Dabbling with Medieval’s (off topic #35)

Goya invited me over yesterday to have a stab at playing a scenario from the Command & Colors Medieval game. Although billed as Medieval the scenario was from 528AD involving Sassanids and Byzantines at the battle of Melebasa. My previous experience of playing ancient type games is limited to playing with Airfix Romans and Britons as a kid so I was intrigued to see how C&C tackled this period.

We used the board and terrain supplied with the game but instead of blocks the armies were drawn from Goya’s extensive collection of 15mm figures that he built originally for use with DBA. Using miniatures with C&C transforms it (in my mind) from a boxed game to a proper tabletop wargame - the ultimate example of this being of course Tony’s amazing set-up for C&C Napoleonics!

Initial deployment - I was playing the Byzantines (this side) and Goya played the Sassanids (far side).

Most of these figures are either Essex or Donnington.

I can't remember what make these ones are but they are very pretty!

This is my super-heavy cavalry attacking Goya's flank - these guys are the Tiger Tanks of the early Medieval world.

Some of the heavy Sassanids with a leader.

The high water mark of my attack, it was all down hill from here!

Final positions - the victory banner count tells the story with 7 to the Sassanids and 3 to me.

It turned out to be another gripping game as C&C games always seem to be. The subtleties of the combat mechanism (which at first glance appears quite simple) required the application of some serious generalship which is probably why I lost. This is definitely a game that I would like to play again!