Time to share another fan-made, exciting and fresh EPIC scenario for Commands & Colors Ancients. As you probably very well know, this my preferred way of playing that fantastic game – allowing more than two of my wargaming friends to take part in fierce battle!

However, as I played all official and many unofficial scenarios, recently I am designing new scenarios in EPIC mode. I have already did a whole EPIC campaign of Julius Caesar and were thinking now about something more exotic and possibly standalone. That way the idea occurred to me about transforming the regular Nisibis (217 AD) battle into EPIC format. Why? Because we will get there various types of Camels, Cataphracted ones included!

Below I am sharing the picture-rich session report. It was true fun to play and the scenario will be soon available on https://www.commandsandcolors.net/ancients/.

PS. As always, you can click on each picture to see the details.

Some of my articles regarding C&C system:
Commands and Colors games – my 3 favorite
[REVIEW] Commands Colors Ancients
Strategy Article – Skirmishing and Evasion
Strategy Article – Breaking The Line, Holding The Line

EPIC Civil War series:
EPIC Illerda (49 BC)
EPIC Dyrrhachium (48 BC)
EPIC Pharsalus (48 BC) 
EPIC Thapsus (46 BC)
EPIC Munda (45 BC)

Nisibis (217 AD)

Historical background

First things first. The wargames are predominantly fun, but also the lesson in history!

For centuries, Rome and Parthia contended for dominance in the Middle East. Nisibis 217 AD was a three-day battle with the Romans led by their new emperor Marcus Opellius Macrinus against the Great King of Parthia, Artabanus IV. On the first day, the battle began when conflict arose among the soldiers for possession of a watering place. Macrinus deployed his Romans in their typical formation, infantry in the center and cavalry at the wings. The formation also had gaps in the line to allow the light infantry to skirmish forward and withdraw to safety when necessary. The Parthian army was strong in cavalry and horse archers, and at sunrise the cavalry charged firing volleys of arrows while the cataphract cavalry and cataphract camels attempted to close with the Roman line.

But, when the Roman light infantry evaded, they strew the ground with caltrops (spiked balls) and the pursuers found themselves in a difficult situation. After several such assaults and night drawing near, both armies retired to their camps. The second day was a repeat of the first day, with skirmishing from morning to night but again no clear advantage to either side.

On day three, the Parthian army attempted to use their greater numbers to surround the Romans. The Romans succeeded in extending their line using the light cavalry and light troops to protect their flanks. By the end of the third day, both armies had suffered severely and were exhausted. Under these circumstances, Macrinus opened negotiations with Artabanus and bought peace with some territorial concessions.

Set-up

We played in four of us, split (randomly) in two team of two players each. The idea was for one player on each side to be an overall commander (in that case Lukasz for Roman side and me for Parthians) while the other member of the team would take role of a wing commander (Kuba G was facing Kuba J). And then the dice were cast, and the rest became history…

Here is the disposition of forces as shown in details by VASSAL module. You can see four Camels on Parthian flanks, and significant number of Cataphracts in the center.
And now the game on the table, with sides assigned to players: me and Kuba G leading the Parthians, Lukasz and Kuba J commanding Romans.

Session Report

You know, I got Mounted Charge pretty early in the game; so after some repositioning I thought, why not hit hard where it will hurt most – against most heavy legions (but in place without leader). The result was great!
We wings were mainly the light units combat; Romans very cleverly approached the Persian Bow Cavalry, decimating it multiple times on evade. My side will finish game – as we shall see – with numerous 1 block units.
After the close-up, let us have a look at overall situation on Roman Left / Parthian Right. Here the Cataphracts attacked; here the Camels played the decisive role; here the game actually decided itself , as we had 6-1 here for Parthians.
The roman Right / Parthian Left was a true place of carnage. First Romans attacked, then Parthians counter-0attacked, then Romans again attacked. A lot of forces were sucked from the center. On this front
In the end the game finished in rather decisive victory by Parthians, but easily could swing the other way. There were so many back and forth, various local clashes, exciting engagements and exotic troops involved!

Summary

I knew I will have fun playing EPIC Ancients again and I was not disappointed. The game was enormous fun for both sides, with some twists and turns, a lot of surprising developments, great, not-so-often used units taking part in it. And indeed, I love Cataphracted Camels which brought victory to our side!

That experiment proved that transposing regular CCA scenarios to EPIC format can give impressive results and fantastic gameplay. I will definitely continue and post scenarios to CCA NET page:

More session reports to come – enjoy!