Horsing Around With HOTT

Arty Shot Of The Sarmatians

This weekend and the last I have been tidying up some of my 6mm HOTT Ancients armies, touching up the painting a little to make the figures stand out more. Yesterday I did a couple of my all-cavalry armies, the Parthians and the Sarmatians, so whilst they were out of the box, so to speak, I gave them an outing on the table.

The Sarmatians are simple army in HOTT - 12 x Knights. There are some variants that add lighter cavalry (Riders) and even infantry, but we're not interested in those just yet. I do actually have an all-Rider Alan army, but that's still buried in a box somewhere.

The Parthians are almost as simple as the Sarmatians - 4 x Knights (including the general) and 8 x Riders. The proportion can be varied, but this mix seems the most effective historically.

The Parthians defended. The lined up with their cataphracts in the centre, flanked by horse-archers. The Sarmatians had a flank anchored on bad going, though, so a flanking move by the archers was going to be difficult.

The Sarmatians, lined up and ready.

The Sarmatians held a second line in reserve.

The initial fighting saw the Parthian horse-archers attempting to break up the Sarmatian flank.

But soon the two armies got stuck into each other.

There was lots of shoving back and forth.

Eventually the Parthians broke, though. They started badly, but as gaps opened up were able to use the Riders to exploit them and even killed the Sarmatian general. However it was too little, too late; even without their general the Sarmatian Knights pretty much fought themselves themselves, with their pursuits keeping them in the action.

Losses - the Sarmatians lost two elements, including their general. The Parthian losses were proportional to the make-up of their army.

Winner stays on ...

The Sarmatians now faced the Early Imperial Romans. They fielded 4 x Blades (including their general), 4 x Warband, 2 x Riders and 2 x Shooters. The Sarmatians defended.

The armies raced for a central ridge - the Romans got there first.

Subtle Sarmatian tactics again - charge straight in ...

In the centre of this picture is the weak point of the Roman line - two elements of auxiliary infantry, classed as Warband. Even the uphill advantage wasn't enough; the Sarmatians rode them down and created a gap in the Roman line. On the flank the Roman artillery, archers and Numidian cavalry held off attack after attack, but once flanked the legionarii weren't up to the job.

The Roman general was surrounded, and destroyed, giving the Sarmatians the game.

The Romans lost two Warband, two Blades and a Rider. The Sarmatians lost nothing.

As HOTT armies go these aren't that exciting; no 'special' troops to add weirdness to he game. But they still give interesting battles, and useful experience with the 'basic' troop types of the game.