Bellicosus Strikes Again

Debacle in the East

The Parthians are stirring, Rome sends Crassus to deal with them.

• Crassus posts a legion on a hill on his left flank. The Parthian cataphracts charge uphill and sweep the legion away.
• Meanwhile, the Parthian horse archers shoot down the Roman cavalry.
• The cataphracts ride down some auxiliaries before slamming into another legion. This fight is a stalemate.
• The horse archers then take out more auxiliaries.
• The remains of Crassus's army flee the battlefield.

Bellicosus Joins the Fight

To rectify the situation, the Senate sends Bellicosus, conqueror of Gaul, to the East.

• Bellicosus commands 3 legions (armored) and ferocious Gallic cavalry.
• The Parthians have 3 units of horse archers, a unit of cataphracts, and some spearmen.

The Battle

• The horse archers advance on the flanks. The horse archers trick the Gallic cavalry into a precipitous charge. The horse archers scoot out of the way then shoot down the Gauls.
• The horse archers on the left are pushed back but their general rallies them.
• To no avail, they turn and flee after Roman legion peppers them with pila.
• The center legion is disordered but Bellicosus rallies them.
• On the left, the Roman legion routs the spears.
• Then the center legion routs the horse archers.

Victory for Bellicosus.

And honors for the legion on the right. It held off repeated attacks by the cataphracts!

GAME NOTES

• I took pictures of Bellicosus's battle, but I was too lazy to upload them. I opted for a schematic and narrative instead. I may do this more often. I like recorded game results but sometimes am reluctant to play because of the effort in fiddling with photos. Simplifying posts may alleviate this issue.
• Dominion of the Spear has two lists for Marian Romans - one for Crassus and one for Caesar. 
• I played with the Crassus list first, but with Bellicosus in charge. This was a victory.
• I was curious how the other list would do so I played the battle again. When it was a defeat, I decided to use that as the prelude to Bellicosus's battle.