FOG 2 Campaign: Crescent Rising - Byzantium, Sassanid Persia and the Arab Conquests of the 7th Century

Rico

Rico

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Playtesting proceeding well... adjustments being made, stuff added... stuff being taken away to keep things (hopefully) simple. Working pretty well methinks.

Below a snapshot of latest playtest in progress ... TURN 9 and the after a shaky start, the Arab invasions are now in full swing -- Alexandria fell to the Arabs last turn (causing a serious loss to Byzantine treasury income... and the Arabs are now able to build fleets) and Damascus fell this turn.

The Byzantine army in the north just defeated the Bulgar army which has successfully captured most of Greek provinces and at one point stood nearly at the gates of Constantinople itself.

The Sassanid Empire is in its second battle for its main capital Ctesiphon -- if that falls, the Empire comes apart, with Armenia in the north and the Dabuyids in the northwest splitting away and a small rump Sassanid territory based on Persepolis remains to fight on.

Also, once Ctesiphon falls, the Arabs get a third army (historically a lot of the Sassanid soldiery joined the Arab armies)

Crescent Rising Final playtest snapshot2.jpg

Using die rolls for battle results in these tests, but might play out the Ctesiphon battle vs AI in FOG2 just for fun -- or anyone volunteer as an opponent to play either Sassanids or Arabs?
 
Rico said:
Using die rolls for battle results in these tests, but might play out the Ctesiphon battle vs AI in FOG2 just for fun -- or anyone volunteer as an opponent to play either Sassanids or Arabs?
Click to expand...
Yo, @Rico - I'm game . . . :2draw:

528d32686006eab9bdc77831dbe97ccb8c961740.gifv
 
After half-way through battle 2 of testing Sassanians vs Conquest Arabs -- it's become obvious that those early Arab (629 - 637 AD) army lists are too overpowered with their infantry with hordes of Veteran Muslim Spearmen (Superior quality) -- with especially the Sassanids having inferior infantry and relying so much on armoured horse archers -- I have found in test battles that shooting arrows at the Veteran Muslim Spearmen is pointless -- at extremes have had (in a test battle vs AI) up to 3 Sassanid expert archer units fire their entire ammo complement at a Veteran Muslim Spearmen unit with no visible morale effect or disruption -- just casualties.

Will switch to the later Arab Conquest (638 - 684 AD) -- also gives the Arab player a more varied OOB to play with.
 
Very interesting @Rico.
I'm going to read up.about the Arab invasion of the Sassanid Empire. I know it fell quite easily but that's as far as I remember.
If you keep going like this with these campaigns, I'll have to get FOG 2!
It's your fault I bought FOG Medieval and have been routed by @Wellsonian multiple times. Thanks!
Seriously, I love the ideas and the work you put into it is admirable :)
 
Rico said:
Playtesting proceeding well... adjustments being made, stuff added... stuff being taken away to keep things (hopefully) simple. Working pretty well methinks.

Below a snapshot of latest playtest in progress ... TURN 9 and the after a shaky start, the Arab invasions are now in full swing -- Alexandria fell to the Arabs last turn (causing a serious loss to Byzantine treasury income... and the Arabs are now able to build fleets) and Damascus fell this turn.

The Byzantine army in the north just defeated the Bulgar army which has successfully captured most of Greek provinces and at one point stood nearly at the gates of Constantinople itself.

The Sassanid Empire is in its second battle for its main capital Ctesiphon -- if that falls, the Empire comes apart, with Armenia in the north and the Dabuyids in the northwest splitting away and a small rump Sassanid territory based on Persepolis remains to fight on.

Also, once Ctesiphon falls, the Arabs get a third army (historically a lot of the Sassanid soldiery joined the Arab armies)

View attachment 22742

Using die rolls for battle results in these tests, but might play out the Ctesiphon battle vs AI in FOG2 just for fun -- or anyone volunteer as an opponent to play either Sassanids or Arabs?
Click to expand...
Gorgeous and beautiful map and counters as usual!
 
I was reading up a bit about the Arab conquest of the Sasanian Empire.
The first battle was the Battle of al- Qadisiyyah. They fought every day for three days until nightfall and then, on the third day they fought until sunrise, the Muslim general exhorted his men to continue fighting and they won a great victory. The fourth day of battle wasn't over until the afternoon!
Four days of hand to hand fighting, one of them through the night until the next afternoon, the mind boggles!
I figure the morale of the Muslim troops was outstanding although the Persians were also experienced fighters after many campaigns against the Byzantines.
 
Rico said:
After half-way through battle 2 of testing Sassanians vs Conquest Arabs -- it's become obvious that those early Arab (629 - 637 AD) army lists are too overpowered with their infantry with hordes of Veteran Muslim Spearmen (Superior quality) -- with especially the Sassanids having inferior infantry and relying so much on armoured horse archers -- I have found in test battles that shooting arrows at the Veteran Muslim Spearmen is pointless -- at extremes have had (in a test battle vs AI) up to 3 Sassanid expert archer units fire their entire ammo complement at a Veteran Muslim Spearmen unit with no visible morale effect or disruption -- just casualties.

Will switch to the later Arab Conquest (638 - 684 AD) -- also gives the Arab player a more varied OOB to play with.
Click to expand...
Must be flesh wounds...
 
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