An Achar of Achaemenids

A Headless Body Production
Venue: An Undisclosed Basement
Event: Trying out new armies
Players: Steve Turn running newly printed and painted Meroitc Kushites
               Phil Gardocki, running freshly painted Early Achaemenid Persians, list 64.  
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

While scrolling the feeds the other week, I found another ADLG blogger, Colin Whittaker, in the UK.  The man has almost 300 ADLG games documented in the last 5 years.  His blog is at https://wargamingwithcolin.blogspot.com/
While googling for Colin, I few other ADLG themed blogs
https://sgtsteiner.blogspot.com
https://bucellarii.blogspot.com/
And this one from 2018 titled "Darryl Ascendant!"  https://philonancients.blogspot.com/2018/07/adlg-darryl-ascendant.html 
My figures were looking worn out even then.
And no wonder I am tired of typing that phrase, "... have 9 points towards their demoralization level of 20." I have been using that phrase for over 8 years.  

The Forces:

The Kushites are led by 3 commanders of no renown, and are reputed to be a Brilliant, a Competent and an Ordinary.
4 Medium Camelry
3 Heavy Cavalry, Elite
2 Light Cavalry, Javelin
6 Heavy Spearmen, Mediocre
4 Bowmen, Elite
3 Medium Sword
4 Light Infantry, bow 
2 Light Infantry, Javelin 
Breakpoint, 28

These Achamenid's are fresh of the popsicle sticks and onto the table.  And this battle report is just in time to provide someone with useful scouting information just in time for Cold Wars(tm) this weekend!

 

The Achaemenid's are led by 3 nameless commanders, the Great Cyrus II, a Strategist, and the Brothers Darri and Darri.  one of which is Brilliant, the other Ordinary
2 Persian Guards, Heavy Cavalry, Bow, Elite
4 Mede Cavalry, Medium Cavalry, Bow
2 Bactrians, Light Cavalry, Bow, Elite
4 Immortals, 1/2 Medium Sword, 1/2 Bow, Elite
8 Sparabara, 1/2 Medium Sword, 1/2 Bow
1 Light Infantry, Bow
Breakpoint is 21

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble like "Ouch!" or  "𓅱𓅲𓎢𓉔𓄎!" (officially bird/bird/bowl/tesseract/Ra)  or 

  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.

The Board:

Cyrus II wins the initiative and elects to defend in the plains.

A practice game with early empire for the upcoming Cold Wars, and next week at On Military Matters.

Kushite bowmen are bolstered by a second rank of swordsmen.

In the center, the only heavy foot in the game.  Mediocre they may be.  

On their right a strong force of horse and camels

The Persians have one advantage.  Almost the whole army is the same...

...where every man has a bow.

But that comes at a cost of 2 points per element.  So for being mostly medium sword, the army is only 21 elements in size.

Turn 1:
 

The Kushite bowmen advance at the double, their skirmishers swinging wide of the Persian line.

Behind a goodly number of skirmishers, their heavies advance.

Their horse expands their mounted line.

Dari orders his archers to effective range.  Cuneiform and Hieroglyph epithets fly!

Cyrus's archers fail to find their range.

But Dari's horse archers do!  

Embedding those Cuneiform and Hieroglyph images is a pain.  I'll use emoji's instead.

Turn 2:

Arrows continue to be exchanged.
 is a pain to embed.  I'll use silly emojis for now.

Cyrus's archers are still tuning their bows.

The Kushite horse bow pull back to recover.

Darri's bowmen need more arrows.

Cyrus's are finding their targets.

Darri's horse archers advance to the base of the hill.

Turn 3: 

The missile exchange is not going well with the Kushites.

In the center, a hole appears in the Kushite skirmish line, which is being exploited.

The mounted command takes the high ground.

Rinse and repeat.

Rinse and repeat.

Return, rinse and repeat.

Turn 4:

Kushan cavalry charge down the hill.  The results to be shown later in this missive.

Because on the left, fresh troops form up for the charge on his line.

Cyrus's archers put their back into it, and darken the skies with arrows

And we're back!  The Kushan mixed cavalry and camelry formation only has some success with their charge.

Persian archery has been brutal on the Kushans.  Only one unit is dead, but about 15 are disordered.

Darri's archers pick up the pace, disordering all the incoming swordsmen.

Cyrus's archers take a breather.

The battle on the hill is not going well for the Kushan

Turn 5: 

The swordsmen are committed, and so have to go in.

So too, the spear in the center.

The battle at the hill still rages.

The light horse should have fled the board.  The coastal there is decorative only.

The carnage at the Tree of Woe

The Kushan swordsmen hav given their all.

The Persian cry from the center is "Save one for me!"

The battle at the base of the hill ends in a virtual tie.

Leaving the score 29 to 6.

There is a saying, that there is a 1,000 lessons in defeat, and not one in victory.  So it is here.

My next two games had the Persians go down in flames.