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Thursday, July 31, 2014

Chariots of Tyre - Egypt vs Assyria at Historicon 2014

Ken B and I had been planning to run a Chariot Wars battle at Historicon using the recently released Pulse of Battle rules by Brent Oman. The rules belong to the Field of Battle family from Piquet, Inc. Unfortunately, real life conspired at the last minute to prevent Ken from being there Thurday night, so I added my Assyrian army to the car, and we played a straight forward, head on game on the sands of Palestine, without any terrain to speak of.  We'll try for the real thing again next year!

The Egyptians, from their right to left were:  Tim C (London),  Ian,  Gabriel

The Assyrians, from their left to right were:   Phil,  Peter (yours truly), Alex



Overview of the Egyptian deployment


Overview of the Assyrian Deployment


Left to right, Tim C (of London), Ian, and Gabriel start the first Egyptian MOVE.


Left to right, Assyrian players were Alex, Peter (moi, empty chair) and Phil. 


The Egyptian Chariots surge forward on the Egyptian far right.


Egyptian Mace/Axe men charge forward, sending the Assyrian Slingers to the rear, and engaging the Assyrian Heavy Archers in Melee.


Overview of the table, early game. The repulsed Egyptian macemen can be seen in the upper middle ground. 


Egyptian light Chariots are trying Io turn the Assyrian left flank. 


Chariots on both side loose arrows, to little effect. 


The Egyptian Chariots have gained the flank on the Assyrian Right!


View of the Assyrian Center, early battle. The white clad macemen and Quradu (Assyrian Royal Guards) are part of my center command, along with the light green clad LI archers, HI Slingers, and HI Spearmen.


Chariots to our rear now, Sire!


Almost like a pinwheel over on the Assyrian righg flank. 


The Assyrian HC and LCh are nearly surrounded!


The stand of on the Assyrian right flank continued much of the game. 


The Assyrian HC on their left flank has moved forward to gain some breathing room, while the Assyrian Light Chariots have backed up to do likewise. Someone made the "beep, beep, beep" sound as they did so, which cracked us all up! "Priceless!"


"Wait, that wasn't supposed to be MY head that got chopped of!   Arrrgh!" 
Phil's left center infantry commander kisses the sand!



View from the Assyrian right; the Sherdan Guards of Egypt are moving to attack; they would prove to be very effective!


My center infantry command has largely destroyed their Egyptian opposite numbers....


I have shifted my Reserve command to bolster Phil's crumbling left flank, but left the Macemen exposed to a flank charge, which Tim happily provided!


Interesting exercise in geometry on the Assyrian left. Where is Pythagoras when you need him? 


Talk about a tight spot!


Some breathing room now!


The Egyptian center is very weakly held, barely, by some light infantry ("Psiloi", in Pulse of Battle terms).


However, on the Assyrian right, the Egyptians are pressing the attack. 


The Sherdan Guards (light blue shields) can be seen charging some Assyrian HI spearmen at the top of the picture. 


"Three rocks and a wolf"; as bad as a unit can be without being routed. Those Sherdans were TOUGH!


The Assyrian Heavy Chariots charge some Egyptian Archers in the flank, but fail to run them over, so they turn to face their attackers. 


More geometric problems, "left to the student to complete as an exercise". Note the complete absence of any Egyptian units in the entire center; my LI archers pluckily harassed Ramses himself! Despite this the Assyrians were at zero Morale chips, and stayed tat way for almost an entire turn (which is a long, long time in Pulse of Battle)!


Final position on the Assyrian right. Alex, rolling for Esarhadon, King of Assyria, passed his first two Army Morale Checks, and we even got the Egyptians down to zero morale points briefly, but the third time was the charm, and the Assyrians retired to Nineveh to lick their wounds!


Here are the forces used in the game, with the ratings I rolled up for them:


New Kingdom Egyptians - Pulse of Battle

Unit
Type
Rating
Divis.
Cmd
DD
CD
UI
LI Bowmen
Psiloi
Exper
Re
.
D6
D8
2
Egypt Archers
Lt Bow Inf.
Crack
Re
.
D8
D10
3
Egypt Macemen
Med Inf.
Crack
Re
.
D8
D12
4
Chariots
Lt Chariots
Elite
Re
.
D10
D10
3
LI Bowmen
Psiloi
Raw
Amun
.
D4
D8
2
Nubia Archers
Lt Bow Inf.
Exper
Amun
.
D6
D10
3
Egypt Spearmen
Medium Inf.
Exper
Amun
.
D6
D12+1
4
Chariots
Lt Chariots
Crack
Amun
.
D8
D8
3
LI Bowmen
Psiloi
Raw
Seti
.
D4
D8
2
Egypt Archers
Lt Bow Inf.
Exper
Seti
.
D6
D10
3
Egypt Spearmen
Medium Inf.
Exper
Seti
.
D6
D10
4
Chariots
Lt Chariots
Crack
Seti
.
D8
D8
3
LI Bowmen
Psiloi
Raw
Ptah
.
D4
D8
2
Egypt Archers
Lt Bow Inf.
Raw
Ptah
.
D4
D8
3
Egypt Macemen
Medium Inf.
Raw
Ptah
.
D4
D10
4
Chariots
Lt Chariots
Exper
Ptah
.
D6
D10
3
Sherden Guards
HI Warband
Crack
Res
.
D8
D12
4
Sherden Guards
HI Warband
Crack
Res
.
D8
D10
4
Egypt Macemen
Med Inf.
Exper
Res
.
D6
D12
4

