Battle of Mas

The army has retreated to the village of Mas just before Eridu City.

The Eridu army consists of 3 Spear Regiments, 2 companies of Bow Skirmishers 

and 2 Companies of Javelin Skirmishers.

The Scenario

There are two Objectives. One on the wooded hill to the southwest and one in the village of Mas.

I placed 2 javelin and a Bow on the hill and a Bow and the three Spear in the village.

Orders for all but the northern Bow is hold. The Bows order is to advance and engage. 

All forces are Rep 2.

Larsa Army is then deployed as below. I changed from the usual random deployment 

according to type because of this scenario.

Right flank is one Spear. Center skirmishers with bows and 3 Spear.

Left flank is one Spear and a Regiment of Guards with Two handed axes.

All are Rep 2 except the Guards Rep 3.

The center Eridu Bow advance to meet the enemy.

The Larsa forces move out.

The Right-wing Spear become disordered moving through the difficult terrain.

 

The bow on both sides exchange arrows at long range. 

They all miss!

The defenders rain arrows and javelins down on the advancing Heavy infantry.

I think the Spear on the left have already taken some casualties. 

The Larsa Centre is starting to open out into line.

The Spear have now taken 3 casualties

The bows advance to point blank and finally someone gets a hit!

Ensi Balulu keeps his Spear out of the disordering soft ground as they reach halfway.

Taking plenty of casualties and becoming Disordered the Spear still manage to 

chase the javelin skirmishes from the field.

Finding evasion too difficult the bowmen manage to evict the Larsa Guard from the hill!

The Bow then turn their attentions to the vulnerable Spear.

This leaves the javelin skirmishes to deal with the Guards. 

Which they fail to do.

The Guard easily deal with the skirmishers.

Meanwhile the Spear turn the tables on the bow. 

The Javelins manage the miracle Moral save!

The Bow have proved to be the equal of the disordered and battered Spear.

The Guard have routed the last of the Javelin. 

Under half strength, Disordered, Shaken, the Spear refuse to run

The Guard and the Bow are now facing off for the final show down for the Hill.

Both are Disordered but the Guard have taken many more casualties. 5 to 1

Just as things have become climactic down at the hill the Larsa main force has attacked the village.

They win both melees and with such little room the second  Eridu Spear routs. 

This effectively ends the Eridu defence of the village and the battle. 

I used my own rules, Two-Hour Ancients, for this game 

and they gave me a very enjoyable afternoon.

With the exception of the instant, one turn loss that is. 

This wraps it up for the Eridu resistance to the Larsa attack. 

I diced for the surrender conditions and

 Eridu must now act as an ally of Larsa.

Battle of Gaba Ru Gu 2448BC

 Ensi Balulu of the City of Larsa has invaded Eridu. As Larsa has a much more dominate stradgic strength I'm going to play as Eridu. Both sides are racing to a dominate hill on the road from Larsa to Eridu called Gaba Ru Gu. This hill represents the only objective for both sides. Randomly I rolled up two more hills, some rough going and a ploughed field. 

Both Armies started off table with random forces and a slightly randomized arrival. (Without going into the mechanics, the more you have the greater chance of missing the next arrival.) 

Larsa lead off with bow armed Skirmishers who refused to advance!

Eridu also rolled up Bowmen, who also refused to advance! 😀

Well Larsa managed to get their Bowmen to start cautiously forward. 

Perhaps it was the moral lifting sight of the Chariots appearing on their flank.

The Chariots, pulled by wild Onagers, struggled to get up the hill though. 

 The Eridu army is now reinforced by Javelin armed skirmishers, who, refuse to advance.

I imagined this battle would be a mad dash to the hill. Not so. 

Suddenly the generals were able to motivate everyone to get going.

But then, as a regiment of spear appear for Larsa and the Chariots get into a good 

out flanking position there is a blunder. Those Onagers really are bad tempered.

This takes the Chariots back a turn but they are able to regain good order.

The Eridu skirmishers have captured Gaba Ru Gu.

Also winning the first exchange of arrows.

Again, the Chariots blunder. These Onagers pulling them must be in a bad mood!

This time the chariots come close to leaving the field and take a casualty. 

With a second regiment of Spear ariving Balulu is ready to march on the hill.

Things have now shaken out with Larsa having two spears in the center, 

another unopposed on the right. The chariot is back advancing on the left flank.

The Chariots have now out flanked the Eridu centre as the 

Larsa Spear Regiments crest the hill and capture the objective.

I have sent my only spare unit, javelin skirmishers, to harass and delay the enemy Spear on my left.

Bow skirmisher reinforcements arrive on my left. 

My center Bow get disordered by enemy fire.

And things get serious on my right between my spear and the enemy chariots.

I saw chariots go straight through my spear then my bowmen last battle.   

The Chariots chose to use initiative to charge instead of shooting 

then risking having to pass a counter charge.

They were disordered going in then lost the melee 3 to 1.

Then followed with a really bad moral check. Routed.

Then, foolishly, I advanced my Spear to base of the hill.

The Larsa Regiments attacked first and won.

Eventually the Larsa's right-wing spear caught my javelin skirmishers and routed them.

Unfortunately, for my center troops, things just got worse and worse 

and I couldn't extract them.

Well despite everything being against them the Eridu Blue Regiment managed 

to reduce its opponent to Shaken. It wasn't enough though.

The Larsa Army had held the hill and objective for 6 straight turns and it was late. 

So I awarded them the win.

The Larsa Army.

General Balulu

1 Chariot, 4 Spear, 1 Bow

Lost 1 Chariot.

The Eridu Army.

3 Spear, 2 Bow, 1 Javelin.

Lost 1 Javelin.

The rules, Hail Caesar have been working well for Solo play.

But. I grew up playing WRG 6th. I always wanted to House rule WRG 6th.

To make it easier, lessen the bookkeeping. 

Right now I'm thinking why not look into it? Its solo. Who cares?

 

Sumer Campaign update. 2450 BC

 2450

Ush of Umma leads his city to correct the wrongs from the previous war and remove the Stele (boundary Rock) erected by Ensi Messalim on the border canal of Gueden. Ennatum of Lagash, hearing of the army forming up, guesses what's happening and rolls out his army to meet him.

Well Ush manages a slim costly victory and heads towards Girsu, a vassal of Lagash.

2449

Ambushed by Ennatum near Pun, Ush's army is all but wiped out and they flee back to Umma.

2448

Meanwhile Larsa has formed a hostile relationship with two of its neighbors.

Eridu and the powerful Ur. Fortunately, they have only a neutral relationship ATM so Ensi Balulu of Larssa elects to attack the weaker Eridu before they decide to form an Alliance. 

Solo Rules

 The Set up

Start with a scenario.

Divide the table into 9 zones including a center and two flanks. 

I use random terrain allocation. For my Sumerian, Mesopotamian campaign its

6= Hill, 5= Tree grove, 4=Rough ground, ploughed field. 

Because its Mesopotamia. 50% chance of a canal. D6 from left for entry then D6 for exit.

Players Army   

Players army set up first, depending on scenario, usually 20cm in. 

After the Automative General has set up the Players units are given their orders. All start with a "single goal" order EG to capture or defend an Objective, piece of terrain or zone. This order may be changed one per move.

This may also include Reserve which should allow the unit to follow the center troops until given a new order. 

Automative General

Randomly allocate units to Zones according to type or role. After players set up, scenario permitting. 

Skirmishing Infantry. 6,5= Left Flank. 4.3=Centre 2,1= Right Flank. All in front

Light Infantry, Archers. 6,5= Left Flank. 4.3=Centre 2,1= Right Flank

Heavy Infantry. 6= Left Flank. 4.3,2=Centre1= Right Flank 5=Reserve

Guard Infantry. 6-3 Reserve 2-1 Centre

Cavalry.  6,5= Left Flank. 4 Reserve 2,1= Right Flank 3= rethrow 1-3 Left 4-6 right.

Light Cavalry. 6,5,4= Left Flank. 3,2,1= Right Flank

The units for each zone will then move towards the nearest Objective or enemy unit in their zone.

If they capture the Objective's and once secured, they can then advance to the next zone. If a zone has no objectives or enemy, they should march until they have out flanked troops in the next zone. Never engage at a disadvantage when possible.

Examples

A recent scenario included a canal with no way for a chariot to cross on the right flank. So, the Chariot deployment became 50% Reserve or left flank.

It also meant the center forces could only cross at a disadvantage, so they remained stationary until the enemy could be out flanked.

Conclusion 

These rules are so simple but has been working very well for me so far.

Ambush on the road to Pun.

Preamble. 

Well, I decided that the last battle, while very enjoyable, took far too long to complete with the figures all based individually. So, I ordered in the extra figures to fill out the regiments. Unfortunately, the figures never arrived/ got stolen. It took me months to recover the will to reorder them. Any way I have and here is the second battle of my war between Lagash and Umma. Using Hail Caesar. I managed to just win the first battle, as Umma, but with less surviving units and with the Lagash light Javelin skirmishers being promoted for being stars. 😀 Because I won the previous it promoted me to the side that gets ambushed.

The Ambush

The Umma army is marching along with three baggage which act as objectives.

The randomized goal for Ensi Ush (7) is to get them off the road leading NE.

The Marching order is Light Bow, Spear, Baggage, Spear, Baggage, Light Bow, Baggage.

The Lagash Army

The Regiments were place randomly behind surrounding terrain.

The regiment of Onager pulled chariots are behind the oasis to the NE.

Some bowmen and the elite Javelin men occupied the palm stand across the road.

Some more bow appeared on the hill to the SE and the 1st Spear in the wetlands to the SW.

Being in marching order on road allowed the Umma army to shake out into some order

even though the orders throws were terrible. Must have been the shock of the ambush.

The bow were able to draw first blood on the javelin men.

But unfortunately, being outnumbered two to one must have affected their moral 

and when tested they threw a double 1 and ran away!

So my new plan is to hold off the chariots with Green Spear and push my

way to safety with the Black Spear with the javelin protecting the flank.

The Chariots accept the invite to charge the spear. 

Avoiding the disorder that can come from charging long spear they manage to win.

Pushing the spear back in disorder. 

Following up the chariots managed to hit the spear 4 times to zero

forcing them to flee the battlefield.

The next turn the Chariots charged and ran down the Umma javelins

bringing an end to the battle. 

Summery

Well in nearly 50 years of wargaming I don't remember having an army with

 so many bad moral throws in one day.  😀 

Any way it was a proper massacre. One that I don't think Umma will be coming back from.

Lagash has won the campaign, and the stone will be replaced on the border.