The long round north - Kings of Bronze #5

Yet another solo outing for Overseer Huharmati's and his Hittite raiding party.

After a string of successes Huharnati was heading north with his loot, when he was set upon by an Egyptian force looking to recapture the stolen booty. I picked what I thought was a reasonable escort force and provided the NYE's with +1 for each scale of troops, Lights, Regulars and Heavy. 

Dicing for where each blind would be coming on and the make up of each unit, Egyptians started to flood the table heading straight for the ramshackle village. Far too many 8,9, and 10's were rolled.

Decisions, decisions..... I planned on pinning the raiders in the village leaving the column to push on via the left flank. The javelin skirmishers rushed forwards to engage with the first of the Egyptian archers.

A column of mixed archers and spears marched through the village as light chariots skirted the right hand side of the village. The cards feel badly as the Hittites failed to get moving.

With the luck of the chips the Egyptian's were able to deploy fully in front of the village and loosed a volley of arrows, which peppered the Hittite formations. To counter this I was forced to bring up the heavy chariot as many of the Hittites forces were still unable to move.

The Heavy Chariot smashed into the unarmoured archers.... whilst the Hittite spear block was forced to line out as Egyptian light chariots rushed forwards.

The heavy chariot smashed into the unarmoured archers who turned and fled losing over half their number.

Meanwhile the chariots had crept just a little to close to the Hittite spears, I pushed them forwards catching the chariots cold and driving them backwards. 

Having regrouped from the routing of the archers, I sent the heavy chariot into the main body looking to disrupt them from their harassing fire.

Disaster strikes..... the archers are no match for the heavily armoured battle wagon however the only casualty is the leader of the chariot struck down in a lucky shot.

Broken Egyptians flood backwards through the village. The Chariot had once again done its work but shock was beginning to mount on the now leaderless chariot.

On the right the Egyptian spear block march forwards clashing spears with the main Hittite spear block, breaking their formation and sending them backwards without any losses of their own.

As the Hittites reformed they are hit by the light chariots. Light chariots are not the best in close combat, but against a weakened unit they can make an impact. I am starting to think it might be time to pull back the pack camels as the force morale starts to creep downwards for the Hittites.

With the Hittite ranks broken and being outnumbered 2:1 the Egyptians pressed on through the rough ground, things were looking nasty for the Hittites but miraculously the New Kingdom attackers were beaten back. It was now a race to the bottom with both sides force morale now only one poor result from breaking point.

Overseer Huharmati's jumped on the chariot and raced forwards catching an element of the shattered spear unit in the flank.

The spear unit broke and ran, the risk had paid off and the Egyptian force morale fell below zero. Just as they were about to strike a final blow. The Egyptian forces retired from the table.

After game thoughts....

Well that was a near run thing, I am still working out some of the kinks in the chariot rules around movement and firing which now seem a little more balanced around turning circles. Allowing the chariots to evade if attacked in the flank or rear seems reasonable which also leaves them vulnerable if caught facing forwards.

I did consider making light chariots a skirmish unit with no ability to close with formed bodies, their weakened combat power seemed ok if engaged in combat,

The heavy chariot is great against unarmoured troops their lack of saving throws was the difference in each combat result, which often tipped the balance.

Another one for the Hittites but only close, next up an attack on Huharnati's camp.