An Assegai of Assyrians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: An undisclosed basement, but not the same basement as last week
Event: Kaplan-Khan! Round 1
Players: Phil running Vedic, list 35
               Richard Jarnoz, Assyrian, list 7
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:

The Vedic are led by Laksha, the Competent, his brother Daksha, the Brilliant, and his other brother Daksha, the Ordinary
8 Light Chariots, Bow, 3 Elite
2 War Elephants
6 Warriors, Medium Sword, 2 Handed
6 Light Infantry, Bow or Sling
4 Bowmen
Breakpoint of 26

The Assyrians were led by  ܫܘܵܐ ,ܐܸܠܦܘܿܢܝܼܬ݂ܵܐ, and ܢܵܩܹܫ.
3 Heavy Chariot, Impact, some Elite
4 Light Chariots, Bow, Armor, some Elite
1 Light Horse, Bow, Mediocre (wait, there are Mediocre Lights?  What a great way to gain initiative points!)
5 Asharittu, Medium Sword, Impact, Elite, Support.  (Damn! What a great troop type!)
2 Hupshu, Medium Sword, Support
3 Hupshu, 1/2 Med Sword, 1/2 Bow
4 Light Infantry, Bows or Javelins
Breakpoint of 22

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble like "Ouch!" or "आउच!" or "!ܐܘܼܘܵܐ",  this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.  

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Turn 1:

ܫܘܵܐ takes the right side command with a strong force of chariots.

An important distinction regarding chariots.  Light Chariots in LADG are not considered "Lights" in the normal way.  They are effectively Medium Cavalry.  And if armored, like the Assyrians, they are Heavy Cavalry.

 ܐܸܠܦܘܿܢܝܼܬ݂ܵܐ takes the center with the Asharittu warriors.  As commented above, being Impact and Missile Support makes this a powerful troop type.  Acting as armor on first turn of contact, and canceling furious charge goes a long way to mitigating Heavy Chariots, where the Asharittu have a base factor of zero.

ܢܵܩܹܫ takes the left with the Hupshu warriors.

Laksha takes the left with 8 chariots.

With two pieces of terrain on the Vedic side of the board, the chariots can either be on the left, or center.  Which is also a decision the Assyrians have to make for their chariots.

Brother Daksha's elephant command takes the center.

Other brother Daksha takes the right.  All mediocre bowman are fairly safe in the rough.

The view from above.

Turn 1:

Seeing the elephants in the center, ܫܘܵܐ drives his chariots to the right.

ܐܸܠܦܘܿܢܝܼܬ݂ܵܐ leads his Asharittu in the center, while ܢܵܩܹܫ  deploys his Hupshu to the hill top.

Laksha decides he has too many chariots in a small area and parses of 3 to deploy towards the center.

Brother Daksha sends forward his skirmishers.

And reinforces other brother Daksha's archers.

My thought here is to use the terrain to set up flank attacks should the Assyrians advance in the gaps. 

Turn 2:

The Assyrians advance to bow range.  Both sides loose arrows, but none strike home.

A similar exchange in the center.

The Assyrians are holding back their infantry battle lines and will wait till their chariots push through their lighter opponents.  And no one is in a hurry to engage elephantry.

Laksha moves forward, ZOCing the Assyrian chariots, but more importantly, providing evade room should they evade long.

Brother Daksha sends one warrior across the field to support Laksha's chariots.

Daksha charges the Assyrian skirmishers, and advances his elephants behind them.

Other brother Daksha optimizes his firing line.

Turn 3:
Time for a bio break, and take some pictures of other actions.

And the view from the other side:

 

Turn 3:

The Assyrian "Light" chariots charge.  They have an armor advantage, so Laksha's chariots evade, barely staying on the board.

Assyrian Asharittu and Hupshu advance.  Their skirmishers flank charge Daksha's skirmish line.  

The Hupshu line hovers just out of bow range and mostly on the hill.

The Hupshu are 3 units of 1/2 bow/sword, against Daksha's 4 all mediocre bow.

Laksha's chariots return to exchange arrows.  They need to score some disorders to compensate for the Assyrian armor advantage.  

But their ability to charge is compromised.  One Assyrian chariot is ZOCed by warriors, and the next chariot would be subject to a counterattacking flank charge if they do charge.

Laksha arrives in the center with two chariots.  Daksha's elephants hold back for now.

Other Brother Daksha holds back out of arrow range for now.

This is a fairly good game of maneuvering and timing commitment.

Turn 4:

The Assyrian "Light" chariots charge.  Their heavies coming forward for followup attacks.

Assyrian lights flank charge the Vedic skirmishers, sending them fleeing into the rough

The Assyrian center command deploys to protect their flanks.

The Hupshu advance and loose arrows.  Scoring perfect down the line!

Laksha and Daksha coordinate an attack on one Assyrian chariot.

Daksha's elephantry charges the Asharittu line.  Dispersing an Assyrian skirmisher in route.  

 

Luck ran better for Daksha then he deserved, with 3 contacts, with neither side losing.  

Other brother Daksha also did better than average.  Two successful rallies and 2 causing two missile disorders.

At the bottom of the fourth, the score is 14 of 22 for the Assyrians, and 7 of 26 for the Vedics.

Turn 5:

The Assyrian heavies only had one gap to charge through.  But the Vedic chariots rolled a point better.

The battle in the center is just continuing.  The line is drawn for the benefit of the reader.

Of note, a single Assyrian skirmisher is behind the Vedic lines.  Hoping it will go unnoticed.

ܢܵܩܹܫ Hupshus commit to battle.

 

At the top of the 5th, the score is 18 of 22 for the Assyrians, to 10 of 26 for the Vedics.

Laksha launches his counter-counter-attack!

At the same time leads the attack against the right flank of the Asharittu line.

In the center, a Vedic warrior is routed, traded for with an Asharittu being trampled by Vedic Elephantry.

The Hopshu charge, routing another Vedic warrior.

The Vedic score is at 12

The Assyrians are at 19

Turn 6:

The Assyrian heavy chariots charge, splintering a Vedic chariot.

Ignore the Vedic chariot on the flank of the Assyrian chariot.  Probably a pursuit that didn't happen.

In the center, the battle mostly just continues, with the Vedic warriors nearly crumbling.  A Hupshu warrior charges a Vedic elephant in the rear

ܢܵܩܹܫ and other brother Daksha hurl both insults and arrows, with equal effect.

We called it here as the Vedics had multiple locations to score the 2 points they needed for the win.

What went wrong?  While it seemed a good idea to split the Vedic chariot command in two, it was also difficult with just a competent commander.  Some of the decisions were based on a scarcity of command points.     

There was a similar problem with the center command.  "Brother" Daksha was brilliant, because elephants are difficult to drive.  But combine that with the command parsing off two of their warriors both left and right, led to difficult command decisions as well. 

And I want to say that the 2 Handed Weapon Swordsmen won exactly zero combats.  Not one dice pairing was successful.  The best they scored was a tie. 

And that Assyrian skirmisher behind the lines?  Richard forgot that was his until cleanup.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Aegyptopithecus of Egyptians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: An undisclosed basement, but not the same basement as last week
Event: Kaplan-Khan!  Round 3
Players: Phil running Vedic, list 35
               Kevin Hatch running New Kingdom Egyptian, list 14
                              Option: , 1479-1425BC
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
The Vedic are led by Laksha, the Competent, his brother Daksha, the Brilliant, and his other brother Daksha, the Ordinary.
8 Light Chariots, Bow, 3 Elite
2 War Elephants
6 Warriors, Medium Sword, 2 Handed
6 Light Infantry, Bow or Sling
4 Bowmen
Breakpoint of 26

The Egyptians are led by the great pharaoh  , a Strategist, and  
, the Competent, and

, also Competent, but Unreliable.

 9 Light Chariots, Bow, Armor, some Elite
1 Light Horse, Bow, Mediocre
2 Warriors with 2 handed axes
8 Warriors, Impact
2 Bowmen, Mediocre
Breakpoint 23

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble like "Ouch!" or "आउच!",  this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

 Turn 1:

  leads the mighty warriors of the  division

On their left are and leading the  and  chariot divisions.

 

With all the cartoshes causing a distraction, here is one more. A very long time ago, a poem was written and published in Spearpoint, I think. Titled Seti on the flank. Here is a link, published with permission of the author.

With their flank covered by the Nile river, Laksha heads south towards Thebes.  

Which is just north of the 1st Cataract.

Pretty much most of the Egyptian references of the current size of the kingdom is how many cataracts it extends to.  From 1st to 6th.  The north is the Great Green.  East and west was of little matter.  

Learning from previous games.  But the weak command, just 20 points in a field, and leave it there.

The view from the gods, whoever they currently are.

 Egypt lasted so long that the gods would change over time.

Turn 1:

A view of another world, time and place.

Laksha hopes the ambush is empty and can gain a flank advantage.

Brother Daksha shifts left to close the gap between his command and Laksha's

 

Other brother Daksha advances into the rough.

He is facing armored chariotry with mediocre archers.  So he is happy to be in the rough ground, which is -2 for chariots.

OK!  Well that is a big surprise.  No flank for Laksha.

Time for plan 'B'*.  Even though it is medium sword vs light chariots, the chariots do not have an advantage here.  The chariots get a bonus +1 against medium sword, but most of the swordsmen have impact, which they will keep if the chariots charge, and some of them have the hill.

Time to just shoot it out.  Laksha has a lot of shooters.

is facing nothing but archers in the rough and decides to redeploy to the other side of the board.

But sends his light horse to try to wrap around the field, and possibly take the camp.

Turn 2:

Laksha advances to bow range of the hill and looses arrows.  But he also sends three brigades of chariots into the Egyptian archers.  While the numbers are just +2 to +2, the chariots have Furious Charge against the archers.  With a lucky roll, a chariot could blow a hole in the Egyptian line.

The elephantry advance behind an extensive line of light foot.  

All the Egyptian light chariots have armor.  And so are effectively Heavy Cavalry.  Not much chance of the Hindi archers of scoring a hit.  1 in 6 for Ordinary chariots, one in 12 for the Elites.

With the sudden disappearance of   Other Brother Daksha orders his bowmen out of the rough.

Egyptians launch a fake charge at the Indian chariotry.  Flanking some of Laksha's chariots.

The evading chariots rolled long in the evade.  So they will not be able to return and directly intervene in the followup flank charge by the Egyptian warriors.

In the center, more arrows are exchanged.

Ditto, the far right.

Turn 3:

Laksha orders his chariotry forward, their archery proving excellent.  He also orders one of his chariots to Disengage. (Ignore the "आउच!" missile hit)

The remaining chariots continue to fight.  They are joined by Brother Daksha's warriors.

His elephantry charges, running off the Egyptian chariots.

Out of sight by both their commanders, the exchange of arrows peters out.

Egyptwian warriors hold their ground save one, who flanks an Indian chariot, saving the Egyptian bowmen from destruction.

You may question why I left two chariots fighting in the line when I could have disengaged all of them.  The Vedic's have 26 units to 23.  Win, lose, or draw, the Egyptians have to turn a warrior to make that flank charge, leaving it open to a flank charge itself.  I'm willing to trade a unit for that advantage.  Especially when the remaining chariots can still engage with missiles.

 

One Egyptian warrior is routed.

Kumbayah my Lord, kumbayah...

Turn 4:

A large hole is mad in the Egyptian line.  Charioteer archers rake the warriors on the hill.

Hindi Elephantry charge again.  Some of the chariots are trapped and cannot evade.  

One is trampled to scraps.

Marshmallows are being pulled out of travel bags.

The score is 17 of 23 for the Egyptians

To 9 of 26 for the Vedic's

Egyptian reserves are thrown into the fray

chariots try to get out of the way of routers and elephants.

But they are still within elephant charge reach.

A late sent message arrives to the Egyptian scouts.  KEEP GOING!!!

The Egyptian score is 20 of 23

The Vedic's are at 12 of 26

Turn 5:

More archery on the hill.

It's about time to charge.  But the only advantage the chariots have is number of cohesion hits.  The hill provides a +1, canceling the -1 for disorder.

Two Vedic warriors are routed.  

But so to two Egyptian chariots.

That and the rout through take the Egyptians to their break point.  

What went wrong?  While it did seem that the matchups were favorable, there were problems as well.  The Vedic chariots were facing warriors that they could not comfortably punch through due to terrain, and so were pretty much dedicated to just shooting it out.  The problem there is that the Egyptian warriors are only 7 points compared to 9 or 11 for the chariots.  In theory, that gave the Egyptians a point advantage somewhere else.

But the Egyptians had the same problem on the other side of the table.  Chariots facing archers in rough terrain.  The Vedic archers were poor quality, but the terrain made them mostly invulnerable.  Which led to one of the chariot divisions being indecisive going this way and that.   

* Note: Plan 'B' always sucks.