ADLG Palmyran v Sassanid Persian

My first game with the 'tribute' 25mm Hinchliffe Palmyran army against Gordon's Sassanid Persians. To use as many of the newly painted ones I went for an army of cataphracts, horse archers and foot archers with no Roman contingent. 

Winning the initiative I decided to attack in plains and was immediately surprised that Gordon appeared to want to close the table down suggesting he didn't have the masses of bow armed heavy cavalry I was expecting. This became very apparent on deployment:

Looking at both sides initial positions it seemed there was an opportunity for another of my 'let's redeploy the army' attempts. Moving my left flank cataphracts to the right centre would get them away from the elephants and allow me to delay Gordon's slow moving right flank troops with light horse. A decent command roll encouraged the attempt so the cataphracts began their march. In response Gordon moved his elephant and supports to attempt to counter:

One light horse on the left flank is trapped and attacked by Levy spearmen:

On the right both sides rush to try to gain an advantage:

The trapped light cavalry valiantly hold on:

Both sides light horse on the left engage, slight advantage to the Palmyrans:

A medium cavalry horse archer charges the Persian allied Arab swordsmen to stop them attacking the Palmyran archers:

The skirmish combat continues, the Palmyrans still have a small advantage:

Not so good here though as the Sassanids manage to get their elephant into a Palmyran cataphract with an overlap. Unlike the Palmyrans the Sassanid cataphracts are elite so they have an advantage there as well:

The light cavalry contest is starting to go against the Palmyrans and the first cataphract is down:

The remainder of the cataphracts are being overwhelmed:

Given the situation the Palmyrans start to fall back and the army flees:

So not the most auspicious start for the Palmyrans! I think the plan was solid in that redeploying the left flank cataphracts took a large portion of Gordon's army out of the game especially as once he had moved his elephant over to counter his general had serious problems with having his command split over a large distance. 

However, I failed in two areas, firstly I didn't really manage to get the redeployed cataphracts into action in time to support my right flank and secondly I failed to stop Gordon sliding his elephant to attack my cataphracts rather than the light infantry I'd hoped it would be fighting. I guess at least I realised he could do that but my troops couldn't quite move far enough to stop him!

Another enjoyable game though and I'm pleased with the way the army came out, it isn't the same as my long-lost first Palmyran army but they do look nice and I still really like the figures.

Finally a comparison between the Footsore cataphracts I bought for the Late Romans and the Hinchliffe ones!: