horses

Extras from the pack of 10 figures become Sassanid "Generals" for To the Strongest!

I, of course, chose the more flamboyant figures for such...

along with ore flamboyant colors!

A variety of different horse colors (Roan, Palomino, White,  and Dark Chestnut) were used for their mounts, and some flowering tufts were applied to dress up the bases a bit. 

That's the last oft he 2017 Historicon Painting Surge; these troops have all ha their tabletop debuts, and I hope to be heading home within the hour. I had a great show as usual, reports will be forthcoming soon. Next year will be in Lancaster, and I doubt that there are any of us from New England who will miss the drive from Baltimore on South. 

Sassanid Javelinmen #2

A second unit of Spear-chuckers  makes its way off the painting table and into the ranks of my Sassanid army.

Once again, while they are a cut above the rabble masses of spearmen, one shouldn't expect too  much of them, especuially when faced by Roman Legionaries or Palmyran Cataphracts!

The dark "Magic Wash" once again brings out the details nicely. 

Let your Javelins fly!

Sassanid Persian Javelinmen #1

Next out of the lead pile and into the ranks of the painted is a unit of Old Glory 28mm Javelinmen.

I like the animation of these figures.

The sculpting on their cane shields works well, too. 

As usual, minor distinctions allow the unit to become two smaller, 2 stand units if needed. 

They'll probably fight like rubbish, although perhaps a cut above the masses of Levy Spearmen.! 

Sassanid Archers #2

More lead pours off the painting table on its way to Historicon in 1 week!

This is the second unit of  Archers for my Sassanid Persian army. they are Old Glory 28mm figures once again (see the previous post).

I "recruited" a figure from the pack of Sassanid Javelinmen (forthcoming soon) to act as as "officer"  to make this unit look a bit more Persian. 

The color scheme of course is radically different from their Palmyran counterparts.

These formed bowmen sometimes seem like they are mere speed bumps for the shock troops... until they get lucky and knock out a unit or two of them, at which point they're quite annoying!

Sassy Sassanid Archers

I need a boatload more Sassanid Persian troops for my Historicon game, so here is the first of many such units:

There was a guy who played in the band with me in college who looked a lot like the beaded fellow!

The strength of the Sassanid army lies in their heavily armored cavalry and Elephants; their infantry is mostly rubbish. The archers are probably the best of a sorry lot!

Old Glory 28mm figures. Lots more of them to come in the next 10 days! I am behind on posting so it looks like they should all be safely ready for the convention. 

Seeing these pictures up close I realize that these troops are missing something - the flesh highlight on the faces; that was also true for the Palmyran Archers and two more units painted in the same batch.  I have gone back and added that. Much better!

Sassanid Persian Army... and a few preliminary musings on "To the Strongest!"

 My Sassanid Persian army once again is composed almost entirely of Minifigs (I think the Elephants might be Garrison figures), and were painted back when I was in Medical school, most of them probably back in May/June of 1979. The army was painted for my Legio Quaternarius rules of the time, and wound up finalized as follows:

#8 Sassanid Persia    (250  -  650 AD)

QTY	Unit Description	Unit Type	Cost	Subtotal
5	Clibinari	EHC*LS,B,Sh	20	100
2	Cataphractori	SHC*LS,Sh*Elite	24	48
2	Sassanid Lt Cav	LC*J,B,Sh	10	20
1	Elephant	EL*B	16	16
2	Archers	LI*B	2.5	5
2	Slingers	LI*Sl,Sh	2.5	5
2	Javelinmen	LI*J,Sh	4	8
6	Levy Spearmen	MI*SS,Sh*Levy	4	24
2	Light Bolt Throwers	ENG	12.5	25
1	General	General	25	25
25	TOTALS			276

Sassanid Light Infantry Archers

Once again, the paint jobs could use some updating with black lining or washing, Likewise the balsa basing... although he thick bases are good to reduce handling of the figures themselves!

Sassanid Slingers

I just got my (PDF)copy of To the Strongest!, and I like what I see so far. My old Ancient armies will likely see some more current action as a result! It is very well done with many hyperlinks, including a hyperlinked index, and an icon on each page that takes you directly back to the index. Most terms in the body of the rules are also hyperlinked to the section covering them. The constantly expanding army lists are all free to download, although Simon has plans for much glossier presentations with background and painting information, which would surely be  an item that is charged for. Updates of the rules (electronically/PDF) are free as well - similar to the system Bob Jones is using for the DVD only Die Fighting II rules. There is a print version of the rules as well now - I considered getting it, but the discount for getting both at the same time wasn't all that large, so I decided to hold off on that for now. 

Sassanid Light Infantry Javelinmen

I'll have a lot ,ore to say about To the Strongest! once I have actually played at least one game, but they strike me as an interesting fusion of concepts from Tactica, DBX, Crossfire, and  even some elements reminiscent of FoB/Piquet, as well as a number of new ideas/mechanisms!

Sassanid Levy Infantry part 1

Obviously, the fact that To the Strongest! uses a gridded table is no barrier to my trying them.

Sassanid Levy spearmen, part 2!

The rules are extremely flexible when it comes to basing, and it isn't even necessary to have both armies based the same, or even similarly!

Javelin armed Sassanid Light Cavalry

I deliberately do NOT straighten out fragile bits like the Javelin soften, due to the high breakage potential!

Sassanid Catahractoi, and King!

If I like playing To the Strongest!, one thing I will need is more figures for generals ( a small army has 3 to 5 of them!), and also "heroes" - some armies have as many as 8 (chiefly Barbarian Horde type forces). Heroes area one time, disposable combat re-roll, and thus could be handled with a marker, especially when trying out the rules.

Sassanid Elephants!  I'd rate these as the larger, better trained Indian types, I think!

I'll also need to purchase some cheap playing card decks to use with To the Strongest! (I will be order a dozen decks, 6 each of large index [playing cards, 6 each in red and blue back colors. That's enough for 6 players total. Each player (or side) needs an 80 card deck with the jokers and court cards removed.

Some Sassanid Clibanophori - "Extra Heavy Cavalry". 

The 80 card deck is used to "activate" your units to Move, Shoot, Rally, or Charge. When a unit fails to activate, then that command is done for the turn. However, units my be activated repetitively in the same turn, Each successive activation requires a higher card than the last successful card played on that unit that turn.

More Clibanophori; dual armed with Lance and bow, these guys are tigers under most rules!

The same 80 card deck is also used to resolve combat... no dice are used at all! 

A final unit of Sassanid Clibanophori.

Each army must have at least one Camp on the table in To the Strongest!, and it will often have one per command. Camps are a liability if taken, but boost "Morale"and provide some extra ammunition reloads for your missile armed troops, so they are quite useful as well! I think I see some use for the "Ziggurat" style (birdhouse) towers I bought a few months ago there!