I took my pretty standard roster of 'four-threes". That is: 3x Cavalry, 3x heavy infantry, 3x Indians, 3x skirmish.
This army is pretty easy to command with 4 professional generals.
Parthians surprised me with a Roman allied infantry which are match for mine (or better). And 3 TuGs of cataphracts who, although Tribal, are tougher in melee than anything I could bring except for the elephants. The rest of the army are usual lighthorseman.
SETUP
I won the first roll of the battle. And then PBS went in my favor. I was outscouted by 10% which is ok against Parthians, considering that I had merely Competent general against Legendary Parthian one.
I positioned my heavy infantry in front of the camp. Left wing cavalry task was to purely defensive. All the hit power was concentrated on the right with elephants and charging lancers. Parthians placed Romans on their right to rush through the woods. All the light cavalry was postioned in the center. And facing my offensive force were 3 units of cataphracts. Fair match if not better.
ROUND I
The first round my center pushed forward as much as possible to shorten battlefield. My right could not keep the pace, but not a major issue. My left delibaretly held behind. Light parthian archers, just as expected pushed forward. They could not enter the range so my Cretans will have a fine targets at the start of Round 2. Romans move forward, but cataphracts are kept as reserve, far from my elephants.
ROUND II
My shooting is terrible to almost no effect. My right wing pushes forward further forcing cataphracts to make a move. Still they are not eager to enter elephants range. My center does something that Parthians did not anticipate - falls back! That positiones them again off the range of arrows shot from horseback. An my Cretans still can shoot 'for free'.
ROUND III
Playing slow, with a lot of precison, moves and countermoves we reached the decisve round of the battle. So far Parthians lost 1 SuG of light cavalry, Bactrians lost a base of Xystophoroi and a base of Indian Archers. So not much was going on. This round is about to change everything. Charging lancers are going to charge cataphracts. So as elephants. Light wing cavalry decided to chase of light cavalry from the center. It weakens my left, but also I know it is too late for Romans to exploit it.
And almost everything went terrible for Bactrians. Charging lancers did not stand even a round against Cataphracts. Xystophoroi were too weakened by the arrows before the melee. Elephants did fine, but also suffered casualties. The may not survive. My Cretans fail my again - in 9 rolls of green or yellow dice only 1 wound! Parthians do not miss that easily. We called it end of the battle due to time. And final result was 4:1. But is clear that Parthians won the steppe... this time ;)