Friday 15 May 2015

The "Take the high ground" scenario. Egyptians V Canaanites

Using the Neil Thomas Scenario 4 and his Ancient Rules.  A Battle Group of Egyptians consisting of 3 Chariot Regiments supported by an Archer, Spear and a Khepesh regiment have surprised a Canaanite army looting an Egyptian Delta village.

The Terrain

In the centre is a large hill which serves as the victory objective.
Random terrain roles produced a village (Top left) and two impassable areas (about a 1 to 1000 chance of two!) Which is good because it gave me a chance to place my new soft sandhill
(RHS in the middle of the Egyptian deployment area) and
my newly made soft sand area (at bottom left).

The Canaanites deploy their Black and Red spear regiments to defend the hill.
Ignoring the option to lead with their Two Chariot regiments and  use them to skirmish
and delay the Egyptians while the rest of the army gets into position.
It was considered too risky.
 
The sandhill forces the Egyptians to split their deployments.
They place the Re Spear and Re Archers on the left flank.

And the three Chariot regiments with the Khepesh Regiment on the right.

After the Egyptians advance the balance of the Canaanite force forms up.
The Red and Green Chariot Regiments.

And the Green Spear and the Green Javelins.
The Green Javelins are a freshly painted unit. Good luck boys!

The Egyptians advance and the Ptah (green) Chariots manage
a few bow shots at the Red Spear on the hill.
The Canaanite foot move through the village.

As the Chariots rush to the rescue!

The Egyptian Chariots flank and shoot at the Red Spear on the hill.

The Red Spear are devastated and reduced to one base. 
 
The Re archers remove a base off the Black Spears.
 

The Chariots on both sides exchange arrows. But its a bottle neck with no room to manoeuvre.
The Canaanite Chariots are out numbered. But they have a plan!

The Green Chariots close with and pin the Ptah Chariots.
This means the Red Spears might be able to get onto Ptahs flank before the Khepesh arrive.

The Re Chariots have already taken a the equivalent of a base lose.
See the green wheel marker.

The Red Chariots have also taken 3 casualties.
See the sticks behind the unit with 4 are needed to remove a base.

The Black Spear are at half strength and should probably withdraw behind the hill.
But they are holding up two enemy regiments.

But the Re archers are too accurate today and the Black Spears flee.

The Red Chariots close with the Re Chariots and both have now lost the equivalent of two bases.
See the silver wheels. (I use two chariots but with each equalling two bases)
 
The Amun Chariots Skirmish with Green Javelins.

The Red Spear manage to flank the Ptah Chariots just before the Khepesh men arrive.
The effect is devastating for the Ptah, and they are reduced to one base.

The Re are also reduced to one Base. The advantage is now with the Canaanites.

The Khepesh arrive just in time to rescue what's left of the Ptah Chariots.
And cause the Red Spear to flee.

The Red Chariots have beaten the Re but are very weak.
 A Silver wheel means they are down to just two bases and three sticks means they are
 one casualty away from being just one base. 

The Khepesh join the Green V Ptah melee!

The Re foot archers move over to assist the Amun Chariots.

Back in the centre the Green Chariots have finally beaten the Egyptian Ptah Chariots
and are then routed by the Khepesh men!
Green Spears are now left to face both the Re Spears and the Khepesh alone.

A single base of Green Javelins and Amun Chariots in a lonely face off at the end.
The Canaanites withdraw.

 

Conclusion.

The simple Neil Thomas Scenarios continue to provide fun games. I'm also  enjoying his
 Ancient rules with only a minor adjustment to the moves and ranges to speed up play
and tweaking the armour rules.
The Egyptians
Should have deployed their Chariots on the left where they had manoeuvre room.
Instead they got trapped between the hill and the palm grove and got wasted in melees.
The Canaanites
A whole regiment of Spear failed to get involved because of indecision. They should have followed up the javelins as first planned but instead remained in reserve until it was too late.
  
 

7 comments:

  1. Nice report David, these ancient armies are beautiful...

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Phil. Looking forward to seeing another of your chariot games soon. Perhaps?

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    2. I'm afraid not before september...but may be...

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  2. Fun dynamic game with only 6 units a side. How long did it take to play?

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    Replies
    1. I keep forgetting to either note the start or finish times. I can say the setting up and packing away is incredibly fast!

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  3. Love chariots! And a fast game! What more to ask for? Makes me want to drag some of mine out and play.

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