"Rock the Casbah!" - The Wars in Persia, at Roll Call 2025
Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian
Game 1 Sassanid Persian vs Maurikian Byzantine
Game 2 Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian
Game 3 Sassanid Persian vs Konstantinian Byzantine
Game 4 Sassanid Persian vs Maurikian Byzantine
Game 5 Sassanid Persian vs Fatimid Egyptian
After that short, violent and somewhat shambolic destructions at the hands of the Maurikian Byzantines, a Civil War was up next against another Sassanid army
This would be an interesting matchup of army lists, with the possibility of Cataphracts, multiple elephants and other toys on table - but surely not two sets of Arabs?
In fact, with two unreliable appearances under their belts, I was confident that this time the Arabian camel corps would be raring to go and contribute to the fighting right from the off.
The lists for the Sassanid Persian and Sassanid Persian from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Roll Call can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
The morning sun rose over the scorched plains of Cranfield, casting a crimson glow on the two assembled hosts—mirror images of one another, both cloaked in the steel and silk of Sassanid might.
On either side, Clibanarii horsemen stood in rigid silence, their lamellar armour glittering like obsidian scales as if torn from the hide of the legendary subterranean concrete dragon of Ye Olde Milton Keynes just over the horizon, their war banners catching the breeze like restless ghosts.
Back in the real world though, this again looks like a battle in which I had elected to attack in Mountains, but this time my Sassanid opponent had dropped both bits of Brush down and they had fallen in front of his army - giving away the possibility of lots of Elephants and Dailami in their army list, which would surely be placed on the right of the table behind the terrain?
Thinking that there was no chance at all of lightning striking the same tree three times in a row, I had put the Arab ally out on the same flank as the previous game, and of course they duly obliged with that by-now 1 in 216 opportunity to stat the game unreliable for the THIRD time in a row!
At least by now I knew the rules for army demoralization ...
What's Going on Here Then?
Aaaargh! Missing the Arab ally is a real pain, as with a flank march also underway it leaves me with only 1 command on table who can actually move.
The opposition do however also have something of a dilemma, as if they press an attack it will risk triggering the Arabs back to life, and also may leave them exposed to the arrival of the flank march (which is very clearly on this side of the table)
From my own POV, I really do need to pin the main body of enemy troops (including three elephants) back into their own half of the table - otherwise, if I sit back and wait, then my flank march might arrive far behind the line of battle and be unable to influence the game at all. So, Attack it is ..
The two sets of Elephants and Dailami were slightly offset, placing my Death Star opposite some enemy cavalry. Which, the observant amongst you will note, meant the enemy elephants must also be opposite some of my cavalry in turn
So, with the first signal — a blast of a curved warhorn — both lines surged forward with terrifying grace, like twin storms racing to collide and take advantage of where they had exactly the same advantages before the other one could do exactly the same back!
I'd also forgotten to mention that I had rather boldly chosen to do a flank march on my right side - with the terrain bottling up the enemy it seemed like a good idea, right up until the point that the Arabs again went unreliable, leaving me with just one command on table that I was able to move!
Quite why that one command then decided to attack is a bit of a mystery lost to the sands of the desert, but hey, at least the enemy were reacting to the flank march rather than rushing to overwhelm the one active command left on table.
Asarwan cavalry
Aaaah - For a moment, the world held its breath until, inspired perhaps by the sight of lots of the enemy streaming away from their position to tee themselves up for the flank march, the Arabs then decided to become instantly reliable again, the first time I would ever really get to move them in any meaningful way in any game they had appeared in!
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Unreliable commands come back to life on a roll of 6. They then re-roll their pip dice for that turn.
It is possible to spend 2 pips of the CinC's command in order to give this die roll a +1, making the ally reliable on a 5 - which is what I remember doing in this game.
The Arabs of course decided to throw sand back in my face with this rather expensive supporting gesture, by rolling a natural 6 which was good enough to make them reliable anyway.
Suddenly, with the Arabs now actually playing for real, my Sassanid army sprang forward onto the attack.
The Camels ability to treat Brush as Good Going meant they were rocket scientists on this tabletop, and so they wheeled in a wide arc through the dust towards the enemy's right flank.
The Arabian light horsemen acted as a screen of outriders, speeding forward to harry the enemy's right, hurling javelins and perhaps drawing them out to be engaged by the fast-arriving Camel Corps moving up behind.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Arabs coming back online, combined with the full-throated enemy redeployment to face my flank march has suddenly left me with a large advantage of troops on the left hand wing, which I aim to take full advantage of as soon as possible.
My aim is to take control of the brush terrain pieces, which the elephants can do admirably and for which, facing mostly cavalry, even the Levy Spearmen can help with.
With one command committed to wait for my flank march, the opposition are now effectively playing with just 2 commands as well, evening up the command capability of both sides considerably too.
If I can split up their three elephants with some taunting cavalry on my extreme right wing, and take advantage of the zone of uncertainty that the arriving flank march creates down that flank too there is a real chance to squeeze the enemy into a fairly small box, in which the Camels and Elephants can aim to sow great confusion.
Everything was kicking off - it was just like a Guy Ritchie Movie, but with more sand, camels and mounted archery and far less shotguns and gangsters!
The Flank March had just signalled its arrival with a roll of 5 - it would now turn up in my next turn, a hitherto to hidden reserve in the shape of a hardened unit of Clibanarii that had galloped across the plains of Bedfordshire to emerge from behind a rise in the terrain on the left flank of the enemy army!
By the spilled tea of my ancestors! With the flank march due to arrive soon, the Arabs back in play and the main body of my army having rashly decided to lurch forward unsupported anyway the rebel Sassanids had somehow managed to find themselves rather boxed in behind terrain they had themselves laid down.
With their huge 3-strong elephant block set to be advancing down a wing I had pretty much refused with some skirmishing cavalry, now was the moment to swing these powerful beasties back into the main fray - which would see them attacking my rather less numerous pachyderms and Dailami long before any of the other components of my overly complex plan got into the battle for real!
At leas the incoherence of my approach had persuaded the opposition to split their mega-Death Star up into two dangerous blobs.
Panic rippled through the Dailami as word spread — “The enemy elephants have finally realised we are here - and they are definitely coming our way!”
Even the bravest of these hill-dwelling double-headed-javelin throwing Elite warriors hesitated — no man stands easy before a mountain that charges, never mind a pair of them!
On the far edge of the table the enemy were waiting for the flank march to arrive, allowing penny packets of my own Clibanarii and light horse to faff around in the "within 4MU" zone essentially unmolestable.
A solo Light Horse and a pair of Asarvan horsemen were to all intents and purposes now hold a position along the righthand edge of the table against a much larger force with barely anything the enemy could do to threaten them until the flankees turned up.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - When units of a flank march arrive, any enemy units within 4MU of their point of arrival have to flee (ie evade) away from the table edge. This means having any of your troops within 4MU of the table edge a flank march will arrive on is something to be avoided at all costs !
But, this was the moment for the flank march to arrive!
Clibanarii horse archers stormed onto the table in a solid line, loosing arrows as they charged forward to combat with the waiting enemy, their stallions draped in chainmail, galloping with the grace of panthers and the fury of unleashed storms to initiate combat as soon as possible given the mess fast-developing elsewhere on the table.
(the guy who looks like a dismounted cavalry archer is actually playing as a LH with bow. I messed up and didn't pack enough LH figures, so had to use a dismount as a substitute!)
Suddenly, after much faffing about, battle was joined all across the table in a single turn, with the squeeze from the flank march's arrival and the activation of the Arabs allowing me to attack the enemy seemingly from all sides, and - in the case of the Camels - through terrain they had felt might be all but impassable.
What's Going on Here Then?
The enemy elephants have successfully gotten stuck into my own Pachyderms and Dailami, slowing down my plan of driving through the rough terrain to box the enemy in - and they are doing proper damage as well.
The flank march doesn't therefore have time to mess around in an exchange of shooting - and seeing that some of the troops defending against it are actually Levy Spearmen, I decide to simply charge in and roll the bones to try and force a breakthrough in double quick time
The Camels seem to have gotten bogged down, fragmented into too many units for their limited command capacity to deal with, and they are slowly trying to coordinate with the Levy and Dailami to wrestle control of the terrain, even as their own Light Horse start to filter through the gaps into the rear of the enemy army.
With tusks sheathed in steel and rage in their eyes, the two sets of elephants had ploughed into one another like living siege engines butting heads.
For my part the multi-faceted and unexpected assault had caught the enemy by surprise, over extending their elephant assault in particular and leaving it exposed to flanking attacks from marauding clouds of my own light foot hillmen.
But, the enemy also were enjoying success in the Elephant on Elephant stakes, with a swapping of pachyderms in the middle of the table being a somewhat dramatic start to the sequence of melees
The elephants’ trumpeting split the air — a sound that froze blood and shattered nerves - as a frenzy of combat suddenly left the centre (ish) of the battlefield a vacant lot with a marked absence of elephant shaped combatants.
Dailami hillmen and Persian bowmen breathed a sign of relief as they realised that their job had been done and the instants of decision would take place on both flanks, not the now-mostly uncontested middle.
Using the Brush terrain to maximum effect, the Bedouin camels had formed an unlikely partnership with the Sassanid levy spearmen to drive a deep wedge into the right flank of the enemy army
The puzzled and surprised enemy Clibanarii were unable to fashion a reply to an enemy who seemed impervious to terrain, and so the enemy horsemen.
