Friday, November 19, 2021

Historicon 2021: Ramses II, Episode 1: Foes East and West

Bright and early, at 9 AM on Thursday, I ran the first of my three Ramses II Trilogy games. We had a full slate of 8 players, with about half having played To the Strongest previously, and about half not having done so. 


View from the West side of the Nile (running down the center of the table). Near are the Libyans, with a few Numidian allies, opposed by Egyptian Divisions Ptah (green) and Set (blue). On the East side of the Nile are Egyptian Divisions Amun (red) and Re (yellow), opposed by a mostly band of Canaanites, many of which were rated as "Raw". 


Veteran TTS! gamer and freind Jeff Grein (red shirt) helped the game on the East side running smoothly, while I mostly assisted the players on the West side. 

The Egyptians advanced boldly against the Canaanites.


Egyptian Chariots gaini9ng the upper hand to the South, but giving ground to the North. 


Another view of the Canaanite - Egyptian combat.


Ramses and his chariotry threatens to sweep around the Libyan right.


A tremor evidently caused one of the villages to collapse!


The Libyans to the North (top of picture) pressed ahead vigorously, seeking to sack the Egyptian camp. The came close twice, but never succeeded. 


Egyptian archers of Division re pepper the Canaanites with arrows. 


Canaanite guardsmen are flanked!


Egyptian light chariots poised to take a Canaanite camp!


Charging an open flank, Ramses is in turn hit from the flank. Double hit cards...and the Pharaoh is hit; it is a serious wound, and he is whisked off the field, but will return to fight another day.  


Canaanite chariots fail to take the camp from the defending Egyptian archers! 
The Egyptians lining the Nile are all casualties. 


In the end, the Canaanites prevailed to the East, whilst the Egyptians prevailed to the West of the Nile; we called it a draw, but with Ramses lucky to survive, barely!











































16 comments:

  1. Love chariots. Armored divisions of the ancient world.

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    1. Me too! I think my chariot total is around 70 now across all my various armies.

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  2. Was the game set up as two different battles, one on each side of the river? I can’t tell for sure.

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    1. The Egyptians (or others) could have crossed the "Nile" at two separate points, but that wasn't expected and didn't occur; thus it was effectively 2 distinct halves, side by side.

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  3. Great looking game, sounds like a good result for the Cannanites if most of them were raw!
    Best Iain

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    1. Yes, I was surprised they managed a win with such poor troops. As the saying goes, quantity has a quality all its own!

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  4. Super looking game. You should have sold your mat for a tidy profit to the Waterloo chaps :-)

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    1. Thanks, and LOL! In fairness, the Waterloo set up was contoured foamboard, but it still would have looked so much better with a reasonable surface coloration for all that hard work.

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  5. That's a great looking game and by the sound of it everyone had a good time:)

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  6. Really impressive gaming display, Peter! Congratulations on pulling off this large convention endeavor. What were the post-game impressions of the players?

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    1. I think every one of the players had a great time; I certainly did running it!

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  7. Lovely looking game, with beautiful troops and scenery TtS is a smart choice for a disparate group of gamers, they are pretty simple and straightforward to pick up and use and the mechanisms are quite intuitive and logical.

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    1. They are a fun set of rules to play any time, but especially well suited to large convention games!

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  8. Beaut looking game Peter. Plenty of space and scope for manoeuvre.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thank you, James. I was very happy with how the game looked and played.

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