Name
Command
Rating
LD
Radius
Pharaoh Ramses II
Army
Average
D12
24”
Hesy-Re
1
Average
D10
20”
Amenhotep
2
Average
D10
20”
Setau
3
Average
D10
20”
Ptahmose
4
Average
D8
16”



Neo-Assyrians - Pulse of Battle
Unit
Type
Rating
Cmd
DD
CD
UI
Yellow Slingers
Psiloi
Raw
2
D4
D8
2
Lt Green Archers
Psiloi
Raw
3
D4
D8
2
White Archers
Psiloi
Raw
4
D4
D8
2
Orange Hvy Archers
Med Bow Inf
Exper
2
D6
D10
4
Purple Hvy Archers
Med Bow Inf
Exper
4
D6
D10
4
Lt Green Hvy Sling
Med Bow Inf
Exper
3
D6
D10
4
Orange Hvy Spears
Hvy Infantry
Exper
2
D6
D12+1
4
Lt Green Hvy Spear
Hvy Infantry
Exper
3
D6
D12
4
Purple Hvy Spears
Hvy Infantry
Exper
4
D6
D10
4
Blue LMI Spears
Peltasts
Raw
1
D4
D8
3
Yellow LMI Spears
Peltasts
Raw
5
D4
D8
3
White LHI Macemen
Hvy Infantry
Exper
C
D6
D12
4
Quradu Spears
Hvy Infantry
Elite
C
D8
D12+1
4
Heavy Chariots
Hvy Chariot
Elite
5
D8
D12+1
3
Light Chariots
Lt Chariots
Crack
1
D8
D8
3
Purple Hvy cavalry
Hvy Cavalry
Exper
1
D6
D12
3
Orange Hvy Cavalry
Hvy Cavalry
Exper
5
D6
D10
3

Name
Command
Rating
LD
Radius
Esarhaddon
Army (C)
Skilled
D12+1
26”
Margal
1
Average
D10
20”
Besxh
2
Average
D10
20”
Ishtar
3
Average
D10
20”
Shamash
4
Average
D12
24”
Ashurkanibal
5
Average
D8
16”


14 comments:

  1. A battle if Biblical proportions!

    Nice bit of impromptu work on your part produced a pleasing and close match-up. "Three rocks and a wolf?" What on earth does that mean?

    Egyptians down to zero morale but still came out victorious. The Gods must have been smiling on the Pharaohs that day. Would have liked seeing you in the game photo too.

    Great stuff, Peter!

    ReplyDelete
  2. In Pulse/Field of Battle, units can take 2, 3, or 4 "unit Integrity" (UI) losses by type before the automatically Rout. We use a rock for each UI loss (they can be rallied off), so three ropcks is 3 UI lost. Units can also be "Out of Command" (more like Shaken or Disordered, really), and we use various animals for that condition, collectively referred to as "chickens", aftre the most common type. So a unit with 4 rocks and a is a unit that started with 4 UI, but has lost 3, AND is OOC/Shaken as well. Pretty much a rump!

    The Assyrians were dopwn to zero a lot longer - very btense game at the end!

    As I was the photographer, no selfies, LOL! When Gabriel gets around nto popsting some pics, I might appear in some of them...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought your ground cloth was very effective too. Perfect for a traveling convention game.

      Delete
    2. Thanks, I was very happy with how it turned out - a light tan/heaher sort of bace felt, with many, may applications of about ten colors opf spray paint to soften the various color transitions!

      Hoopefully Ken will bring his custom desert terrain for game next year!

      Delete
  3. "three rocks and a [insert animal type]"

    I used the arrow heads as brackets which obviously means something in HTML, as it simply disapeared from the comment! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not my era, but it was a great AAR! I like the terrain ground cloth
    Regards
    Rafa

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjotyed it, Rafa! I was very pleased with how the ground cloth came out. Perhaps you shoul;d collect some Celtiberians! :-)

      Delete
  6. Great stuff Peter. I felt a real sense of nostalgia reading this as I haven't played a game of ancients for twenty-something years, but think I might have to dust off a few of the old armies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you enjoyed it, Lawrence. If it motivates you to dust off your armies of antiquity, so much the better!

      Delete
  7. Another fabulous report of a great looking game. One cannot have too many chariots on the tabletop, can one?! Especially when they look as good as those beauties.
    Perhaps the game was also known as chariots never tire? Droll, droll...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good one, James!

    Glad you enjoyed the report. I do love the look of chariots, even though they're a bit of a pain to assemble and paint (and they're expensive, which is a good reason to use the Old Glory ones!)

    ReplyDelete
  9. I would like to know where you got the Lamasu from. Finding it hard to find in anywhere.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm afraid I can't help you there, Peter. I bought them in person at Historicon about 10 years ago. Resin, same manufacturer who made the "Ramses at Abu Sibel" type statues used in my Egyptian army.

      Delete