The sasanianparthian confederacy and the arab conquest of iran, by dr. This book covered the sassanian military history quite well and i found it to be. Within the sassanian military, the cavalry was the most influential element, and sassanian cavalry. In addition to the parthian era battle tactics of fight and flight and. Again with the transfers 1 year ago seans wargaming blog. Which was more powerful, the parthianssassanids, or the. As the sassanid standing army was drawn mainly from the upper aristocracy, money was no object and equipping horse and rider was simple. Sassanid empire military tier 11 combined force tactics archers hiding amongst heavy cavalry are no easy prey. Steam community guide legendary victory as sassanids. Send your cavalry to chase down the routing targets. At carrhae, it is believed that 20,000 roman troops out of a force of about 36,000 died at the hands of the parthians.
Final victory of arabs when persian army destroyed at nehawand. My cohors and spears held a choke point against over a thousand wardogs. Both the title and subtitle the defence of the roman east are somewhat misleading, but in a rather positive way because the book has more to. In the third century ad, parthia and rome had been waging war against. In the third of four volumes covering romes enemies, this. Their cavalry systems of weaponry, battle tactics, tamgas, medallions, court customs, and costumes. Later on during the conquest of iraq in 633 many bedouin corps were recruited as regular soldiers. Sassanid article about sassanid by the free dictionary. The inventory of weapons ascribed to sassanian horsemen at the time of. Their weaponry, battle tactics, tamgas, medallions, court customs, and. Sassanian elite cavalry ad 224642 osprey publishing. The nature of the sassanian army over time can be inferred from a few roman and arabic sources spanning four centuries. In fire in the east, mr sidebottoms first work of fiction and the first book in a planned trilogy, he sets the stage during the socalled crisis of the third century, the period between 235 and 284 ad, when rome came to within an imperial whisker of total ruin. Al reveres large and well presented dacian horde about to crumble up into dust, in front of my tiny borrowed army of romans, sadly due entirely to some initial bad luck with the warband rules.
He even focused on the development of new siege weapons. On the persian campaign of the roman emperor, alexander severus 231233 writes the tbarbarians apparently have no standing paid army. The sassanid army was much like the preceding parthian army, although some of the sassanids heavy cavalry were equipped with lances, while parthian armies were heavily equipped with bows. The sassanid military was heavy and built for shock for its sole purpose was to dominate the battlefield and beyond. This title is indeed about the war against the sassanid persians from ad 337 and the death of constantine to ad 363 and the death of julian.
Sassanid empire had a great army which in world of that day could defeat iranian great opponent the roman empiremany times. The parthian empire was nowhere near as centralized as the roman and rome was kind of a mess compared to modern nation states in this regard. If you run into an army with more artillery or more ranged units, then you will need your 4 cavalry units to disrupt their artilleryarchers or they will do a number on your front line units. During the ridda wars in the reign of caliph abu bakr, the army mainly consisted of the corps from medina, mecca and taif. The sassanians ruled the last great imperial empire of persia before the arab conquests of the 7th century. Send one full army and always campfortify every turn as you move through their lands. The result was a parthian victory, but at a heavy price. Royal barracks sassanid empire royal military academy. Hi all, an army pack of 15mm sassanid persians has been dozing for a long time in one of my drawers. A good way to introduce the features of attila without all the stress of the small barbarian factions. Heavy cavalry arms of defensive weapons and it was the biggest advantage sassanid.
Sassanid so a blister pack of a dozen seemed like a good chance to add 3 units to my mostly legio heroica adlg army. Gripping beast produce high quality 28mm metal and plastic miniatures for painting and playing, from different eras which include vikings. Ardashirs effective reform of the sassanid military machine. Arabs and parthians, on the other hand, fought from both horses and camels as unarmored bowmen. Byzantinesassanid war of 602628 project gutenberg self. Sassanid empire simple english wikipedia, the free. Though possessing no regular army they were superb horsemen and archers, and in time of war the nobility provided heavily armoured knights mounted on weightcarrying chargers. The book, that has been published by siedlce university of natural sciences and. The sassanid army was remarkably similar to the byzantine army, as the east romans had adapted to warfare from the old days of the western roman empire. A very interesting book about this very subjest appeared back in 2008.