The Arab light horsemen were also on the offensive, their skirmishing lines re chaos to the eye, yet each movement was choreographed with lethal precision to distract and harass the puzzled opposition with yet another problem to try and solve
The Camels and Levy Spearmen were now pretty much surrounding the main body of enemy Asarvan, creating distractions and assaults which in turn allowed some of the more greedy Bedouin horsemen an opportunity to sneak towards the enemy baggage camp with looting on their mind.
The game was almost up!
The final coup de grace was delivered by the flak march.
Cloaked in lamellar armour that shimmered under the sun, the just-arrived Clibanarii had ridden like spirits of war across the endless plains to break through the enemy lines at exactly the right moment.
With a flick of their reins they wheeled out in perfect formation, crushing the last of the enemy army to record a victory before again vanishing into dust like ghosts of the battlefield.
The Result is a very narrow 81-29 victory !
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Sassanid Persian Commander
Let the annals of the empire record this day, and let every scribe inscribe it in gold — here, today, on this battlefield the storm broke, and the thunder bore my name.
“When brother raised sword against brother, and the earth trembled with kin-blood, it was not mere steel that determined the victor—but the brilliance of command, the divine insight of the crown.
The pretender thought the field his. His lines stood firm, his confidence fat and lazy. Yet while he watched the horizon, dreaming of thrones, I sent my hand unseen around him — a serpent’s coil. My flank-march, silent as dusk, struck like lightning at his rear while his gaze remained fixed forward.
And lo! Pinned between the hammer of my elephants and the anvil of my manoeuvre, his hopes shattered like a pot under a chariot wheel.
Some will whisper of fortune. Fools! The gods bless those who act, not those who wait. It was I who read the field as a priest reads entrails. It was I who moved when others hesitated.
And let none forget the sons of the desert—those Lakhmid warriors whose hearts, at first, beat timid as doves in the face of civil strife. Yes, they faltered. But with words as sharp as my blade, I stirred their blood. I spoke to them not as subjects but as men of fire and pride. I reminded them of honour, of the shame of stillness. And they rode! Oh, they rode like the winds of Yamama, crashing into the rebel’s flank and sealing our fate in glory!
Would this have been won without my speech in their camp? Without my command at dawn? Without my mind at midnight while others slept in fear? No
Let the bards sing it clear: it was not just swords, nor beasts, nor chance—but the Shah’s will that carved this victory into the bones of history.
And now, let my brother’s banners be burned, his name struck from the records, and peace be declared under my reign—a reign not merely inherited, but earned
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Oh most illustrious Khosrow Dastan, Sultan of Serpentine Excuses, Maharaja of Misjudgment, Vizier of Vapors!
Another battle, another tapestry woven from goat wool and wishful thinking! I read your latest proclamation with the same awe I reserve for a camel who claims to have invented the wheel—loud, leathery, and tragically deluded.
You speak of victory, as if the gods themselves wept in admiration. I, however, read the omens differently: the vultures were circling long before your ‘genius’ arrived on the battlefield. By the sweet figs of Carthage, you barely survived!
Let us tally the Shah’s brilliance: you attacked a rival prince with two-thirds of your army either lost in the desert or doing their best impression of indecisive merchants at a date bazaar. What inspired confidence! Perhaps next time, you should just fight with your shadow and a stern poem.
Your precious flank march arrived just in time to salvage your silk-robed hide. Had it been delayed even the span of a goat’s yawn, you’d have been trampled beneath your own elephants. And the Lakhmids? Ah yes, the ever-reliable allies—reluctant until your dulcet begging stirred their hearts. That, or they realized the winning side might have more plunder.
A true general might have waited, you know—perhaps ensured his army was actually present before launching into glory like a kebab-seller charging an armory.
“But no. Not Khosrow! You chose to attack with one hand tied behind your back, one foot in a sandal, and your eyes fixed firmly on your reflection.
And now you crown yourself with laurels fashioned from sand and self-regard, claiming brilliance where only blessed timing and enemy blunders saved your scented beard. You did not win, oh perfumed scorpion—you failed slightly less than your rival did.
But please, continue writing your proclamations. I enjoy them as one enjoys watching a monkey juggle pomegranates—entertaining, absurd, and best viewed from a safe distance.
I am in awe of your survival — and nothing else — as I stand here, Hannibal Barca, Commander of Armies, Master of Mountains, and Unimpressed by Men Who Gamble With Empires, waiting with baited breath for your next game
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You may also like....
Game 1 Sassanid Persian vs Maurikian Byzantine
Game 2 Sassanid Persian vs Sassanid Persian
Game 3 Sassanid Persian vs Konstantinian Byzantine
Game 4 Sassanid Persian vs Maurikian Byzantine
Game 5 Sassanid Persian vs Fatimid Egyptian
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