Dear Boardgamers, welcome to my series of the articles focused on the greatest Byzantine general – Belisarius and the battles he fought in sixth Century AD in the name of Roman Empire – beautifully depicted by the Commands Colors Medieval game. The episodes were grouped in the so called Belisarius Campaign and it is already fifth installment in the series. We already covered skirmishes at Thannuris (528 AD) & Melebasa (528 AD) as well as sieges of Dara (530 AD) and Stala (530 AD). Now is the time for a two-scenario battle – Callinicum.
So Sassanids had lost at Dara and Satala in 530 AD but that definitely did not end the so-called Iberian War – a conflict raging between the Byzantine and the Sassanid Empires from 526 AD to 532 AD over the eastern Georgian kingdom of Iberia. Spring of 531 AD saw another Sassanids army invading Roman Mesopotamia.
Belisarius was caught unawares by the quick and rapid invasion and had to quickly scramble all the forces he could muster. He outmaneuvered the Persian army and wished they just simply retreat but was forced by his subordinates – and threat of mutiny – to deploy for battle. The first scenario in the book shows initial skirmish, extensive missile fire exchange and the Sassanid charging and getting great tactical position on nearby hills. Let us see how it played-out on the table!
GAME 1
GAME 2
Summary
That is really a great scenario. Balanced, with a lot of maneuvers plus heavy units on both sides. The hills were not so crucial as historically – they rather gave stable base to the Romans, which Persians were not able to crush. But they are key in the long term – which will be visible in the second part of Callinicum! Hope to see you in this session report soon!
Hi, interesting read, but maybe you should mention the name of the game 😉
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True! It somehow escaped me!
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