"Sire! Sire! Something must be done!"
Perozes answers not. Paralyzed by the fortunes of the Persian cavalry, he stares through unseeing eyes.
A subaltern awaiting orders from Perozes does a little mental calculation. Yes, our army is about to fall apart, curses to the Romanoi! And yet we have dealt them some hard blows also. Perhaps a last, bold strike will break the enemy as we ourselves have been broken?
As Perozes continues to brood impassively, the subaltern takes action:
The routing Byzantine units in the south are protected from Shock by ZOCs. The Saracens nearest Perozes (who can't move without routing themselves before they do anything useful) shoot at the MI at the base of the hill, hoping to rout it and open up a path for subsequent shock. But they miss, dieroll '8'.
The remaining good-order Saracens, who have been loitering near the rear (hoping to be the first off the field when the army routs, no doubt) are ordered forward to see if they can succeed where their brethren failed. But they fail, too, dieroll '8'.
"Rats!" thinks our hero. "We'll have to do this the hard way." (The chance that both attacks would fail is just 6%, for those of you keeping track of the luck factor.)
One HC moves forward to pin the MI in front of the trench, while another HC squadron slips by, leaps the trench, and attacks the routing unit and the [7] CAT from the rear!
The subaltern ruefully notes that the cost of crossing the trench is all that prevents the [3] HC squadron from reaching the gates of Dara. Were an HC to fight its way into the city, a Persian victory would be assured! But for lack of that one MP. . . .
Lastly, the subaltern orders another HC squadron to the flank of the enemy MI.
Surrounded by ZOC and trench, the MI's fate is sealed, though he puts three hits on his attackers as he goes down.
Maddeningly, the Routed unit stands his ground during the Preshock TQ check. But the Persians still succeed in getting a 2(2) result, which is enough to eliminate the routed CAT and rout the other CAT.
So that's twelve more points against the Byzantines, which is sooooo close. But not there.
Current Rout Point totals:
| Side | Current | Limit | Pct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persians | 118 | 109 | 108% |
| Byzantines | 99 | 102 | 97% |
Belisarius can now deliver the coup de grâce.
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