Spartans defeat Persians, 15mm Hail Caesar

 We had a fantastic game of Hail Caesar today with fortunes swinging one way then the other.  Using my collection of 15mm figures the dice decided that Ian and Phil would command the Persians with myself taking command of one of my favourite armies, the Spartans. We had about 340 points per side to battle it out over fairly open terrain across the centre of the table. 

Deployment was as in the photo below...Persians on the left, Spartans on the right. 

With most of the Persians having some form of missile weapon and my Spartans very few missile units my only aim was to get across the table as quickly as possible. The Persians on my left wing were also looking a little weak, compared to over on my right where they had put all their cavalry-this had me worried but I aimed my first attack at their weak side. At this early point in the game I had mostly good command rolls allowing me my rapid advance whereas the poor Persians were failing command throws across the board, especially with their cavalry who seemed to tie themselves in knots. 

My left division crashed into the Persian levy infantry and Mercenary Hoplites and crushed them in melee (thanks again to some awful dice throws in the Persians Break tests). Meanwhile on the right flank the Persian Guard Cavalry were dancing around causing me all sorts of problems  but the other cavalry units in their division at the back right side of the photo below could not pass a Command throw. At this point I thought the game was definitely going my way as my phalanx's crashed into even more Persian units and broke them.  

Suddenly my right flank was in trouble suffering lots of missile fire and those darned Guard Cavalry charging a phalanx in the flank. Every time I rallied damage off my phalanx units the Persians put it back on again but then fate played a cruel part in the outcome of the battle. Just as I was trying to get into a position to deal with the Guard Cavalry, the Persian Command blundered causing their other cavalry to withdraw from the table. With 3 out of 4 division now broken the Persians withdrew leaving the Spartans battered but victorious. The final photo shows the remaining Spartans and the damage they had suffered. 

We all agreed that this was a fantastic battle and that the Persian Guard cavalry win the 'Men of the Match' award!