The previous war between the two powers had ended in 591 after emperor maurice helped the sasanian king khosrau ii regain his throne. Dahia alkahina queen of the berberjudean principality in her last battle. Only muslims were allowed to join the rashidun army as regular soldiers. The parthians were much weaker on the whole than the roman empire. Last sassanid ruler yazdegerd iii murdered at merv, presentday turkmenistan, ending the dynasty. Ardashir aimed at the revival of the persian empire, and to further this aim, he reformed the military by forming a standing army which was under his personal command. During the islamic conquest of sassanid persia 633656, some 12,000 elite persian soldiers. Since the sassanian horseman lacked the stirrup, he used a war saddle which. The sasanian army was the primary military body of the sasanian armed forces, serving. The army was divided, as in the parthian times, into several gunds, each consisting of a number of drafss units with particular banners, each made up of some wasts. The active army of the sassanid empire originated from ardeshir i, the first shahenshah of the empire. Almost defeated the eastern romans, but want to know what is the best army composition for further conquests. See more ideas about sassanid, persian warrior and ancient persia. Your family is small so if you want generals and governors you will need more statesmen, which means keeping.
Sources for the description of sassanid battle tactics presented above. Derafsh kaviani flag of the late sassanid empire the sasanian empire was the last iranian empire before the rise of. The book of decline of sassanid empire is written by referring to almost all available information that one can get from the libraries and internet regarding the history of the sassanid empire. Although the number of forces of sassanid persians are unclear, through tactics and use of strategy.
Medieval weaponsmedieval knightmedieval fantasymounted archeryhorse. This book focuses on the organization, weapons, equipment suspension of. But as a sassanid player, you do need to beware of them catching your horse archers. Ardeshir had focused on the revival of military tactics and organisations that had previously been used in the achaemenid empire, as well as the parthian knight. He has written three previous books on persian military history. Source materials for a study of preislamic iranian military concerns fall into four.
Artwork of ardashir, the founder of the sassanid empire, from a book called namaye. Cyrus the younger who knew both the persian and greek armies, tactics and. The sassanid empire was formed by an alliance between the persian house of sassan and the parthian noble houses, the latter being great feudal families who owned many large fiefdoms in the empire and provided the majority of military manpower for the sassanid military, especially the heavy cavalry which was the backbone of the army. You will run into problems with 3 scenarios i believe. Sassanid empire was the name of persian family that was ruled from 224 until 651 ad about 427 years over iran. This topic will discuss the arms and equipment, tactics and organization of the parthian and sassanid armies throughout the ages with logic and sound information from renown historians. The imperial banner was the drafsa kavian, a talismanic emblem accompanying the king of kings or the commanderinchief of the army who was stationed in the centre of his. Nevertheless, good command structure needs a good army to function, in order to go on the offensive or stay on the defensive when needed. With a clear military plan aimed at the revival of the iranian empire, ardasir i, formed a. Ardashir aimed at the revival of the persian empire, and to further this aim, he reformed the military by forming a standing army which was under his personal. Persian army, its armament and other military outfit, as well as battle tactics and. Evaluation the structure of sassanid era army bulletin of. Parthian and sassanid armies page 3 civfanatics forums. Before the reforms of khosrow i, equipment was generally provided by the soldiers themselves.
Key things are politics, diplomacy and infrastructure to start with. In my last playthrough as the wre, i had an edbadanian army of mostly wardogs throw itself at my piddling garrison one cohors, one comitansis spears, one explorates and one scout equites. Any unrelated discussion and trouble makers will not be tolerated, thank you. The battle of barbalissos was fought between the sasanian persians and romans at. Greek history, ancient history, military art, military history, persian warrior, sassanid, ancient persian, achaemenid, dungeons and dragons characters. Pdf kaveh farrokh, gholamreza karamian, katarzyna maksymiuk. The sassanid military force was a mirror image of the parthian military. Decisive sassanid defeat at the battle of kadisiya begins arab conquest of persia. In 216, rome and parthia went to war and the conflict between the two did not end until a year later in 217. The sassanid campaign if your puppets stick with you is so easy, you can just do nothing but camp while your hit squad does the work.
The ainnama furnished valuable instructions on tactics, strategy and logistics. Artwork of ardashir, the founder of the sassanid empire, from a book called. I am running a hh sassanid campaign at the moment and it is fun. Heavy cavalry was the most important part of the sassanid army if cavalry failed, infantry was usually not able to win the battle alone, because sassanid infantry was considerably inferior to roman infantry. The center would have been a large phalanx of lightlyarmored spearmen most of them poorlytrained levies with mansized wicker shields. The weapons of choice for the roman soldiers were pilum, gladius, and. We shall have peace when you answer for the burning of the westfold, and the children that lie dead there. In 602 maurice was murdered by his political rival phocas.
The romans on the other hand usually relied more on infantry. This study has investigated the structure of sassanid army. The byzantinesasanian war of 602628 was the final and most devastating of the series of wars fought between the byzantine eastern roman empire and the sasanian empire of persia. In the new kings and generals full animated historical documentary, we will describe the rise of the rashidun caliphate, its first wars against the eastern roman and sassanid empires. The sassanid empire or sassanian dynasty is the name used for the persian dynasty which lasted from 224 to 651 ad. There were many historians and artists during the sassanian empire who made books and drawings of kings achievements and.