Thursday, December 2nd, a day that will live in Infamy. So wrote our veteran correspondent after witnessing the re-match between Hittites and Sea Peoples reprising the game played on October 21st but with players switching sides. Thus Phil, Rob and Tony took command of the Hittites, with Dave trying to control Chris in leading the mighty Sea Peoples. Both sides played their Stratagems, with the Hittites pushing three units forward to seize the hilly and difficult terrain and hopefully anchor their weak left flank. Dave craftily forced Rob’s Hittite centre command back one box meaning Rob’s General left the field of battle and would have to draw a chit to return How Philistine!
The Sea Peoples marched into battle. With lots of deep warrior units subtlety is not their top priority. The leftmost units of chariots rolled forward and Chris’ centre positively sprinted towards the Hittite spearmen.
Dave’s right wing stayed curiously stationary thanks to an early “1” chit. Undaunted by the seeming cowardice of the General, Rob’s chariot-heavy command rolled forward to meet their Philistine counterparts.
Phil pushed the left forward trying to get his raw Syrian archers into the fray, whilst Tony paraded the Hittite right around the table.
Almost immediately the Sea Peoples’ left was in trouble. Their outnumbered chariots quickly saw one unit die thanks to a lance attack and a hail of javelins. The other followed soon after meaning that the flank had been turned and the General relocating to a unit of javelinmen now holding a palm grove.
The centre fared no better with the massed Syrian archers belying their raw status to pour a deadly arrow storm onto the Sea Peoples deep warriors.
A double disorder quickly resulted in a veteran warrior unit being removed from the table, resulting in a dangerous gap between the Sea Peoples left wing and centre. Not that there was much left on the left wing. Desultory manoeuvring continued on the Sea People’s right/Hittite left as the deep units found the terrain challenging. The only exchange of missile fire saw a Sea People’s light archer unit die under a volley of arrows launched from the palm grove on the table edge.
Another Sea People’s warrior unit bit the dust as did another unit of light archers. Twelve out of fifteen victory medals had now been handed over to the incredulous Hittites. Chris tried to break through in the centre but the gesture was futile. How typically Chris! Outnumbered and outflanked this unit was finally eliminated by the humble Hittite spearmen who had taken such a beating a month before. Revenge was sweet!
Whilst everybody focussed on the good luck of the Hittites and their Syrian allies in their missile chit pulling, the after battle analysis of the table is also interesting. The Hittite massed chariotry did exactly what they were meant to do. This time were a real “schwerpunkt”, unlike a month ago where they were broken up in “penny packets” like the French armour in 1940. Also, the Sea Peoples didn’t get 47 points, or nearly 33% of their combat troops into the fight. Their warriors on the right were held up by 20 points worth of raw troops and two units in the centre stayed pretty much rooted to the camps. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Simon
No comments:
Post a Comment