An Aegyptopithecus of Egyptians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: An undisclosed basement, but not the same basement as last week
Event: Al-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 Graeco-Indians are led by Laksha, the Brilliant, his brother Daksha, also Brilliant, and their younger brother, Daksha, who is still learning this commander thing.
3 Elephants, Elite
1 Indian Horsemen, Medium Cavalry, Mediocre
1 Paropamisadae......, Light Cavalry Javelin
4 Pikemen
2 Cretans, Light Infantry, Bow, Elite
2 Colonists, Light Infantry, Javelin
7 Indian Mixed Swordsmen, 1/2 Bow
Breakpoint of 21

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 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 the rough.  The Vedic archers were poor quality, but the terrain made them mostly invulnerable.  Which led to one of the chariot divisions to go this way and that.   

* Note: Plan 'B' always sucks.