Was tinkering with the rules for this again on my recent trip away... really gotta get these rules finalised and get it "to the table" one of these days (as board wargamers would say).
It's one vs one extended campaign covering the 25 years of the final war between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanian Persian Empire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine%E2%80%93Sasanian_War_of_602%E2%80%93628
It's very streamlined and quick to play - both sides have limited actions and resources stretched thin -- but it's a got a LOT of turns 😆 as each campaign year is broken down into 4 turns.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
- George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia
The large number of turns isn’t a problem to me. I like the longer campaigns. 🙂
I’m in, if it starts after (northern hemisphere) summer and allows for a slower pace.
Play tested this again (with some added new rules -- seems to be working very well, but will require some patience as at times due to lack of resources a side might end up doing not much for several turns ... and it is quite expensive and time-consuming to rebuild new armies)
I test play by using die rolls for FOG II battle outcomes and play each side to their best ability -- varying risk-taking etc)
Started badly for Byzantines with early on having an army destroyed by the Avars -- although Thessalonika never fell through the whole campaign.
Sassanids never managed to capture all the Byzantine frontier fortresses (Martyropolis and Dara remained a thorn in their rear) and this cramped their style in Anatolia, even as they managed to capture all of the south... Damascus, Antioch and even Alexandria.
Sassanids eventually got as far as Ankyra, where a Byzantine victory destroyed a Sassanid army in 619AD and a second was forced to retreat to Antioch.
At this stage, both empires were in dire straits...the dissatisfaction and war weariness levels of the Sassanid nobility had reached critical levels and the Byzantines were taxed to the max.
The crucial point was reached in the fall of 621AD -- a crushing victory for the Byzantines destroys the Sassanid army at Antioch, re-capturing the key victory city. The Sassanid tried one more time to capture Martyropolis to create a buffer against the northern Byzantine army advancing through Sinope and Trebizond, but the approaching winter forces them to pull back to Nisibis.
By summer 622 AD, the Byzantines have captured Tripoli and are besieging Damascus.
Due to the loss of the army at Antioch, the Sassanid nobles are now one step away from revolt, so when the northern Byzantine army recaptures Dara and advances on Nisibis, the Sassanid emperor has no choice but to stand and fight. The battle is a Minor Victory for the Byzantines, the Sassanid army is routed and retreats to Mosul.
Unfortunately for the Sassanians, Nisibis surrenders and is captured.
This loss of a Sassanian Victory City is the last straw -- the nobles revolt, stage a coup and assassinate the emperor and sue for peace.
A Victory for the Byzantines after 19 years of fighting.
... a few years later, the armies of Islam erupt out of the Arabian deserts and sweep most of it away!
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
- George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia